In the sixth edition of Contested Knowledge, social theorist Steven Seidman presents the latest topics in social theory and addresses the current shift of 'universalist theorists' to networks of clustered debates.

• Responds to current issues, debates, and new social movements


• Reviews sociological theory from a contemporary perspective


• Reveals how the universal theorist and the era of rival schools has been replaced by networks of clustered debates that are relatively 'autonomous' and interdisciplinary


• Features updates and in-depth discussions of the newest clustered debates in social theory—intimacy, postcolonial nationalism, and the concept of 'the other'


• Challenges social scientists to renew their commitment to the important moral and political role social knowledge plays in public life