Rethinking Sociology: A Critique of Contemporary Theory

by Irving M. Zeitlin

Book by Zeitlin, Irving M

263 pages, Textbook Binding

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Naeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the 1970s when I was an undergraduate in Professor James McKee's sociology course. That course, and specifically this book exploded my sense of what social theory could be and what could be done by synthesizing its various articulations.

Below is the table of contents:

I. Structural functionalism. The concepts of traditional functionalism -- Talcott Parsons : action theory and the social system -- Is there a second Talcott Parsons? -- The rediscovery of evolution -- II. Social exchange theory. The exchange theory of George C. Homans -- Exchange and power in the work of Peter Blau -- III. Conflict theory. A note on Coser's functionalized conflict -- Dahrendorf's postcapitalist society -- Toward a Marx-Weber model of social and historical analysis -- IV. Phenomenology. Husserl and the crisis of science and philosophy -- Max Scheler -- The phenomenological dimension in Max Weber -- The intersubjective world of everyday life : the ideas of Alfred Schütz -- Garfinkel's ethnomethodology -- V. Symbolic interaction. The social psychology of Erving Goffman -- Herbert Blumer's symbolic interaction -- The dialectical philosophy of George Herbert Mead -- The rudiments of Marx's epistemology and social psychology -- Toward a synthesis of Marx, Mead, and Freud.