Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

by Patrick Baert, Filipe Carreira da Silva

This revised edition of Patrick Baert's widely acclaimed Social Theory in the Twentieth Century, now benefitting from the collaboration of Filipe Carreira da Silva has been brought right up-to-date with cutting-edge developments in social theory today. It offers an easy-to-read but provocative account of the development of social theory, covering a range of key figures and classic schools of thought. The authors bridge the gap between philosophy and social theory, locating the theoretical views of individuals such as Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens and Jurgen Habermas within wider historical traditions. The revised edition includes new material on French pragmatist sociology and cultural sociology, and on contemporary social thinkers such as Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Manuel Castells, Randall Collins, Michael Mann, Saskia Sassen and Theda Skocpol. The authors conclude with a bold, new pragmatist agenda for social theory and the social sciences.

Written in a lively style, and avoiding jargon, Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond is aimed at students who wish to gain an understanding of the main debates and dilemmas driving social theory. Like its predecessor, it will be a standard introduction to modern social theory for students in sociology, politics and anthropology.

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I confess that I didn't properly read the section on Habermas and only read some of the 'brave new world?' stuff because SOC2 is in 3 days, I am not doing these topics, and #cba... that said, I imagine I will likely return to this book for reference in years to come. Overall, a decent introduction to some of the core developments of social theory in the 20th and early 21st Century. Particularly valuable for Cambridge SOC2 students, as despite frequent amendments to the course, Baert and Carreira da Silva are still the primary lecturers and a lot continues to be relevant - so, while it probably isn't the best introductory social theory book out there, it is good for this paper especially and perfectly decent. It does bear some of their respective biases, and the critiques of theories often feel a bit rushed and underdeveloped, but I guess if you want something very detailed, it pays to look into other, more specific books and papers pertaining to what specifically interests you at a given point. Definitely some *significant* omissions to the 2025 reader's eye, and if there's a third edition, I hope these are explored: including (but almost certainly not limited to) the imperial episteme and postcolonial/decolonial theory, new materialisms and posthumanism, the ontological turn, stuff on intersectionality, racial capitalism, further stuff on digital and platform capitalism (beyond Castells!), 3rd gen critical theory (Fraser, Honneth, etc)... for me personally, I also wish there was more stuff on the 1st gen Frankfurt School (Adorno and Horkheimer are only really included as a brief prerequisite to talking about Habermas), and the more neo-Marxist/crisis of representation brand of the cultural turn (Gramsci, Said, Spivak, Hall... frankly any British Cultural Studies/Birmingham School content). As these were pioneered prior to the book's publication, I have to imagine that they were intentionally left out, but I can't quite tell why and find it a little disappointing.