Exploring Sociological Theory

(Fromm) The Illusion of Individuality

The last chapter of Fromm's analysis of individuality of modern man. Fromm addresses the repressive nature of modern culture and socialization, pointing to helplessless,

(Tarde) Laws of Sociology

This is epic. Love his trichotomy, and the discussion he concludes with. I.e. the emergence of the seemingly infinite from the infinitesimal, across all the natural and s

(Simmel) Fashion

at times thought-provoking, contradictory, and offensive wish I could've read the rest of the article, but was getting tired of it o.o 

(Bhaskar) Emergent Properties of Social Systems

His sentences are long, his words true. Seems I need to read more Roy Bhaskar.

(Comte) The three stages of knowing

Printed in 1842, Comte's universal law of mental development, and why it provides such a strong impetus for his new idea, "sociology" (translated as social physics in thi

(Giddens) The Adequacy of Explanatory Accounts

From New Rules of Sociological Method, this section addresses the connection between art and the social sciences, in that they both attempt cross-cultural communication f

(Luhmann) Implications of Systems Theory for Epistemology

Can you predict this will lead to sociology in particular? I didn't... Super dense, packed with insight, and justifies sociology of sociology (my focus).

(Douglas) Institutions Remember and Forget

Great analysis, moving from the mnemonic structures which keep ancestry in the Nuer and the dynamics of remembering and forgetting in scientific discovery.

(Simmel) The Negative Character of Collective Behavior

An interesting little essay, directly adjacent in The Sociology of Georg Simmel to his famous essay The Stranger.

(Garfinkel) What is ethnomethodology?

Garfinkel has a wordy, rather technical-sounding description of the study of the taken-for-granted, the made-practical, the reasonable, etc. It's those unseen practices f

(Knorr Cetina) Epistemic Cultures

The introductory chapter to the book, published in 1999. It's great, a reassuring & pleasant vision for science studies! The cases sound interesting as well.

(Friedrichs) The Calling of Sociology

The last chapter of an epic & forgotten book in sociology. It's a bit wordy, but also a bit epic & deep. Curious if anyone (including me) will ever make it to the end.

(Simmel) Sociability

Sociability refers to  different forms of social interaction and human association. The  concept, in both descriptive and normative senses, can be found in many  branches

(Bernal) The Social Function of Science

Published in 1939, when this guy was just 38 years old, the book as a whole gives a sweeping defense of science in light of popular critiques at the time. But the last ch

(Goffman) The Interaction Order

Erving Goffman’s posthumously published essay, ‘The interaction order’,  which was to have been presented as a presidential address at an annual  meeting of the American

(Mills) The Sociological Imagination

One publisher's description The excerpt that follows is from Mills' acclaimed book, The Sociological Imagination. Since its original publication in 1959, this text has b

(Sacks) Rules of conversational exchange

The first of his famous lectures

(Goffman) Primary Frameworks

from Frame Analysis

(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis

(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis -- Chapter 1.

(Tumin) Critique of Davis & Moore

Tumin challenged the Davis–Moore hypothesis of social stratification  with his paper "Some principles of stratification: a critical  analysis".[5][6] Tumin took Davis–Moo