This book is built upon a series of critical encounteres with major
figures in classical and present-day social and political thought. The
volume offers not only a challenging critique of major traditions of
social and political analysis, but unique insights into the ideas which
Anthony Giddens has developed over the past two decades.
The volume includes discussions of politics and sociology in the thought
of Max Weber, together with analyses of Durkheim's politlcal sociology
and his interpretation of individualism and solidarity in modern
societies. Various more contemporary figures are also subjected to
critical dissection and appraisal, most notably Habermas, Foucault,
Marcuse, Garinkel and Popper.
The work therefore serves as a comprehensive introduction to some of the
main debates preoccupying the social sciences and politics. A number of
unifying themes associated with Giddens's standpoint run through each of
the chapters: the methodological reconstruction of social investigation,
the reinterpretation of modernity and the reformulation of a critical
theory of politics.
This book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the major
dilemmas faced by social and political theory today, as well as those
seeking to follow the overall trajectory of Giddens's thinking.