This article examines the main theoretical contributions of critical theory,poststructuralism and postmodernism. It is argued that these three theoriesoffer related perspectives on the shortcomings of positivism as well as newways to theorize and study contemporary societies. Empirical and conceptualapplications of these perspectives in sociological research are discussed.Some of these applications include work in the sociology of deviance, gender,media and culture. Finally, implications of these three theoretical perspectivesfor the ways sociologists think about the boundaries and territoriality of theirdiscipline are discussed.