1. Theoretical sociology today -- Violating the Law of Small Numbers -- Cab sociology be a science? -- Should sociology be critical, moral? -- What is the most important approach to sociological analysis? -- What level of analysis is most important? -- 2. Functional theorizing -- The beginnings of functionalism -- Advocacy / Auguste Comte -- Functionalism / Herbert Spencer -- Functional analysis / Emile Durkheim -- The basic elements of early functional theories -- The transition to modern functionalism -- Anthropological functionalism -- Contemporary-era functional theories -- "Action theory" / Talcott Parsons -- The downfall of functionalism -- 3. Conflict theorizing -- Early conflict theories in sociology -- Theory of conflict / Herbert Spencer -- Theory of conflict / Karl Marx -- Conflict theory / Max Weber -- Conflict theory / Georg Simmel -- Contemporary conflict theory -- Analytical conflict theories -- Historical-comparative conflict theories -- Conflict theorizing / Randall Collins -- Neo-Marxian theories of conflict -- 4. Ecological theorizing -- Early ecological thinking in sociology -- Contemporary ecological theorizing in sociology -- Urban ecological analysis -- Organizational ecological analysis -- Macro-level ecological theorizing in sociology -- 5. Exchange theorizing -- The reluctance to embrace utilitarianism and behaviorism -- Early distrust of utilitarian economics -- The rise and initial rejection of behaviorism -- Early exchange theories in classical sociology -- Contemporary exchange theories -- Basic exchange processes -- Exchange processes, social solidarity, and commitment behaviors -- 6. Symbolic interactionist theorizing -- Synthesis / George Herbert Mead -- Contemporary symbolic interactionism and the analysis of identities -- Multiple identities -- Hierarchies of salience and prominence -- Emotions, defensive strategies, and defense mechanism -- Psychoanalytic symbolic interactionist theories.

7. Dramaturgical theorizing -- The Durkheimian roots of dramaturical theory -- Dramaturgical theory of encounters / Erving Goffman -- The dramaturgical metaphor -- Encounters -- focused encounters -- Unfocused encounters -- Extensions of Goffmanian dramaturgy -- Arlie Hochschild on emotional labor -- Theory of dramaturgy / Candace Clark -- Randall Collins on interaction rituals -- 8. Structural theorizing -- Social structure -- "Structuration" theory / Anthony Giddens -- Giddens' Critique of science in sociology -- Structuration -- Agents, agency, and action -- Routinization and regionalization of interaction -- Network theorizing on structure -- The development of network analysis -- Basic theoretical concepts in network analysis -- Patterns and configurations of ties -- Can network analysis make conceptions of structure more precise? -- Toward a more simplified conception of social structure -- 9. Cultural theorizing -- Early sociological conceptions of culture -- The mid-century legacy of Claude Levi-Strauss -- Cultural analysis today -- Theory of cultural meanings / Robert Wuthnow -- Constructivist structuralism / Pierre Bourdieu -- Approach to cultural pragmatics / Jeffrey C. Alexander -- Theory of idioculture / Gary Alan Fine -- Explicitly "weak" cultural program / Jonathan Turner -- 10. Critical theorizing on modernity and postmodernity -- The delimma [sic] of early critical theory -- Marx's emancipatory optimism vs. Weber's pessimism -- The rise of the Frankfurt School -- The transformation of Marx's project -- Contemporary Frankfurt School -- Conception of "the public sphere" / Jurgen Habermas -- The critique of science -- Legitimation crisis in societies -- Early analysis of speech and interaction -- Habermas' reconceptualization of evolution -- The changing balance between system and lifeworld (cultural) processes -- The postmodern turn in critical theorizing -- Economic postmodernism -- Cultural postmodernism -- 11. Stage-model evolutionary theorizing -- Early stage models of societal evolution -- Functional theories of evolution -- Early conflict theoretic explanations -- The end of the classical era -- Modern stage models of societal evolution -- Theorizing on societal evolution / Gerhard Lenski -- Stage model of evolution / Talcott Parson -- 12. Biologically inspired evolutionary theorizing -- New ideas from biology -- The genetics of the individual -- The genetics of populations -- The codification of sociolobiology [sic] -- Fitness and evolution -- Group and individual selection -- Key behaviors driven by genes : inclusive fitness, kin selection, and reciprocal altruism -- Evolutionary psychology -- Cross-species comparisons -- Richard Machalek -- Alexandra Maryanski -- Making evolutionary theorizing more Darwinian, more biological.