This revised edition presents details of recent concepts in modern sociological thinking. The text is based around the themes of structure and action, providing material on such key issues as modern neo-functionalism, poststructuralism, feminist theory and historical sociology approaches.

There are new chapters on rational choice theory and structuration theory and existing chapters have been extended to deal with the development of neofunctionalism, postmodernism and the recent works of Habermas as well as recent developments in other approaches.Throughout, the aim of the book is to demystify a diffcult subject area, emphasising the practical and everyday nature of theoretical thinking in the context of making sense of a rapidly changing world. The late Ian Craib was Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex.

1. Introduction: What's Wrong with Theory and Why We Still Need It. 2. Cutting a Path Through the Jungle. PART 1: THEORIES OF SOCIAL ACTION. 3. Introduction. 4. Parsons: Theory as a Filing System. 5. Structural-Functionalism. 6. Neofunctionalism. 7. Rational Choice Theory: 'The Price of Everything'
Symbolic Interactionism: Society as Conversation. 8. Society as Conspiracy: Phenomenological Sociology and Ethnomethodology. 9. Structuration Theory: There's No Such Thing as Society. 10. There Is Such a Thing as Society. PART 2: FROM ACTION TO STRUCTURE. 11. Introduction. 12. The World as a Logical Pattern: An Introduction to Structuralism. 13. Structuralist Marxism: The World as a Puppet Theatre. 14. Poststructuralism and Postmodernism: The World Gone Mad. PART 3: FROM STRUCTURE OR ACTION TO STRUCTURE AND ACTION. 15. Introduction. 16.
The Frankfurt School: There Must be Some Way Out of Here. 17. Jurgen Habermas: Back to the Filing Cabinet. 18. Conclusion: Playing with Ideas. Index.