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Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory In this comprehensive, stylish and accessible introduction to contemporary social theory, Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert examine the major theoretical traditions from the Frankfurt School to globalization and beyond. The book’s wide range sets new standards for introductory textbooks – social theorists discussed include Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu, Julia Kristeva, Jürgen Habermas, Judith Butler, Slavoj Zˇi zˇ ek, Manuel Castells, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman, Giorgio Agamben and Manuel DeLanda. Extensively developed to take into account signifi cant recent develop- ments in American social theory, the book offers chapters on American pragmatism, structural functionalism, ethnomethodology, black feminist thought and world-systems theory. American traditions of social theory are brought powerfully to life in treatments of intellectuals ranging from Charles Sanders Peirce and William James to Robert K. Merton, David Riesman to Alvin Gouldner, and Patricia Hill Collins to Charles Tilly and Immanuel Wallerstein. Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory combines lively exposition and clarity with refl ective social critique and original insights, and is a superb textbook with which to navigate the twists and turns of contem- porary social theory as taught in the disciplines of sociology, politics, history, cultural studies and many more. Anthony Elliott is Director of the Hawke Research Institute, where he is Research Professor of Sociology at the University of South Australia. His recent books include Mobile Lives (2010, with John Urry), On Society (2012, with Bryan Turner), Concepts of the Self (2013) and Reinvention (2013) . Charles Lemert is University Professor and Andrus Professor of Social Theory Emeritus, Wesleyan University; and Senior Fellow, Center for Comparative Research, Yale University. His recent books include Why Niebuhr Matters (2013), Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classical Readings (ed., 2013, fi fth edition), Uncertain Worlds: World-Systems Analysis in Changing Times (with Immanuel Wallerstein and Carlos Aguirre Rojas, 2013). Once again, Elliott and Lemert have written an exceedingly intelligent, generously interdisciplinary, and politically relevant social theory textbook. From its fi rst story to its last question for further study, Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory is a lucid invitation to the critical study of social theory from two of the fi eld’s most eloquent and distinguished scholars. Avery Gordon , Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert Routledge RTaylor & Francis Group NEW YORK AND LO NDON First published 2014 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 And by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert The right of Anthony Elliott and Charles Lemert to be identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978–0–415–52572–5 (hbk) ISBN: 978–0–415–52573–2 (pbk) ISBN: 978–0–203–10186–5 (ebk) Typeset in Scala Sans by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk For Niamh and Julian and Caroline Lemert This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface and Acknowledgments xii 1 The Textures of Society 1 What is society? 3 Society and social theory 6 Coping with climate change: Anthony Giddens 8 Key themes in contemporary social theory 11 Further questions 15 Further reading 16 2 The Contemporary Relevance of the Classics 17 The contradictions of modernity: Marx 19 Modernity as iron cage: Weber 23 Modernity as moral bonds: Durkheim 27 Trauma, tragedy and Thanatos: Freud 32 Summary points 36 Further questions 38 Further reading 38 3 The Frankfurt School 40 Horkheimer and Adorno: Dialectic of Enlightenment 43 Freudian revolution: the uses of psychoanalysis 45 Fromm: fear of freedom 47 Adorno: The Authoritarian Personality , anti-Semitism and the psychodynamics of modernity 52 Written in the stars: Adorno on astrology 56 contents vii Marcuse: Eros, or one-dimensional futures? 57 Criticisms of Marcuse 61 Summary points 65 Further questions 66 Further reading 66 4 American Pragmatisms 68 William James: experience and the social self 71 Pragmatism and Darwin’s The Origin of the Species 75 The foundations of pragmatist social theory today 76 Charles Sanders Peirce: semiotics and the unity of ego 76 The Progressive Era: John Dewey and Jane Addams 80 George Herbert Mead: mind, self and society 84 Herbert Blumer: Symbolic Interactionism 89 Pragmatism’s limits and prospects: Habermas and Rorty 90 Summary points 93 Further questions 94 Further reading 95 5 Structuralism 97 Saussure and structural linguistics 99 Criticisms of Saussure 104 The Raw and The Cooked : Lévi-Strauss and structural anthropology 107 Roland Barthes: structuralist semiology and popular culture 108 Foucault: knowledge, social order and power 114 Society and disciplined bodies 117 The limits of structuralism: Foucault’s History of Sexuality 119 Governmentality 125 Criticisms of Foucault 127 Summary points 130 Further questions 131 Further reading 131 6 Structures, Functions and Culture 133 Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action 133 The Social System: Parsons and the AGIL paradigm 137 Robert K. Merton: social theory and social structures 140 Jeffery C. Alexander: theoretical logic of cultural sociology 145 Summary points 150 Further questions 151 Further reading 152 viii contents 7 Post-structuralism 153 Lacan: the mirror stage and imaginary 157 Lacan’s reformulation of structuralism: language, symbolic order and the unconscious 160 After Lacan: Althusser and society as interpellation 162 Z ˇizˇek: beyond interpellation 164 Appraisal of Lacan 166 Derrida: difference and deconstruction 170 Rereading psychoanalysis: Derrida’s critique of Lacan 174 Appraisal of Derrida 176 Post-structuralism and post-colonial theory: Bhabha’s The Location of Culture 177 Summary points 179 Further questions 180 Further reading 180 8 The Interaction Order 182 David Riesman: conformity and the American character 184 Erving Goffman: impression management and the interaction order 188 Ethnomethodologies: Aaron Cicourel and Harold Garfi nkel 196 Summary points 201 Further questions 202 Further reading 203 9 Theories of Structuration 204 Anthony Giddens: structuration and the practical routines of social life 206 Giddens on modernity and the self 213 Criticisms of Giddens 218 Pierre Bourdieu: habitus and practical social life 221 Questions of taste: Bourdieu’s Distinction 225 Criticisms of Bourdieu 226 Summary points 229 Further questions 230 Further reading 230 10 Variations on the Theory of Power and Knowledge 232 C. Wright Mills: power as knowledge of structures 234 Alvin W. Gouldner: the culture of critical discourse 239 Dorothy Smith: power and knowledge from the feminist standpoint 244 contents ix Donna Haraway and Patricia Hill Collins: the fractured matrix of power 247 Summary points 251 Further questions 252 Further reading 252 11 Contemporary Critical Theory 254 Habermas: the democratization of society 256 The early Habermas: development and decline of the public sphere 258 Habermas on capitalism, communication and colonization 262 Emotional imperialism: feminist criticism of Habermas 267 Habermas on globalization and post-national societies 269 Towards deliberative democracy 272 Criticisms of Habermas 273 Honneth: the struggle for recognition 276 Summary points 281 Further questions 282 Further reading 283 12 Feminism and Post-feminist Theory 284 Theorizing patriarchy: 1970s feminisms 286 Juliet Mitchell on femininity and sexual difference 289 Dinnerstein: societal nurturing arrangements 292 Chodorow: The Reproduction of Mothering 294 Benjamin: the analysis of love 299 Julia Kristeva: semiotic subversions 301 Kristeva on motherhood and maternal ethics 306 Appraisal of Kristeva 308 Irigaray: the feminine imaginary 310 Judith Butler: scripts of gender performance 312 Appraisal of Butler 316 Queer theory 318 Summary points 324 Further questions 325 Further reading 326 13 Postmodernity 327 Deleuze and Guatarri: postmodernity as schizoid desire 329 The postmodern condition: Lyotard 333 Baudrillard: postmodernity as simulated media culture 337 Baudrillard’s non-event: ‘The Gulf War did not take place’ 342 Jameson: postmodernity as global capitalist transformations 344 x contents Bauman: postmodernity as modernity subtract illusions 348 Beyond the postmodern: Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity 353 Criticisms of postmodernism 357 Summary points 360 Further questions 361
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