ABSTRACT
Most of the sociological theories discussed in the present chapter have got rather out of fashion nowadays, having been pushed into the background by the class-oriented theories of the previous chapter. To some extent this has been nothing but part of the usual process of a more up-to-date and refined theory succeeding one that has become slightly stale and failed to keep up with the trend of modern scientific ideas in general. In some cases, however, these very grown-up babies have been thrown out rather brusquely with the bath water. To do them justice it has to be borne in mind that most of the theories in this chapter are not only closely inter-related with one another, but have also helped to prepare the ground for the class-oriented theories of Chapter 22.
