Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory

Bryan S. Turner is Professor of Sociology in the Asian Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. Previously he was Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1998-2005. His research interests include globalization and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious, consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies. He is Joint Chief Editor of the journal Citizenship Studies and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals.

Editors' Introduction - Anthony Elliott and Bryan S Turner Martin Heidegger - Richard Polt Georges Bataille - Michael Richardson Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Nick Crossley Herbert Marcuse - Douglas Kellner Theodor Adorno - Andrew Bowie Walter Benjamin - Graeme Gilloch J[um]urgen Habermas - Patrick Baert Erving Goffman - Ann Branaman Peter Berger - Bryan S Turner Michel Foucault - Stephen Katz Jean-Fran[ce]cois Lyotard - Victor J Seidler Jacques Lacan - Anthony Elliott Jacques Derrida - Christina Howells Roland Barthes - Chris Rojek Julia Kristeva - Kelly Oliver Luce Irigaray - Caroline Bainbridge Jean Baudrillard - Mike Gane Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri - Paul Patton Paul Virilio - John Armitage Henri Lefebvre - Rob Shields Paul Ricoeur - Kathleen Blamey Niklas Luhmann - Jakob Arnoldi Charles Taylor - Marcos Ancelovici and Francis Dupuis-Deri Richard Rorty - Bryan S Turner Nancy Chodorow - Geoffrey Gershenson and Michelle Williams Anthony Giddens - Anthony Elliott Ulrich Beck - Nick Stevenson Pierre Bourdieu - Bridget Fowler Zygmunt Bauman - Barry Smart Donna J Haraway - Patricia Ticineto Clough and Joseph Schneider Fredric Jameson - Sean Homer Stuart Hall - Chris Rojek Juliet Mitchell - Sarah Wright Edward Said - Bryan S Turner

`The publication of this volume will make a dramatic impact, for it shifts the boundaries of current understandings of the field of social theory. It presents a set of cogent, well- informed, well-organized discussions of many authors who are not conventionally seen as relevant to that field. On the other hand, it also reconsiders a number of the field's established figures and focuses on their contribution to a few thematic concerns, which the editors formulate compellingly in their introduction' - Gianfranco Poggi, European University Institute `A most innovative and creative collection of essays on contemporary social theory. What stands out about this book is the editors' choice of thinkers.... Included here are essays not only on many of the most important contemporary social theorists (including some interesting, even surprising, choices), but also on many of the thinkers of the recent past who are having a powerful impact on contemporary social thought. A welcome addition to the personal libraries of not only social theorists, but those in a wide range of specialities in the social sciences' - George Ritzer, University of Maryland