Social Theory and Postcommunism (eBook)

William Outhwaite is Professor of Sociology at the University of Sussex. His recent publications include The Sociology of Politics (co-edited with Luke Martell, 1998) and The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought (Blackwell 2002). He also acts as Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Theory. Larry Ray is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. He has recently published Theorizing Classical Sociology (1999) and Key Contemporary Social Theorists (co-edited with Anthony Elliott, Blackwell 2002). He has done extensive work and research on the crisis and transformation of postcommunist societies.

Preface.

Introduction: Being Taken By Surprise.

1 Theory After the Fall.

2 Class: Marx and Weber.

3 Society, Solidarity and Anomie: Durkheim.

4 Three Types of Convergence.

5 Socialism, modernity and beyond.

6 Globalization and Convergence.

7 Civil Society East and West.

8 Modernity, memory and postcommunism.

9 Concluding Themes.

Index

"[This] book is important. The theoretical challenges and chances
for reinvigoration that postcommunism represents have undoubtedly
been overlooked thus far. Outhwaite and Ray have provided a very
suggestive redress." Australian Journal of Political
Science



"This book offers an insightful and refreshingly jargon-free
examination of the major dilemmas faced by post-Communist polities
in their search for constructing democratic communities ...
Students of democracy, globalisation, civil society, nationalism
and political ideologies will find this book extremely useful."
Seer

"No doubt ... the book deserves the attention that it is likely
to attract." American Journal of Sociology

"This book offers an insightful and refreshingly jargon-free
examination of the major dilemmas faced by post-Communist polities
in their search for constructing democratic communities. Students
of democracy, globalization, civil society, nationalism and
political ideologies will find this book extremely useful."
Slavonic and East European Review

"[Each chapter] offers a survey of a significant body of
literature... In their literature surveys, Outhwaite and Ray
provide clear and engaging overviews. The chapters are written for
readers well versed in both classical and contemporary sociology.
Each is valuable on its own as an informed essay on a major theme
in social theory... There is much to appreciate in what
Outhwaite and Ray have to say in this book, including both their
respect for the stubbornness of reality in contradicting our ideas
and their moral concern for the economic and political injustice
that persists in the face of that reality." Philosophy of the
Social Sciences
"A significant event in social theory's ongoing return to earth after its prolonged fit of factless abstractionalism, made all the more valuable by the authors' knowledge of, and respect for, the world's particularity. A genuinely thoughtful and thought provoking book."Anthony Woodiwiss, City University