Social Theory: A Reader

Jonathan Joseph is Professor in the Politics department at Sheffield University. He is Author of Social Theory: Conflict, Cohesion and Consent (EUP, 2003), Hegemony: A Realist Analysis (Routledge, 2002) and co-editor of Realism, Discourse and Deconstruction (Routledge, 2002).

• Introduction; Section 1: Marx and Engels: Conflict and Consent; Introduction; MARX Preface to 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'; MARX 'The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret' from Capital volume 1; MARX AND ENGELS 'The Communist Manifesto'; MARX 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte'; MARX 'Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts'; BOB JESSOP 'Recent Theories of the Capitalist State'; Section 2: Antonio Gramsci: Theorist of Hegemony; Introduction; GRAMSCI 'The Modern Prince - Brief Notes on Machiavelli's Politics'*; GRAMSCI 'The Modern Price - Analysis of Situations. Relations of Force'*; GRAMSCI 'State and Civil Society'*; GRAMSCI 'The Intellectuals'*; GRAMSCI 'Americanism and Fordism'*; PERRY ANDERSON 'Origins of the Present Crisis'; * all from Gramsci's Prison Notebooks; Section 3: Durkheim and Functionalism; Introduction; DURKHEIM from Elementary forms of the Religious Life; DURKHEIM from The Division of Labour inI Society; DURKHEIM from Suicide; IAN CRAIB 'Parsons: Theory as a Filing System' from Modern Social Theory: From Parsons to Habermas; Section 4: Max Weber and Rationalism; Introduction; WEBER 'Politics as a Vocation'; WEBER 'Bureaucracy'; WEBER 'Class, Status, Party'; DEREK SAYER 'Without Regard for Persons' from Capitalism and Modernity: An Excursus on Marx and Weber; Section 5: Culture and Communication in the Frankfurt School; Introduction; ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER 'The Concept of Enlightenment' from Dialectic of Enlightenment; ADORNO AND HORKHEIMER 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' from Dialectic of Enlightenment; MARCUSE 'The New Forms of Control' from One-Dimensional Man; HABERMAS extracts from Theory of Communicative Action vol.2; Section 6: Michel Foucault: Discourse, Power and Regulation; Introduction; FOUCAULT 'The Carceral' from Discipline and Punish ; FOUCAULT 'Method' from History of Sexuality Volume One; ANDREW BARRY, THOMAS OSBORNE AND NIKOLAS ROSE 'Writing the History of the Present' from Barry, Thomas and Rose (eds) Foucault and Political Reason; Bibliography; Further Reading.

The book accurately reflects current concerns and issues in the teaching of this subject area but also, more importantly, helps to establish links between classical sociology and contemporary social theory… The book is very timely.