This highly original and compelling book offers an introduction to the art and science of social inquiry, including the theoretical and methodological frameworks that support that inquiry.

List of Thinking Points
Acknowledgements
Preface: Users' Guide for Students and Instructors

1. An Interesting Idea, In Theory
2. Theory Matters
3. But How Do You Know?
4. You Are Here: Mapping Social Relations
5. The Real World: Making Sense of Perceptions
6. Nature and Culture: The Social Construction of Distinctions

7. Making Time: Clocking Social Relations
8. Conclusion: The Politics of Social Theory

Glossary
References
Index

Alan Sears is Professor of Sociology at Ryerson University. He is the author of The New Left: A History of the Future (2014) and co-author with James Cairns of The Democratic Imagination: Envisioning Popular Power in the Twenty-First Century (2012).