The writings in this volume highlight Hughes's contributions to the sociology of work and professions; race and ethnicity; and the central themes and methods of the discipline. Hughes was the first sociologist to pay sustained attention to occupations as a field for study and wrote frequently and searchingly about them. Several of the essays in this collection helped orient the first generation of Black sociologists, including Franklin Frazier, St. Clair Drake, and Horace Cayton.
Since the 1960s, radical sociology has had far more influence on mainstream sociology than many observers imagine. This book pairs seminal articles with new reflective essays written by the founders of progressive sociology, including Fred Block, Edna Bonacich, Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, Val Burris, G. William Domhoff, Richard Flacks, Harvey Molotch, Goran Therborn, and Erik Olin Wright. The book highlights the wider impact of radical sociology and shows how the work of these and other writers has continued to influence sociology's continuing interest in capitalism, class, race, gender, power, and progressive social change. It also describes future directions for a critical sociology relevant to a multicultural and global world.
Written by a team of internationally renowned sociologists with experience in both the field and the classroom, The Art and Science of Social Research offers authoritative and balanced coverage of the full range of methods used to study the social world. The authors highlight the challenges of investigating the unpredictable topic of human lives while providing insights into what really happens in the field, the laboratory, and the survey call center.
Randol Contreras came of age in the South Bronx during the 1980s, a time when the community was devastated by cuts in social services, a rise in arson and abandonment, and the rise of crack-cocaine. For this riveting book, he returns to the South Bronx with a sociological eye and provides an unprecedented insiderÕs look at the workings of a group of Dominican drug robbers. Known on the streets as ÒStickup Kids,Ó these men raided and brutally tortured drug dealers storing large amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and cash. As a participant observer, Randol Contreras offers both a personal and theoretical account for the rise of the Stickup Kids and their violence. He mainly focuses on the lives of neighborhood friends, who went from being crack dealers to drug robbers once their lucrative crack market opportunities disappeared. The result is a stunning, vivid, on-the-ground ethnographic description of a drug robberyÕs violence, the drug market high life, the criminal life course, and the eventual pain and suffering experienced by the casualties of the Crack Era. Provocative and eye-opening, The Stickup Kids urges us to explore the ravages of the drug trade through weaving history, biography, social structure, and drug market forces. It offers a revelatory explanation for drug market violence by masterfully uncovering the hidden social forces that produce violent and self-destructive individuals. Part memoir, part penetrating analysis, this book is engaging, personal, deeply informed, and entirely absorbing.
Introducing and presenting thirty core texts from the sociological writings of W. E. B. Du Bois, Robert Wortham's unique reader highlights Du Bois as a multifaceted researcher and thinker who, by attempting to approach African American social life from every angle, became a pioneer in American sociology. As this astute reader demonstrates, in addition to his profound contributions to our understanding of racial inequality in the United States, Du Bois made momentous advances in the areas of research methods, social problems, community studies, population studies, the sociology of religion, and crime and deviance. When sociology appeared to be heading toward a deductive methodology, Du Bois presented a strong argument for inductive methods, advocating for the use of a more interdisciplinary approach. Eventually, combining sociological perspectives with those of history and anthropology, he developed his landmark approach: methodological triangulation. In this long-overdue volume, Wortham showcases the enormous influence of Du Bois's wide-ranging sociological imagination. Organized into four major parts--"The Scientific Study of Society and Social Problems," "Social Structure and Social Processes," "Dimensions of Inequality," and "Social Dynamics"--the reader concludes with a complete biography of Du Bois' early sociological works.
“Avery Gordon’s stunningly original and provocatively imaginative book explores the connections linking horror, history, and haunting. ” —George Lipsitz “The text is of great value to anyone working on issues pertaining to the fantastic and the uncanny.” —American Studies International “Ghostly Matters immediately establishes Avery Gordon as a leader among her generation of social and cultural theorists in all fields. The sheer beauty of her language enhances an intellectual brilliance so daunting that some readers will mark the day they first read this book. One must go back many more years than most of us can remember to find a more important book.” —Charles Lemert Drawing on a range of sources, including the fiction of Toni Morrison and Luisa Valenzuela (He Who Searches), Avery Gordon demonstrates that past or haunting social forces control present life in different and more complicated ways than most social analysts presume. Written with a power to match its subject, Ghostly Matters has advanced the way we look at the complex intersections of race, gender, and class as they traverse our lives in sharp relief and shadowy manifestations. Avery F. Gordon is professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Janice Radway is professor of literature at Duke University.
Ambalavaner Sivanandan was one of Britain's most influential radical thinkers. As Director of the Institute of Race Relations for forty years, his work changed the way that we think about race, racism, globalisation and resistance. Communities of Resistance collects together some of his most famous essays, including his excoriating polemic on Thatcherism and the left "The Hokum of New Times". This updated edition contains a new preface by Gary Younge and an introduction by Arun Kundnani.
Using engaging stories and a diverse cast of characters, Lisa Wade memorably delivers what C. Wright Mills described as both the terrible and the magnificent lessons of sociology. With chapters that build upon one another, Terrible Magnificent Sociology represents a new kind of introduction to sociology. Recognizing the many statuses students carry, Wade goes beyond race, class, and gender, considering inequalities of all kindsÑand their intersections. She also highlights the remarkable diversity of sociology, not only of its methods and approaches but also of the scholars themselves, emphasizing the contributions of women, immigrants, and people of color. The book ends with an inspiring call to action, urging students to use their sociological imaginations to improve the world in which they live.
