Engendering the Social: Feminist Encounters with Sociological Theory

This edited volume focuses on the problematic engendering of classical and contemporary sociological theory, addressing questions such as:

• How were the foundations of sociological theory shaped by an implicit masculinity?
• Did classical sociology simply reflect or actively construct theories of sexual difference?
• How were alternative accounts of the social suppressed in sociology's founding moments?

Feminist interventions in sociology are still seen as marginal to sociological theorizing. This collection challenges this truncated vision of sociological theory. In part one, contributors interrogate the classical canon, exposing the masculinist assumptions that saturate the conceptual scaffolding of sociology. In part two, contributors consider the long-standing and problematic relationship between sociology and feminism, retrieving voices marginalized within or excluded from canonical constructions of sociological theory. In part three, contributors engage with key contemporary debates, explicitly engendering accounts of the social.

Engendering the Social is unique in that it not only critically interrogates sociological theory from a feminist perspective, but also embarks on a politics of reconstruction, working creatively at the interface of feminist and sociological theory to induce a more adequate conceptualisation of the social. This is a key text for undergraduate and postgraduate students in sociology, social theory and feminist theory.