Conversations with Anthony Giddens

Anthony Giddens is Director at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was formerly Professor of Sociology and Fellow of King's College at the University of Cambridge. Christopher Pierson is Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham.

• Preface. The Sociology of Anthony Giddens: An Introduction by Martin O'Brien.Interview 1: Life and Intellectual Career.Interview 2: The Sociological Classics and Beyond.Interview 3: Structuration Theory.Interview 4: Modernity.Interview 5: From the Transformation of Intimacy to Life Politics.Interview 6: Politics Beyond Left and Right.Interview 7: World Politics.Centre Left at Centre Stage.The Politics of Risk Society.Beyond Chaos and Dogma.Risks, Scares, Nightmares.

"[An] illuminating book." The Independent "For those seeking to come to grips with these advances in social theory Conversations with Anthony Giddens offers an excellent introduction. [This book] shows powerfully that he is one of the few contemporary theorists to cross the divide that separates the academic world from the broader public sphere." The Australian "Remarkably accessible ... and is the most revealing document so far concerning Giddens's background and career." The Times Higher Education Supplement "Anthony Giddens has earned a considerable reputation among social scientists over the past three decades as a theorist. Though important within the academy, such reputations have a limited cachet in the world at large. Recently, though, Giddens has attained bona fide celebrity, or at least demicelebrity, status outside the cloisters, in his related roles as director of the London School of Economics and intellectual darling of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour party. His name by now must be a household word in his native Britain, given the frequency with which he is mentioned in the media there. On this side of the Atlantic as well, he has been interviewed, cited as expert, and his ideas variously praised and panned in a wide variety of non-academic, even mainstream media...Those with even a passing interest in Giddens are likely to find this book useful, as Giddens summarizes his ideas with unusual succinctness" Christopher J. Richter, Communication Theory Book Review