GREGOR McLENNAN is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of Marxism and the Methodologies of History, Marxism, Pluralism and Beyond, and Pluralism, and co-author of Exploring Society. He has also co-edited and contributed to several collections in social and political theory and cultural studies.

Cultural studies and sociology have long had a close, but troubled relationship. In this systematic and comprehensive treatment of the interface between these discourses, the first of its kind, Gregor McLennan offers an argument designed to clarify the considerable overlaps and continuing differences between the two discourses. His claim is that while cultural studies practitioners may not wish to be part of sociological disciplinarity, they cannot avoid investment in the generic 'idea of sociology'. Sociology, for its part, must continually push in a trans-disciplinary direction. In pursuing this overarching line, the author authoritatively connects central questions in the meta-theory of social science - around postpositivism, complexity and reflexivity - to more specific scenarios of contention between cultural studies and sociology, notably multiculturalism and Eurocentrism. Throughout the book, original and lucid arguments and interpretations are conducted in relation to representative or 'exemplary' issues and texts. The aim is to lay the basis for a more positive and philosophically consensual platform for subsequent progressive intellectual work in the human sciences.