Theorising in the social sciences today is in disarray. A disarray marked by the relative disconnection between theory and empirical research, the subordination of sociological to philosophical theorising, the abolition of boundaries between social science disciplines and subdisciplines and the conflation of their internal logics. Sociological Theory: What Went Wrong? is a compelling analysis of the central problems of sociological theory and the means to resolve them. By examining critically a variety of developments in post-Parsonian theorising (various micro-sociological approaches, Gidden's structuration theory, Elias's figurational sociology, Bourdieu's theory of practice, neo-functionalism, post-structuralism), the author both attempts to provide a diagnosis of what went wrong in the development of sociological theory and to offer suggestions of how to overcome the present impasse. The latter is done by the elaboration of a set of concepts - derived mainly but not exclusively from the Marxist and Parsonian traditions - which help us to view under a new light on-going debates on the nature of functionalist explanations, the agency/structure distinction, micro-macro linkages, the social versus sociological theory controversy and so on. Sociological Theory: What Went Wrong? will be essential reading for all concerned with the state of theorising in social sciences today.