Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory
Text and Readings
- Scott Appelrouth - California State University, Northridge, USA
- Laura Desfor Edles - California State University, Northridge, USA
Sociology
Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory, Third Edition is a text/reader that introduces students to the ideas and writings of key theorists from sociology’s
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Supplements
Password-protected Instructor Resources include the following:
- Test banks provide a diverse range of pre-written options as well as the opportunity to edit any question and/or insert your own personalized questions to effectively assess students’ progress and understanding
- Chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides offer assistance with lecture and review preparation by highlighting essential content, features, and artwork from the book.
- Chapter-specific discussion questions help launch conversation by prompting students to engage with the material and by reinforcing important content.
- Suggested Writing Assignments for individual or group projects provide lively and stimulating ideas for use in and out of class reinforce active learning.
- Tables and Figures are available in an easily-downloadable format for use in papers, hand-outs, and presentations
A very useful collection of foundational texts covering all relevant traditions of interest for teaching an introsoc class.
The text covers a wide array of social theories and theorists. Content is not too heavy but rich enough that students can understand the socio-historical context and current applications. I have paired this with the Woman Founders text to ensure more inclusive coverage for sociological theory.
Black Feminism and Intersectionality, Black Feminist Epistemology is well taught in Chapter 15. Text, Power and Women written by Dorothy E. Smith (chapter 16) and Exposing Gender written by Judith Butler (Chapter 17) are important topics that I will teach in my lecture.
In my political sociology course, I teach Frankfurt School. This book deals Frankfurt School in its Chapter 2. Power is another topic that I teach in this lecture. Structures of Power- Michel Foucault (Chapter 9) will help me to explain power dimension according to Foucault. In my last week, I teach the significance of global society. For this week, World System Theory- I. Wallerstein (Chapter 10) and Network Society -M. Castells (Chapter 11) will help me to explain the impact of capitalist system and globalization over societies.
This text offers the both a sound and clear summary of the key ideas for each theorist and an opportunity for students to read excerpts from the original works so that they can "hear" the voices of the theorists themselves. (Even though I had one student comment that she felt like she was being yelled at in German for the first few weeks :-))
I do not find the analytic frame that Applerouth and Edles use to compare theories especially helpful, however can appreciate that some folks do need a frame to make sense of things.
Robust, in-depth coverage of both classical and contemporary sociological theory.
A good text, interesting new thoeries