1 Mastering Ambivalence: Neil Smelser as a Sociologist of Synthesis -- PART ONE: Self -- Introduction -- 2 The Sociological Eye and the Psychoanalytic Ear -- 3 The Commodity Frontier -- 4 The Glass Cage: Flexible Work, Fragmented Consumption, Fragile Selves -- PART TWO: Social Structure -- Introduction -- 5 Rational Choice and Sociology -- 6 Enlisting Smelser's Theory of Ambivalence to Maintain Progress in Sociology of Religion's New Paradigm -- 7 Circuits of Commerce -- 8 Trust as an Aspect of Social Structure -- 9 The Organizational Foundations of University Capability -- PART THREE: Beliefs -- Introduction -- 10 Primordial Beliefs and Immigration Policy: The Case of Britain's Patrials -- 11 Causal Reasoning, Historical Logic, and Sociological Explanation -- 12 Intellectual Cycles of Social Movement Research: From Psychoanalysis to Culture? -- 13 Shaping Sociological Imagination: The Importance of Theory -- contributors -- index.