Understanding and explaining the causes and consequences of social change has been an important concern of social theorists throughout the history of sociology. This wide-ranging text focuses on a rich and diverse body of theoretical work, from Adam Smith and Comte to Lyotard and Baudrillard, in order to demonstrate the relevance of both classical and contemporary social theory to the wider social world and to show that, while social theory may not deliver all the answers we might like, it does improve the quality of the questions we can ask about how social change comes about, what its effects are and where it is leading us.About the Author: TREVOR NOBLE taught sociology at the University of Sheffield for many years. He was Visiting Lecturer in the University of Guyana in 1988-89. His main publications have been on modern British social structure, the family and kinship, the sociology of literature and education.