The fourth edition of this best-selling introductory reader has been thoroughly revised and updated to offer a stimulating and wide-ranging set of readings for anyone who wishes to engage with the scope of sociological thought and practice today.
The book delivers a productive mix of classic, contemporary and provocative readings that are highly readable and lively, while retaining their critical bite. Ideal as a companion to the ninth edition of Giddens and Sutton’s Sociology, the reader can equally be used independently or alongside other textbooks.
Readings are grouped around ten key sociological themes, with a sustained emphasis on comparative, globally and historically informed work. The carefully curated collection ranges from studies of face-to-face interaction through to the analysis of large-scale global systems, covering both the theory and the practice of sociology. Among the new selections in this volume are readings on the decolonial turn; the persistence of racism and its consequences; global health issues and the social impact of COVID-19; digital sociology and the digitization of social life; feminist research and shifting forms of misogyny; climate change and the emerging Anthropocene era; income and wealth inequalities, national populist movements and the spread of ‘fake news’. Each of the thematic sections is preceded by a discussion and followed by further reading to facilitate students’ comprehension and critical reflection.
The result is an exciting new companion that encompasses the major themes and debates in both classical and contemporary sociology. Sociology: Introductory Readings will be an essential resource for all students of sociology.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Sociological Perspective
1. Sociology as the Science of Social Life - W.E.B. Du Bois
2. The Promise of Sociology - C. Wright Mills
3. Sociology as the Study of Figurations: Beyond Individual and Society? - Norbert Elias
4. Decolonizing Sociology - Raewyn Connell
5. Understanding Ourselves and Others - Zygmunt Bauman & Tim May
Further Reading
PART 1 Thinking Sociologically
6. The Capitalist Revolution - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
7. Tastes, Distinctions and Social Structure - Pierre Bourdieu
8. Learning from the Outsiders Within - Patricia Hill Collins
9. The Consequences of Modernity - Anthony Giddens
10. Sociology after the Postcolonial Turn - Gurminder K. Bhambra
Further Reading
PART 2 Doing Sociology
11. Treat Social Facts as Things - Émile Durkheim
12. Sociology's Historical Imagination - Philip Abrams
13. Mixing Methods in Empirical Research - Emma Pullen, Daniel Jackson & Michael Silk
14. Digital Sociology: Opportunities and Dangers - Noortje Marres
15. What is Feminist Research? - Patricia Leavy & Anne Harris
Further Reading
PART 3 Environment and Urbanism
16. The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel
17. A Sociology of Climate Change - John Urry
18. Navigating the 'White Space' - Elijah Anderson
19. Urban Transitions in the Global South - AbdouMaliq Simone & Edgar Pieterse
20. Entering an Anthropocene Era? - Rolf Lidskog & Claire Waterton
Further Reading
PART 4 Structures of Society
21. Religion and the Origins of Capitalism - Max Weber
22. The Feminization of Work - Teri L. Caraway
23. Families and Personal Life - Deborah Chambers & Pablo Gracia
24. Schools: Challenging or Reproducing Social Inequalities? - Christy Kulz
25. Capitalism and the Digital Revolution - Shoshana Zuboff
Further Reading
PART 5 Social Inequalities
26. Intersectionality: Structural and Political - Kimberlé Crenshaw
27. Producing Disability and Abledness - Fiona Kumari Campbell
28. Wealth Concentration and Inequality - Thomas Piketty
29. Racial Distinctions and Social Structures - Michael Banton
30. 'Doing Gender' via Domestic Labour - Clare Lyonette & Rosemary Crompton
Further Reading
PART 6 Relationships and the Life Course
31. I, Me and the Social Self - George Herbert Mead
32. Towards a Sociology of Personal Life - Carol Smart
33. Love as a Sociological Problem - Eva Illouz
34. From the Life Cycle to the Life Course - Stephen J. Hunt
35. The Significance of Generational Experience - Lorraine Green
Further Reading
PART 7 Interaction and Communication
36. Self Presentation and Impression Management - Erving Goffman
37. Violence in Sociological Perspective - Randall Collins
38. Misogyny, Beauty and Body Modification - Sheila Jeffreys
39. Constructing and Negotiating Social Identity - Susie Scott
40. Knowledge Production in a Post-Truth World - Dominic Malcolm
Further Reading
PART 8 Health, Illness and the Body
41. The Medical Re-definition of Social Life - Peter Conrad
42. Does Inequality Cause Poor Health Outcomes? - Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
43. Challenging the Dominance of Biomedicine - Sarah Nettleton
44. Health and Illness in Sociological Perspective - William C. Cockerham
45. The Exceptional and the Normal After COVID-19 - Jens O. Zinn
Further Reading
PART 9 Crime and Social Control
46. The Social Construction of Outsiders - Howard S. Becker
47. The Shifting Politics of Punishment - David Garland
48. Race, Blackness and Exclusion in the USA - Loïc Wacquant
49. The Digital Transformation of Criminality - David S. Wall
50. Back to the Future: The Return of Banishment - Katherine Beckett & Steve Herbert
Further Reading
PART 10 Political Sociology
51. Conceptualizing Power in Sociological Theory - Steven Lukes
52. Ethnic Cleansing and the Dark Side of Democracy - Michael Mann
53. Populist Politics and Mobilization - Bart Bonikowski
54. Representations of British Muslims During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Elizabeth Poole & Milly Williamson
55. Social Media Use in Black Lives Matter Activism - Marcia Mundt, Karen Ross & Charla M. Burnett
Further Reading
