Malcolm Waters – författare

This stimulating book argues that concentration on class actually diverts attention from other more central and more morally problematic inequalities. The class perspective has become a political straitjacket which obstructs an accurate understanding of contemporary social, cultural and political processes.

Modern Sociological Theory gives a lucid overview of: the core concepts that sociological theory must address and attempt to reconcile - agency, rationality, structure and system; and the main phenomena that sociological theory sets to explain - culture, power, gender, differentiation and stratification.

It explains the major contributions to the analysis of each concept by classical and contemporary theorists, and links these ideas to current sociological issues such as change and globalization, feminism and sociological theory and the return to cultural analysis.

Daniel Bell is perhaps the most famous sociologist of his generation. He has been hailed as the prophet of the emergence of a new society, the postindustrial society, and as one of the leading conservative critics of contemporary culture.In this invaluable introduction, Malcolm Waters presents Bell''s arguments clearly and fairly, as well as noting the problems with his work. The three books that have made Bell famous, The End of Ideology, The Coming of Post-Capitalism are drawn upon, as well as his lesser known works on education and social forecasting. A thoroughly comprehensive account of a key, albeit highly controversial, contemporary sociological figure.