ABSTRACT
Social and cultural theorists have been at the forefront in the social sciences and humanities in responding to the Covid-19 global pandemic. Amid the threats, risks, dangers as well as new opportunities and options social and cultural theorists raised the vital question: what happens to human agency in a world of structured social differences when agents are, in effect, precluded from engagement directly in the public sphere, and are instead thrown back onto the private realm? This is a question rooted deeply in the histories of social and cultural theory. This chapter lays out the currents of social and cultural thought that have given shape to much of the intellectual terrain upon which debates around society and culture have played and continue to play themselves out. In so doing it introduces readers to many of the concepts and concerns animating contemporary social and cultural theory, as elaborated throughout the contributions that comprise The Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory.
