ABSTRACT
First Published in 1983. Designed for first-year graduates, this book provides an introduction to key themes and research in sociology. Written by two lecturers and based on the long experience of teaching the subject, 'The Problem of Sociology' serves as an antidote to the conventional 'institutional' approach to sociology and avoids he artificial fragmentation of major theories and concepts in common to so many introductory texts. From this text, the student is able to develop a clear understanding of what makes sociology a distinct and rigorous discipline; a discipline which has evolved historically through the analysis of certain fundamental issues, many of which continue to have a contemporary relevance. And while introducing the student to classical theory, the authors also show how these theories illuminate present social problems.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Part One: The Problem of Sociology
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Part Two: Industrial Society as Regress—Tönnies and ‘Community’
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Part Three: Industrial Society as Progress—Evolutionary Accounts of Society
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Part Four: Industrial Society as Capitalist Society—Marx and Marxism
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Part Five: Industrial Society as Disenchantment—Weber and Rationalization
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Part Six: Industrial Society as Organic Solidarity—Durkheim, the Division of Labour and Moral Science
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Part Seven: Industrial Society as Structural Differentiation—Functionalism and its Discontents
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Part Eight: Industrial Order and the Fragmentation of Self