Metatheorizing

Book excerpt: Metaheorizing has come of age in sociology and other social science fields, forming the backdrop for serious intellectual debates over agency and structure, micro and macro level analysis, positivism and interpretivism, modernist and postmodernist thought. These debates are highlighted in this focused collection of essays on metatheory and metatheorizing. Contributors to this collection are among the leading figures in sociological theory - and represent a wide array of theoretical c̀amps'. Many of the raging debates in sociological theory are carried forward within the confines of the book. Collectively the group points out the importance of building overarching theoretical models and suggests new directions for metatheoretical work.