Contemporary Social Theory

Further questions
1
What do you think your own life reflects about our fast-changing
world?
2
What do you understand by the notion of society?
3
If you think of key social institutions – for example, schools, hos-
pitals, prisons and government – what role do they play in society?
4
To what extent is participation in various social institutions con-
sensual or coercive?
5
We live in a world of radical change: do you agree?

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Further reading
This chapter covers a broad sweep of introductory concerns in social theory,
but the following books should provide useful discussions for further con-
sideration.
Classical social theory is not treated in any detail here, as my core focus
is contemporary social theory. For a guide to the main theories and issues
in classical social theory, I refer the beginning reader to two of the world’s
foremost social theorists: Anthony Giddens, 
Capitalism and Modern 
Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Weber and Durkheim
,
Cambridge University Press, 1971; and Charles Lemert, 
Thinking The
Unthinkable: The Riddles of Classical Social Theories
, Paradigm Publishers,
2007, and 
Social Things: An Introduction to the Sociological Life
, Rowman
& Littlefield, 2005. 
Some of the main arguments and issues in relation to how the self
navigates the social world may be found in Anthony Elliott, 
Concepts of the
Self
, Polity Press, 2007. The more adventurous reader should try Erving
Goffman’s sociology of everyday life. The best overview of Goffman is Ann
Branaman and Charles Lemert (eds), 
The Goffman Reader
, Blackwell, 1997.
See also Ann Branaman, 
Self and Society
, Blackwell, 2000, and Anthony
Elliott, 
Subject To Ourselves
, Paradigm Publishers, 2004.
Finally, in discussing Natalie’s life and experience of the world I have
drawn from various works of social theory – either explicitly or implicitly – 
on current social trends as well as the likely future texture of society. For
social theories of current social trends in these early years of the twenty-
first century see, among others, Anthony Giddens, 
Runaway World
, Profile
Books, 1999; Terry Eagleton, 
After Theory
, Allen Lane, 2003; and John Urry,
Mobilities
, Polity Press, 2007. For a disturbing portrait of the more tragic
textures of the contemporary era see Giorgio Agamben, 
Homo Sacer:
Sovereign Power and Bare Life
, Stanford University Press, 1998.