Postmodernism and Social Theory

Steven Seidman, Professor of Sociology at State University of New York at Albany, writes extensively in the areas of social theory, cultural sociology and sexual politics. He also wrote Contested Knowledge .

• List of Contributors vii Introduction 1Part I Toward Postmodernism: Reconfiguring Theory and Politics1 General Social Theory, Irony, Postmodernism 172 Postmodern Social Theory as Narrative with a Moral Intent 473 On the Postmodern Barricades: Feminism, Politics, and Theory 824 The Strange Life and Hard Times of the Concept of General Theory in Sociology: A Short History of Hope 101Part II Critics of Postmodernism: In Defense of Scientific Theory5 Defending Social Science against the Postmodern Doubt 1376 The Promise of Positivism 1567 The Confusion of the Modes of Sociology 1798 Daring Modesty: On Metatheory, Observation, and Theory Growth 199Part III Between Modernism and Postmodernism: Toward a Contextualizing General Theory9 Social Science and Society as Discourse: Toward a Sociology for Civic Competence 22310 Culture, History, and the Problem of Specificity in Social Theory 24411 The Tensions of Critical Theory: Is Negative Dialectics All There Is? 28912 General Theory in the Postpositivist Mode: The "Epistemological Dilemma" and the Search for Present Reason 322Name Index 369Subject Index 376