The third edition of this popular and established core textbook provides an invaluable guide to 24 of the most influential thinkers in Sociology. Written by leading academics in the field, Key Sociological Thinkers provides a clear and contextualised introduction to classical and contemporary theory. Each chapter offers an insightful assessment of a different theorist, exploring their lives, works and legacies, and in a much-valued 'Seeing Things Differently' section authors demonstrate how each thinker's ideas can be used to illuminate aspects of social life in new ways. With frameworks for deep learning around group discussion, this continues be an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate modules on sociological and social theory. New to this Edition: - Four new chapters, on Mead, Du Bois, Latour and Alexander - Five chapters by new authors on existing key thinkers: Durkheim, Merton, Goffman, Bourdieu, and Giddens - A major new introduction - An updated, structured and annotated 'Further Reading' section for each thinker - Extended accounts of 13 additional thinkers who have influenced, or been influenced by, the key thinkers

A clear and manageable overview of major sociological developments for the lay reader Despite the fact that most of us think often about society and social life, few of us have had extensive schooling in how to organize or structure such thought. Guided by the belief that the sociological imagination is impoverished if accessible only to a handful of specialists, Key Sociological Thinkers provides the lay reader with a clear and manageable overview of the major sociological developments from Marx to the present day. Twenty-one concise, thorough chapters introduce the key thinkers in the field; their driving impulses, issues central to their work, substantive examples of the theory in action, their legacy, as well as reading lists meant to stimulate further research. The book's range includes not only canonical figures, such as Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, but feminist, post-structuralist, and post-colonialist thinkers of recent decades, including Nancy Chodorow, Michel Foucault, and Stuart Hall. Other sociologists and social theorists overed include Sigmund Freud, Georg Simmel, Herbert Blumer, Talcott Parsons, Robert Merton, Simone de Beauvoir, Norbert Elias, Erving Goffman, David Lockwood, Harold Garfinkel, Louis Althusser, Jurgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, Arlie Hochschild, and Anthony Giddens. Key Sociological Thinkers is ideal for students new to the field, veterans looking to brush up, and anyone eager to expand their understanding of the world in which we live.

Key Ideas in Sociology provides a tour d'horizon of the great sociological thinkers of the last two centuries -- their lives, their main ideas, and their influence on further thinking and practice in sociology. Fifty key thinkers in sociology are represented, both to give a sense of history to the development of the discipline and to exemplify the range of issues that have been covered. Each essay concludes with an annotated Suggested Readings list, and a General Bibliography is also provided.

This volume is unique in the literature concerning both the sociology of education and Tibetan society. It aims to propose a Tibetan sociology of education, something that no other author has attempted, as well as to provide insights into the nature of Tibetan society both historically and currently through the application of Giddens’ structuration theory supplemented by the work of ancient Tibetan philosopher Je TsongKhapa. Previous Western accounts of Tibetan history and society have lacked “insider” perspectives as well as access to original documentation in the Tibetan language. The author of this volume is Tibetan and does not experience these limitations. He has also taught sociology at the university level and in 1999 published a general textbook on sociology in Tibetan, which attempted to draw on Western theories and apply them to the Tibetan context. In short, the author appears to be highly credible in taking on this extremely ambitious project.

Comprehensive and engaging, this textbook introduces students not only to foundational sociological work, but also to insights from contemporary sociological theory and research. This combined approach ensures that students become familiar with the core of sociology: key concepts, theories, perspectives, methods, and findings. Students will acquire the ability to think like a sociologist, investigate and understand complex social phenomena. This text presents a complete sociological toolkit, guiding students in the art of asking good sociological questions, devising a sophisticated theory and developing methodologies to observe social phenomena. The chapters of this book build cumulatively to equip students with the tools to quickly understand any new sociological topic or contemporary social problem. The textbook also applies the sociological toolkit to selected key sociological issues, showing how specific sociological topics can be easily investigated and understood using this approach. Taking a global and comparative perspective, the book covers a rich diversity of sociological topics and social problems, such as crime, immigration, race and ethnicity, media, education, family, organizations, gender, poverty, modernization and religion. The book presents a range of helpful pedagogical features throughout, such as: Chapter overview and learning goals summaries at the start of every chapter; Thinking like a sociologist boxes, encouraging students to reflect critically on learning points; Principle boxes, summarizing key sociological principles; Theory schema boxes, presenting sociological theories in a clear, understandable manner; Stylized facts highlighting key empirical findings and patterns; Key concepts and summary sections at the end of every chapter; and Companion website providing additional material for every chapter for both instructors and students, including PowerPoint lecture notes, discussion questions and answers, multiple-choice questions, further reading and a full glossary of terms. This clear and accessible text is essential reading for students taking introductory courses in sociology. It will also be useful for undergraduate and graduate courses in other social science disciplines, such as psychology, economics, human geography, demography, communication studies, education sciences, political science and criminology.

CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.

In this Thomson Advantage Books edition of his acclaimed text, a well-known and well-respected author provides this comprehensive yet accessible introduction to population issues, concepts and theories. While keeping larger population issues in perspective, the text closely examines key factors in population processes, from fertility and mortality rates to agricultural production and urbanization. The text addresses both population problems and potential solutions, and engages students with intriguing essays, interesting examples, and up-to-date Internet resources. The text is the most comprehensive book on the market, encompassing the entire field of demography, including principle and practice: Chapters 1 - 8 provide the framework and tools while Chapters 9 - 13 apply these tools and demographic perspectives to real-world situations. The text is a classic in the field, and is respected for its comprehensive and contemporary approach and is now available at a low, student-friendly price.

This text's clear and engaging narrative balances political, social, and cultural history within a clear chronological framework. The Fifth Edition features a thorough revision of the narrative, a complete redesign of the book, and an enhanced art program. The authors explore the enduring vision of the American people, a vision they describe as "a shared determination to live up to the values that give meaning to America." Each chapter has been revised to incorporate the most up-to-date scholarship, with special emphasis placed on technology and public health: "Technology and Culture" boxed features explore the development of new technologies--such as the invention of indoor plumbing and the birth control pill--and their impact on American culture. -- This edition includes up-to-date scholarship on the experiences of women, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans in the United States. -- Chapter 32 presents an integrated narrative and preliminary assessment of recent events from1996 to the present. -- The text features a chapter that consolidates all late-19th century material, examining how industrialization, urbanization, and immigration transformed everyday life, sharpened racial and ethnic divisions, and made Americans more conscious of social class.