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.
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
Anthony Giddens is the former Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and is now a member of the UK House of Lords. Philip W. Sutton is an independent researcher, formerly of the University of Leeds and Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.
