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The Sociology Theory Handbook

The Sociology Theory Handbook

Author(s): Charity Perry

Edition: 1

Copyright: 2026

Pages: 61

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Ebook

$50.00 USD

ISBN 9798319739483

Details Electronic Delivery EBOOK 180 days

Faculty Review Copy

This handbook treats theories as tools for seeing social life. No single theory explains everything. A theory highlights some parts of the social world and pushes other parts into the background. Students should learn each theory as a lens, a vocabulary, and a set of questions. 

The phrase “every theory” is treated here as an expandable scholarly goal. Sociology has no closed final list because theories overlap, split, revive, and change across subfields. This core edition includes a broad inventory plus detailed entries for major classical, contemporary, macro, micro, inequality, culture, organization, crime, education, health, religion, urban, environmental, global, and social movement theories. 

Each entry follows the same pattern so students can compare theories quickly: definition, thinkers, key concepts, assumptions, a concrete example, the three foundational paradigms, strengths and limits, and a memory hook.

1. Structural Functionalism
2. Conflict Theory
3. Symbolic Interactionism
4. Positivism
5. Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Sociology
6. Historical Materialism and Marxist Theory
7. Alienation Theory
8. Durkheimian Social Facts
9. Anomie Theory
10. Weberian Social Action Theory
11. Rationalization Theory
12. Bureaucratic Theory
13. Simmelian Formal Sociology
14. Dramaturgical Theory
15. Labeling Theory
16. Social Constructionism
17. Phenomenological Sociology
18. Ethnomethodology
19. Social Exchange Theory
20. Rational Choice Theory
21. Network Theory
22. Social Capital Theory
23. Cultural Capital, Habitus, and Field Theory
24. Hegemony
25. Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School
26. Feminist Theory
27. Intersectionality
28. Critical Race Theory
29. Racial Formation Theory
30. Queer Theory
31. World-Systems Theory
32. Dependency Theory
33. Modernization Theory
34. Globalization Theory
35. Institutional Theory
36. Organizational Ecology
37. Strain Theory
38. Differential Association Theory
39. Social Control Theory
40. Broken Windows Theory
41. Routine Activity Theory
42. Hidden Curriculum and Correspondence Theory
43. Credentialism
44. Concerted Cultivation
45. Teacher Expectancy and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
46. Medicalization Theory
47. Sick Role Theory
48. Fundamental Cause Theory
49. Secularization Theory
50. Civil Religion
51. Urban Ecology and the Concentric Zone Model
52. Growth Machine Theory
53. Gentrification Theory and the Right to the City
54. Environmental Justice Theory
55. Treadmill of Production
56. Resource Mobilization Theory
57. Political Process Theory
58. Framing Theory
59. New Social Movement Theory
60. Life Course Theory

Charity Perry

Charity Perry, Ph.D., is a sociologist, educator, author, and therapist with nearly two decades of experience teaching in higher education. She currently teaches in the Sociology Department at California State University, Los Angeles, and has taught courses across sociology and psychology, bringing an interdisciplinary perspective to her work with students. Her teaching and scholarship examine careers, inequality, identity, uncertainty, mental health, and the social forces that shape people’s educational and professional opportunities. 

As both a professor and therapist, Dr. Perry understands that career development is not simply a matter of choosing a profession. It is also a deeply personal process shaped by social class, culture, family expectations, emotional well-being, access to resources, and confidence in one’s own abilities. She is especially committed to supporting first-generation college students, many of whom must learn to navigate higher education and the professional world without inherited networks or a clear roadmap. Her work seeks to make these often-unspoken systems more visible and manageable. 

Through her teaching, work with families, and writing, Dr. Perry encourages students to understand uncertainty not as personal failure, but as a normal part of building a meaningful life and career. Her textbook on sociology, careers, and uncertainty reflects her commitment to providing students with practical guidance while helping them recognize their own agency, resilience, and capacity to define success for themselves.

This handbook treats theories as tools for seeing social life. No single theory explains everything. A theory highlights some parts of the social world and pushes other parts into the background. Students should learn each theory as a lens, a vocabulary, and a set of questions. 

The phrase “every theory” is treated here as an expandable scholarly goal. Sociology has no closed final list because theories overlap, split, revive, and change across subfields. This core edition includes a broad inventory plus detailed entries for major classical, contemporary, macro, micro, inequality, culture, organization, crime, education, health, religion, urban, environmental, global, and social movement theories. 

Each entry follows the same pattern so students can compare theories quickly: definition, thinkers, key concepts, assumptions, a concrete example, the three foundational paradigms, strengths and limits, and a memory hook.

1. Structural Functionalism
2. Conflict Theory
3. Symbolic Interactionism
4. Positivism
5. Social Darwinism and Evolutionary Sociology
6. Historical Materialism and Marxist Theory
7. Alienation Theory
8. Durkheimian Social Facts
9. Anomie Theory
10. Weberian Social Action Theory
11. Rationalization Theory
12. Bureaucratic Theory
13. Simmelian Formal Sociology
14. Dramaturgical Theory
15. Labeling Theory
16. Social Constructionism
17. Phenomenological Sociology
18. Ethnomethodology
19. Social Exchange Theory
20. Rational Choice Theory
21. Network Theory
22. Social Capital Theory
23. Cultural Capital, Habitus, and Field Theory
24. Hegemony
25. Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School
26. Feminist Theory
27. Intersectionality
28. Critical Race Theory
29. Racial Formation Theory
30. Queer Theory
31. World-Systems Theory
32. Dependency Theory
33. Modernization Theory
34. Globalization Theory
35. Institutional Theory
36. Organizational Ecology
37. Strain Theory
38. Differential Association Theory
39. Social Control Theory
40. Broken Windows Theory
41. Routine Activity Theory
42. Hidden Curriculum and Correspondence Theory
43. Credentialism
44. Concerted Cultivation
45. Teacher Expectancy and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
46. Medicalization Theory
47. Sick Role Theory
48. Fundamental Cause Theory
49. Secularization Theory
50. Civil Religion
51. Urban Ecology and the Concentric Zone Model
52. Growth Machine Theory
53. Gentrification Theory and the Right to the City
54. Environmental Justice Theory
55. Treadmill of Production
56. Resource Mobilization Theory
57. Political Process Theory
58. Framing Theory
59. New Social Movement Theory
60. Life Course Theory

Charity Perry
Charity Perry

Charity Perry, Ph.D., is a sociologist, educator, author, and therapist with nearly two decades of experience teaching in higher education. She currently teaches in the Sociology Department at California State University, Los Angeles, and has taught courses across sociology and psychology, bringing an interdisciplinary perspective to her work with students. Her teaching and scholarship examine careers, inequality, identity, uncertainty, mental health, and the social forces that shape people’s educational and professional opportunities. 

As both a professor and therapist, Dr. Perry understands that career development is not simply a matter of choosing a profession. It is also a deeply personal process shaped by social class, culture, family expectations, emotional well-being, access to resources, and confidence in one’s own abilities. She is especially committed to supporting first-generation college students, many of whom must learn to navigate higher education and the professional world without inherited networks or a clear roadmap. Her work seeks to make these often-unspoken systems more visible and manageable. 

Through her teaching, work with families, and writing, Dr. Perry encourages students to understand uncertainty not as personal failure, but as a normal part of building a meaningful life and career. Her textbook on sociology, careers, and uncertainty reflects her commitment to providing students with practical guidance while helping them recognize their own agency, resilience, and capacity to define success for themselves.