Explorations in Classical Sociological Theory

Kenneth Allan received his PhD in sociology from the University of California, Riverside (1995), and is currently professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Before moving to UNCG, he directed the Teaching Assistant Development Program at the University of California, Riverside, and coedited Training Teaching Assistants, 2nd Edition (1997), published by the American Sociological Association. In addition to teaching classical and contemporary theory at UNCG, Allan also supervised UNCG’s sociology iSchool program, which offered online introduction to sociology classes to high school students across North Carolina, has designed several online courses for both the college and department, and has regularly taught graduate pedagogy courses. Allan’s research areas include theory, culture, and the self. He has authored several works in the area of theory, including multiple textbooks covering classical and contemporary theory, as well as The Meaning of Culture: Moving the Postmodern Critique Forward, and A Primer in Social and Sociological Theory: Toward a Sociology of Citizenship. His current projects include a social history of American individualism, a sociological analysis of consciousness and self, as well as a novel based in early 20th century American life.

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Beginning to See: A Sociological Core
The Making of Modernity and the Modern Way of Knowing
Institutions of Modernity
The Birth of Sociology: August Comte
Comte’s Positivism
The Evolution of Knowledge
Theory
Advantages and Goals of Positivism
Seeing Society
Sociological Methods
Practicing Theory—A Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox
2. Seeing Society for the First Time: Herbert Spencer
Theorist’s Digest
The Sociological Imagination of Herbert Spencer
Spencer’s Life
Spencer’s Social World
Spencer’s Sociological Imagination: Functionalism
Concepts and Theory: Social Evolution
The Social System
System Needs
Differentiation and Specialization
Types of Society
Regulatory Complexity
Industrial and Militaristic
Concepts and Theory: Social Institutions
Domestic Institutions
Ceremonial Institutions
Ecclesiastical Institutions
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Defining Postmodernity
Religion: A Postmodern Case in Point
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox
3. Class Inequality: Karl Marx
Theorist’s Digest
The Sociological Imagination of Karl Marx
Marx’s Life
Marx’s Social World
Marx’s Intellectual World
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach
Adam Smith
Marx’s Sociological Imagination: Critical Conflict Theory
Human Nature
History—The Material Dialectic
Concepts and Theory: The Contradictions of Capitalism
Value and Exploitation
Industrialization, Markets, and Commodification
Concepts and Theory: Class Revolution
Class and Class Structure
Overproduction
Concepts and Theory: The Problem of Ideology and Consciousness
Alienation, Private Property, and Commodity Fetish
False Consciousness and Religion
Class Consciousness
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Machines of Production and Consciousness
Machines of Reproduction and Schizophrenic Culture
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox
4. Diversity and Social Solidarity: Émile Durkheim
Theorist’s Digest
The Sociological Imagination of Émile Durkheim
Durkheim’s Life
Durkheim’s Social World
Durkheim’s Intellectual World
Montesquieu
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Durkheim’s Contribution to Functionalism
Durkheim’s Sociological Imagination: Cultural Sociology
Concepts and Theory: Primal Society
Defining Religion
Creating a Sacred World
Concepts and Theory: Social Diversity and Moral Consensus
Mechanical and Organic Solidarity
The Division of Labor
The Problem With Modern Society
Organic Solidarity and Social Pathology
Concepts and Theory: Individualism
Suicide
The Cult of the Individual
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Grand Narratives, Doubt, and Civil Religion
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox
5. Rationality and Organization: Max Weber
Theorist’s Digest
The Sociological Imagination of Max Weber
Weber’s Life
Weber’s Social World
Weber’s Intellectual World
The Problems of Values and Meaning
Specific Methods: Ideal Types
Specific Methods: Verstehen
Weber’s Sociological Imagination
Concepts and Theory: The Process of Rationalization
Types of Social Action
Concepts and Theory: The Evolution of Religion
From Magic to Religion
From Polytheism to Ethical Monotheism
Concepts and Theory: The Rise of Capitalism
The Religious Culture of Capitalism
Structural Influences on Capitalism
Concepts and Theory: Class, Authority, and Social Change
Class
Status and Party
Crosscutting Stratification
Authority and Social Change
Concepts and Theory: Rational-Legal Organization
Ideal-Type Bureaucracies
Effects of Bureaucratic Organization
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox
INTRODUCTION: ANOTHER SOCIOLOGICAL CORE
6. The Modern Person: George Herbert Mead and Georg Simmel
George Herbert Mead—Symbolic Interaction
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: Truth, Meaning, and Action
Pragmatic Truth
Human Action
Concepts and Theory: Meaning and Interaction
Symbolic Interaction
Concepts and Theory: Making Yourself
The Mind
Stages of Role Taking
Self and Society
The I and the Me
Summary
Georg Simmel—Formal Sociology
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: The Individual in Society
Subjective and Objective Cultures
Concepts and Theory: The Self in the City
The Division of Labor
Money and Markets
Social Networks: Rational Versus Organic Group Membership
Summary
Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Simulacrum and Hyperreality
Reflexivity and the Fragmenting of the Self
Fusing the I and the Me
Building Your Theory Toolbox
7. Seeing Gender: Harriett Martineau and Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Waves of Feminism
Harriet Martineau—Gender and Democracy
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: Observing Society
Morals and Manners
Preparing the Observer
Safeguarding Observations
Concepts and Theory: Gender and Democracy
Gender and Family
The Cultural Logic of Gender
Workforce Participation
Concepts and Theory: Religion, Education, and Democracy
Religious Forms
Religious Forms and Democracy
Conditions of Religion
Education and Freedom
Summary
Charlotte Perkins Gilman—The Evolution of Gender
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: Critical Evolution Theory
Functional Evolution
Adding Marx
Gynaecocentric Theory
Concepts and Theory: Dynamics of Social Evolution
Morbid Excess in Sex Distinction
Sexuo-Economic Effects
Summary
Building Your Theory Toolbox
8. Seeing Race: Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois
Race Literature
Frederick Douglass—The American Discourse of Race
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: The Discourse of Slavery
Race as Other
Democracy and Universalism
Summary
W. E. B. Du Bois—The Culture of Race
Theorist’s Digest
Concepts and Theory: The Experience of Oppression and Critical Knowledge
Standpoint of the Oppressed
Concepts and Theory: Cultural Oppression
Exclusion From History
Representation
Stereotypes and Slippery Slopes
Double Consciousness
Concepts and Theory: The Dark Nations and World Capitalism
The Need for Color
Summary
Gender and Race: Thinking About Modernity and Postmodernity
Modernity and Identity
The Postmodern Twist
Building Your Theory Toolbox
9. Seeing Ahead: Defining Moments in Twentieth Century Theory: Talcott Parsons and the Frankfurt School
Talcott Parsons: Defining Sociology
Parsons’s Vision for the Social Sciences
Parsons’s Theoretical Project
Parsons and the Problem of Social Order
Voluntaristic Action
Patterning Voluntaristic Action
The Frankfurt School: Critiquing Modernity
Historical Roots
The Problem with Positivism: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno
An Analysis of Art and Culture
Building Your Theory Toolbox
References
Index
About the Authors