Key Sociological Thinkers :

Despite the fact that most of us think often about society and social life, few of us have had extensive schooling in how to organize or structure such thought. Guided by the belief that the sociological imagination is impoverished if accessible only to a handful of specialists, Key Sociological Thinkers provides the lay reader with a clear and manageable overview of the major sociological developments from Marx to the present day. Key Sociological Thinkers is ideal for students new to the field, veterans looking to brush up, and anyone eager to expand their understanding of the world in which we live.

Key Sociological Thinkers provides a clear and contextualised overview of the best of sociological thought. Written by leading academics, it offers stimulating and insightful assessments of 24 of the most influential thinkers in sociology: from Marx, Weber and Simmel to Chodorow, Foucault and Bauman. In addition, there are extended glossary accounts of thirteen additional theorists who have influenced, or been influenced by, these key thinkers.

The third edition of this popular and established text is updated to cover the lives, works and legacies of Mead, Du Bois, Latour and Alexander, and to include five newly-authored chapters on Durkheim, Merton, Goffman, Bourdieu and Giddens. It contains a major new introduction, linking sociological theory to events and processes in three different historical periods of modernity.

With frameworks for deep learning around group discussion, and much-valued ‘Seeing Things Differently’ sections to demonstrate how each thinker’s ideas can be used to illuminate aspects of social life in new ways, this continues be an essential text for all students of sociological theory.

Online-only chapters on Adorno, Blumer, De Beauvoir, Freud and Lockwood can be found on www.macmillanihe.com/stones