Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE.

Jeffrey Stepnisky is an Associate Professor of Sociology at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, where he teaches classical and contemporary social theory. He has published in the area of social theory, especially as it relates to questions of subjectivity, in journals such as The Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior and Social Theory & Health. Along with this book he is co-author of Sociological Theory, Classical Sociological Theory, and Modern Sociological Theory, and has co-edited the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists, all with George Ritzer.

About the Authors Preface Chapter 1: Introduction to Sociological Theory Creating Sociological Theory Defining Sociological Theory Creating Sociological Theory: A More Realistic View Overview of the Book Chapter 2: Classical Theories I Emile Durkheim: From Mechanical to Organic Solidarity Karl Marx: From Capitalism to Communism Max Weber: The Rationalization of Society Chapter 3: Classical Theories II Georg Simmel: The Growing Tragedy of Culture Thorstein Veblen: Increasing Control of Business over Industry George Herbert Mead: Social Behaviorism Significant Symbols and Languages W.E.B. Du Bois: Race and Racism in Modern Society Chapter 4: Contemporary Grand Theories I Structural Functionalism Conflict Theory General Systems Theory Chapter 5: Contemporary Grand Theories II Neo-Marxian Theory The Civilizing Process The Colonization of the Lifeworld The Juggernaut of Modernity Chapter 6: Contemporary Theories of Everyday Life Symbolic Interactionism Dramaturgy Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Exchange Theory Rational Choice Theory Chapter 7: Contemporary Integrative Theories A More Integrated Exchange Theory Structuration Theory Culture and Agency Habitus and Field Chapter 8: Contemporary Feminist Theories by Patricia Madoo Lengermann and Gillian Niebrugge The Basic Theoretical Questions The Classical Roots Contemporary Feminist Theories Toward a Feminist Sociological Theory Chapter 9: Theories of Race and Colonialism Fanon and the Colonial Subject Postcolonial Theory Critical Theories of Race and Racism A Systematic Theory of Race Southern Theory and Indigenous Resurgence Chapter 10: Postmodern Grand Theories The Transition from Industrial to Postindustrial Society Increasing Governmentality (and Other Grand Theories) Postmodernity as Modernity's Coming of Age The Rise of Consumer Society, Loss of Symbolic Exchange, and Increase in Simulations The Consumer Society and the New Means of Consumption Queer Theory: Sex and Sexuality Chapter 11: Globalization Theory Major Contemporary Theorists on Globalization Cultural Theory Economic Theory Political Theory Glossary Source Acknowledgments Index