This long-awaited Second Edition continues to offer an accessible introduction to the way social arrangements affect economic activity, and shows that economic exchanges are deeply embedded in social relationships. Understanding how society shapes the economy helps us answer many important questions. For example, how does advertising get people to buy things? How do people use their social connections to get jobs? How did large bureaucratic organizations come to be so pervasive in modern economies - and what difference does it make? How can we explain the persistence of economic inequalities between men and women and across racial groups? Why do some countries become rich while others stay poor? This book presents sociological answers to questions like these, and encourages its readers to view the economy through a sociological lens.
This volume of The ANNALS brings together a leading set of scholars to present new research on trends in the spatial forms of immigration that are transforming the American landscape-the effects of "the world in a city." With a distinct analytic focus, the volume takes a comparative approach, examining recent immigration trends, disaggregating by ethnicity or immigrant type wherever possible, focusing on core features of the nation's social fabric (e.g., violence, legitimacy of social institutions, governance, economic well-being), and empirically going beyond the big cities of traditional concern to a host of smaller cities and towns reaching into far-flung pockets of the country. The lineup includes papers on both familiar cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami; as well as places as different as San Antonio; Nashville; Boston; Dublin; Hazleton, Pennsylvania; and St. James, Minnesota. While the places studied and features of their social fabric may differ, the social processes underlying the spatial forms of immigration are shown to be largely the same. This volume will be of interest to social scientists from a broad range of disciplines who engage in research and teaching on issues related to immigration; policy-makers; and individuals working on immigration-policy research.
Early European sociologists found war, peace and the effects of both on social development to be important matters for the emerging discipline to explain and understand. Curiously, these issues faded from the sociological agenda after World War I and were not again much studied by sociologists until World War II and the long Cold War that followed. Since then to the present, studies of military sociology have grown in number and scope. Military sociology is now a well-established and respected subfield within sociology. To survey the field this collection is organized around four major themes: (1) military organization, (2) civil-military relations, (3) the experience of war, and (4) the use and control of force. Taking the origins of military sociology as a starting point: Volume One examines major trends in military organization, the increased diversity of military forces and the military profession. Volume Two considers the military's relationships with the larger society. Sociologists examine how the military is woven into the fabric of society whether as an object of social control or as a representative institution garnering public support. Volume Three is concerned with the experience of war, whether the experience is direct, gained (for example) as a soldier in combat, or indirect, when it is mediated by social constructions of language and other social symbols. Volume Four studies the concept of force, and the varying intensities of conflict across the spectrum of force. It looks at the effects of war on state formation, the problems posed by chronic war, and the prospects for peacekeeping.
A compilation of policy-relevant research by a multidisciplinary group of scholars on the state of families in rural America in the twenty-first century. Examines the impact of economic restructuring on rural Americans and provides policy recommendations for addressing the challenges they face.
In today's world, both cultures and societies are changing more quickly than ever before. The Fourth Edition of Cultures and Societies in a Changing World sheds light on the role culture plays in shaping our social world. A vital and personal aspect of individual identity, culture shapes a person's norms, values, beliefs and practices. This Fourth Edition introduces the sociology of culture and explores cultural phenomena including stories, beliefs, media, ideas, art, religious practices, fashions and rituals from a global-sociological perspective. The author takes a global approach by considering cultural examples from various countries and time periods, by delving into the ways globalization processes are affecting cultures and by offering an explanation of the post-Cold War era culture-related conflicts. Readers will develop a deeper appreciation of culture and society from this text, gleaning useful insights that will help them overcome cultural misunderstandings, conflicts, and ignorance and will help equip them to live their professional and personal lives as effective, wise citizens of the world.
Based on the premise that when students engage in an activity instead of simply reading about it, they understand it better, this book offers 29 hands-on, active learning exercises for use in research methods courses in the social sciences. The activities were created by instructors throughout the United States and tested for effectiveness in their classrooms. They include group activities and solo activities, presented in very accessible language for students. Each exercise is directly related to a concept of research methods and aims to help students become better researchers.
