A Journey Of Discovering Sociology

This book gathers the author’s interviews with twenty leading sociologists from various fields at nine different prestigious universities in the USA, including their viewpoints, anecdotes and experiences in the world of sociology. Each chapter presents an interview with one sociologist, covering their views on contemporary sociology, their early university experiences, teaching experiences, experiences with publishing, and their reflections on life as a sociologist. Through the dialogues, readers can learn about sociology as well as sociologists’ lives in a unique and insightful way – just as the author did – and embark on a journey of discovering sociology. The book helps readers find their own answers to the two main questions explored: “What is sociology?” and “What is a sociologist’s life like?”

The authors are proud sponsors of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop. What key social forces construct and transform our lives as individuals and as members of society? How does our social world shape us? How do we shape our world? Discover Sociology presents sociology as a discipline of curious minds. The authors inspire curiosity about the social world and empower students by providing the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical tools they need to understand, analyze, and even change the world in which they live. Organized around four main themes—The Sociological Imagination, Power and Inequality, Technological Transformations of Society, and Globalization—the book illuminates the social roots of diverse phenomena and institutions, ranging from poverty and deviance to capitalism and the nuclear family. "Behind the Numbers" features illustrate the practical side of sociology and shows students how to be critical consumers of social science data reported in the media. And every chapter addresses the question, "What can I do with a sociology degree?" by linking the knowledge and skills acquired through studying sociology with specific jobs and career paths. A Complete Teaching & Learning Package SAGE Vantage Digital Option Engage, Learn, Soar with SAGE Vantage, an intuitive digital platform that delivers Discover Sociology, Fourth Edition textbook content in a learning experience carefully designed to ignite student engagement and drive critical thinking. Built with you and your students in mind, it offers easy course set-up and enables students to better prepare for class. Assignable Video Assignable Video (available on the SAGE Vantage platform) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life and appeal to different learning styles. . SAGE Coursepacks FREE! Easily import our quality instructor and student resource content into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. . SAGE Edge FREE online resources for students that make learning easier. . SAGE course outcomes: Measure Results, Track Success Outlined in your text and mapped to chapter learning objectives, SAGE course outcomes are crafted with specific course outcomes in mind and vetted by advisors in the field. .

What key social forces construct and transform our lives as individuals and as members of society? How does our social world shape us? How do we shape our world? Discover Sociology answers these questions as it explores sociology as a discipline of curious and scientific minds. The text is structured around several themes, particularly the unequal distribution of power and authority in all aspects of social life. Going beyond theory and concepts, the authors also demonstrate how studying sociology produces more engaged citizens and opens up a diversity of career paths. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package.

What does it mean to grow up today as working-class young adults? How does the economic and social instability left in the wake of neoliberalism shape their identities, their understandings of the American Dream, and their futures? Coming Up Short illuminates the transition to adulthood for working-class men and women. Moving away from easy labels such as the "Peter Pan generation," Jennifer Silva reveals the far bleaker picture of how the erosion of traditional markers of adulthood-marriage, a steady job, a house of one's own-has changed what it means to grow up as part of the post-industrial working class. Based on one hundred interviews with working-class people in two towns-Lowell, Massachusetts, and Richmond, Virginia-Silva sheds light on their experience of heightened economic insecurity, deepening inequality, and uncertainty about marriage and family. Silva argues that, for these men and women, coming of age means coming to terms with the absence of choice. As possibilities and hope contract, moving into adulthood has been re-defined as a process of personal struggle-an adult is no longer someone with a small home and a reliable car, but someone who has faced and overcome personal demons to reconstruct a transformed self. Indeed, rather than turn to politics to restore the traditional working class, this generation builds meaning and dignity through the struggle to exorcise the demons of familial abuse, mental health problems, addiction, or betrayal in past relationships. This dramatic and largely unnoticed shift reduces becoming an adult to solitary suffering, self-blame, and an endless seeking for signs of progress. This powerfully written book focuses on those who are most vulnerable-young, working-class people, including African-Americans, women, and single parents-and reveals what, in very real terms, the demise of the social safety net means to their fragile hold on the American Dream.

This second edition of a major textbook uses lively prose and a series of carefully-crafted pedagogical features to both introduce sociology as a discipline and to help students realize how deeply sociological issues impact on their own lives. Over the book's 12 chapters, students discover what sociology is, alongside its historical development and emergent new concerns. They will be led through the theories that underpin the discipline and familiarized with what it takes to undertake good sociological research. Ultimately students will be led and inspired to develop their own sociological imagination – learning to question their own assumptions about the society, the culture and the world around them today. Historically, the majority of introductory sociology textbooks have run to many hundreds of pages, discouraging students from further reading. By contrast, Discovering Sociology has been carefully designed and developed as a true introduction, covering the key ideas and topics that first year undergraduate students need to engage with without sacrificing intellectual rigour. New to this Edition: - Two new chapters adding coverage on crime, deviance and political sociology - Updated examples, Vox Pops and case studies keep this new edition feeling fresh and contemporary and ensure diverse coverage, including from beyond Western sociology - Thoughtfully updated and refreshed layout and visual features. Accompanying online resources for this title can be found at bloomsburyonlineresources.com/discovering-sociology-2e. These resources are designed to support teaching and learning when using this textbook and are available at no extra cost.

"This comprehensive introduction to sociology, known for its captivating writing, cross-cultural examples, and careful applications of theory, has long been a classroom favorite for both students and professors. Centered on the unifying theme of the U.S. as an emerging postindustrial society, it provides a framework for exploring family life, religion, sexuality, gender roles, deviance, religion, and the economy. The sociology of art-as a recurring subtheme-is woven into the text and emphasized through numerous paintings and photographs. Specific chapters focus on medicine, technology and the environment, and war and peace."

Discover Sociology explores sociology as a discipline of curious minds, with the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical tools needed to understand, analyze, and even change the world. Organized around the four main themes of The Sociological Imagination, Power and Inequality, Technological Transformations of Society, and Globalization, every chapter in the book illuminates the social roots of diverse phenomena and institutions