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I have written
several pieces on social theory, including:
2005 Key Concepts in Leisure Studies, London: Sage Publications (translated into Greek 2011) 2003 Teaching Yourself Social Theory, London, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications 1996 A Society of Signs?, London and New York: Routledge (translated into S Korean 1998) 1992 From Class Struggle to the Politics of Pleasure: the effects of gramscianism in cultural studies, London and New York: Routledge. Find them and buy them (some are in e-book, most are available second-hand if you are broke) This page consists of some of the background reading for these efforts. The point is to let you gain easier access to some texts and provide you with a quick overview, so you can then see what you need to read for yourselves . Of course, the selections and discussions reflect my interests, but I have tried to summarize and paraphrase as accurately as possible too. Do go on and read the texts themselves (or the relevant sections of them for your purposes). Full bibliographic details are found in the files. This section is
constantly being updated -- so check back often.
But first, two introductory essays, to this collection and to my book
Adorno T Free Time
Ideology and
Ideological State Apparatuses... (and another
piece on ideology, the chapter on Rousseau in
Althusser L (1972) Politics and History)
Atkinson J and Heritage J Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis (Sacks on (ethno)methodology, Button and Casey on telephone conversations, Atkinson on applause-generating strategies in political speeches)(see also Heritage). Badiou, A The ontology of multiplicity: the singleton of the void (one of his EGS videos) Ontology
of Multiplicity: omega as event’ (follow
up to the above)
Barthes R Image-Music-Text
(three key pieces on the death of the author, works
and texts, and the new semiology).
Towards a Critical Sociology Beck
U Becker H Outsiders (the bits on labelling theory, moral entrepreneurs, replies to Gouldner etc).
Benhabib S 'Epistemologies
of Postmodernism: a Rejoinder to J-F Lyotard'
Benjamin, W Surrealism Berger P and Luckmann T The Social
Construction of Reality Berger and Pulberg
Bergson H Bergsonism
by Deleuze Time
and Free Will
Bhaskar
et al (eds) Critical
Realism: essential readings (notes on a few
key chapters only)
'Is
Bhaskar's Realism Realistic?' (Chalmers) (see also Collier) Blumer H The methodological position of symbolic interactionism Sociological Analysis and the 'Variable' Society as Symbolic Interaction
Bourdieu P 'Interaction and social space: social distance measures of stratification'
Bowles S and Gintis H Schooling in Capitalist America (and an important follow-up piece in 1980) 'Schooling in
Capitalist America
Revisited' (Jan.2002 re-examination of the
evidence)
'Gender is
Burning...' (on drag and its ambivalences,
in the film Paris is Burning)
Clarke, J. and Critcher, C (see
also CCCS page)
The
End(s) of Ethnography: from Realism to Social
Criticism Cooley, C
Coward R Class, Culture
and the Social Formation (early critique of
Hall et al on the media -- see below) ( see CCCS page)
Davis K and Moore R 'Some Principles of Stratification' (classic functionalist account of social stratification)
'Sociological Reflections on Sport, Violence and Civilization' (applies Elias) 'Sport as a
Drug and Drugs in Sport' Durkheim E
The
Archaeology of Knowledge See also Kendall
and Wickham on Foucault's methods
'Passing and the managed achievement of sex status in an intersexed person' (a.k.a. the Agnes study)
Critiques of Habermas (from Profiles and Critiques...) 'Functionalism: Après la lutte' [after the struggle] Modernity and Self-Identity... The Consequences of Modernity (pretty brief and schematic notes) Giddens on Modernity (a review symposium with contributions from Giddens, Beck, Robertson, Swanson and Turner)
Stebbins on role distance Goldthorpe, J., Llewellyn, C and
Payne, C. A Postscript to Knowledge and Human Interests Theory of Communicative Action (McCarthy's Intro) 'The French Path to Postmodernity...' (but ostensibly about Bataille)
'Encoding/decoding' Recent Developments in Theories of Language and Ideology... (Hall on Coward and 'Screen Theory') The Whites of Their Eyes: racist ideologies and the media 'The Political
and The Economic in Marx's Theory of Classes'(see
also Hirst)
'The Politics of Social Mobility' (nice critique of the Oxford Mobility Study)
Hume An
Enquiry Into Human Understanding Humm S (Ed) Husserl E
Latour B Conference
with O Eliasson --on the Bergson/Einstein
debate
Maccannell,
D Manis J and Meltzer B
On surplus value (DH handout -- very brief) Critiques and debates on method (DH handout) The So-Called
Primitive Accumulation (marvellous account
of the real history of capitalism -- and a good
intro to Marx)
Delinquency and
Drift ( Early attempt to insist delinquents
are normal people who have drifted into it) (and see
Sykes and Matza) Mennell S All Manners of Food (good example of figurational analysis) Norbert Elias:
an Introduction Mill JS (actually via Alan Ryan) Mulvey L Visual Pleasure
and Narrative Cinema' (and the follow-ups
'Afterthoughts on "Visual Pleasure"...' and
'Changes') Murphy R
The Gay
Science (blunt reduction to simple notes)
Palmer R Hermeneutics
(rather brief and chatty, with some general
criticisms) Pakulski J and Waters M 'The reshaping
and dissolution of social class in advanced
societies'
Poulantzas N Classes in
Contemporary Capitalism
Ramazanoglou C (ed) Up Against
Foucault (Grimshaw, Cain, Bailey, MacCannell
and MacCannell)
Rocher G Talcott Parsons and American Sociology (Intro and two chapters)
Rojek C Schutz A Phenomenology of the Social World (chs 3,4,5)
Screen Special on 'Difference' Useful critical discussions of Lacanian approaches (Merck, Williamson, Greig, Stacey)
Sivanandan A Communities of
Resistance... (chapter on the flaws of
'New Times' approaches)
Taylor I, Walton P and Young J (and others) The New
Criminology (opening statement - marxist
critiques of existing approaches in criminology) Critical Criminology (middle piece -- marxist critiques extended) Capitalism and the Rule of Law (final stage - marxist objects identified -- critique of the State)
Turner B For Weber...
(only three chapters summarised, on relations with
neomarxism, and on theodicy)
van Krieken R 'The
barbarism of civilization: cultural genocide and
the "stolen generations"' (on Elias)
Walkerdine, V
Culture and Power in Educational Organisations (Weick, Ouchi and Wilkins, Meyer and Rowan, Bachrach. On micropolitics, and with nice critical counters to much management theory)
Willis P (see also CCCS page) Profane Cultures (very brief) School Production and Theories of Reproduction (important amendments to Learning to Labour)
Winch P The Idea of a Social Science...
Women's Study Group (see CCCS page) Women Take
Issue... (excellent feminist critiques and
extensions of CCCS approaches)
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