Talcott Parsons Reader
- Editore:
John Wiley & Sons
- Collana:
- Wiley Blackwell Readers
- EAN:
9781557865441
- ISBN:
1557865442
- Pagine:
- 372
- Formato:
- Paperback
- Lingua:
- Inglese
Descrizione Talcott Parsons Reader
Talcott Parsons has been one of the most influential American sociologists of the postwar period, but he has also been widely criticized for, among other things, the alleged conservatism of his structural functionalist theory. Bryan Turner's selections from Parsons' work provide a comprehensive overview of his principal contributions and are grouped under the following subdivisions: religion and modern society; life, sex, and death; sociological theory; and American society and the world order. Turner's introduction defends Parsons as a modernist and the selections reveal that Parsons' sociology was neither abstract nor conservative, but rather addressed a range of major issues in the sociology of modern society. This Reader places special emphasis on medical sociology, his contribution to the study of politics and international relations, his concern for the human condition, his focus on culture, and finally his defense of general theory. The collection is supplemented by a complete Parsons bibliography and a selected list of critical works on his sociology.
