Social Theory in a Changing World: Conceptions of Modernity (Blackwell Companions to Social Theory)

This book provides a critical assessment of contemporary social theory for students in the social sciences. Delanty examines the writings of a number of key contemporary thinkers, including Habermas, Foucault, Bauman, Touraine, Giddens and Beck, and provides a clear account of the strengths and limitations of their work. "Social Theory in a Changing World provides a critical assessment of contemporary social theory for students in the social sciences. The central theme of the book concerns the nature of modernity and the ways in which contemporary thinkers have understood it. Delanty argues that modernity involves a tension between autonomy and fragmentation. On the one hand, the cultural project of modernity refers to self-assertion and creativity. On the other, modernity as a social project tends to destroy its own cultural foundations, as institutional structures become increasingly diffuse and fragmented. Against this backcloth, Delanty examines the writings of a number of key contemporary thinkers, including Habermas, Foucault, Bauman, Touraine, Giddens and Beck, and provides a clear account of the strengths and limitations of their work." "This book will appeal to second- and third-year undergraduates, and graduates and academics in sociology and social theory, politics, cultural studies and other social sciences."--Jacket Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 10 1 Defining Modernity: The Quest for Autonomy 26 2 The Limits of Modernity: From Autonomy to Fragmentation 51 3 Discourse and Democracy: Habermas’s Theory of Modernity 82 4 Creativity and the Rise of Social Postmodernism: Foucault, Lyotard and Bauman 109 5 The Return of Agency: Touraine and Melucci 131 6 Reflexive Modernization: Beck and Giddens 157 Conclusion: Knowledge, Democracy and Discursive Institutionalization 188 Notes 197 Bibliography 203 Index 218 My way of defining the central thematic of modernity is to take the problem of autonomy as a starting point.