This is a wide-ranging and authoritative analysis of sociology's 'state-of-the-art'. It will set the terms of debate for the next decade' - John Urry, Lancaster University, U.K.The profession of sociology was blessed by abundance of excellent handbooks. The one edited by Craig Calhoun, Christ Rojek and Bryan Turner was preceded by outstanding sociology handbooks, the most eminent ones by Robert Farris and E Lee published in 1964 and a more recent one by Neil Smelser in1988. The volume by Farris and Lee not only served as an introductory text to the discipline, but contained many innovative papers, which re-oriented social research for years to come. Smelser brought together the best possible and most polished overview of the contributions professional sociology at his time. The Calhoun-Rojek-Turner Handbook combines the best of these traditions. It gives a comprehensive overview of our field, much like Smelser's book did, but it is also daringly innovative - reminiscent to some of the by now classical chapters of the Farris-Lee treatise - in terms of giving voice to new areas of investigations, inviting contributions not only from established figures but also from younger talented scholars. This new Handbook of Sociology bravely confronts the epochal changes of our times, the new problems of the new global world order, it avoids the temptations to impose on the discipline any over-arching paradigm or methodology and forcefully c