Welcome to Social Theory is exactly what students want: a lucid and engaging introduction to social theory that carefully uses images, examples and quotations to illustrate new ways of examining contemporary social life. Tom Brock's comprehensive and accessible style produces an indispensable guide to social theory that examine the major theoretical traditions from Marxism through to poststructuralism, and from feminism through to postcolonial theory, new materialism and posthumanism. Welcome to Social Theory gives careful appraisal of classical ideas and debates in social theory and traces their impact on major contemporary theorists - including Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens, Margaret Archer, Judith Butler, bell hooks, Kimberle Crenshaw, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Bruno Latour, Gilles Deleuze and Rosi Braidotti. Social theory matters and this book shows why through relevant and compelling examples, including the gig economy, everyday sexism, digital black feminism, animal and environmental activism, stigma and discrimination against migrants, the need to decolonise the sociology curriculum and many more. Chapters include boxed case studies, summaries, review questions, further reading and a glossary to help embed learning. Welcome to Social theory is an indispensable text for undergraduate students who are new to social theory. Dr. Tom Brock is a Senior Lecturer of Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Tom Brock is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He received his PhD and MA from the University of Durham. Tom teaches on a range of social theory and digital sociology courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His research interests include games, play, digital consumption and social theory. Tom has published articles relevant in game studies and the sociology of consumption, such as 'Is Computer Gaming a Craft? Prehension, Practice and Puzzle-Solving in Gaming Labour', 'Video gaming as Craft Consumption', and 'Videogame Consumption: The Apophatic Dimension'.
Introduction Marx and Marxism Nietzsche, Freud And Weber Durkheim And Functionalism Phenomenology And Symbolic Interactions Language, Discourse And Postmodernity Structure, Agency And Reflexivity Feminism And Intersectionality Postcolonial Theory New Materialism And Posthumanism
Elegantly written, ambitious in scope and meticulously clear in its exposition, Brock's Welcome to Social Theory provides an engaging introduction to key currents in social thought that will prove indispensable to both newcomers and more established readers in this field. -- Jason Hughes The author has extensive experience teaching sociological theory to students new to the field. -- Matthew David * Editorial * This book does what more social theory books should do: it combines a clear and unfussy prose style with carefully selected graphic representations and images of key concepts and ideas. As such, it enables complex ideas to be made clear in ways that words alone often fail to do. I enjoyed very much reading about and 'looking' at the conceptual ideas this book sets forth' -- Christopher Thorpe * Editorial *
