Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Introduction

   • Seth Abrutyn, Omar Lizardo

   Pages 1-13

3. Overarching Questions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. The Methods and Surprises of Sociological Theory: Ideas, Postulates, Predictions, Distributions, Unification

      • Guillermina Jasso

      Pages 17-36

   3. Modernity as a Classical Problem in Sociological Theory

      • Cesare Silla, Brandon Vaidyanathan

      Pages 37-64

   4. “Evolutionary Theorizing in Sociology’s Formative Period: Implications for Theorizing Today”

      • Jonathan H. Turner, Kevin McCaffree

      Pages 65-90

   5. Selfing: Integrating Pragmatism and Phenomenology to Develop a Multiprocessing Theory of the Self

      • Erika Summers-Effler

      Pages 91-120

   6. Racism, Colonialism, and Modernity: The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois

      • Aldon Morris, Michael Schwartz, José Itzigsohn

      Pages 121-143

4. Central Dynamics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 145-145

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   2. Does Differentiation Matter to Sociology?

      • Seth Abrutyn

      Pages 147-168

   3. Power, Regulation, and Social Order in the Intersection of Political and Social Theory

      • Risto Heiskala, Peeter Selg

      Pages 169-192

   4. Hermeneutics and Performance in Social Theories of Power

      • Isaac Ariail Reed, Abigail Cary Moore, Vasfiye Betul Toprak

      Pages 193-215

   5. From Simmel to Relational Sociology

      • Sophie Mützel, Lisa Kressin

      Pages 217-238

   6. Reflections on Class and Social Inequality: Sociology and Intersectionality in Dialogue

      • Patricia Hill Collins, Rachel Yu Guo

      Pages 239-263

5. Spheres of Social Life

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 265-265

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   2. The Sociology of Kinship: A Case for Looking Back to the Future

      • Alexandra Maryanski

      Pages 267-299

   3. Mediating the Sacred: Thinking Through Religious Experience in the Classics and Beyond

      • Michal Pagis, Daniel Winchester

      Pages 301-322

   4. Polity

      • Elisabeth Clemens

      Pages 323-344

   5. Theoretical Lineages and Contemporary Concerns in the Sociology of Economic Life

      • Stephanie L. Mudge, Christopher J. Lawrence

      Pages 345-366

   6. Law in Classical Sociological Theory: Coercion, Ideology, and Change

      • Eduardo Cornelius, Sida Liu

      Pages 367-380

This is the first handbook focussing on classical social theory. It offers extensive discussions of debates, arguments, and discussions in classical theory and how they have informed contemporary sociological theory. The book pushes against the conventional classical theory pedagogy, which often focused on single theorists and their contributions, and looks at isolating themes capturing the essence of the interest of classical theorists that seem to have relevance to modern research questions and theoretical traditions. This book presents new approaches to thinking about theory in relationship to sociological methods. 

• Classical Sociological Theory
• History of Sociology
• Social Thought
• Sociological Inquiry
• Spheres of Social Life
• Collective Behavior
• Democracy and Mass Society
• Urbanization, Urbanism, and Community
• Stratification and Inequality
• Theory and Sociological Methods
• Cultural Analysis
• Contemporary Sociological Theory
• Conventional Classical Pedagogy Theory

• Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

  Seth Abrutyn

• UCLA Department of Sociology, Los Angeles, USA

  Omar Lizardo

Seth Abrutyn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Abrutyn’s work focuses on the interplay between institutional structure, bounded social spaces like schools or communities, and social emotions and behaviour. He has published on a diverse array of topics including suicide, social psychology, religious evolution, and more general topics of contemporary and classical sociological theory. His work can be found in venues such as American Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, American Journal of Public Health, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Omar Lizardo is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research deals with various topics at the intersection of cultural sociology, stratification, social theory and the theory of action. He has published widely the classical and contemporary social theory, network analysis, the sociology of taste, cultural capital theory, and processes of distinction and symbolic exclusion. His work has appeared in such venues as American Sociological Review, Theory and Society, Sociological Science, Socius, Sociological Theory, and Social Forces.

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