Sociology Since Midcentury: Essays in Theory Cumulation is a collection of essays dealing with major intellectual developments in sociology since the mid-twentieth century. Topics covered include a macrohistorical theory of geopolitics, intended somewhat as an alternative to the Wallerstein economic theory of world-systems; a microtheory that provides a basis for linking up to and reconstructing macrosociological theories; structuralism, ritual violence, and solidarity; and the symbolic economy of culture.

Comprised of 20 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to the major historical and comparative sociologies, the traditions of Karl Marx and Max Weber with their subsequent transformations. The next section is devoted to structuralism and conflict that includes a discussion on a theory of violence and Claude Lévi-Strauss's structural history. Subsequent chapters explore the sociology of education and consider class, codes, and control; cultural capitalism and symbolic violence; schooling in capitalist America; breakthroughs in microsociology; and the microfoundations of macrosociology. Erving Goffman's scholarly methods and the theoretical traditions to which he contributes are also examined.

This monograph will be of interest to sociologists.

Contenu

Preface
Introduction
I The Advance of Historical Sociology
The Empirical Validity of the Conflict Tradition
Wallerstein's World-System
The Chain of Modernization
Geopolitics and Revolution
Long-Term Social Change and the Territorial Power of States
II Structuralism and Conflict
Lévi-Strauss's Structural History
Three Faces of Cruelty: Toward a Comparative Sociology of Violence
III Sociology of Education: The Cutting Edge
Class, Codes, and Control
Cultural Capitalism and Symbolic Violence
Schooling in Capitalist America
Crises and Declines in Credential Systems
IV Breakthroughs in Microsociology
Three Stages of Erving Goffman
The Language-Game of Power
The Microfoundations of Macrosociology
V The Old Guard and the New
Merton's Functionalism
Postindustrialism and Technocracy
Touraine's System
Gouldner's Dialectics
Blau's Macrotheory
Sociology Past and Future
References
Index