The Art of Social Theory

The Art of Social Theory
Author: Richard Swedberg
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2015-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 069116813X

A practical guide to the art of theorizing in the social sciences In the social sciences today, students are taught theory by reading and analyzing the works of Karl Marx, Max Weber, and other foundational figures of the discipline. What they rarely learn, however, is how to actually theorize. The Art of Social Theory is a practical guide to doing just that. In this one-of-a-kind user's manual for social theorists, Richard Swedberg explains how theorizing occurs in what he calls the context of discovery, a process in which the researcher gathers preliminary data and thinks creatively about it using tools such as metaphor, analogy, and typology. He guides readers through each step of the theorist’s art, from observation and naming to concept formation and explanation. To theorize well, you also need a sound knowledge of existing social theory. Swedberg introduces readers to the most important theories and concepts, and discusses how to go about mastering them. If you can think, you can also learn to theorize. This book shows you how. Concise and accessible, The Art of Social Theory features helpful examples throughout, and also provides practical exercises that enable readers to learn through doing.

A Return to the Object

A Return to the Object
Author: Susanne Küchler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000185524

This book draws on the work of anthropologist Alfred Gell to reinstate the importance of the object in art and society. Rather than presenting art as a passive recipient of the artist's intention and the audience's critique, the authors consider it in the social environment of its production and reception. A Return to the Object introduces the historical and theoretical framework out of which an anthropology of art has emerged, and examines the conditions under which it has renewed interest. It also explores what art 'does' as a social and cultural phenomenon, and how it can impact alternative ways of organising and managing knowledge. Making use of ethnography, museological practice, the intellectual history of the arts and sciences, material culture studies and intangible heritage, the authors present a case for the re-orientation of current conversations surrounding the anthropology of art and social theory. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars in the social and historical sciences, arts and humanities, and cognitive sciences.

Social Theory

Social Theory
Author: Peter Kivisto
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2011
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

"Featuring eighty-two seminal writings, Social Theory helps students draw connections across different schools of thought. Each reading is enhanced by a concise, thought-provoking introduction that highlights its key points and frames it in a larger context. These introductions serve as a useful 'road map' for students as they travel through the diverse views and continuing debates that make the study of social theory an exciting adventure. The introductions also explain core issues and relationships among the topics covered.

The Making of Social Theory

The Making of Social Theory
Author: Anthony Thomson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2010
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780195430301

The Making of Social Theory: Order, Reason, and Desire, second edition, chronicles the development of Western ideas about society and social life from the medieval period through to the rise of modern sociology in the early twentieth century. Theories are examined within a historical socialcontext to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the social circumstances in which various sociological ideologies arose. The new second edition retains its unique coverage of pre-Enlightenment ideas and features new material on Marxism in the twenty century and a chapter dedicated totracing the evolution of social democracy through Pareto and Mannheim. Taking a uniquely interdisciplinary approach, The Making of Social Theory examines the links between the classical and contemporary worlds, allowing students to see how classical social theory has helped to shape the ideas oftoday.

Social Theory Now

Social Theory Now
Author: Claudio E. Benzecry
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017-08-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780226475141

The landscape of social theory has changed significantly over the three decades since the publication of Anthony Giddens and Jonathan Turner’s seminal Social Theory Today. Sociologists in the twenty-first century desperately need a new agenda centered around central questions of social theory. In Social Theory Now, Claudio E. Benzecry, Monika Krause, and Isaac Ariail Reed set a new course for sociologists, bringing together contributions from the most distinctive sociological traditions in an ambitious survey of where social theory is today and where it might be going. The book provides a strategic window onto social theory based on current research, examining trends in classical traditions and the cutting edge of more recent approaches. From distinctive theoretical positions, contributors address questions about how social order is accomplished; the role of materiality, practice, and meaning; as well as the conditions for the knowledge of the social world. The theoretical traditions presented include cultural sociology, microsociologies, world-system theory and post-colonial theory, gender and feminism, actor network and network theory, systems theory, field theory, rational choice, poststructuralism, pragmatism, and the sociology of conventions. Each chapter introduces a tradition and presents an agenda for further theoretical development. Social Theory Now is an essential tool for sociologists. It will be central to the discussion and teaching of contemporary social theory for years to come.

Encyclopedia of Social Theory

Encyclopedia of Social Theory
Author: Austin Harrington
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 752
Release: 2005-12-22
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1136786945

The Encyclopedia of Social Theory contains over 500 entries varying from concise definitions of key terms and short biographies of key theorists to comprehensive surveys of leading concepts, debates, themes and schools. The object of the Encyclopedia has been to give thorough coverage of the central topics in theoretical sociology as well as terms

Methods for Social Theory

Methods for Social Theory
Author: Jan Ch. Karlsson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2016-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317097009

This book constitutes a practical guide to the important skills of both theorizing and writing in social scientific scholarship, focusing on the importance of identifying relations between concepts that are useful for explaining social entities and of producing a text that convincingly advances the theory that has been constructed. Taking as its point of departure the distinction between the research process and the reporting process – between clarifying one’s ideas to oneself and writing to express these ideas clearly to others – this volume concentrates on writing when theorizing as a way of thinking, emphasizing the series of relations that exist between ontology, epistemology and rhetoric upon which successful theoretical writing depends. Richly illustrated with practical examples, the book is divided into two parts, the first of which presents techniques for theorizing based upon visualized and logical connections of ideas, concepts and empirical patterns in both free and systematic ways, and the second part providing techniques for structuring and presenting arguments in essays, papers, articles or books.As such, Methods for Social Theory offers a toolbox for the development and presentation of social thought, which will prove essential for students and teachers across the social sciences.

Social Theory and Education Research

Social Theory and Education Research
Author: Mark Murphy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2022-03-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000555305

Social Theory and Education Research is an advanced and accessible text that illustrates the diverse ways in which social theories can be applied to educational research methodologies. It provides in-depth overviews of the various theories by well-known and much-debated thinkers – Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Derrida – and their applications in educational research. Updated throughout and with new extended introductions to each theorist and a new chapter on the application of socio-theoretical concepts in education research methodologies and the how-to of research practice, this second edition assists education practitioners and researchers in their acquisition and application of social theory. This book contextualizes the various theories within the broader context of social philosophy and the historical development of different forms of thought. Social Theory and Education Research will be incredibly useful to postgraduate students and early career researchers who wish to develop their capacity to engage with these debates at an advanced level. It will also prove of great interest to anyone involved in education policy and theory.

Social Theory and the Political Imaginary

Social Theory and the Political Imaginary
Author: Craig Browne
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2023-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1003823165

Social Theory and the Political Imaginary: Practice, Critique and History is an innovative work of synthesis, critique, and analysis. It presages a social theory perspective that recognises the constitutive significance of the political imaginary in modernity. Social theory’s current dilemmas are explored through a series of interlinked asssessments of some of its recent substantial strands, specifically, Luc Boltanski’s pragmatism and the wider ‘practical turn’, the perspectives of multiple modernities and global modernity, the outlook of social and political imaginaries, and critical social theory. The political imaginary’s reconfigurations are evident in the tensions of global modernity and original social theory interpretations are advanced of landmark instances of twenty-first century social contestation: the Hong Kong protests conditioned by threats to civil freedoms and a lack of self-determination, the radical democratic practices of anti-austerity movements contesting capitalist globalisation’s injustices, and the inverted cosmopolitanism of the 2005 French Riots challenging the oppression and inequalities experienced by immigrant communities and marginalised youth. These incisive applications of social theory and complementary conceptual innovations illuminate the vicissitudes of social struggles, political forms, and theoretical perspectives. Similarly, reflection on the political imaginary is found to enable a necessary rethinking of the interrelationship of practice, critique and history.