Contemporary Social And Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds

Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds

About the AuthorKenneth Allan received his PhD in sociology from the University of California, Riverside (1995), and is currently professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Before moving to UNCG, he directed the Teaching Assistant Development Program at the University of California, Riverside, and coedited Training Teaching Assistants, 2nd Edition (1997), published by the American Sociological Association. In addition to teaching classical and contemporary theory at UNCG, Allan also supervised UNCG? sociology iSchool program, which offered online introduction to sociology classes to high school students across North Carolina, has designed several online courses for both the college and department, and has regularly taught graduate pedagogy courses. Allan? research areas include theory, culture, and the self. He has authored several works in the area of theory, including multiple textbooks covering classical and contemporary theory, as well as The Meaning of Culture: Moving the Postmodern Critique Forward, and A Primer in Social and Sociological Theory: Toward a Sociology of Citizenship. His current projects include a social history of American individualism, a sociological analysis of consciousness and self, as well as a novel based in early 20th century American life.Written in a conversational style that conveys the author's enthusiam for theory, this updated edition of Kenneth Allan's acclaimed text appeals to the reader to consider the "theoretical you," as an individual in 21st-century society. This book introduces students to an array of social theories, each presented from the perspectives of these well-known theorists:Peter Blau, Janet Saltzman, Chafetz George Homans, Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Talcott Parsons, Herbert Blumer, Harold Garfinkel, Dorothy E. Smith, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Immanuel Wallerstein, Judith Butler, Erving Goffman, William Julius Wilson, Manuel Castells, J