Book description
This second edition of
Cultural Theory
provides a concise introduction to cultural theory, placing major
figures, traditional concepts, and contemporary themes within a sharp
conceptual framework.
- Provides a student-friendly introduction to what can often be a
complex field of study
- Updates the first edition in response to reader feedback and to
the changing nature of the field
- Includes additional coverage of theorists from the classical
period to include Nietzsche and DuBois
- Introduces entirely new chapters on race and gender theory, and
the body
- Considers themes that have become more important in theoretical
activity in recent years such as computers and virtual reality,
cosmopolitanism, and performance theory
- Draws on theories and theorists from continental Europe as well as
the English-speaking world
Philip Smith
is Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University and Deputy
Director of the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology. His books include
Cultural Theory: An Introduction
(Blackwell, 2001),
Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War
and Suez
(2005),
The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim
(with Jeffrey C. Alexander) (2005), and
Punishment and Culture
(2008).
Alexander Riley is Associate Professor of Sociology at Bucknell
University. He is the author of Godless Intellectuals?: How
Durkheimian Sociology and Poststructuralism Reinvented the
Intellectual Pursuit of the Sacred (2008).
