Understanding Social Theory

Derek Layder is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester and Honorary Professor of Health and Life Sciences and De Montfort University. He was awarded a doctorate by the London School of Economics in 1976. Appointed Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester in 1974 and promoted to Reader in 1995, he became Professor in 1997 and Emeritus Professor from 2002. He has held several visiting academic positions and has also held honorary visiting appointments at The Australian National University (as a Humanities Research Fellow) and the University of Western Sydney (as Eminent Research Visitor). He taught in areas of social theory, social psychology, social research methods and the philosophy of social sciences. He has published numerous academic articles and 12 books. Among his books, in the area of the philosophy of social science, he is the author of The Realist Image in Social Science (1990); in social theory, he has written Understanding Social Theory (second edition, 2006), as well as Modern Social Theory (1997). On research strategies and methods, he has authored New Strategies in Social Research (1993), Sociological Practice (1998), and Doing Excellent Small-Scale Research (2013). He has also written on intimacy, emotion and self-identity, including Emotion in Social Life (2004), Social & Personal Identity (2004) and Intimacy & Power (2009).

• A Map of the TerrainPART ONE: THE VIEW FROM ON HIGHThe Legacy of Talcott ParsonsVarieties of MarxismPART TWO: WHERE THE ACTION ISMeanings, Situations and ExperiencePerceiving and AccomplishingPART THREE: BREAKING FREE AND BURNING BRIDGESFoucault and the Postmodern TurnBeyond Micro and Macro: Abandoning False ProblemsGidden′s Structuration TheoryPART FOUR: ONLY CONNECT: FORGING LINKSLinking Agency and Structure and Macro and MicroHabermas′s Lifeworld and SystemVarieties of DualismNew Directions: The Theory of Social Domains

this text is a useful resource for developing student thinking.