Postmodernism and Social Theory: The Debate over General Theory.

Part 1 Toward postmodernism - reconfiguring theory and politics: general social theory, irony, postmodernism, Charles Lemert postmodern social theory as narrative with a moral intent, Steven Seidman on the postmodern barricades - feminism, politics and theory, Linda Nicholson the strange life and hard times of the concept of general theory in sociology - a short history of hope, Stephen Turner. Part 2 Critics of postmodernism - in defense of scientific theory: defending social science against the postmodern doubt, Robert D'Amico the promise of positivism, Jonathan Turner three modes of sociology - scientific, practical, and evaluative, Randall Collins daring modesty - on metatheory, observation and theory growth, David Wagner. Part 3 Between modernism and postmodernism - towards a contextualizing general theory: social science and society as discourse - toward a sociology for civic competence, Richard Brown culture, history, and the problem of spcificity in social theory, Craig Calhoun the tensions of critical theory - is negative dialectics all there is?, Stanley Aronowitz general theory in the postpositivist mode - the Epistemological Dilemma and the search for present reason, Jeffrey Alexander.