Calhoun or Callinicos

[Dondonner]

Which textbook for sociological theory should you suggest?

I already have Wallace & Wolf and Classical sociological theory of Calhoun and I am thinking of another textbook but should I choose contemporary sociological theory of Calhoun or the sociological theory textbook of Callinicos?

[ohgoodness]

I had the Calhoun for my modern sociological theory course (Parsons and onwards) and never read it. Mostly used it for referencing and to look up the names to read, google the key texts and read them. Think I read 500 pages worth of articles and 500 pages free reading for a 5-week course and I feel sufficiently prepared in contemp theory.

The inequality reader is good if you want social stratification

Edited November 25, 2012 by cherub

[jacib]

I'm not a big general theory person, but Giddens's work on the classics (especially Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, which I just realized was written 40 years ago, so "modern" means "classical", weird) is definitely a very common reading of Marx-Weber-Durkheim. I don't know if it's the reading of the "Big Three"*, but it's definitely the supplement people look to at my graduate program for help understanding those guys. (I have a feeling Calhoun will have a lot of Giddens's reading, but I don't know that for a fact).

For contemporary theory, I have no idea.

*Fun, off-topic note: I once saw Eviatar Zerubavel speak and for some reason teaching theory to graduate students came up, and he said something like, "People always tell me that classical theory should be about the Big Three, and I say, 'I totally agree we should teach them Simmel...but who are the other two?'"