Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Introduction

   • Seth Abrutyn

   Pages 1-15

3. Classical Questions Contemporalized

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Integrating and Disintegrating Dynamics in Human Societies

      • Jonathan H. Turner

      Pages 19-41

   3. Power in Organizational Society: Macro, Meso and Micro

      • Yingyao Wang, Simone Polillo

      Pages 43-61

   4. Action in Society: Reflexively Conceptualizing Activities

      • Andreas Glaeser

      Pages 63-83

   5. Interactionism: Meaning and Self as Process

      • Iddo Tavory

      Pages 85-98

   6. Cultural Theory

      • Omar Lizardo

      Pages 99-120

4. Rethinking the Macro-Micro Link

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 121-121

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   2. The Macro and Meso Basis of the Micro Social Order

      • Jonathan H. Turner

      Pages 123-148

   3. The Problem of Social Order in Nested Group Structures

      • Edward J. Lawler, Shane R. Thye, Jeongkoo Yoon

      Pages 149-166

   4. Social Networks and Relational Sociology

      • Nick Crossley

      Pages 167-183

   5. Varieties of Sociological Field Theory

      • Daniel N. Kluttz, Neil Fligstein

      Pages 185-204

5. A Coherent Social Universe

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 205-205

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   2. Institutional Spheres: The Macro-Structure and Culture of Social Life

      • Seth Abrutyn

      Pages 207-228

   3. Stratification

      • Katja M. Guenther, Matthew C. Mahutga, Panu Suppatkul

      Pages 229-245

   4. The Concept of Community as Theoretical Ground: Contention and Compatibility Across Levels of Analysis and Standpoints of Social Processes

      • Michael D. Irwin

      Pages 247-268

   5. Organizations as Sites and Drivers of Social Action

      • Walter W. Powell, Christof Brandtner

      Pages 269-291

   6. Small Groups: Reflections of and Building Blocks for Social Structure

      • Stephen Benard, Trenton D. Mize

      Pages 293-320

   7. The Theories of Status Characteristics and Expectation States

      • Murray Webster Jr., Lisa Slattery Walker

      Pages 321-342

This Handbook provides the hidden common threads that tie sociological inquiry together and featuring eminent scholars, it separates itself from its predecessors in substance and organization. Rather than rehashing old debates or longingly gazing at the past, this book presents sociologists with new ways of conceptualizing the organization and presentation of sociological theory. At the heart of this Handbook’s vision is the twin goals of making theory a viable enterprise by reconceptualizing how we teach theory and keeping theory closely tied to its empirical applications. Three strategies are offered: (1) Elucidating how classic issues like integration or interaction are interrogated today; (2) Presenting a coherent vision of the social levels of reality that theorists work on such as communities, groups, and the self as well as how the coherence of these levels speaks to the macro-micro link; and, (3) Theorizing the social world rather than celebrating theorists or theories; that is, one can look at how theory is used holistically to understand the constraints the social world places on our lived experience or the dynamics of social change. Hence, in the second decade of the 21st century, it has become clear that sociology is at a crossroads as the number of theorists and amount of theory available is increasingly unmanageable and unknowable by the vast majority of professionals and students. As such, this Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory presents the novice and the expert with the a roadmap for traversing this crossroad and building a more coherent, robust, and cumulative sociology.

• Advances in Ethnomethodology
• Evolutionary Sociology
• Faces of Cultural Theory
• Future Directions of Sociological Theory
• Human Ecology
• Identity and the Self
• Macro-Micro Debate
• Meaning and Social Action
• Problems of Integration
• Social Organization
• Sociological Theory and Postmodernism
• Stratification Systems

• Department of Sociology, The University of Memphis, Memphis, USA

  Seth Abrutyn

Seth Abrutyn is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Memphis. Trained as a theorist, his interests include mental health, social psychology, emotions, in addition to sociocultural evolution and religion. In short, his work emphasizes synthesizing disparate theories in order to make more robust and comprehensive theoretical principles. His primary research focuses on the elucidating the links between meso-level structural and cultural forces and micro-level dynamics that shape adolescent suicide. His work on suicide can be found in the American Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Society and Mental Health. 

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