Contested Knowledge: Social Theory Today

In the new 6th Edition of Contested Knowledge, renowned social theorist Steven Seidman addresses the current shift of the great universalist theorists represented by Habermas, Foucault, Baudrillard, and Bourdieu, to networks of clustered debates responding to issues such as citizenship, performativity, nationalism, globalization, cosmopolitanism, and queer life.  Seidman focuses on discussions of three distinct clustered debates in social theory intimacy, postcolonial nationalism, and the concept of the other and offers insights into new frontiers precipitated by the emergence of a globalized world. Amongst further revisions, this edition provides an updated case study on the rise of Postdisciplinary theory by examining the theories of Jeffrey Alexander and Nancy Fraser.

Praise for previous edition:

In this tour de force, Steven Seidman surveys social theory from Auguste Comte to Zygmunt Bauman via feminism, world systems theory, queer theory, post–colonialism and much more. It is not just a survey, but rather a plea for a public sociology that is relevant, committed and morally challenging. In a style of writing that is at once direct, personal and engaging, Seidman provides a penetrating overview of the state of sociology that is critical but optimistic. Contested Knowledge now in its fifth edition gets better with age.

Bryan S. Turner, The City University of New York 

In his spirited defense of theory as a moral enterprise, Steven Seidman offers insightful, penetrating, critical, but always fair assessments of the theoretical contributions of a wide range of theorists past and present.... Written with an enviable clarity, in a style that is at once lucid and engaging."

Peter Kivisto, Augustana College and University of Turku

Steven Seidman is Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the author and editor of a number of books including Liberalism and the Origins of European Social Theory, The Postmodern Turn, Queer Theory/Sociology, The New Social Theory Reader (with Jeffrey Alexander), and Intimacies.