Sociological Wisdom is based on applying the basic principles of sociology to the world around us. Sociologists study patterns of behavior in order to draw general conclusions about a social issue that transcend the effect of the problem or issue on any particular individual. This is not to say that sociologists are unconcerned about individuals and their lives, but sociology’s emphasis is on the way individuals relate to others, people’s positions in society, and the interdependence between society and individuals. This text teaches students that it is more important than ever to study human behavior, social groups, and society utilizing critical thinking skills and careful analysis associated with sociological wisdom.
Co-authored by Karen A. Cerulo, the Eastern Sociological Society’s Robin L. Williams Lecturer for 2013-2014 Do birds of a feather flock together or do opposites attract? Is honesty the best policy? Are children our most precious commodity? Is education the great equalizer? Adages like these shape our social life. This Sixth Edition of Second Thoughts reviews several popular beliefs and notes how these conventional wisdoms cannot be taken at face value, but instead require careful second thoughts. This unique text encourages students to step back and sharpen their analytic focus with 25 essays that use social research to expose the gray areas of commonly held beliefs, revealing the complexity of social reality and sharpening students’ sociological vision.
Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: THE ECONOMY Essay 20 Welfare Is Ruining This Country A frequently expressed opinion when talk turns to welfare reform is that too many people are on the dole and too many recipients have other options. In this essay, we review some of the least understood dimensions of welfare and explore exactly where welfare moneys are going. Learning More About It Exercises Essay 21 Immigrants Are Ruining This Nation?Why don?t you go back where you came from?? This angry cry seems to be getting more and more familiar as the United States faces the highest levels of immigration in its history. Is immigration ruining this nation? This essay reviews the historical impact and future trends of immigration in the United States. Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY Essay 22 Technology Is Taking Over Our Lives This essay examines new communication technologies and explores their role in contemporary social life. We begin by considering the ways in which technology has changed the development of community and intimacy. We explore as well the impact of new technologies on our definitions of social relations, social actors, and the public and private spheres. Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: EDUCATION Essay 23 Education Is the Great Equalizer Conventional wisdom tells us that educating the masses will bring equal opportunities to people of all races, ethnicities, and genders. In this essay, we explore the truth of this claim and review the progress we have made in bringing a quality education to all. Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: RELIGION Essay 24: We Are One Nation Under God God bless America ... it?s an invocation frequently heard across the U.S. Yet, in light of our country?s long standing commitment to the separation of church and state, God bless America is also a prayer that can make some uncomfortable. Are we united or divided with regard to the place of God in our nation? This essay explores the issue. Learning More About It Exercises Conclusion: Why Do Conventional Wisdoms Persist? The Positive Functions of Conventional Wisdom Conventional Wisdom as Knowledge In Closing Learning More About It References Glossary / Index.
This book reinvigorates the use of wisdom in management and work practice, promoting it as an important research topic and demonstrating how it can be applied across a number of important management areas such as knowledge innovation and strategy.
Steven Threadgold’s study represents the first comprehensive engagement of Pierre Bourdieu’s influential sociology with affect theory. With empirical research and examples from sociology, it develops a theory of “Affective Affinities,” deepening our understanding of how everyday moments contribute to the construction and remaking of social class and aspects of inequalities. It identifies new ways to consider the strengths and weaknesses of Bourdieusian principles and their interaction with new developments in social theory. This is a stimulating read for students, researchers and academics across studies in youth, education, labour markets, pop culture, media, consumption and taste.
William Edward Burghardt DuBois was the most influential black American leader of the first half of the twentieth century. His work paved the way for the civil rights, Pan-African and Black Power movements and inspired generations of leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A brilliant writer and speaker, he was the outstanding black American intellectual of his time and co-founder of the NAACP. Drawing upon his many written works and speeches, this volume collects together some of his most thought-provoking and important ideas.
South Africa’s recent higher education protests around fees and decolonizing institutions have shone a spotlight on important issues and inspired global discussion. The educational space was the most affected by clashes between languages and ideas, the prioritizing of English and Afrikaans over indigenous African languages, and the prioritizing of Western medicine, literature, arts, culture, and science over African ones. Ethical Research Approaches to Indigenous Knowledge Education is a cutting-edge scholarly resource that examines forthcoming methodologies and strategies on educational reform and the updating of curricula to accurately reflect cultural shifts. The book examines the bias and problems that bias creates in educational systems around the world that have been dominated by Western forms of knowledge and scientific processes. Featuring a range of topics such as andragogy, indigenous knowledge, and marginalized students, this book is ideal for education professionals, practitioners, curriculum designers, academicians, researchers, administrators, and students.
This lucidly written textbook covers the historical background of clinical sociology as a field and its developing trends around the world. It addresses the urgent need for sociologists to develop a clinical approach in their effort to improve society, with the emphasis that clinical sociology should complement the work of other disciplines such as clinical psychology, social work, and social anthropology. This book discusses in depth the concept of clinical sociology itself and the obligations of clinical sociologists. It fills a gap in the literature which reveals a lack of discussion and consensus on the roles and responsibilities of clinical sociologists, therefore making an important contribution to clinical sociology, and sociology, more broadly. Graduate students, practitioners and professionals in the field of clinical sociology, social work and other related disciplines will find this book very useful.
The articles collected together in this volume are concerned with why and how people get involved in politics, whether through formal mechanisms such as voting, through some of the more informal means and settings of social movement networks and political protest, or through engagement in public debate. But just as important is the question of why people do not get involved in politics. What social conditions, ideas and values facilitate or discourage political activity? How is it that some people are systematically disempowered in democratic societies in comparison with others? What social forms offer the most promise for extending and deepening democracy? This volume brings togther the most seminal papers, which together form a record of how political sociologists since the 1970s have framed questions about the range and limits of democratic political engagement and developed concepts and methodologies in order to research the answers to those questions.
This volume offers scholars of sociology and allied areas the fruits of an international conference on the contributions of the eminent Robert K. Merton. The assessment, as good in content as well as in participants, took place in Amalfi, Italy, with the participation of Merton himself and under the auspices of the Italian Sociology Association. Carlo Mongardini aptly summarizes the unique impact of Merton on the social theory of our century. "His strength as a classic writer lies in his balance, unveiling complexity, and in his humanism which looks beyond the apparent simplicity and coherence of social reality." A special treat is the final chapter by Merton reviewing "Unanticipated Conse-quences and Kindred Sociological Ideas." In it, he ranges from the historical an-tecedents of the concept to his own evolution in the use and expansion of the idea. Merton approaches the development of his thought as installments rather than sim-ple evolution, and in so doing gives us unique insight into how he built upon his originating notions in the context of social science as it existed in the United States. Tensions between integrating scholarship and reaching the general public provide a special insight into Merton that might prove new even to those who know his work well. Contributors to this original volume include: Volker Meja, Nico Stehr, Paolo Ammassari, Gianni Statera, Birgitta Nedelmann, Harriet Zuckerman, Piotr Sztompka, Peter Gerlich, Charles Crothers, Elena Besozzi, and Arnold Zongerle, among others. The chapters address the full range of Merlon's work, with special emphasis on such areas as anomie, structural analysis, the relationship of theory to research, patterns of latent and manifest influence, and even the application of Mertonian concepts to the analysis of Merton as a scholar. This unusual compendium, translated from the Italian, will interest social researchers across the academic spectrum.
