| Ch. 1 | | The understanding of society | | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | | Functionalism | | 15 |
| Pt. 1 | | Talcott Parsons : grand theory | | 25 |
| Pt. 2 | | Robert K. Merton : middle-range theory | | 45 |
| Pt. 3 | | Neofunctionalism | | 57 |
| Ch. 3 | | Conflict theory | | 67 |
| Pt. 1 | | Conflict theory and the critique of society | | 78 |
| Pt. 2 | | Conflict theory and analytic sociology : the legacy of Max Weber | | 120 |
| Ch. 4 | | Evolution and modernity : macrosociological perspectives | | 158 |
| Pt. 1 | | Karl Marx and the classless society | | 162 |
| Pt. 2 | | Talcott Parsons evolutionary model | | 168 |
| Pt. 3 | | Jurgen Habermas : rationalization and communicative action | | 174 |
| Pt. 4 | | Anthony Giddens : structuration theory, high modernity, and globalization | | 186 |
| Ch. 5 | | Symbolic interactionism | | 197 |
| Pt. 1 | | George Herbert Mead : the self | | 204 |
| Pt. 2 | | Herbert Blumer : interpretation and methodology | | 213 |
| Pt. 3 | | Erving Goffman : dramaturgy and the interaction order | | 235 |
| Pt. 4 | | Arlie Russell Hochschild and Patricia Hill Collins : expanding the horizons of symbolic interactionism | | 247 |
| Ch. 6 | | Phenomenology | | 261 |
| Pt. 1 | | Harold Garfinkel : the founder of ethnomethodology | | 267 |
| Pt. 2 | | Peter Berger : the social construction of reality | | 285 |
| Pt. 3 | | Dorothy E. Smith : feminist standpoint theory | | 292 |
| Ch. 7 | | Theories of rational choice | | 302 |
| Pt. 1 | | Rational choice, social exchange, and individual behavior | | 313 |
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