Books in the SAGE Masters in Modern Social Thought Series series

These volumes bring together major critical responses to, and engagement with, the work of Manuel Castells, arguably the leading analyst of the current age. His concept of `the network society' has influenced much recent social science and his ideas have been adopted in political and policy circles.

Theodor W.Adorno was one of the towering intellectuals of the twentieth century. His friendship with Walter Benjamin produced some of the most moving, insightful correspondence on the origins and objects of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. This collection distils the best from published assessments and responses to Adorno's oeuvre.

Jean Baudrillard is one of the most important and provocative writers in the contemporary era. Widely acclaimed as the prophet of postmodernism, he has famously announced the disappearance of the subject, meaning, truth, class and the notion of reality itself. His writing has enjoyed a wide interdisciplinary popularity and influence.

Edward Said was arguably the most important recent scholar examining society, politics and culture. A Palestinian-American, his life has been shaped by the cross-currents of race, globalization and nationalist violence. This exhaustive and unparalleled collection draws together the essential writings on Said's thought.

Zygmunt Bauman is widely acknowledged as the most interesting and consistent of postmodern sociologists. Yet his work is widely dispersed across a number of fields and his critical interpretation is scattered across a wide array of disciplines. This major four-volume collection draws together these important materials for the first time.

This is the first systematic assessment of the work of Jurgen Habermas - the key theorist of the later Frankfurt School, whose writing has had a major impact on social theory and sociology.

Norbert Elias (1897-1990) is now widely regarded as one of the greatest sociologists of the 20th century. These four volumes provide a comprehensive and penetrating survey of Elias's life and work. They pinpoint the main fields of research which Elias and his followers explored.

Harold Garfinkel is one of a handful of sociologists to have founded a major sociological research programme. He coined the term ethnomethodology that still continues to be taken up in the social science today. This set discusses Garfinkel's intellectual biography and critically reviews his contribution.

Newly updated covering recent essential writings, themes and developments on Habermas theory with brand new editorial introductions.