Social theory and political analysis: Suspicious neighbours? -- The theoretical argument and contribution -- The structure of the book, and how to read it -- Definitions and boundaries -- 1. The Society -- Politics Relation: On the Inescapably Social and the Irreducibly Political -- Introduction -- The irreducible nature of politics -- The inescapable fact of the social -- The empirical interplay between the social and the political -- Critique, social theory and political analysis -- 2. Politics From Above: The State and Governance -- Introduction -- Social theory, state and civil society -- Contemporary social theory and governance -- Case study 1 An active state in a changing world -- the Third Way -- Case study 2 Citizens as co-governors: culture governors, expert citizens and everyday makers -- Reading the state and governance through social theory -- Conclusion: The state, governance and the society -- politics relation -- 3. Politics From Below: Political Identity and Participation -- Introduction -- Classical social theory and the Self -- From stable Selves to fluid identities -- Case study: Political consumerism -- Reading political consumerism through social theory -- Conclusion: Political identity, participation and the society -- politics relation -- 4. Politics All Around: Culture, Ideology and Discourse -- Introduction -- Theorising culture, ideology and discourse -- Case study: The hegemony of neoliberalism -- Reading neoliberalism through social theory -- Social theory and its empirical object: The challenge of neoliberalism -- Conclusion: Ideology, discourse and the society -- politics relation -- Conclusion -- Restating the theoretical argument -- Summarising the substantive chapters -- Sociology, political science and a (post-?)neoliberal world.