Overview
Understanding Society: A Survey of Modern Social Theory, second edition, introduces the major streams of contemporary social theory and traces their evolution to the present day. Among the many new features of this edition is an entirely new chapter on three recent schools of thought centering on the somatic (bodily) aspects of personal identity - race, gender, and queer theory. In addition, a series of fictional vignettes and 'flashbacks' throughout illuminate the topics in each chapter and help students make connections between social theory and real-world issues. With a contemporary and accessible writing style that will engage readers, this uniquely Canadian text features current debates on such topics as communication, popular culture, the global village, corporatism, and globalization.
Full Product Details
Author: Douglas Mann (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, Canadian)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Canada
Imprint: Oxford University Press, Canada
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Dimensions:
Width: 17.40cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 22.50cm
Weight: 0.650kg
ISBN: 9780195432503
ISBN 10: 0195432509
Pages: 536
Publication Date: 30 September 2010
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order 
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Table of Contents
1: An Introduction to Social Theory The Basics: What Is Society? Science and Values Causality and Laws Modernity and the Enlightenment Flashback: Bonjour Monsieur Condorcet Modern Historical Trends Modernism in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences Paradigms of Social Theory 2: Functionalism and Its Critics Hobbes's Question: Why Have a Society at All? Durkheim on Society as a Functional Organism Vignette: A Functional Life Talcott Parsons and Structural Functionalism Robert Merton Conflict Theory Flashback: A Party Disrupted C. Wright Mills Sociobiology: An Evolutionary Functionalism Conclusion 3: The Debate over Materialism Vignette: The Factory Marx's Main Ideas Two Marxists Who Shook the World: Lenin and Trotsky Antonio Gramsci and Hegemony Louis Althusser on Ideology Jean-Paul Sartre's Search for a Method Karl Mannheim's Sociology of Knowledge Pierre Bourdieu and the Varieties of Capital Jean Baudrillard on Consumer Culture Flashback: Sarah at the Mall The End of the Left? 4: Slamming Society: Critical Theory and Situationism Vignette: The Free Spirits The Philosophical Foundations of Critical Reason: Hegel and Nietzsche Freud on Civilization and Its Discontents Theodor Adorno on Culture Herbert Marcuse on Modern Industrial Society Some Criticisms of the Frankfurt School Christopher Lasch on the Culture of Narcissism Jürgen Habermas on Capitalism and Communicative Action Situationism Culture Jamming Flashback: An Unexpected Visit 5: Meaning in Society: Human Agency and Social Explanation Vignette: Athena's Tale Structure vs Agency: The Basics Weber on Understanding Society Ludwig Wittgenstein and Language Games R.G. Collingwood's Historical Idealism Peter Winch on the Idea of a Social Science Hans-Georg Gadamer's Hermeneutics Flashback: A Big Confusing Greek Wedding Rational Choice Theory Anthony Giddens on Agency and Structure 6: Society as Symbols or Constructs: Symbolic Interactionism and Phenomenology Vignette: Saturday Night Dazzler Cooley, Mead, and the Birth of Symbolic Interactionism Herbert Blumer and Mature Symbolic Interactionism Erving Goffman's Dramaturgy Flashback: Dancing with a Star The Phenomenology of Everyday Life The Social Construction of Reality Ethnomethodology 7: Structuralism, Semiotics, and Post-Structuralism Vignette: A Long Voyage The Basics of Structuralism and Semiotics Joseph Campbell and the Hero with a Thousand Faces Flashback: Mission Accomplished Semiotics and Popular Culture Post-Structuralism: The Theoretical Logic of Postmodernism Jacques Derrida and Deconstruction Michel Foucault on Power and the Docile Body 8: Postmodernism: Political Economy and Communications Vignette: The Postmodern Guy Revisiting Postmodern Culture The Postmodern Condition The Post-Industrial Information Society Manuel Castells: The Network Society and the Information Age Flashback: Bart and Network Society 9: Postmodernism: Time, Space, and Culture Vignette: Highway One Revisited Jameson on the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Baudrillard on Postmodern Society as the Desert of the Real Postmodern Pop Culture Postmodern Space/Time Flashback: Going Down the Road 10: Feminism Vignette: The Last Days of Disco The Three Waves of Feminist Theory and Practice Shulamith Firestone and the Dialectic of Sex Susan Moller Okin on the Family as a School for Justice Carol Gilligan and the Ethics of Care Feminist Standpoint Theory Donna Haraway's Cyborgs Camille Paglia's Attack on the Second Wave Flashforward: FemFriends@Y2K 11: The Global Village Vignette: Welcome to the Global Village The Medium Is the Message: Marshall McLuhan Heather Menzies on the Global Village Today Negri and Hardt on Empire Flashback: Run Jessica Run 12: Globalization, McDonaldization, and Corporatism A Short History of the Global Political Economy McDonaldization Theories of Globalization Corporatism Flashback: Mallrats 13: Who Am I? The Self and Society (NEW!) Vignette: Out of Africa The Philosophical Debate over Personal Identity Race Theory Judith Butler on Sex, Gender, and Performativity Coming Out of the Sociological Closet: Queer Theory
Reviews
[Understanding Society] addresses a vast range of thought without simplifying. The author's active engagement with the various thinkers, traditions, and historical shifts is evident on every page... an outstanding resource and, as far as I am aware, by far the best book of its kind available. Kimberly Mair, University of Lethbridge The author takes seriously the need to engage students and make theory meaningful in the context of their everyday lives... Written in a language that is very accessible, demonstrating that theory need not be dry and humourless. Susan Robertson, University of Saskatchewan
The author takes seriously the need to engage students and make theory meaningful in the context of their everyday lives. . . Written in a language that is very accessible, demonstrating that theory need not be dry and humourless. * Susan Robertson, University of Saskatchewan * [Understanding Society] addresses a vast range of thought without simplifying. The author's active engagement with the various thinkers, traditions, and historical shifts is evident on every page. . . an outstanding resource and, as far as I am aware, by far the best book of its kind available. * Kimberly Mair, University of Lethbridge *
Author Information
Douglas Mann is assistant professor in the faculty of information and media studies at the University of Western Ontario. In addition to authoring two editions of Understanding Society, Mann has published Structural Idealism: A Theory of Social and Historical Explanation (WLU Press, 2002), Philosophy: a New Introduction (Nelson, 2005), and dozens of academic and newspaper articles. His main research and teaching areas include social and political theory, pop culture, music, and science fiction.
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