Sociology
A Global Introduction
3rd Edition
By John J. Macionis & Ken Plummer
December 2005
Prentice Hall / Pearson Education
ISBN: 013128746X
824 pages, Illustrated, 7 ¾” x 10 ½”
$77.50 Paper Original
Sociology: A Global Introduction is the most complete learning resource for introductory sociology students across Europe. Written in a lively and engaging way, the new edition of this popular text will engage, excite and challenge students - encouraging them to understand core topics, critique existing arguments, move to the cutting edge and read further around the subject.
With a firm focus on UK/European society, issues are discussed in greater detail than in existing textbooks. Of particular significance is the book’s global perspective, looking at traditional, modern and postmodern society in a wider multicultural environment.
Contents
Social shapes of the world
Guide to boxes
Preface
About the authors
Guided tour
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
PART ONE
Introducing Sociology
1 The Sociological Imagination
What is sociology?
The sociological perspective in everyday life
Social change and the origins of sociology
Sociologists look to the future
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
Appendix. Surfing for sociology: an entrance
2 Thinking Sociologically, Thinking Globally
What is the classical tradition of sociology? Starting a short tour of sociological theory
Mainstream or ‘classical’ perspectives in sociology
The newer perspectives in sociology: other voices and the postmodern
Thinking globally: a global perspective in sociology
Taking stock and looking ahead
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
3 Doing Social Science: an Introduction
The basics of sociological investigation
What is a sociological ‘truth’? Matters of epistemology
Making sense of sociological data
The tools of sociological research
Ethical, political and policy questions
Putting it all together: planning a sociological project
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
PART TWO
The Foundations of Society: from Macro to Micro
4 Societies
Changing patterns of society
Explaining modern industrial society
Karl Marx: capitalism and conflict
Max Weber: the rationalisation of society and the disenchantment of the world
Emile Durkheim: the bonds that tie us together: from mechanical to organic
Reviewing the theories
The contemporary shape of world societies
Conclusion: change and societies
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
5 Culture
What is culture?
The major components of culture
Cultural diversity: many ways of life in one world
Understanding culture
From culture to cultural studies
Looking ahead: culture and human freedom
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
6 Groups, Organisations and the Rise of the Network Society
Social groups
Organisations
‘Social Networks’ and the rise of the network society
Looking ahead: the network society
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
7 Micro-sociology: the Social Construction of Everyday Life
The social construction of reality
Becoming social: the process of socialisation
Becoming biographies? Two theories of socialisation
The life course and generations
Constructing situations: Erving Goffman and drama
Ethnomethodology and conversational analysis
Identity
The sociologies of the body and the emotions
Conclusion: micro-sociology
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
PART THREE
Social Divisions and Social Inequalities
8 Social Stratification
What is social stratification?
Closed and open systems of stratification: slavery, caste, estate and class
Some examples of stratification at work: Japan and Russia
The role of ideology: stratification’s ‘staying power’
Explaining social stratification
Marxist and neo-Marxist ideas on stratification and conflict
Max Weber: class, status and power
Stratification and technology in global perspective
How might social stratification change in the future?
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
9 Global Inequalities and Poverty
What is global stratification?
Global wealth and poverty
Who are the global poor?
Global inequality: how is it to be explained?
Global inequality: looking ahead
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
10 Class, Poverty and Welfare in the UK
The nature of social class
Some dimensions of class and social inequality in the UK
Layers of social class in the UK
Social exclusion and the idea of an underclass
Poverty: the lower ends of inequality in capitalist society
The ‘Death of Class’ debate
Citizenship and the rise of welfare states
Looking ahead: class in the twenty-first century
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
11 Racism, Ethnicities and Migration
The social significance of race and ethnicities
Prejudice and racism
Explaining racism
Discrimination
Majority and minority: patterns of interaction
Migration, ethnicity and race
Ethnicity in the UK
Racism and ethnic antagonism in Europe
The future of ethnic relations
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
12 The Gender Order and Sexuality
Basic distinctions: sex and gender?
Patriarchy, gender stratification and sexism
Becoming gendered: the case of gender socialisation
Nancy Chodorow and the reproduction of mothering
Understanding gender
Resisting patriarchy: the Women’s Movement and feminism
Sexuality and stratification
Theories of sexuality
Key elements of sexual stratification: gay and lesbian relations
Social change and sexuality
Looking ahead: gender and sexuality in the twenty-first century
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
13 Age Stratification: Children and Later Life
A sociology of children
Growing older: the greying of the western world
The social implications of ageing
Researching ageing
Looking ahead: ageing in the twenty-first century
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
PART FOUR
Social Structures, Social Practices and Social Institutions
14 Economies, Work and Consumption
The great economic transformations: a brief overview
Economies: differing kinds
The changing nature of work
Unemployment
The worlds of corporations
Consumption in modern economies
Looking ahead
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
15 Power, Governance and Social Movements
Some opening distinctions: the meanings of power
Political systems
Globalisation and politics
Gender and power
Political organisation in Europe
Explaining power? Theoretical analysis of power in society
Power beyond the rules
A new politics in the twenty-first century? The new social movements
The globalisation of ‘human rights regimes’?
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
16 Control, Crime and Deviance
Some opening definitions
The social and global shapes of crime
Changes in social control
Explaining crime and deviance
Looking ahead
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
17 Families, Households and Personal Cultures
What are ‘families’?
Family and history
Thinking about families: theories and ideas
Family differences in the UK: class, ethnicity and gender
Practices of family life
Towards the postmodern family?
Looking ahead: families in the twenty-first century
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
18 Religion
The nature of religion
Understanding religion
The nature of religious organisations
The social shape of global religions
Religion in Europe
Religion in the twenty-first century
Taking stock and looking ahead
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
19 Education
Global education and literacy
Schooling around the world
Understanding education in the modern world
Social divisions and schooling
Some current issues in education
Looking ahead
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
20 Health and Medicine
What is health?
Health: a global survey
Some social links to illness
Health care systems and the medical establishment
Holistic, alternative or complementary medicine
Understanding health and medicine
HIV/AIDS and sociology
Death, dying and sociology
Taking stock and looking ahead: health in the twenty-first century
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
21 The Mass Media
The media age
Communication and social change
Media theories
Three key questions in media analysis
The globalisation of the media
Looking ahead: the future of the media
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
22 Science, Cyberspace and the Risk Society
Risk and the three scientific revolutions of the twentieth century
Knowledge and science: traditions of study
The ‘biotechnology revolution’: social issues
Assisted conception and the new reproductive politics
The computer revolution and the information society
Looking to the future: technology and the risk society
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
PART FIVE
Social Change
23 Populations, Cities and the Shape of Things to Come
Demography: an introduction
Key factors shaping the population
History and theory of population growth
Urbanisation: the growth of cities
The evolution of early cities
The rise of the modern industrial city
Mega-cities in low-income societies
Globalisation and the spread of world cities
Understanding cities?
Looking ahead: population and urbanisation in the twenty-first century
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
24 Social Change and the Environment
Sociology and the natural environment
The changing global environment
Growth and its limits
The ‘social practices’ of degrading the environment
Capitalism and the environment
Taking stock and looking ahead: for a sustainable world?
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
25 Futures: the Challenges for Sociology in the
Twenty-first Century
What is social change?
Causes of social change
Modernity
The future and change: new kinds of society in the making?
Globalisation revisited
Postmodernity revisited
The Risk Society revisited
The shape of societies to come - A new world order?
In conclusion
Summary
Critical-thinking questions
Going further
Glossary
References
Name index
Subject index
Features
• Sociology is made immediate and real, through diverse examples, illustration and statistical evidence
• A story is told. Consolidating previous editions’ successful organisation, a broad picture of societies and cultures developing over time is painted. The globalised world order of today is shown in its richness – full of contradiction, inequality and achievement.
• Cutting-edge coverage and argument, firmly grounded in topical issues and current debates, bring the subject to life, engaging, exciting and challenging the reader
• A range of in-text features encourages students to identify core themes and theories, critique arguments, compare and contrast, and investigate further.
• Extensive supplementary resources for lecturer and students assist and enrich teaching and learning
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