| Description |
vi, 211 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
1. Defining Modernity: The Quest for Autonomy -- 2. The Limits of Modernity: From Autonomy to Fragmentation -- 3. Discourse and Democracy: Habermas's Theory of Modernity -- 4. Creativity and the Rise of Social Postmodernism: Foucault, Lyotard and Bauman -- 5. The Return of Agency: Touraine and Melucci -- 6. Reflexive Modernization: Beck and Giddens -- Conclusion: Knowledge, Democracy and Discursive Institutionalization |
| Summary |
This book will appeal to second- and third-year undergraduates, and graduates and academics in sociology and social theory, politics, cultural studies and other social sciences |
|
Social Theory in a Changing World provides a critical assessment of contemporary social theory for students in the social sciences. The central theme of the book concerns the nature of modernity and the ways in which contemporary thinkers have understood it. Delanty argues that modernity involves a tension between autonomy and fragmentation. On the one hand, the cultural project of modernity refers to self-assertion and creativity. On the other, modernity as a social project tends to destroy its own cultural foundations, as institutional structures become increasingly diffuse and fragmented. Against this backcloth, Delanty examines the writings of a number of key contemporary thinkers, including Habermas, Foucault, Bauman, Touraine, Giddens and Beck, and provides a clear account of the strengths and limitations of their work |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Social sciences -- Philosophy.
|
|
Sociology -- Philosophy.
|
| LC no. |
99011068 |
| ISBN |
0745619177 (h/b) |
|
0745619185 (p/b) |
|
