This wide-ranging analysis of key issues and debates in contemporary social theory draws social theory, cultural studies and psychoanalysis together to challenge the widespread view that social theory seems to have lost its way as a result of the diversification on conceptual approaches.

This remarkable book develops a wide-ranging analysis of key issues and debates in contemporary social theory. Drawing social theory, cultural studies, and psychoanalysis together in a bold configuration, Elliott challenges the widespread view that social theory seems to have lost its way as a result of the diversification of conceptual approaches. In outlining an approach that places imagination and creativity at the center of social theory, Elliott argues that theoretical pluralism--from post-structuralism to postmodernism, from psychoanalysis to deconstruction--represents not the demise, but the renewal of critical social theory.