ABSTRACT

This is the first anthology to thematize the dramatic upward and downward shifts that have created the new social theory, and to present this new and exciting body of work in a thoroughly trans-disciplinary manner.



In this revised second edition readers are provided with a much greater range of thinkers and perspectives, including new sections on such issues as imperialism, power, civilization clash, health and performance. The first section sets out the main schools of contemporary thought, from Habermas and Honneth on new critical theory, to Jameson and Hall on cultural studies, and Foucault and Bourdieu on poststructuralism. The sections that follow trace theory debates as they become more issues-based and engaged. They are:









  • the post-foundational debates over morality, justice and epistemological truth


  • the social meaning of nationalism, multiculturalism and globalization


  • identity debates around gender, sexuality, race, the self and post-coloniality.






This new edition provides more ample biographical and intellectual introductions to each thinker, and substantial introductions to each of the major sections. The editors introduce the volume with a newly revised, interpretive overview of social theory today.



The New Social Theory Reader is an essential, reliable guide to current theoretical debates.

chapter |30 pages

Introduction

part One|77 pages

General theory without foundations

part |17 pages

New Critical Theory

part |22 pages

Semiotic Structuralism

chapter Chapter 4|12 pages

On Ethnographic Allegory

part |15 pages

Poststructuralism

chapter Chapter 5|7 pages

Power/Knowledge

chapter Chapter 6|7 pages

Outline of a Theory of Practice

part |21 pages

Cultural Studies

chapter Chapter 7|13 pages

Cultural Studies

chapter Chapter 8|7 pages

The Political Unconscious

Narrative as a socially symbolic act

part Two|54 pages

The normative turn

part |18 pages

Justice

chapter Chapter 9|11 pages

A Defense of Pluralism and Equality

chapter Chapter 10|6 pages

Political Liberalism

part |17 pages

Ethics

chapter Chapter 11|8 pages

Whose Justice? Which Rationality?

chapter Chapter 12|8 pages

Postmodern Ethics

part |17 pages

Truth

chapter Chapter 13|9 pages

Pragmatism, Relativism, and Irrationalism

chapter Chapter 14|7 pages

Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism

part Three|64 pages

Rethinking power

part |22 pages

Performativity

chapter Chapter 15|13 pages

Imitation and Gender Insubordination

chapter Chapter 16|8 pages

Performance and Power 1

part |19 pages

Domination/Liberation

chapter Chapter 17|9 pages

From Redistribution to Recognition?

Dilemmas of justice in a 'postsocialist' age

chapter Chapter 18|9 pages

Queer Politics

part |21 pages

Biopolitics

chapter Chapter 19|12 pages

The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity

A feminist appropriation of Foucault

chapter Chapter 20|8 pages

The Politics of Life Itself

part Four|123 pages

Societies and world order

part |14 pages

Postmodernity

chapter Chapter 21|5 pages

Simulacra and Simulations

chapter Chapter 22|8 pages

The Condition of Postmodernity

part |17 pages

Civil Society

chapter Chapter 23|8 pages

The Utopia of Civil Society

chapter Chapter 24|8 pages

Global Civil Society

An answer to war

part |21 pages

Multiculturalism

chapter Chapter 25|9 pages

Justice and the Politics of Difference

chapter Chapter 26|11 pages

Multicultural Citizenship

part |16 pages

Nationalism

chapter Chapter 27|7 pages

Imagined Communities

Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

chapter Chapter 28|8 pages

Whose Imagined Community?

part |17 pages

World Politics

chapter Chapter 29|7 pages

The End of History?

chapter Chapter 30|9 pages

The Clash of Civilizations?

part |21 pages

Globalization

chapter Chapter 31|10 pages

A New Society

chapter Chapter 32|10 pages

The Cosmopolitan Perspective

part |15 pages

Empire

chapter Chapter 33|6 pages

From Direct to Indirect Rule

chapter Chapter 34|8 pages

Return to Empire

The new U.S. imperialism in comparative historical perspective

part Five|84 pages

Identities

part |15 pages

Self

part |21 pages

Gender

chapter Chapter 37|7 pages

Gender as a Social Practice

part |15 pages

Sexuality

part |18 pages

Race

chapter Chapter 41|11 pages

Racial Formation

chapter Chapter 42|6 pages

The Mirage of an Unmarked Whiteness

part |13 pages

Postcoloniality

chapter Chapter 43|4 pages

Orientalism

chapter Chapter 44|8 pages

Postcolonial Melancholia