Front Cover -- Mediations of Social Life in the 21st Century -- Copyright page -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- Editorial Board -- Introduction -- Notes -- References -- Part I: Social Theories -- Experience, Problems of Scale, and the Aesthetics of Perception -- The Problem of First-Person Experience -- The Thesis of Impossible Individuality -- Aisthesis: Experiences of Knowing and Feeling -- Concluding Remarks -- Notes -- References -- Digital Fairground - The Virtualization of Health, Illness, and the Experience of "Becoming a Patient" as a Problem of Political Ontology and Social Justice -- Introduction: Of Cyborgs and Zombies -- On Being Modest -- Inclusion -- "Constructing the Patient" as an Epistemic Object: Subjectivity and Experience -- Structure -- Transformations -- Modes of Production: Hyper-Universalization and Hyper-Specialization -- Bless the Anecdata -- Two Processes -- The Transformation of the Clinical Gaze -- Virtual Patients and the Notion of Care -- Virtualization -- Self-Care and Care-for-the-Self -- Digital Divisions -- Conclusion: Biodigital Citizenship -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Part II: Sociological Theories -- Social Conservatism, Distractors, and Authoritarianism: Axiological Versus Instrumental Rationality -- Introduction -- Research Strategy -- Prior Theorizing and Research -- Contexts -- Ideologies -- Authoritarianism -- Research Methods -- Microlevel Data and Pivotal Variables -- Social Conservatism -- Effects of Social Conservatism -- Distractors -- Covariates -- Macrolevel Data and Explanatory Variables -- Typologies -- Effects of Typology -- Statistical Models -- Results -- Neglect of Children and Sentiments about Abortion -- Crime and Sentiments about Guns -- Disconnections -- Social Conservatism and Authoritarianism -- Similar Consequences -- Similar Determinants -- Discussion -- Notes.

Acknowledgments -- References -- Sociological Deconstruction and Reconstruction: Mediation of Opposites by Interpenetration -- Status Groups and Class Interests -- Mediation of Opposites by their Interpenetration -- De-Subjectifying Interpretation and Re-Subjectifying Explanation -- De-Objectifying Understanding and Re-Objectifying Conceptualization -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Part III: Critical Theories -- The Base-Superstructure Hypothesis and the Foundations of Critical Theory -- Introduction -- The Autonomy of Social Action in Neo-Idealist Critical Theory -- Critical Theory and Base-Superstructure: A Basic Axiom -- Axiom: Social Being and the Determinants of Mental Life -- A Functionalist Theory of the Dominance of Base over Superstructure -- Functionalist Arguments and the Ontology of Values -- Three Fundamental Theorems of Base and Superstructure -- Theorem A: Structural Determinism and Institutional Isomorphism -- Theorem B: Routinization of Authority and the Persistence of Social Domination -- Theorem C: The Reification of Consciousness and Defective Cognition -- Perverted Subjectivity and the Limits of Intersubjective Rationality -- Reconstructing Critical Theory -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Bringing the Critical Back in: Toward the Resurrection of the Frankfurt School -- Introduction -- Part I: The Rise and Fall of the Frankfurt School -- The Roots of Critical Theory -- The First Generation of Frankfurt School Critical Theorists -- The Eclipse of Critique -- Part II: The Enduring Relevance Critical Theory -- Alienation -- Character -- Ideology, Culture, and Character -- Part III: American Character: Stability and Social Change -- Religion -- Violence -- Achievement and Identity -- Cohort Flow and the Changing American Character -- Kaboom! -- Anger, Indignation, and Mobilization -- The Tea Party.

Occupy Wall Street -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Part IV: A Debate Continued - John Levi Martin's The Explanation of Social Action (2011) -- Action and Reaction: Response to Bradford -- Introduction -- What are we Explaining -- What is ESA About? -- Definitions and Action -- Description Versus Explanation -- What is Explanation? -- Relativism and Authoritarianism -- An Implausible Thesis? -- The Problem of Instability -- The Relation of Relativism to Decision -- The Intolerance of Tolerance -- The Option for the First Personal -- Causal Explanations and Inferences -- Third-Person Causality -- On Necessity -- From Causation to Explanation -- The Veridical Nature of Experience -- First Persons and Scientists -- From Experience to Fields -- Field Theory and Experience -- Field Theory and SAF's -- Quality -- Judgment -- Character -- Who is ESA for? -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References -- Explaining Social Action Revisited: A Reply to John Levi Martin -- Introduction -- The Problem of Instability -- Distinguishing First-Person and Third-Person Explanations -- Are Third-Person Explanations Ever Valid? -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- References.