The revived interest in Peter Winch's work since his death in 1997 provoked this exciting new volume. A focus on the misrepresentation he suffered through a failure to understand central social and philosophical themes in his writing, encouraged the authors to re-establish a Winchian voice and examine how his central claim is both more significant and more difficult to transcend than sociologists and philosophers have hitherto imagined.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: the legendary Peter Winch and the myth of 'social science'; Beyond pluralism, monism, relativism, realism etc: reassessing Peter Winch; Winch and linguistic idealism; Seeing for themselves: Winch, ethnography, ethnomethodology and social studies; Winch and conservatism: the question of philosophical quietism; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Phil Hutchinson, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, Rupert Read, Reader in Philosophy, University of East Anglia, UK and Wes Sharrock, Professor of Sociology, University of Manchester, UK.