William Outhwaite

This important Manifesto argues that we still need a concept of society in order to make sense of the forces which structure our lives. Written by leading social theorist William Outhwaite Asks if the notion of society is relevant in the twenty-first century Goes to the heart of contemporary social and political debate Examines critiques of the concept of society from neoliberals, postmodernists, and globalization theorists

"Social Theory and Postcommunism is a text that analyzes the implications of the fall of communism for social theory. Written by two leading social theorists, the book discusses the thesis that the fall of communism has ruled out alternative conceptions of social organization other than capitalism."--Jacket.

"This Dictionary provides an authoritative and comprehensive overview of the main themes of social thought, principal schools and movements of thought and those institutions that have been the subject of social analysis or engendered significant doctrines and ideas.". "Detailed entries cover major currents of thought, philosophical and cultural trends, and the individual social sciences from anthropology to welfare economics. These are supplemented by shorter accounts of specific concepts and phenomena.". "This second edition updates about 200 entries and includes new entries on the Internet, ethnic cleansing and other topics. Each entry includes suggestions for further reading, and the volume contains a bibliography of all sources cited within the text."--BOOK JACKET.

Jürgen Habermas is one of the most important German philosophers and social theorists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. His work has been compared in scope with Max Weber's, and in philosophical breadth to that of Kant and Hegel. In this much-needed introduction Kenneth Baynes engages with the full range of Habermas's philosophical work, addressing his early arguments concerning the emergence of the public sphere and his initial attempt to reconstruct a critical theory of society in Knowledge and Human Interests. He then examines one of Habermas's most influential works, The Theory of Communicative Action, including his controversial account of the rational interpretation of social action. Also covered is Habermas's work on discourse ethics, political and legal theory, including his views on the relation between democracy and constitutionalism, and his arguments concerning human rights and cosmopolitanism. The final chapter assesses Habermas's role as a polemical and prominent public intellectual and his criticism of postmodernism in The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, in addition to his more recent writings on the relationship between religion and democracy. Habermas is an invaluable guide to this key figure in contemporary philosophy, and suitable for anyone coming to his work for the first time.--

A comprehensive handbook that attempts to cover the whole field of topics that a reader interested primarily in actual politics needs to understand. This would include some literatures that flourish primarily outside of sociology (and particularly outside of American sociology) as well as some topics, such as clientelism and community power, that have become less active research topics but which nevertheless are important parts of a comprehensive overview of political life in its social aspects. The book we propose will be a somewhat longer than standard length Handbook, with around forty authors of contributions under 10,000 words each, and a bibliography. The audience for this book would be students and scholars, but the primary purpose of the book would be to provide essential conceptual and empirical background to the social study of politics. One of the oddities of this field is that many of the texts that are still taught to students, such as Lipset's Political Man, are quite old, and based on research done in the fifties. Even in the research literature, it is common to find references to works like Bachrach and Baratz's Two Faces of Power of 1962. The journal literature in political sociology narrowly understood, however, while it is very sophisticated, tends to be self-referential and inaccessible to outsiders, and to be selective in the actual political topics it addresses.

This book aims to trace the implications of the UK's projected withdrawal from the EU, locating short-term political fluctuations in a broader historical and social context of the transformation of European and global society. It provides a forum for leading Eurosociologists (broadly defined), working inside and outside the UK, to rethink their analyses of the European project and its prospects, as well as to reflect on the likely implications for the UK.

"Critical Theory and Contemporary Europe introduces the major contributions critical theorists made to the study of Europe, from the interwar years to the present time. The work begins with theorists such as Adorno who addressed Nazism and the Holocaust, then moves on to discuss the postwar affluence of capitalist Europe. It proceeds to examine how critical theorists provided much of the analysis that motivated the student and youth movements of 1968 and subsequent alternative social movements. Lastly, it relates the development of a critical theory of state socialism, looking at the works of thinkers such as Arato, Offe, and Habermas and how critical theory is now addressing social issues such as European xenophobia and the future of Europe. This new volume in the Critical Theory and Contemporary Society series brings together critical theory and European studies in a clear, accessible manner and shows the relevance of critical theory to practical political issues."--Bloomsbury Publishing.