THE GIDDENS PROJECT Anthony Giddens is certainly a phenomenon amongst British sociologists : a major ‘grand theorist’. Increasingly, he has come to see himself as a social, rather than just a sociological theorist, concerned with ideas relevant across the range of social sciences and breaking down the barriers amongst the disciplines. The volume of secondary literature now appearing-four substantial books alone in the year around my writing these words1-is a tribute to his importance in modern sociology. He is the main interpreter of modern social theory, and not only in the English-speaking world. This demands both an accessible account of his work and a critical discussion, and this book attempts both. This chapter will be concerned with an initial characterisation of his enterprise and an outline of the central threads of my critical discussion.