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Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory
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Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory

First Edition
Edited by:

Other Titles in:
Social Theory

416 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
This comprehensive book provides an indispensable introduction to the most significant figures in contemporary social theory. Grounded strongly in the European tradition, the profiles include Michel Foucault, J[um]urgen Habermas, Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, Zygmunt Bauman, Martin Heidegger, Fredric Jameson, Richard Rorty, Nancy Chodorow, Anthony Giddens, Stuart Hall, Luce Irigaray and Donna Haraway. In guiding students through the key figures in an accessible and authoritative fashion, the book provides detailed accounts of the development of the work of major social theorists and charts the relationship between different traditions of social, cultural and political thought.

Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory will become a major reference work in the field of social theory because it offers in-depth commentaries that comprehensively examine the contents, contexts and critical evaluation of key theorists of the day.

Anthony Elliott and Bryan S Turner
Editors' Introduction
Richard Polt
Martin Heidegger
Michael Richardson
Georges Bataille
Nick Crossley
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Douglas Kellner
Herbert Marcuse
Andrew Bowie
Theodor Adorno
Graeme Gilloch
Walter Benjamin
Patrick Baert
J[um]urgen Habermas
Ann Branaman
Erving Goffman
Bryan S Turner
Peter Berger
Stephen Katz
Michel Foucault
Victor J Seidler
Jean-Fran[ce]cois Lyotard
Anthony Elliott
Jacques Lacan
Christina Howells
Jacques Derrida
Chris Rojek
Roland Barthes
Kelly Oliver
Julia Kristeva
Caroline Bainbridge
Luce Irigaray
Mike Gane
Jean Baudrillard
Paul Patton
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri
John Armitage
Paul Virilio
Rob Shields
Henri Lefebvre
Kathleen Blamey
Paul Ricoeur
Jakob Arnoldi
Niklas Luhmann
Marcos Ancelovici and Francis Dupuis-Deri
Charles Taylor
Bryan S Turner
Richard Rorty
Geoffrey Gershenson and Michelle Williams
Nancy Chodorow
Anthony Elliott
Anthony Giddens
Nick Stevenson
Ulrich Beck
Bridget Fowler
Pierre Bourdieu
Barry Smart
Zygmunt Bauman
Patricia Ticineto Clough and Joseph Schneider
Donna J Haraway
Sean Homer
Fredric Jameson
Chris Rojek
Stuart Hall
Sarah Wright
Juliet Mitchell
Bryan S Turner
Edward Said

`The publication of this volume will make a dramatic impact, for it shifts the boundaries of current understandings of the field of social theory. It presents a set of cogent, well- informed, well-organized discussions of many authors who are not conventionally seen as relevant to that field. On the other hand, it also reconsiders a number of the field's established figures and focuses on their contribution to a few thematic concerns, which the editors formulate compellingly in their introduction' - Gianfranco Poggi, European University Institute

`A most innovative and creative collection of essays on contemporary social theory. What stands out about this book is the editors' choice of thinkers.... Included here are essays not only on many of the most important contemporary social theorists (including some interesting, even surprising, choices), but also on many of the thinkers of the recent past who are having a powerful impact on contemporary social thought. A welcome addition to the personal libraries of not only social theorists, but those in a wide range of specialities in the social sciences' - George Ritzer, University of Maryland


It's a very useful reference book but more suitable for academic students then for our students at a university of applied sciences. Also, the content is more orientated towards the philosophical side of social theory and gives less information on the original research done by the theorists described in the book. For our students the book is to much an in depth description of these thinkers on social theory, but for me as a lecturer the information the book contains provides a very interesting background and understanding of many of these classic authors and thinkers on social theory.

Mr Pepijn van Amersfoort
Social Work, The Hague University of Applied Sciences
September 13, 2021

This book provides an excellent overview of some of the most important sociological thinkers and is written in an easily accessible way for undergraduate students.

Dr Michael Rees
Humanities, Languages & Social Science, Wolverhampton University
June 1, 2016

Excellent, well informed and easy to use. I enjoy the high level of variety within this text.

Mr Lewis Simpson
Department of Health & Social Studies, Grimsby Institute of HE & FE
March 13, 2015

very good and useful book in providing profiles for classical social theorists, some of which are relevant to the discussion on contemporary information society issues

Dr DIMITRIS BOUCAS
Department of Sociology, City University
November 28, 2012

Great for those who want to know more about social theory, but want a quick introduction and a quick reference source. Good for interdisciplinary studies, or marketing and consumer behaviour students, who need critical social underpinnings from key theorists to their work.

Ms LB Begum
Department of Management & IT, University of Wales, Trinity St David
April 5, 2011

Anthony Elliott

Bryan S Turner

Bryan S. Turner is one of the world’s leading sociologists of religion; he has also devoted significant attention to sociological theory, the study of human rights, and the sociology of the body. In Vulnerability and Human Rights (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), he presents an interdisciplinary dialogue with the literature of economics, law, medicine, philosophy, political science, and religion. His current research involves the role of religion in contemporary Asia and the changing nature of citizenship in a globalizing world. Turner has written, coauthored, or edited more than seventy books and more than two hundred articles... More About Author

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