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Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Editors:
  1. Seth Abrutyn

    1. Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Omar Lizardo

    1. UCLA Department of Sociology, Los Angeles, USA

    View editor publications

    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Brings together experts across a variety of sociological subfields to examine central questions, problems, and themes in classical theory
  • Offers extensive discussions of debates, arguments, and discussions in classical theory and how they have informed contemporary sociological inquiry
  • Pushes sociologists, instructors, and students to rethink what classical theory offers modern sociology by moving away from the “great man”/ biographical approach to a focus on ideas

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research (HSSR)

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Table of contents (32 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vii
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  2. Introduction

    • Seth Abrutyn, Omar Lizardo
    Pages 1-13

  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
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Keywords

About this book

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. 

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Seth Abrutyn

  • UCLA Department of Sociology, Los Angeles, USA

    Omar Lizardo

About the editors

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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