| Synopsis: |
This volume collects together a broad range of essays on social theory written by an international group of practitioners in the field, including Pierre Bourdieu, Jeffrey Alexander, Immanuel Wallerstien, Sandra Harding, Alan Sica, Steve Woolgar and Erik Olin Wright, as well as younger scholars. The essays are organized around a common theme: taking the long view of social theory as a tradition. The essays address key questions about the present challenges of social theory, are the classics, Marx Weber and Durkheim, still relevant, and in what way? Is the present period one in which such foci of past social theory as liberalism have become irrelevant? Can the theoretical projects of the past, such as the idea of a quantitative social theory, be salvaged? Is renewal possible, through attention to new voices, or through adherence to a new theoretical project, such as rational choice theory? Or is the lesson of the past that all such projects are doomed to failure? The usefulness of this volume is that it brings together a range of opinions on this group of questions.The book should be of interest to students and teachers attempting to come to terms with the present situation of social theory, and it shows why the attempt needs to be made. |