ABSTRACT

The triangular relationship between the social, the political and the cultural has opened up social and political theory to new challenges. The social can no longer be reduced to the category of society, and the political extends beyond the traditional concerns of the nature of the state and political authority.

This Handbook will address a range of issues that have recently emerged from the disciplines of social and political theory, focusing on key themes as opposed to schools of thought or major theorists. It is divided into three sections which address:

  • the most influential theoretical traditions that have emerged from the legacy of the twentieth century
  • the most important new and emerging frameworks of analysis today
  • the major theoretical problems in recent social and political theory.

The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory encompasses the most up-to-date developments in contemporary social and political theory, and as such is an essential research tool for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers, working in the fields of political theory, social and political philosophy, contemporary social theory, and cultural theory.

chapter |30 pages

Introduction: Social, Political, and Cultural Theory since the Sixties

The Demise of Classical Marxism and Liberalism, the New Reality of the Welfare State, and the Loss of Epistemic Innocence

part 1|182 pages

Living Traditions

chapter |10 pages

Accidental Conditions

The Social Consequences of Poststructuralist Philosophy

chapter |11 pages

Lacanian Theory

Ideology, Enjoyment, and the Spirits of Capitalism

chapter |12 pages

Rediscovering Political Sovereignty

The Rebirth of French Political Philosophy

chapter |11 pages

Continuity through Rupture with the Frankfurt School

Axel Honneth's Theory of Recognition*

chapter |9 pages

Republicanism

Non-domination and the Free State

chapter |11 pages

Methodological and Political Pluralism

Democracy, Pragmatism, and Critical Theory

chapter |11 pages

Latin American Social and Political Thought

A Historical and Analytical Perspective

chapter |13 pages

Intellectuals and Society

Sociological and Historical Perspectives

part 2|162 pages

New and emerging frameworks

chapter |10 pages

Modernity

From Convergence and Stability to Plurality and Transformation

chapter |11 pages

Networks

The Technological and the Social

chapter |10 pages

From Linguistic Performativity to Social Performance

The Development of a Concept

chapter |9 pages

Nationalism and Social Theory

The Distinction between Community and Society

chapter |16 pages

Nature and Society

part 3|128 pages

Emerging Problems

chapter |8 pages

Sovereignty, Security, and the Exception

Towards Situating Postcolonial homo sacer

chapter |11 pages

Reflexive Integration

A Perspective on the Transformation of Europe