3 Review(s)

Contemporary Sociological Theories builds upon the foundations laid byclassical social theory and maps out the field of contemporary socialtheory. Beyond surveying the ideas and perspectives that major socialtheorists have developed in response to the transformation ofcontemporary society, the course focuses on key contribution that haveinfluenced the development of sociology in recent decades. Theapproaches to be examined include structural-functionalism, interpretivesociology, critical theory, contemporary feminist theory,poststructuralism, postmodernism, globalization theories andcontemporary theoretical syntheses of structural and interpretiveapproaches. In exploring the nature and status of these theories, theepistemological legacies of positivism, interpretivism and discourse arecritically reviewed in the light of the advent of postindustrial, postmodernand post-Cold War era in the late twentieth century and the early twentyfirstcentury.