He became Professor of Social Theory at Birkbeck College, London, in 1985 and held the post until his death from a stroke and brain haemorrhage.
Drawing upon Michel Foucault but also W. V. O. Quine and Ludwig Wittgenstein, he criticised essentialism, epistemological discourses and the possibility of any general theory, in a move against careless sociological constructionist imperialism.
In his work on democratic governance, he turned towards the ideas of the English political pluralists: John Neville Figgis, G. D. H. Cole, and Harold Laski.
His later work, with Grahame Thompson resulted in an influential criticism of fashionable theories of economic globalisation, demonstrating the continued importance of the nation-state.
With Mark Cousins, Colin MacCabe, and Richard Humphreys, he founded the London Consortium in 1993.