A Critical Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory

Reviews / Votes

In A Critical Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory, eminent scholar Piotr Sztompka takes us on an illuminating guided tour of key contemporary sociological theories. A compelling volume for established scholars and an ideal text for graduate instruction.

Viviana A. Zelizer, Lloyd Cotsen '50 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, and author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy

This is a majestic overview of sociological theorizing that covers its many threads as it weaves them into a coherent totality. Piotr Sztompka has an excellent grasp of these threads and is unique in being as able to explain the nuances of discipline oriented formal analytic theorizing (of Hedstrom) as the more loosely coherent social theorizing of critical theorists like Butler and Burawoy. This is an outstanding and very timely book with the promise of a long shelf-life.

Ron Eyerman, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, and author of Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African-American Identity

Piotr Sztompka's new book is a learned, thought provoking and critical review of contemporary sociology and its theories, with a focus on the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It is a deeply informative, highly readable and, occasionally, polemical book. No one interested in social science, social theory and in achieving an understanding of the contemporary world can afford not to engage with this volume. It will find a wide readership among senior scholars, university students and the interested public alike.

Bjoern Wittrock, Chair of Social Sciences and Vice-President ex officio of Academia Europaea.