William Outhwaite is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex. His previous publications include Habermas: A Critical Introduction (1994), New Philosophies of Social Science (1987), and Understanding Social Life (Second Edition, 1986). He is co-author of Social Theory and Postcommunism (Blackwell, 2004), editor of The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought (2002) and The Habermas Reader (1996), and co-editor of The Sociology of Politics (1998).

• Preface. 1. The Origins of ‘Society’.Part I: Critiques of Society.2. Society and the Individual: Neoliberalism, Social Constructionism and Communitarianism.3. Postmodernism.4. Globalisation.Part II: Reconstructing Society.5. Modernity and Society.6. Towards a Synthesis? Theory and Metatheory.Part III: Implications.7. Society Lite? Theories of Civil Society.8. Is There a European Society?.Postscript: A Defensible Concept of ‘Society’.Notes.Bibliography.Index

"Written with the author’s customary elegance and economy, this book invites us to take the concept of society seriously and to think about its future. This is a splendid and spirited work which will provoke a necessary debate." Krishan Kumar, University of Virginia “An original, challenging, and timely defense of the concept of society, this is an excellent introduction to contemporary sources and debates.” David Frisby, London School of Economics “A subtle defense of the concept of ‘society’ in the third millennium. Outhwaite convincingly undermines zero-sum thinking about the emergence of global society.” Margaret S. Archer, University of Warwick