First Published in 1983. Designed for first-year graduates, this book provides an introduction to key themes and research in sociology. Written by two lecturers and based on the long experience of teaching the subject, 'The Problem of Sociology' serves as an antidote to the conventional 'institutional' approach to sociology and avoids he artificial fragmentation of major theories and concepts in common to so many introductory texts. From this text, the student is able to develop a clear understanding of what makes sociology a distinct and rigorous discipline; a discipline which has evolved historically through the analysis of certain fundamental issues, many of which continue to have a contemporary relevance. And while introducing the student to classical theory, the authors also show how these theories illuminate present social problems.
Preface Part One: The Problem of Sociology 1 Prologue: to the reader 2 Sociology and the growth of industrial society Part Two: Industrial Society as Regress-Tönnies and 'Community' 3 Urbanism as a way of life? 4 A loss of community Part Three: Industrial Society as Progress-Evolutionary Accounts of Society 5 Classic evolutionary doctrines and the diversity of morals 6 Evolutionary themes in modern social science: nature versus nurture 7 Evolutionary themes in modern social science: cultural variation and technical Development Part Four: Industrial Society as Capitalist Society-Marx and Marxism 8 Marx and the critique of political economy 9 Marxism and the theory of capitalist development 10 Marxism and contemporary society Part Five: Industrial Society as Disenchantment-Weber and Rationalization 11 Max Weber and the rationalization of the modern world 12 Weber and the origins of capitalism 13 Bureaucracy, democratic politics and socialism Part Six: Industrial Society as Organic Solidarity-Durkheim, the Division of Labour and Moral Science 14 Moral obligation and individual life 15 Anomie, disorder and conflict Part Seven: Industrial Society as Structural Differentiation-Functionalism and its Discontents 16 Societies as systems: functionalist models of social order 17 Functionalists, family and gender Part Eight: Industrial Order and the Fragmentation of Self 18 The fragmentation of consciousness 19 Consciousness and control 20 Epilogue
