Contents
Preface
PART I: The Basics
CHAPTER 1 What Is Sociology?
1.1 What Is Sociology?
The Sociological Imagination
The Discipline of Sociology
Sociology and Everyday Knowledge
1.2 Levels of Analysis
Microsociology
Macrosociology
Institutional Perspectives
1.3 Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts
Solidarity and Conflict
Power and Resistance
Inequality and Privilege
Global and Local
Structure and Contingency
1.4 Why Sociology?
CAREERS: Opportunities for Sociology Majors
CHAPTER 2 American Sociology: Theory and Methods
2.1 Thinking Like a Sociologist
Critical Questions and the Sociological Imagination
2.2 Sociology: Theory and Contexts
Classical Sociology
Sociology in America
Moving Away from Grand Theories
Theories about Difference
The Cultural Turn
Global Context
Sociology Today
2.3 Social Research: Purpose and Process
Social Research and Ethics
Science and Complex Societies
Research Methods and Critical Literacy
Data and Measurement
Variables, Data Collection, and Causal Relationships
Common Strategies for Sociological Research
Basic, Applied, and Public Sociology
CAREERS: The Importance of Theory
CASE STUDY: Understanding Covid-19
PAIRED CONCEPTS
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Protecting Human Subjects in Social Research
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Forgotten Founders in Sociology
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Citizen Science: Using Local Data to Understand Global Patterns
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: The Baby Einstein Phenomenon
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: Race, Difference, and the Politics of Medical Research
PART II: Structure and Control
CHAPTER 3 Culture
3.1 How Do Sociologists Study Culture?
What Is Culture?
Ideal Culture and Material Culture
3.2 Culture and Power
Recognizing and Resisting Cultural Power
3.3 Types of Culture in Today's World
Global Culture
Dominant Cultures and Subcultures
Popular Culture, Commercial Culture, and High Culture
CAREERS: Working in the Creative Industries
CASE STUDY: Protesting the National Anthem
PAIRED CONCEPTS
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: The History of Manga
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: Music and Social Protest
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Fanfiction
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Who Goes to the Museum and Opera?
CHAPTER 4 Socialization, Social Interaction, and Group Life
4.1 Socialization and Selfhood
Nature and Nurture
The Social Self
Agents of Socialization
Adult Socialization
4.2 Interaction and the Social Construction of Reality
Status and Role
Performance and the Social Self
Social Interaction in a Digital Age
4.3 Group Life
Group Size
Primary Groups and Secondary Groups
Reference Groups
Bureaucracy in Group Life
Social Networks in Group Life
CAREERS: Getting a Job: The Strength of Weak Ties
CASE STUDY: Caitlyn Jenner and Gender Socialization
PAIRED CONCEPTS
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Different Styles of Parenting
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: What Is the Meaning of Fair Play? The 2012 Olympic Badminton Controversy
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Challenging Gender Stereotypes with the SlutWalk Campaign
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: The Stanford Prison Experiment
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Bureaucracy in Singapore
CHAPTER 5 Deviance, Crime, and Punishment
5.1 Deviance
Why Does Deviance Exist?
The Social Construction of Deviance
5.2 Crime
Categories of Crime
Policing Crime
Surveillance
5.3 Punishment
Punishment as a Public Display of Morality
Punishment and Treatment
Incarceration
CAREERS: The Criminal Justice Field
CASE STUDY: Why Are Crime Stories So Popular?
PAIRED CONCEPTS
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: Is Chewing Gum Deviant?
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: The Moral Panic over Pandemic Hoarding
POWER AND RESISTANCE: What's Wrong with Graffiti?
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: The Global Drug Trade
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Punishment and Plea Bargaining
PART III: Difference and Inequality
CHAPTER 6 Inequality, Mobility, and Social Change
6.1 What Is Inequality?
Is Inequality Natural or Social?
Is Inequality Good or Bad?
Inequality and Stratification
6.2 Types of Stratification
Caste Systems
Class Systems
Status Systems
Party Systems: Inequality through Meritocracy
6.3 A Portrait of Stratification Today
Stratification in the United States
Global Stratification
6.4 Social Mobility
Social Factors Associated with Mobility
Structural Mobility
6.5 Social Change and the Attempt to Create More Equality
Social Policy
Social Conflict
CAREERS: Social Mobility and Career Planning
CASE STUDY: The Bachelor: Crystallizing Stratification on TV
PAIRED CONCEPTS
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Ending Apartheid in South Africa
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Marketing to the Super-Rich
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Wealthy Chinese Students at Elite US Schools
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: Creating Social Security
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: A Short History of the Workers' Strike in the United States
CHAPTER 7 Race, Ethnicity, and Multiculturalism
7.1 The Social Construction of Race
Race and Biology
The Changing Understanding of Race over Time
Race and Ethnicity
7.2 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the United States
Defining and Measuring Race in Official Government Data
Native Americans
White Ethnic Groups
African Americans
Latinas and Latinos
Asian Americans
7.3 Race, Privilege, and Inequality
The Privileges of Being in the Majority Group
Racial Discrimination and Segregation
Consequences of Discrimination
Racial Conflict
7.4 Multiculturalism and Diversity
Multiculturalism (Movement and Policy)
Multiracial and Multiethnic Identities
7.5 Immigration
Trends in Immigration
What Causes Immigration?
Immigrant Communities
7.6 The Politics of Immigration
Laws About Citizenship and Immigration
Anti-Immigrant Movements
CAREERS: Multiculturalism in the Workplace
CASE STUDY: Intersecting Identities
PAIRED CONCEPTS
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: The Growth and Success of Native American Casinos
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and the Struggle to Define African American Politics
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Latino Computer Engineers from Colombia and Puerto Rico
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: How Irish Americans Became White
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Black Lives Matter
CHAPTER 8 Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
8.1 Sex, Gender, and the Body
Gender and Performance
Gender Stereotypes
8.2 Gender and Power
Masculinity and Femininity
The Gender Order
Divisions of Labor
Workplace Harassment and Sexual Exclusions in Work and Public Spaces
Challenging Patriarchy and the History of the Women's Movement
8.3 Sexuality and the Body
The Marketing of Romance
Heteronormativity
Queer Identities beyond the Closet
CAREERS: Women, Men, and Social Networks
CASE STUDY: Gender Intersections at McDonald's
PAIRED CONCEPTS
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: Classifying Intersex Babies
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Men in Pink-Collar Work
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: Feminist Politics
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Sex Work
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Stonewall
PART IV: Institutions and Issues
CHAPTER 9 Health, Illness, and Medicine
9.1 Health
Geography, Class, Race, Gender, Age, and Other Differences
Genetics
Environment
An Intersectional Understanding of Health Disparities
9.2 Illness
Experiencing Illness Differently
Being a Patient
Medicalization
9.3 Medicine
Public Health
Medical Institutions
Social Responses to Sickness and Illness
Access to Health Care
CAREERS: Sociology and Medicine
CASE STUDY: Genetic Testing
PAIRED CONCEPTS
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: How Inequality Shapes Our Final Years
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Stigma and Size
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: Disruptive Behavior in Medical Settings
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Does Modern Society Make You Sick?
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: Waiting for an Organ Transplant
CHAPTER 10 Marriage, Family, and the Law
10.1 Family and Society
Family, Kinship, and Society
Marriage and Family as Social Institutions
10.2 Changes in Marriage and Family
Traditional Families and Nuclear Families
Divorce
Single-Parent Families
Delay and Decline of Marriage
Boomerang Kids and Sandwich Parents
Transnational Families
10.3 Challenging Family Forms
Feminist Challenges to the Family
Blended Families
Multiracial Families
Lesbian and Gay Families
CAREERS: Marriage and Family Therapists
CASE STUDY: Family Names
PAIRED CONCEPTS
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Legal Biases in Favor of Marriage
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: Disagreements over Parenting Styles
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: "Bird-Nesting" as a Co-Parenting Strategy after Divorce
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: Korean "Wild Geese" Families
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Loving v. Virginia
CHAPTER 11 Politics, Media, and Social Movements
11.1 Politics as the Struggle for Influence
Power, Authority, and Hegemony
11.2 Politics and Democracy
Systems of Representation
Representing the People
11.3 Mediated Politics
Media and Agenda Setting
Economic Distortions of the Media Agenda
11.4 Social Change
Challenging the Powerful
Organizing for Change
Getting Noticed
Movement Success
CAREERS: Sociology and Politics
CASE STUDY: The Strange History of the US Electoral College
PAIRED CONCEPTS
POWER AND RESISTANCE: Public Protests in Tahrir Square
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Who Gets Elected to the US Senate?
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: Push Polls and the Politics of Division
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: Barack Obama and “Joe the Plumber”
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: The Creation of Greenpeace
PART V: Change, Issues, and the Future
CHAPTER 12 Climate Change and Sustainability
12.1 Climate Change and the "Risk Society"
The Unequal Distribution of Environmental Risk
12.2 Controlling the Narrative: Denial and Expertise
Culture, the Media, and Socialization
Science and Religion
12.3 Profit, Politics, and the Environment
Renewable Energy
Corporate Social Responsibility
12.4 Sustainability: Promise and Responsibility
Making Wastefulness Deviant
CAREERS: Job Prospects in the Green Economy
CASE STUDY: The Destruction of the Amazon
PAIRED CONCEPTS
POWER AND RESISTANCE: The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests
INEQUALITY AND PRIVILEGE: Contaminated Water in Flint, Michigan
SOLIDARITY AND CONFLICT: The Battle for Yellowstone
STRUCTURE AND CONTINGENCY: COVID-19 and Air Pollution
GLOBAL AND LOCAL: The Causes and Consequences of Transboundary Water Pollution
Glossary
References
Credits
Index