Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory: Seeing the Social World

Machines of Production and Consciousness
Machines of Reproduction and Schizophrenic Culture
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox

4. Diversity and Social Solidarity: Émile DurkheimTheorist’s Digest
The Sociological Imagination of Émile Durkheim
Durkheim’s Life
Durkheim’s Social World
Durkheim’s Intellectual World
Montesquieu
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Durkheim’s Contribution to Functionalism
Durkheim’s Sociological Imagination: Cultural Sociology
Concepts and Theory: Primal Society
Defining Religion
Creating a Sacred World
Concepts and Theory: Social Diversity and Moral Consensus
Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
The Division of Labor
The Problem With Modern Society
Organic Solidarity and Social Pathology
Concepts and Theory: Individualism
Suicide
The Cult of the Individual
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Grand Narratives, Doubt, and Civil Religion
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox

5. Rationality and Organization: Max WeberTheorist’s Digest
The Sociological Imagination of Max Weber
Weber’s Life
Weber’s Social World
Weber’s Intellectual World
The Problems of Values and Meaning
Specific Methods: Ideal Types
Specific Methods: Verstehen
Weber’s Sociological Imagination
Concepts and Theory: The Process of Rationalization
Types of Social Action
Concepts and Theory: The Evolution of Religion
From Magic to Religion
From Polytheism to Ethical Monotheism
Concepts and Theory: The Rise of Capitalism
The Religious Culture of Capitalism
Structural Influences on Capitalism
Concepts and Theory: Class, Authority, and Social Change
Class
Status and Party
Crosscutting Stratification
Authority and Social Change
Concepts and Theory: Rational-Legal Organization
Ideal-Type Bureaucracies
Effects of Bureaucratic Organization
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox

INTRODUCTION: ANOTHER SOCIOLOGICAL CORE
6. The Modern Person: George Herbert Med and Georg Simmel
George Herbert Mead—Symbolic Interaction
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: Truth, Meaning, and Action
Pragmatic Truth
Human Action
Concepts and Theory: Meaning and Interaction
Symbolic Interaction
Concepts and Theory: Making Yourself
The Mind
Stages of Role Taking
Self and Society
The I and the Me
Summary
Georg Simmel—Formal Sociology
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: The Individual in Societ
Subjective and Objective Cultures
Concepts and Theory: The Self in the City
The Division of Labor
Money and Markets
Social Networks: Rational Versus Organic Group Membership
Summary
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Simulacrum and Hyperreality
Reflexivity and the Fragmenting of the Self
Fusing the I and the MeBuilding Your Theory Toolbox

7. Seeing Gender: Harriett Martineau and Charlotte Perkins GilmanWaves of Feminism
Harriet Martineau—Gender and Democracy
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: Observing Society
Morals and Manners
Preparing the Observer
Safeguarding Observations
Concepts and Theory: Gender and Democracy
Gender and Family
The Cultural Logic of Gender
Workforce Participation
Concepts and Theory: Religion, Education, and Democracy
Religious Forms
Religious Forms and Democracy
Conditions of Religion
Education and Freedom
Summary
Charlotte Perkins Gilman—The Evolution of Gender
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: Critical Evolution Theory
Functional Evolution
Adding Marx
Gynaecocentric Theory
Concepts and Theory: Dynamics of Social Evolution
Morbid Excess in Sex Distinction
Sexuo-Economic Effects
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox

8. Seeing Race: Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du BoisRace Literature
Frederick Douglass—The American Discourse of Race
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: The Discourse of Slavery
Race as Other
Democracy and Universalism
Summary
W. E. B. Du Bois—The Culture of Race
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: The Experience of Oppression and Critical Knowledge
Standpoint of the Oppressed
Concepts and Theory: Cultural Oppression
Exclusion From History
Representation
Stereotypes and Slippery Slopes
Double Consciousness
Concepts and Theory: The Dark Nations and World Capitalism
The Need for Color
Summary
Gender and Race: Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Modernity and Identity
The Postmodern Twist
Building Your Theory Toolbox

9. Seeing Ahead: Defining Moments in Twentieth Century Theory: Talcott Parsons and the Frankfurt School
Talcott Parsons: Defining Sociology
Parsons’s Vision for the Social Sciences
Parsons’s Theoretical Project
Parsons and the Problem of Social Order
Voluntaristic Action
Patterning Voluntaristic Action
The Frankfurt School: Critiquing Modernity
Historical Roots
The Problem with Positivism: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno
An Analysis of Art and Culture
Building Your Theory Toolbox

References
Index
About the Authors