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Understanding and explaining the causes and consequences of social change has been an important concern of social theorists throughout the history of sociology. This wide-ranging book focuses on a rich and diverse body of theoretical work, from Adam Smith and Comte to Lyotard and Baudrillard, in order to demonstrate the relevance of both classical and contemporary social theory to the wider social world and to show that, while social theory may not deliver all the answers we might like, it does improve the quality of the questions we can ask about how social change comes about, what its effects are, and where it is leading us.

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CONTENTS
Preface = ⅷ
1 Introduction : Dimensions of the Debate = 1
  Social change and social theory = 2
  Key issues for theory = 4
2 Structural Effects : Adam Smith and the Unintended Consequences of Human Action = 17
  Adam Smith's influence = 17
  Structural individualism = 20
  The division of labour and the market = 24
  Conflict and classes = 30
  The invisible hand and the evolution of commercial society = 36
3 Evolutionary and Neo-Evolutionary Theories : Necessity and Possibility = 40
  Evolution and progress = 40
  August Comte : the law of progress = 42
  Herbert Spencer : survival of the fittest = 48
  Some neo-evolutionists = 57
    Sahlins and Service : general adaptive capacity = 58
    Smelser : uneven structural change = 59
    Parsons : structural differentiation = 60
    Rostow : the stages of economic growth = 65
4 Theories of Revolutionary Change : Marx and Contradiction = 71
  Marx's legacy = 71
  The intellectual background = 72
  The materialist conception of history = 77
  Base and superstructure = 83
  Contradictions of the capitalist mode of production = 87
  Contradictions of Marxist theory = 91
    Unfulfilled prophecies = 91
    Problems with the past = 94
    System inconsistencies = 96
    Marxist ideology = 99
5 Reactionary Theories : The Loss of Community : The Persistence of Elites = 101
  T o ·· nnies : gemeinschaft and gesellschaft = 102
    Conservative romanticism = 106
  Pareto : rational and non-rational action = 108
    The circulation of elites = 111
    Conservative cynicism = 115
6 Social Action Theory : Weber = 118
  Weber's methodological individualism = 118
  Ideas and social change = 122
  Power and authority = 130
  Rationalization and the modern world = 138
7 Sociological Realism : Durkheim = 145
  Social change and the emergence of individualism = 145
  Pathological forms of the division of labour = 151
  Social facts as things = 157
  Religion and the categories of thought = 161
8 Systems Theories : Functional Integration and Global Convergence = 172
  The functional analogy and the interconnectedness of change = 172
  Parsons and the social system = 176
  Dependency theory : Frank and Wallerstein = 187
  Convergence theory : Kerr and Galbraith = 194
  How much more than the sum of its parts? = 198
9 Modernity, Postmodernity and Postmodernism = 202
  Modernity, crisis and change = 202
    J u ·· rgen Habermas : the legitimation of capitalism = 203
    Daniel Bell : cultural contradictions = 207
    Anthony Giddens : consequences of modernity = 213
  Postmodernity, postmodernism and after = 221
    Jean-Francois Lyotard : language and paralogy = 226
    Jean Baudrillard : postconsumerism and hyperreality = 231
  Postmodernist theory and continuing change = 235
10 Continuing Change and Continuing Theory = 238
Bibliography = 245
Index = 255