Enriching the Sociological Imagination

Since the 1960s, radical sociology has had far more influence on mainstream sociology than many observers imagine. This book pairs seminal articles with new reflective essays written by the founders of progressive sociology, including Fred Block, Edna Bonacich, Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, Val Burris, G. William Domhoff, Richard Flacks, Harvey Molotch, Goran Therborn, and Erik Olin Wright. The book highlights the wider impact of radical sociology and shows how the work of these and other writers has continued to influence sociology's continuing interest in capitalism, class, race, gender, power, and progressive social change. It also describes future directions for a critical sociology relevant to a multicultural and global world.

Rhonda F. Levine

Introduction; I: Conceptualizing Sociology for Radicals; I: The Trajectory of a Radical Sociology; I: Towards a Socialist Sociology; II: Power and Class; The Ruling Class Thirty Years Later; What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules? Some Reflections on Different Approaches to the Study of Power in Society; State and Ruling Class in Corporate America; State and Ruling Class in Corporate America *; Spilling Out (Again); Accidents, Scandals, and Routines: Resources for Insurgent Methodology *; III: Class and Inequality; Comments on "The Long Shadow of Work"; The Long Shadow of Work: Education, the Family, and the Reproduction of the Social Division of Labor; III: The Future of Class Analysis: Reflections on "Class Structure and Political Ideology"; Class Structure and Political Ideology *; Reflections on "The Feminization of Poverty: Myth or Reality?"; The Feminization of Poverty: Myth or Reality?; IV: Race and Gender; Comments on "Class Approaches to Ethnicity and Race"; Class Approaches to Ethnicity and Race; Reflections on "Constructing a Theory of Capitalist Patriarchy and Socialist Feminism"; Constructing a Theory of Capitalist Patriarchy and Socialist Feminism; V: Capitalism and the World Economy; Introductory Comments to "Alternative Perspectives in Marxist Theory of Accumulation and Crisis"; Alternative Perspectives in Marxist Theory of Accumulation and Crisis *; Introduction to "Contradictions of Capitalism as a World System"; Contradictions of Capitalism as a World System *; VI: The Future for a Critical Sociology; The Critical Turn to Public Sociology 1