Book excerpt: Work is fundamental to human society and modern organizations, and consequently has been central to the thinking of major social theorists and social science disciplines. This book offers a 'one-stop-shop' guide to classical and contemporary perspectvies of work written by leading international experts. Schools covered include: Weberian, Marxian, Durkheimian, feminist, neo-classical economics, institutional economics, ethics, Foucauldian, postmodernist, organizational sociology andeconomic sociology.Each chapter traces the origins of the theoretical school, reviews seminal contributions,and considers major criticisms of the approach. In addition, the book features a section on key aspects of work - professions, technology, identity and globalisation - to which these theories have been applied.The book makes a major contribution in a number of ways:• Provides systematic coverage of major social and economic theories and the way they aid our understanding of work;• Includes a section of chapters that consider, in an applied way, how social theories have helped the analysis of key substantive areas of work;• Includes contributions from leading academics from both Europe and the USA;• Each chapter can be read as free-standing summary of a particular school of theoretical approach;• In addition, the introductory and concluding chapters examine themes cross-cutting the other chapters in the book.It is an essential text for academics and advanced students concerned with the sociology of work, management, and organization studies.