Table Of ContentSociology
A brief but critical introduction
Sociology
A brief but critical introduction
SECOND EDITION
Anthony Giddens
M
MACMILLAN
EDUCATION
©AnthonyGiddens 1982, 1986
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civil claims for damages.
First edition 1982
Second edition 1986
Published by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG212XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by Wessex Typesetters
(Division of The Eastern Press Ltd)
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ISBN 978-0-333-42739-2 ISBN 978-1-349-18521-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18521-4
Contents
Preface vii
1 Sociology: Issues and Problems 1
The Context of Sociology 3
Sociology: A Definition and Some Preliminary
Considerations 7
The Sociological Imagination: Sociology as Critique 13
2 Competing Interpretations: Industrial Society or
Capitalism? 23
The Theory of Industrial Society 25
Marx: Capitalism and Socialism 33
3 Class Division and Social Transformation 43
Changes Since the Nineteenth Century: Corporate
Power 44
The 'Institutionalisation of Class Conflict' 50
New Classes, New Technologies 56
The End of the Working Class? 62
4 The Modern State 71
The State and Classes: Recent Views 73
The State and Bureaucracy 79
Critical Comments 84
States, Social Movements, Revolutions 87
Vl Contents
5 The City: Urbanism and Everyday Life 92
Pre-Capitalist and Modern Cities 92
The Views of the 'Chicago School' 95
Urbanism and Capitalism JOO
Urbanism and Everyday Life 112
6 The Family and Gender 115
Changes in Family Structure 116
Gender, Patriarchy, and Capitalist Development 121
The Family, Marriage, Sexuality 125
Family Life and New Social Patterns 131
7 Capitalism and the World System 135
Modernisation Theory and its Critique 136
Contemporary World Inequalities 146
The Nation-State, Nationalism, Military Power 152
Conclusion: Sociology as Critical Theory 156
Index 167
Preface
Over the past decade or so, major changes have taken
place within sociology, and in the social sciences more
generally. These developments, however, have for the
most part been discussed only in literature of considerable
complexity; they are not readily accessible to people
lacking an acquaintance with the subject. I was prompted
to write this book, therefore, in order to provide an
introduction to sociology which reflects current develop
ments, making them available to the beginning reader. I
call the book a 'critical introduction' for two reasons. It
is critical of a range of ideas that for a long period were
the conventional wisdom of sociology. But I also claim
that sociology, understood in the manner presented here,
is necessarily directly linked to social criticism. Sociology
cannot be a neutral intellectual endeavour, indifferent to
the practical consequences of its analyses for those whose
conduct forms its object of study.
This book differs from most other introductory texts in
sociology in several ways. It incorporates a discussion of
basic problems of social theory - the core of theoretical
concerns which sociology shares with all the social
sciences. I do not adopt the usual view that these issues
are unimportant to those seeking to achieve an initial
acquaintance with sociology. Neither do I accept the
viii Preface
equally common idea that such matters are too complex
to be grasped before the reader has a mastery of the
more empirical content of the subject. In analysing this
empirical content, I make certain emphases which diverge
from those usually found in introductory works. Many
accounts of sociology are written primarily with regard to
one particular society - that in which the author, or the
audience to which the book is directed, live. I try to avoid
this type of parochialism, in the belief that one of the
main tasks of sociological thought is to break free from
the confines of the familiar. But perhaps the chief
distinguishing feature of the book is its strongly historical
stress. 'Sociology' and 'history' may be ordinarily taught
as though they were distinct fields of study, but I think
such a view to be mistaken.
I have tried to be concise, and this means some sacrifice
in respect of comprehensiveness. I make no attempt to
offer an encyclopaedic coverage of the whole range of
topics that are legitimate areas of sociological interest.
The reader wanting such a coverage must look elsewhere.
Anthony Giddens
Acknowledgements
The author and publishers wish to thank the following who
have kindly given permission for the use of copyright
material: The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office for figure from Social Trends; United Nations for
table from United Nations Statistical Yearbook (1981) ©
1983. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright
holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the
publishers will be pleased to make the necessary
arrangement at the first opportunity.
1
Sociology: Issues and
Problems
Sociology is a subject with a curiously mixed reputation.
On the one hand, it is associated by many people with
the fomenting of rebellion, a stimulus to revolt. Even
though they may have only a vague notion of what topics
are studied in sociology, they somehow associate sociology
with subversion, with the shrill demands of unkempt
student militants. On the other hand, quite a different
view of the subject is often entertained - perhaps more
commonly than the first - by individuals who have
had some direct acquaintance with it in schools and
universities. This is that in fact it is rather a dull and
uninstructive enterprise, which far from propelling its
students towards the barricades is more likely to bore
them to death with platitudes. Sociology, in this guise,
assumes the dry mantle of a science, but not one that
proves as enlightening as the natural sciences upon which
its practitioners wish to model it.
I think that those who have taken the second reaction
to sociology have a good deal of right on their side.
Sociology has been conceived of by many of its
proponents - even the bulk of them - in such a way that
commonplace assertions are disguised in a pseudo
scientific language. The conception that sociology belongs
to the natural sciences, and hence should slavishly try to
2 Sociology: Issues and Problems
copy their procedures and objectives, is a mistaken one.
Its lay critics, in some considerable degree at least, are
quite correct to be sceptical of the attainments of sociology
thus presented.
My intention in this book will be to associate sociology
with the first type of view rather than the second. By this
I do not mean to connect sociology with a sort of irrational
lashing-out at all that most of the population hold to be
good and proper ways of behaviour. But I do want to
defend the view that sociology, understood in the manner
in which I shall describe it, necessarily has a subversive
quality. Its subversive or critical character, however, I
shall argue, does not carry with it (or should not do so)
the implication that it is an intellectually disreputable
enterprise. On the contrary, it is exactly because sociology
deals with problems of such pressing interest to us all (or
should do so), problems which are the objects of major
controversies and conflicts in society itself, that it has this
character. However kempt or otherwise student radicals,
or any other radicals, may be, there do exist broad
connections between the impulses that stir them to action
and a sociological awareness. This is not, or I imagine
only very rarely, because sociologists directly preach
revolt; it is because the study of sociology, appropriately
understood, unavoidably demonstrates how fundamental
are the social questions that have to be faced in today's
world. Everyone is to some extent aware of these
questions, but the study of sociology helps bring them
into much sharper focus. Sociology cannot remain a purely
academic subject, if 'academic' means a distinterested and
remote scholarly pursuit, followed solely within the
enclosed walls of the university.
Sociology is not a subject that comes neatly gift
wrapped, making no demands except that its contents be
unpacked. Like all the social sciences - under which
