Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE. Jeffrey Stepnisky is an Associate Professor of Sociology at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, where he teaches classical and contemporary social theory. He has published in the area of social theory, especially as it relates to questions of subjectivity, in journals such as The Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior and Social Theory & Health. Along with this book he is co-author of Sociological Theory, Classical Sociological Theory, and Modern Sociological Theory, and has co-edited the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, all with George Ritzer.

It is clear and very useful for my students.

• CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Sociological TheoryCreating Sociological TheoryDefining Sociological TheoryCreating Sociological Theory: A More Realistic ViewOverview of the BookSummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 2 Classical Theories IÉmile Durkheim: From Mechanical to Organic SolidarityKarl Marx: From Capitalism to CommunismMax Weber: The Rationalization of SocietySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 3 Classical Theories IIGeorg Simmel: The Growing Tragedy of CultureThorstein Veblen: Increasing Control of Business Over IndustryGeorge Herbert Mead: Social BehaviorismW. E. B. Du Bois: Race and Racism in Modern SocietySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 4 Contemporary Grand Theories IStructural FunctionalismConflict TheoryGeneral Systems TheorySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 5 Contemporary Grand Theories IINeo-Marxian TheoryThe Civilizing ProcessThe Colonization of the LifeworldThe Juggernaut of ModernitySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 6 Contemporary Theories of Everyday LifeSymbolic InteractionismDramaturgyEthnomethodology and Conversation AnalysisExchange TheoryRational Choice TheorySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 7 Contemporary Integrative TheoriesA More Integrated Exchange TheoryStructuration TheoryCulture and AgencyHabitus and FieldSummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 8 Contemporary Feminist TheoriesThe Basic Theoretical QuestionsThe Classical RootsContemporary Feminist TheoriesChallenges to FeminismSummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 9 Theories of Race and ColonialismFanon and the Colonial SubjectPostcolonial TheoryCritical Theories of Race and RacismRacial FormationA Systematic Theory of RaceSouthern Theory and Indigenous ResurgenceSummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 10 Postmodern Grand TheoriesThe Transition From Industrial to Postindustrial SocietyIncreasing Governmentality (and Other Grand Theories)Postmodernity as Modernity’s Coming of AgeThe Rise of Consumer Society, Loss of Symbolic Exchange, and Increase in SimulationsThe Consumer Society and the New Means of ConsumptionQueer Theory: Sex and SexualitySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 11 Globalization TheoryMajor Contemporary Theorists on GlobalizationCultural TheoryEconomic TheoryPolitical TheorySummarySuggested ReadingsCHAPTER 12 Science, technology, and natureAffect Theory and the New MaterialismScience Studies and Actor-Network TheoryTheories of the AnthropoceneSummarySuggested ReadingsGlossarySource Acknowledgments