Anthropological Theories

Although written from a particular philosophical perspective (the title gives it away...) there's some useful notes here covering the following general perspectives of interest to A-level students: Functionalist; Ecological; Marxist; Feminist; Structuralist; Symbolic & Interpretive and Postmodernist. Each perspective page can be accessed from the nice new menu that's been added to the site and the perspectives are outlined in terms of basic premises, key ideas, writers and works, criticisms and so forth. You need to be aware the material is written for: a. American undergraduates and b. Anthropology students, but this doesn't mean there's not a lot of potentially useful information that can be condensed from these pages by teachers.

Theoretical Perspectives

Annotated notes covering a range of different perspectives:
Functionalism
Symbolic Interactionism
Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology
Conflict Theory
Feminism
Rational Choice/Exchange Theory
Social Construction Theory and Feminist Standpoint Theory
Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism

The materials are generally aimed at an American undergraduate audience, but a lot of the material is probably suitable for A2 students. Most of the external links no-longer work, which suggests the site's no-longer updated...

Georg Simmel On-Line

As the name suggests, a site devoted to the memory and work of Georg Simmel (1858-1918). Although it's probably not on every A-level student's "essential research list", Simmel's pioneering (and strangely neglected) work is worth dipping into, especially if you're interested in concepts like mass culture and mass society. Not a sociological giant, but worth investigating.

The Karl Popper Web

Probably not a site for any but the most dedicated of A-level students, but if you're interested in discovering more about Popper's life and work this is as good a place to start as any...

Theory Greats

Brief biographical notes covering the life and works of "10 Great Figures in Sociology " (including Marx, Durkheim, Parsons and Weber), with some indication of the main concepts with which their work is associated. Useful if you want an overview of these writers.

Sociology Timeline

From 1600 to 1995, to be precise. If you want to locate various "social thinkers" on a timeline then this is probably something you'll go crazy over. Otherwise, for the rest of us, some of the entries are linked to different sites (although he Timeline doesn't seem to have been updated much recently and some of the links are dead - just like the majority of people featured, spookily enough...).

The Presentation of Self

Brief set of Notes on Erving Goffman's classic work.

Functionalism and Parsons

Online Notes covering some of the main Functionalist ideas.