Sociology - Hardcover

Macionis, John J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0130404225 ISBN 13: 9780130404220

Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2000

Synopsis

This best-selling comprehensive introduction to sociology--text/multimedia package--features the exceptionally strong combination of a global perspective, focus on social diversity, emphasis on critical thinking, and cutting-edge research base (including Census 2000). A widely acclaimed writing style, vivid illustration program, and extensive highlight features--applied chapter-opening vignettes, full-color Global and National Maps, thought-provoking theme boxes, applications and exercises--capture reader's imaginations and help them see clearly how sociological concepts and issues affect not only life in general, but their individual lives as well. An accompanying CD-ROM features a library of video selections illustration major concepts and theories, animated Global and National Maps, author's tips, chapter slide shows, etc. A companion Website is also available. The Sociological Perspective. Sociological Investigation. Culture. Society. Socialization. Social Interaction in Everyday Life. Groups and Organizations. Deviance. Sexuality. Social Stratification. Social Class in the United States. Global Stratification. Gender Stratification. Race and Ethnicity. Aging and the Elderly. The Economy and Work. Politics and Government. Family. Religion. Education. Health and Medicine. Population, Urbanization, and Environment. Collective Behavior and Social Movements. Social Change: Traditional, Modern, and Postmodern Societies. For anyone interested in a cutting-edge introduction to sociology and social diversity from a global perspective.

About this title

About the Author:

John J. Macionis (pronounced ma-SHOW nis) was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University and his doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. His publications are wide-ranging, focusing on community life in the United States, interpersonal intimacy in families, effective teaching, humor, new information technology, and the importance of global education. He and Nijole V. Benokraitis have edited the companion volume to this text, Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology. Macionis has also authored Society: The Basics, the leading brief text in the field, and he collaborates on international editions of the texts: Sociology: Canadian Edition (with Linda M. Gerber, from Prentice Hall Canada), Society: The Basics, Canadian Edition (with Cecelia Benoit and Mikael Jansson, also from Prentice Hall Canada), and Sociology: A Global Introduction (with Ken Plummer, published by Prentice Hall Europe). Sociology is also available in various international and foreign language editions. In addition, Macionis and Vincent Parrillo have written the urban studies text, Cities and Urban Life (Prentice Hall). Macionis's most recent new text is Social Problems (Prentice Hall), which is the first text to take a social-constructionist approach to the study of social problems and public policy. The latest on all the Macionis textbooks, as well as news, information, and dozens of Internet links of interest to students and faculty in sociology, can be found at the author's personal Web site, http://www.macionis.com or http://www.TheSociologyPage.com. Additional information, as well as online study guides for the texts, is available at the Prentice Hall site, http://www.prenhall.com/macionis John Macionis is Professor and Prentice Hall Distinguished Scholar of Sociology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. During a career of almost twenty-five years at Kenyon, he has chaired the Anthropology-Sociology Department, directed the college's multidisciplinary program in humane studies, and presided over the campus senate and also the college's faculty. In 1998, the North Central Sociological Association named Macionis recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contribution to Teaching, citing his work with textbooks and his pioneering use of new technology in sociology. Professor Macionis has been active in academic programs in other countries, having traveled to some fifty nations. In the fall of 1994, he directed the global education course for the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea program, teaching 400 students on a floating campus that visited twelve countries as it circled the globe. Macionis writes, "I am an ambitious traveler, eager to learn and, through the texts, to share much of what I discover with students, many of whom know so little about the rest of the world. For me, traveling and writing are all dimensions of teaching. First and foremost, I am a teacher-a passion for teaching animates everything I do." At Kenyon, Macionis offers a wide range of upper-level courses, but his favorite course is Introduction to Sociology, which he schedules every semester. He enjoys extensive contact with students and each term invites his students to enjoy a home-cooked meal. The Macionis family-John, Amy, and children McLean and Whitney-live on a farm in rural Ohio. Their home serves as a popular bed and breakfast where they enjoy visiting with old friends and making new ones. In his free time, John enjoys bicycling through the Ohio countryside, swimming, sailing, and playing oldies rock and roll on his guitar. He is currently learning to play

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

The final manuscript of this book was just about complete when the tragic events of September 11, 2001, took place. Rarely does the news of one day so change everyone's lives. There is little doubt that terrorism will leave its mark on life in the United States and elsewhere for years to come as our concern for security prompts us to reexamine so many dimensions of our everyday lives.

More generally, these events force us to confront the question of what kind of world we live in and what kind of world we want for ourselves and for our children. It is here that readers of this book will discover the importance of the discipline of sociology.

The daily e-mail I receive from students in the United States and around the world stands as testimony to the power of sociology to help people understand their world and, often, to transform people. Indeed, the material in this text was recently used in a presentation to the U.S. Supreme Court (Falvo v. Owasso Ind. School District, 2001). All instructors know well the deep satisfaction that comes from making a difference in the lives of our students. There is no greater reward for our work, and, in my case, no better reason for striving for ever-better revisions of Sociology, which, along with the briefer Society: The Basics, stands out as the discipline's most popular text.

I hope you will find Sociology to be authoritative, comprehensive, stimulating, and-as so many students testify-plain fun to read. In addition to the book, every new copy of Sociology, Ninth Edition, comes with a second learning tool, a CD-ROM that provides a number of short video selections that illustrate major concepts, ideas, and theories. Included on the CDROM is a series of "author's tip" videos-one for each chapter-that focuses on key chapter themes. Finally, the third part of the learning package that is available free with each new book is access to a full-featured Web site at http://www.prenhall.com/macionis From the main page, simply click on the cover of the text and select a chapter; you will find chapter summaries, learning objectives, suggested essay questions and paper topics, and multiple-choice and true-false questions prepared by the author of the text. As the student completes these tests, the server immediately grades them and points out exactly where the student needs more study. Also at this Web site, faculty will find a full complement of teaching resources, including Power Point slides for download and the Prentice Hall syllabus manager system that allows an instructor to post a course syllabus to the Internet without having to learn hypertext markup language (HTML).

Textbook, CD-ROM, and Web site: A three-part, multimedia package that is the foundation for sound learning in this new information age. We invite you to examine all three!

ORGANIZATION OF THIS TEXT

Part I of the textbook and the CD-ROM introduces the foundations of sociology. Underlying the discipline is the sociological perspective-the focus of Chapter 1, which explains how this invigorating point of view brings the world to life in a new and instructive way. Chapter 2 spotlights sociological investigation, or the "doing of sociology" This chapter explains the scientific, interpretive, and critical orientations of the discipline, and illustrates major research strategies with actual, well-known sociological work.

Part II surveys the foundations of social life. Chapter 3 focuses on the central concept of culture, emphasizing the cultural diversity that makes up our society and our world. The focus of Chapter 4 is the concept of society, presenting four time-honored models for understanding the structure and dynamics of social organization. This unique chapter provides introductory students with the background to understand the ideas of important thinkers-including Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim, as well as Gerhard Lenski-that appear in subsequent chapters. Chapter 5 turns to socialization, exploring how we gain our humanity as we learn to participate in society. Chapter 6 provides a micro-level look at the patterns of social interaction that make up our everyday lives. Chapter 7 offers full-chapter coverage of groups and organizations, explaining the importance of group life and investigating how and why large organizations have come to dominate our way of life. Chapter 8 explains how the operation of society generates both deviance and conformity, and also surveys the operation of the criminal justice system. Chapter 9 explains the social foundations of human sexuality. This chapter surveys sexual patterns in the United States and also explores variations in sexual practices through history and around the world today.

Part III offers unparalleled discussion of social inequality, beginning with three chapters on social stratification. Chapter 10 introduces major concepts and presents theoretical explanations of social inequality. This chapter richly illustrates historical changes in stratification and how patterns of inequality vary in today's world. Chapter 11 surveys social inequality in the United States, confronting common perceptions of inequality and assessing how well they square with research findings. Chapter 12 extends the analysis with a look at global stratification, revealing the disparities in wealth and power that separate rich and poor nations. Both Chapters 11 and 12 pay special attention to how global developments affect stratification in the United States just as they explore our society's role in global inequality. Chapter 13, gender stratification, explains how gender is a central element in social stratification in the United States as it is worldwide. Race and ethnicity, additional important dimensions of social inequality that often intersect differences based on class and gender, are detailed in Chapter 14. Aging and the elderly, a topic of increasing concern to "graying" societies such as our own, is addressed in Chapter 15.

Part IV includes a full chapter on each social institution. Leading off is Chapter 16, the economy and work, because most sociologists recognize the economy as having the greatest impact on all other institutions. This chapter traces the rise and fall of industrial production in the United States, the emergence of a global economy, and explains what such transformations mean for the U.S. labor force. Chapter 17, politics and government, analyzes the distribution of power in U.S. society as well as surveying political systems around the world. In addition, this chapter includes discussion of the U.S. military, the threat of war, and an expanded discussion of terrorism as a new form of war in the twenty-first century. Chapter 18, family, explains the central importance of families to social organization, and underscores the diversity of family life both here and in other societies. Chapter 19, religion, addresses the timeless human search for ultimate purpose and meaning, introduces major world religions, and explains how religious beliefs are linked to other dimensions of social life. Chapter 20, education, analyzes the expansion of schooling in industrial and postindustrial societies. Here again, schooling in the United States comes to life through contrasts with educational patterns in other countries. Chapter 21, health and medicine, reveals health to be a social issue just as much as it is a matter of biological processes. This chapter traces the historical emergence of scientific medicine, analyzes current medical issues and alternative approaches, and compares U.S. patterns to those found in other countries.

Part V examines important dimensions of global social change. Chapter 22 highlights the powerful impact of population growth and urbanization in the United States and throughout the world with special attention to the natural environment. Chapter 23 explores forms of collective behavior and explains how people seek or resist social change by joining social movements. Chapter 24 concludes the text with an overview of social change that contrasts traditional, modern, and postmodern societies. This chapter rounds out the text by explaining how and why world societies change and critically analyzing the benefits and liabilities of traditional, modern, and postmodern ways of life.

CONTINUITY: ESTABLISHED FEATURES OF SOCIOLOGY

Everyone knows that introductory sociology texts have some things in common; but differences run deep. The extraordinary success of Sociology and Society: The Basics, which are far and away the most widely adopted texts by sociologists across North America, results from a combination of the following distinctive features.

The best writing style. Most important, this text offers a writing style widely praised by students and faculty alike as elegant and inviting. Sociology is an enjoyable text that encourages students to read—even beyond their assignments. No one says it better than the students themselves, whose recent e-mail includes testimonials such as these:

Thanks for writing such a brilliant book. It has
sparked my sociological imagination. This was the
first textbook that I have ever read completely and
enjoyed. From the moment that I picked the book
up I started reading nonstop.

I have read four chapters ahead; it's like a good
novel I can't put down! I just wanted to say thank
you.

Your book is extremely well written and very
interesting. I find myself reading it for pleasure,
something I have never done with college texts. It
is going to be the only collegiate textbook that I ever
keep simply to read on my own. I am also thinking of
picking up sociology as my minor due to the fact that
I have enjoyed the class as well as the text so much.
Your writing has my highest praise and utmost appreciation.

I am taking a Sociology 101 class using Sociology, a
book that I have told my professor is the best textbook
that I have ever seen, bar none. I've told her as well that
I will be more than happy to take more sociology classes
as long as there is a Macionis text to go with them.

I am fascinated by the contents of this textbook.
In contrast to texts in my other classes, I actually
enjoy reading Sociology. Thank you for such a
thought-provoking, well-written textbook.

I absolutely love your sociology text! It is a wonderful
book. This is by far the best textbook I have ever used.
The CD-ROM has been very helpful and informative.
I had no idea that I would love sociology so much!

A global perspective. Sociology has taken a leading role in expanding the horizons of our discipline beyond the United States. Sociology was the first text to mainstream global content, introduce global maps, and offer coverage of global topics such as stratification and the environment. No wonder this text has been adapted and translated in many languages for use all over the world. Each chapter explores global social diversity as well as explaining why social trends in the United States—from musical tastes to the pace of airport security to the growing disparity of income—are influenced by what happens elsewhere.

A focus on national diversity. Sociology invites students from all social backgrounds to discover a fresh and exciting way to see the world and to understand themselves. Readers will find in this text the diversity of U.S. society—people of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and Latino ancestry as well as women and men of various class positions, in all parts of the country, and at all points in the life course. An independent survey of all introductory books gave this text top marks for mainstreaming race and ethnicity (Stone, 1996).

Emphasis on critical thinking. Critical-thinking skills include the ability to challenge common assumptions by formulating questions, identify and weigh appropriate evidence, and reach reasoned conclusions. This text not only teaches but encourages students to discover on their own.

The broadest coverage so instructors can choose. No other text matches Sociology's twenty-four chapter coverage of the field. We offer such breadth—at no greater cost—knowing that few instructors will assign every chapter, but with the goal of supporting instructors as they choose exactly what they wish to teach.

Engaging and instructive chapter openings. One of the most popular features of Sociology is the engaging vignettes that begin each chapter. These openings—for instance, using the tragic sinking of the Titanic to illustrate the life and death consequences of social inequality, or the story of Linda Brown to explore racial inequality in the United States, or Utah's recent prosecution of Tom Green for polygamy to describe our ideas about the family—spark the interest of readers as they introduce important themes. This revision retains eleven of the best chapter-opening vignettes found in earlier editions and offers thirteen new ones as well.

Inclusive focus on women and men. Beyond devoting two full chapters to the important concepts of sex and gender, Sociology mainstreams gender into every chapter, showing how the topic at hand affects women and men differently and explaining how gender operates as a basic dimension of social organization.

Theoretically clear and balanced. Sociology, Ninth Edition, makes theory easy. Chapter 1 introduces the discipline's major theoretical approaches, which are used in all the chapters that follow. The text highlights not only the social-conflict, structural-functional, and symbolic-interaction paradigms, but incorporates feminist theory, social-exchange analysis, ethnomethodology, cultural ecology, and sociobiology.

Chapter 4—unique to this text—provides students with an easy-to-understand introduction to important social theorists before they encounter their work in later chapters. The ideas of Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim, as well as Gerhard Lenski's historical overview of human societies, appear in distinct sections that instructors may assign together or refer to separately at different points in the course.

Recent research and the latest data. Sociology, Ninth Edition, blends classic sociological statements with the latest research as reported in the leading publications in the field. Some 250 new studies inform this revision, and about half of the 1500 pieces of research cited throughout the book were published since 1995. From chapter to chapter, the text's statistical data are the most recent available and include the results of Census 2000.

Learning aids. This text has many features to help students learn. In each chapter, key concepts are identified by boldfaced type, and following each appears a precise, italicized definition. A list of key concepts with their definitions appears at the end of each chapter, and a complete Glossary is found at the end of the book. Each chapter also contains a numbered Summary and four Critical-Thinking Questions that help students review material and assess their understanding. Following these are a number of Applications and Exercises, which provide students with activities to do on or near the campus. Each chapter also includes an annotated list of worthwhile Sites to See on the Internet.

Outstanding images: photography and fine art. This book offers the finest and most extensive program of photography and artwork available in any sociology textbook. The ninth edition of Sociology displays about 100 ex...

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0130404225
• ISBN 13: 9780130404220
• Binding: Hardcover