About the Book
George Ritzer’s long-awaited text in Postmodern Social Theory is a readable and coherent introduction to the fundamental ideas and most important thinkers in postmodern social theory. Looking at this multidisciplinary field from a sociological perspective, Ritzer offers a modernist reading of the turbulent and often renegade world of postmodern thought, encouraging the reader to see how postmodernism offers a set of ideas that can invigorate and revitalize sociology and sociological theory.
Contents
1 Postmodern Social Theory, Sociology, and Sociological Theory
2 The Development of Postmodern Social Theory
3 Michel Foucault: Part 1: Archaeology of Knowledge; Genealogy of Power
4 Michel Foucault: Part 2: Sexuality, Power, and Self
5 Jean Baudrillard: Part 1: The Basic Theoretical Ideas
6 Jean Baudrillard: Part 2: Problems in the Contemporary World and the Possibility of Dealing with Them
7 Other French Postmodern Thinkers: Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard, Lacan, Virilio
8 Other European Perspectives: Giddens, Beck, Habermas, Bauman, and Harvey
9 American Interventions: Bell, Jameson, Feminists, and Multiculturalists
10 Postmodern Social Theory and Contemporary Sociological Theory
11 Postmodern Social Theory: An Application
12 Criticisms of, and the Move Beyond, Postmodernism
About the Author / Editor
George Ritzer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland. His major areas of interest are sociological theory and the sociology of work. He has served as Chair of the American Sociological Association’s Sections on Theoretical Sociology (1989–1990) and Organizations and Occupations (1980–1981). Professor Ritzer has been Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland and has been awarded a Teaching Excellence award. He has held the UNESCO Chair in Social Theory at the Russian Academy of Sciences and a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. He has been Scholar-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences.
