Illuminating Social Life

CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY Introduction - Peter Kivisto Celebratory Capitalism and the Commodification of Information - Stephen Adair The Weberian Theory of Rationalization and the McDonaldization of Contemporary Society - George Ritzer Surfing the Net for Community: A Durkheimian Analysis of Electronic Gatherings - Anne M. Hornsby Alcohol-Related Windows on Simmel’s Social World - William J. Staudenmeier, Jr. CONTEMPORARY THEORIES AND THEIR CONNECTIONS TO THE CLASSICS Introduction - Peter Kivisto Cultural Sociology and the Meaning of Music - Scott Appelrouth Why Do African Americans Pay More for New Cars? A Structural Explanation - Christopher Prendergast Critical Theory, Legitimation Crisis, and the Deindustrialization of Flint, Michigan - Steven P. Dandaneau Race-Based Critical Theory and the “Happy Talk” of Diversity in America - Douglas Hartmann and Joyce M. Bell The Socially Constructed Body: Insights From Feminist Theory - Judith Lorber and Patricia Yancey Martin Organizing Door-to-Door Sales: A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis - David Schweingruber and Nancy Berns Goffman’s Dramaturgical Sociology: Personal Sales and Service in a Commodified World - Peter Kivisto and Dan Pittman Contrasts of Carnival: Mardi Gras Between the Modern and the Postmodern - Kevin Fox Gotham Negotiating the Social Landscape to Create Social Change - Anne F. Eisenberg Globalization Theory and Religious Fundamentalism - William H. Swatos, Jr.