This anthology explores the issues and diversity of contemporary families, presenting balanced coverage of racial and ethnic variation and discussing a wide variety of family arrangements and processes. 32 out of the 50 selections included are new to this edition.
This anthology explores the issues and diversity of contemporary families, presenting balanced coverage of racial and ethnic variation and discussing a wide variety of family arrangements and processes. 32 out of the 50 selections included are new to this edition.
Shifting the Center: Understanding the Contemporary Family 5e is a popular anthology of readings used in Sociology of Family and Marriages/Families/Intimate Relationship courses. It's editor, Susan Ferguson, brings together selections written by leading family researchers and drawn from a variety of scholarly sources, including articles from the leading family journals and excerpts from number of classic book-length studies. The table of contents follows the same scope and sequence as the leading family survey texts.
Poverty is a social problem and finding solutions requires us to look closely at our social institutions. This book brings together the most recent quantitative and qualitative data to examine the many dimensions of this problem in the United States.--[book cover].
The far right is back with a vengeance. After several decades at the political margins, far-right politics has again taken center stage. Three of the world’s largest democracies – Brazil, India, and the United States – now have a radical right leader, while far-right parties continue to increase their profile and support within Europe. In this timely book, leading global expert on political extremism Cas Mudde provides a concise overview of the fourth wave of postwar far-right politics, exploring its history, ideology, organization, causes, and consequences, as well as the responses available to civil society, party, and state actors to challenge its ideas and influence. What defines this current far-right renaissance, Mudde argues, is its mainstreaming and normalization within the contemporary political landscape. Challenging orthodox thinking on the relationship between conventional and far-right politics, Mudde offers a complex and insightful picture of one of the key political challenges of our time.
Sociology of Families: Change, Continuity, and Diversity offers students an engaging introduction to sociological thinking about contemporary families in the United States. By incorporating discussions of diversity and inequality into every chapter, author Teresa Ciabattari highlights how structures of inequality based on social divisions such as gender, race, and sexuality shape the institution of the family. The Second Edition has been updated to include the most recent data and statistics, expanded coverage of childhood and parenting, and a new chapter on family violence. Included with this text The online resources for your text are available via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site..
Annotation How do working parents provide care and mobilize the help that they need? Karen V. Hansen investigates the lives of working parents and the informal networks they construct to help care for their children. The book concludes with a series of policy suggestions intended to improve the environment in which working families raise children.
How can the study of families be scientific? What is the difference between postmodern and positivistic approaches? What is the role of models and metaphors in constructing our theoretical knowledge? In Advancing Family Theories, author James M. White addresses such difficult questions that have been longstanding issues within the field of family studies and examines these matters from a social science perspective. Advancing Family Theories explores two contemporary theories of the family-rational choice theory and transition theory. These diametrically different approaches illuminate what differing theories reveal about families. The book also discusses how meta-theories can assist in building and refining theory and offers insight on the understanding versus explanation debate. Advancing Family Theories gives students a precise notion of what a theory is and how theories work in research. The book not only looks at philosophical realms but also examines particular substantive theory to explain and predict family behaviors.
Why are 20-somethings delaying adulthood? The media have flooded us with negative headlines about this generation, from their sense of entitlement to their immaturity. Drawing on almost a decade of cutting-edge research and nearly five hundred interviews with young people, Richard Settersten, Ph.D., and Barbara E. Ray shatter these stereotypes, revealing an unexpected truth: A slower path to adulthood is good for all of us. Their surprising findings include • Young adults who finish college and delay marriage and child-rearing get a much better start in life. • Few 20-somethings who live at home are mooching off their parents. More often, they are using the time at home to gain necessary credentials and save money for a more secure future. • Helicopter parents aren’t so bad after all. Involved parents provide young people with advantages, including mentoring and economic support, that have become increasingly necessary to success. Not Quite Adults is a fascinating look at an often misunderstood generation. It’s a must-read for parents, teachers, psychologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in today’s youth culture. Visit www.notquiteadults.com for more information on this revelatory book.
Though there are still just twenty-four hours in a day, society's idea of who should be doing what and when has shifted. Time, the ultimate scarce resource, has become an increasingly contested battle zone in American life, with work, family, and personal obligations pulling individuals in conflicting directions. In Fighting for Time, editors Cynthia Fuchs Epstein and Arne Kalleberg bring together a team of distinguished sociologists and management analysts to examine the social construction of time and its importance in American culture. Fighting for Time opens with an exploration of changes in time spent at work—both when people are on the job and the number of hours they spend there—and the consequences of those changes for individuals and families. Contributors Jerry Jacobs and Kathleen Gerson find that the relative constancy of the average workweek in America over the last thirty years hides the fact that blue-collar workers are putting in fewer hours while more educated white-collar workers are putting in more. Rudy Fenwick and Mark Tausig look at the effect of nonstandard schedules on workers' health and family life. They find that working unconventional hours can increase family stress, but that control over one's work schedule improves family, social, and health outcomes for workers. The book then turns to an examination of how time influences the organization and control of work. The British insurance company studied by David Collinson and Margaret Collinson is an example of a culture where employees are judged on the number of hours they work rather than on their productivity. There, managers are under intense pressure not to take legally guaranteed parental leave, and clocks are banned from the office walls so that employees will work without regard to the time. In the book's final section, the contributors examine how time can have different meanings for men and women. Cynthia Fuchs Epstein points out that professional women and stay-at-home fathers face social disapproval for spending too much time on activities that do not conform to socially prescribed gender roles—men are mocked by coworkers for taking paternity leave, while working mothers are chastised for leaving their children to the care of others. Fighting for Time challenges assumptions about the relationship between time and work, revealing that time is a fluid concept that derives its importance from cultural attitudes, social psychological processes, and the exercise of power. Its insight will be of interest to sociologists, economists, social psychologists, business leaders, and anyone interested in the work-life balance.