1st Edition

Sociological Theory: What went Wrong? Diagnosis and Remedies

By Nicos Mouzelis Copyright 1995
    236 Pages
    by Routledge

    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    Social theory is open to many passing currents. Claims to originality tend to thrive and past achievements are often ignored. In Sociologiocal Theory: What Went Wrong? Mouzelis claims that "problems" currently being isolated are not really problems, and that "achievements" claimed are little more than pretensions. He argues that we have been premature to dismiss thinkers from the late 1950s and early 1960s and that we can build on their ideas to produce a more effective, more relevant social theory.
    Written with precision and with clarity, Sociological Theory: What Went Wrong? is a compelling analysis of the central problems of sociological theory today and of the means to resolve them.

    INTRODUCTION 1 Theory as tool and theory as end-product 2 The rise and fall of modem sociological theory 3 Conceptual pragmatism Part I Diagnosis 1 IMPASSES OF MICRO-SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIZING: OVERREACTION TO PARSONS 2 RATIONAL-CHOICE THEORIES: FROM MICRO FOUNDATIONS TO REDUCTIONISM 3 POST-STRUCTURALISM: THE DEMISE OF BOUNDARIES Part II Tentative Remedies 4 INSTITUTIONAL AND FIGURATIONAL STRUCTURES: PARSONS AND ELIAS 5 ON THE ARTICULATION BETWEEN INSTITUTIONAL AND FIGURATIONAL STRUCTURES: BRINGING PARSONIAN AND MARXIST SOCIOLOGIES CLOSER TOGETHER 6 THE ‘PARTICIPANT-SOCIAL WHOLE’ ISSUE: PARSONS, BOURDIEU, GIDDENS 7 SYNTHESIS AND APPLICATION: A SOCIOLOGICAL RECONSIDERATION OF FUNCTIONALISM CONCLUSION Appendix to the Conclusion: tentative guidelines

    Biography

    Nicos Mouzelis is Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.