Handbook of Sociological Theory

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Sociological Theory Today

   1. Sociological Theory Today

      • Jonathan H. Turner

      Pages 1-17

3. Theoretical Methodologies and Strategies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. What Makes Sciences “Scientific?”

      • Stephan Fuchs

      Pages 21-35

   3. Formal Theory

      • Guillermina Jasso

      Pages 37-68

   4. Computational Approaches to Sociological Theorizing

      • Kathleen M. Carley

      Pages 69-83

   5. The Critical Dimension in Sociological Theory

      • Craig Calhoun

      Pages 85-111

   6. Metatheorizing in Sociology: The Basic Parameters and the Potential Contributions of Postmodernism

      • George Ritzer, Shanyang Zhao, Jim Murphy

      Pages 113-131

4. The Cultural Turn in Sociological Theorizing

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 133-133

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   2. The Strong Program in Cultural Theory: Elements of a Structural Hermeneutics

      • Jeffrey Alexander, Philip Smith

      Pages 135-150

   3. Postmodern Social Theory

      • George Ritzer, Douglas Goodman

      Pages 151-169

   4. Culture and Identity

      • Michèle Lamont

      Pages 171-185

   5. Alley Art: Can We... See... at Last, the End of Ontology?

      • Judith R. Blau

      Pages 187-208

5. Theorizing Interaction Process

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 209-209

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   2. Traditional Symbolic Interactionism, Role Theory, and Structural Symbolic Interactionism: The Road to Identity Theory

      • Sheldon Stryker

      Pages 211-231

   3. Role Theory

      • Ralph H. Turner

      Pages 233-254

   4. The Emotional/Relational World: Shame and the Social Bond

      • Thomas J. Scheff

      Pages 255-268

   5. Action Theory

      • Hans Joas, Jens Beckert

      Pages 269-285

   6. Accounts of Conduct in Interaction: Interruption, Overlap, and Turn-Taking

      • Emanuel A. Schegloff

      Pages 287-321

   7. Inequality, Status, and the Construction of Status Beliefs

      • Cecilia L. Ridgeway

      Pages 323-340

This wide-ranging handbook presents in-depth discussions on the array of subspecialties that comprise the field of sociological theory. Prominent theorists working in a variety of traditions discuss methodologies and strategies; the cultural turn in sociological theorizing; interaction processes; theorizing from the systemic and macro level; new directions in evolutionary theorizing; power, conflict, and change; and theorizing from assumptions of rationality.

• conflict
• Cultural Theory
• Cultural turn
• emotion
• feminism
• hermeneutics
• identity
• interaction
• Marxism
• methodology
• postmodernism
• social theory
• sociological theory
• sociology
• systems theory

From the reviews:

"This handbook is a marvelous accomplishment. Organized in seven sections, it skillfully captures, maps, and interprets the wide range of theory that now operates in the discipline. Each of its 31 chapters is carefully crafted by a master theorist. [...] This is a glittering gallery of sociological theory written by the preeminent theorists working in the field today [...] there are gemlike chapters that show creative theorists at work, doing what good theorists do best, which is figuring out how the social world works."
(American Journal of Sociology, 2003)

"Instead of compiling a compendium of old, dusty standards, Turner gathered the newest, most-viable theories in sociology, ‘with an eye to capturing the diversity of theoretical activity.’ … From methodological and empirical concerns to cultural and communicative concepts, as well as computational and postmodern approaches, The Handbook of Sociology Theory covers the gamutof modern sociological research. … will take one a long way to understanding the history and the current thoughts of sociology and the social sciences." (Roy Christopher, frontwheeldrive.com, January, 2007)

• University of California, Riverside

  Jonathan H. Turner

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