Introduction to sociology 11th edition pdf

IntroductIon to

Sociology 11 E

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Anthony Giddens LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Mitchell Duneier PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

Richard P. Appelbaum UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,

SANTA BARBARA

Deborah Carr BOSTON UNIVERSITY

B W. W. norton & company, Inc.

New York • London

IntroductIon to

Sociology 11 E

S E a g u l l

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W. W. norton & company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year— W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.

Copyright © 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2009 by Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Appelbaum, and Deborah Carr Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2003 by Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, and Richard P. Appelbaum Copyright © 2000 by Anthony Giddens and Mitchell Duneier Copyright © 1996, 1991 by Anthony Giddens

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The Library of Congress cataloged another edition as follows:

Names: Giddens, Anthony, author.  Title: Introduction to sociology / Anthony Giddens [and three others]. Description: Eleventh edition. | New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2018] |  Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017052564 | ISBN 9780393623956 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Sociology. Classification: LCC HM585.G53 2018 | DDC 301—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017052564

 iSBN 978-0-393-63944-5

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Contents v

contents

PREFACE xiii

Part I: tHE StUDY OF SOCIOLOGY 1

WHat IS SOCIOLOGY? 3

BaSIC CONCEPtS 6

Social Construction 7 • Social Order 8 • Agency and Structure 9 • Social Change 10

tHE DEVELOPMENt OF SOCIOLOGICaL tHINKING 11

Theories and Theoretical Approaches 11 • Neglected Founders 15 • Understanding the Modern World: The Sociological Debate 17

MODErN tHEOrEtICaL aPPrOaCHES 18

Symbolic Interactionism 18 • Functionalism 19 • Conflict Theories 21 • Rational Choice Theory 22 • Postmodern Theory 23 • Theoretical Thinking in Sociology 24

HOW CaN SOCIOLOGY HELP US? 26

aSKING aND aNSWErING SOCIOLOGICaL QUEStIONS 31

BaSIC CONCEPtS 33

The Research Process 34

aSKING aND aNSWErING SOCIOLOGICaL QUEStIONS: HIStOrICaL CONtEXt 37

aSKING aND aNSWErING SOCIOLOGICaL QUEStIONS tODaY: rESEarCH MEtHODS 38

Ethnography 38 • Surveys 40 • Experiments 44 • Comparative Historical Research 45

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 48

Can Sociology Identify Causes and Effects? 48 • How Can Social Research Avoid Exploitation? 49 • Can We Really Study Human Social Life in a Scientific Way? 49

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vi Contents

Part II: tHE INDIVIDUaL aND SOCIEtY 53

CULtUrE aND SOCIEtY 55

BaSIC CONCEPtS 58

Cultural Universals 59 • Nonmaterial Culture 60 • Material Culture 63

tHE SOCIOLOGICaL StUDY OF CULtUrE 64

Culture and Change: A “Cultural Turn” in Sociology? 64 • Early Human Culture: Greater Adaptation to Physical Environment 65 • Industrial Societies 69

rESEarCH tODaY: UNDErStaNDING tHE MODErN WOrLD 71

The Global South 72 • Contemporary Industrial Societies: Cultural Conformity or Diversity? 74

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 80

Does Nature or Nurture More Powerfully Influence Human Behavior? 80 • Does the Internet Promote a Global Culture? 82 • Does Globalization Weaken or Strengthen Local Cultures? 84 • How Easily Do Cultures Change? 85

SOCIaLIZatION aND tHE LIFE COUrSE 91

BaSIC CONCEPtS 94

Agents of Socialization 94 • Social Roles 99 • Identity 100 • Socialization through the Life Course 101

tHEOrIES OF SOCIaLIZatION 105

G. H. Mead and the Development of Self 106 • Charles Horton Cooley and the Looking-Glass Self 106 • Jean Piaget and the Stages of Cognitive Development 107 • Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Gender Identity 109 • Nancy Chodorow’s Theory of Gender Identity 109 • Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Moral Development 110

rESEarCH ON SOCIaLIZatION tODaY: raCE SOCIaLIZatION 110

Race Socialization 110

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 113

Are Gender Differences Caused by Social Influences? 113 • Is It Possible to Practice Nonsexist Child Rearing? 116 • How Do Children Learn to Bully? Can They Unlearn? 116

SOCIaL INtEraCtION aND EVErYDaY LIFE IN tHE aGE OF tHE INtErNEt 121

BaSIC CONCEPtS 123

Impression Management: The World as a Stage 123 • Audience Segregation 126 • Civil Inattention 126 • Nonverbal Communication 127 • Response Cries 129 • Focused and Unfocused Interaction 130 • Interaction in Time and Space 131

tHEOrIES OF SOCIaL INtEraCtION 132

Erving Goffman 132 • Edward T. Hall—Personal Space 133 • Harold Garfinkel: Ethnomethodology 134

CONtEMPOrarY rESEarCH ON SOCIaL INtEraCtION 136

Interactional Vandalism 136 • Interaction on the “Digital Street” 139 • The Macro-Micro Link: Anderson’s Streetwise 140

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Contents vii

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 143

How Do We Manage Impressions in the Internet Age 143 • What Happens When Dating Moves Online? 143 • How Far Can Electronic Communication Substitute for Face-to-Face Communication? 145

GrOUPS, NEtWOrKS, aND OrGaNIZatIONS 151

BaSIC CONCEPtS 153

Groups 153 • Conformity 155 • Organizations 157 • Networks 158

tHEOrIES OF GrOUPS, OrGaNIZatIONS, aND NEtWOrKS 159

In-Groups and Out-Groups 159 • Reference Groups 159 • The Effects of Size 160 • Theories of Organizations 162

CONtEMPOrarY rESEarCH ON GrOUPS aND NEtWOrKS 167

The “McDonaldization” of Society? 167 • Personal Taste 168 • Obesity 169 • The Internet as Social Network 170

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 171

Is Democracy Meaningless in the Face of Increasingly Powerful Bureaucratic Organizations? 171 • How Are Late-Modern Organizations Reinventing Themselves? 172 • Can the Traditional Organization Survive? 174

CONFOrMItY, DEVIaNCE, aND CrIME 179

BaSIC CONCEPtS 181

What Is Deviance? 181 • Norms and Sanctions 183

SOCIEtY aND CrIME: SOCIOLOGICaL tHEOrIES 184

Functionalist Theories 184 • Interactionist Theories 186 • Conflict Theory 188 • Control Theory 189 • Theoretical Conclusions 191

rESEarCH ON CrIME aND DEVIaNCE tODaY 191

Race and the Criminal Justice System 191 • Mass Incarceration 192 • The Death Penalty 194 • Security and Terrorism 195 • Reporting on Crime and Crime Statistics 196 • Victims and Perpetrators of Crime 198

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 203

Why Have Crime Rates Gone Down? 203 • Can We Reduce Crime through New Policing Techniques? 204 • Will New Surveillance Technologies Eliminate Deviance? 206 • Can We Prevent Crime by Building Stronger Communities? 208

Part III: StrUCtUrES OF POWEr 213

StratIFICatION, CLaSS, aND INEQUaLItY 215

BaSIC CONCEPtS 217

Systems of Stratification 217

tHEOrIES OF StratIFICatION IN MODErN SOCIEtIES 224

Marx: Means of Production and the Analysis of Class 224 • Weber: Class and Status 225 • Davis and Moore: The Functions of Stratification 226 • Erik Olin Wright: Contradictory Class Locations 226

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viii Contents

rESEarCH ON SOCIaL StratIFICatION tODaY 228

A Contemporary Portrait of the U.S. Class Structure 228 • Social Mobility: Moving Up and Down the Ladder 233 • Poverty in the United States 236

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 242

Is Inequality Declining or Increasing in the United States? 242 • Why Are Poverty Rates Rising in the United States? The Sociological Debate 244 • What Can Be Done to Combat Poverty? 246 • How Will These Economic Patterns Affect Your Life? 247

GLOBaL INEQUaLItY 251

BaSIC CONCEPtS 253

High-Income Countries 254 • Middle-Income Countries 255 • Low-Income Countries 256

tHEOrIES OF GLOBaL INEQUaLItY 256

Market-Oriented Theories 257 • Dependency Theories 258 • World-Systems Theory 260 • Global Commodity-Chains Theory 262 • Evaluating Theories of Global Inequality 264

rESEarCH ON GLOBaL INEQUaLItY tODaY 265

Health 266 • Hunger and Malnutrition 267 • Education and Literacy 268

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 269

What Are the Causes of Inequality in the World Today? 269 • Is Global Poverty Increasing or Decreasing? 270 • What about Inequality within Countries? 271 • What Does Rapid Globalization Mean for the Future of Global Inequality? 272

GENDEr INEQUaLItY 279

BaSIC CONCEPtS 283

Understanding Sex Differences: The Role of Biology 284 • Gender Socialization: How Gender Differences Are Learned 286 • The Social Construction of Gender: How We Learn to “Do Gender” 288

SOCIOLOGICaL tHEOrIES OF GENDEr INEQUaLItIES 292

Functionalist Approaches 292 • Feminist Theories 294

rESEarCH ON GENDEr tODaY: DOCUMENtING aND UNDErStaNDING GENDEr INEQUaLItIES 298

Gendered Inequalities in Education: Unequal Treatment in the Classroom 299 • Gendered Inequalities in the Workplace 301 • Gendered Inequalities in Families: Division of Household Labor 310 • Gender Inequality in Politics 312

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS: WHY DO GENDEr INEQUaLItIES PErSISt? 313

The Gender Pay Gap: Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men? 313 • How Does Gender Inequality Affect Men? 316 • Why Are Women So Often the Targets of Violence? 317

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Contents ix

raCE, EtHNICItY, aND raCISM 325

BaSIC CONCEPtS 328

Race 328 • Ethnicity 329

tHINKING aBOUt raCISM 330

Defining Racism 330 • Racism in the United States Today 331

raCE aND raCISM IN HIStOrICaL aND COMParatIVE PErSPECtIVE 336

The Rise of Racism 338 • Blacks in the United States 339 • Hispanics and Latinos in the United States 341 • Asian Americans 343 • Models of Ethnic Integration 344 • Global Migration 344

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 347

Do New Immigrants Help or Hinder the Nation’s Economy? 347 • Has Real Progress Been Made Since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s? 349 • How Can Ethnic Conflict Be Reduced? 354

aGING 359

BaSIC CONCEPtS 362

The Graying of Society 362 • How Do People Age? 363

GrOWING OLD: tHEOrIES OF aGING 367

The First Generation of Theories: Functionalism 367 • The Second Generation of Theories: Social Conflict 369 • The Third Generation of Theories: Life Course 369

rESEarCH ON aGING IN tHE UNItED StatES tODaY 370

Who Are America’s Older Adults? 370 • Poverty 372 • Social Isolation 374 • Prejudice 376 • Elder Abuse 377 • Health Problems 378 • Lifelong Learning 379

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS: tHE POLItICaL aND ECONOMIC IMPaCt OF POPULatION aGING 380

Do Older Americans Get an Unfair Amount of Government Support? 381 • Can Medicare and Social Security Survive the “Graying” of America? 382 • How Will Nations of the World Cope with Global Aging? 383

GOVErNMENt, POLItICaL POWEr, aND SOCIaL MOVEMENtS 389

BaSIC CONCEPtS 391

Democracy 391 • The Concept of the State 393

WHO rULES? tHEOrIES OF DEMOCraCY 396

Democratic Elitism 397 • Pluralist Theories 398 • The Power Elite 398

rECENt rESEarCH ON U.S. POLItICS aND SOCIaL MOVEMENtS 401

Democracy in the United States 401 • The Political Participation of Women 407 • Political Participation in the United States 409 • Political and Social Change through Social Movements 411 • The Nation-State, National Identity, and Globalization 422

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 423

Why Is Voter Turnout So Low in the United States? 423 • Did the Internet Shape the Outcome of the 2016 Presidential Election? 425 • Is Democracy in Trouble? 427

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x Contents

Part IV: SOCIaL INStItUtIONS 433

WOrK aND ECONOMIC LIFE 435

BaSIC CONCEPtS 438

tHEOrIES OF WOrK aND ECONOMIC LIFE 441

Types of Capitalism 441 • Fordism and Scientific Management (Taylorism) 443 • Post-Fordism 445 • The Informal Economy 449

CUrrENt rESEarCH ON WOrK aND ECONOMIC LIFE 451

Corporations and Corporate Power 451 • Workers and Their Challenges 457

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 467

Will Automation Make Things Better or Worse for Workers? 468 • What Will the Economy of the Future Look Like? 469 • How Permanent Is Your Job Likely to Be? 470

FaMILIES aND INtIMatE rELatIONSHIPS 475

BaSIC CONCEPtS 478

tHEOrEtICaL aND HIStOrICaL PErSPECtIVES ON FaMILIES 480

Sociological Theories of Families 480 • Historical Perspectives on Families 485

rESEarCH ON FaMILIES tODaY 488

Changes in Family Patterns Worldwide 488 • Marriage and Families in the United States 489 • The Dark Side of Families 507

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 509

Is Cohabitation a Substitute for Marriage? 509 • Does Living Together Help Reduce the Chances for Divorce? 511 • Do Children Raised by Same-Sex Parents Fare Differently Than Children Raised by Opposite-Sex Parents? 513 • Are Single People Less Happy Than Married People? 514

EDUCatION 519

BaSIC CONCEPtS 522

Achievement Gap: Components, Patterns, and Explanations 522 • Cognitive and Noncognitive Resources 523

SOCIOLOGICaL tHEOrIES OF EDUCatION 524

Assimilation 524 • Credentialism 525 • Hidden Curriculum 525 • Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Capital 526

rESEarCH ON EDUCatION tODaY 528

Macrosocial Influences on Student Outcomes: Do Schools and Neighborhoods Matter? 528 • Cultural and Social-Psychological Influences on Student Outcomes 532 • Public-Policy Influences on Student Outcomes 535 • Global Perspectives: Education and Literacy in the Developing World 538 • The Impact of the Media and Educational Technology on Everyday Life 539

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 542

Is Intelligence Shaped by Genes or Environment? 542 • Is Homeschooling a Substitute for Traditional Schooling? 544 • Who Benefits from “International Education”? 545

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Contents xi

rELIGION IN MODErN SOCIEtY 551

BaSIC CONCEPtS 555

How Sociologists Think about Religion 556 • What Do Sociologists of Religion Study? 557 • Types of Religious Organizations 557

SOCIOLOGICaL tHEOrIES OF rELIGION 560

The Classical View 560 • Contemporary Approaches: Religious Economy 564 • Secularization: The Sociological Debate 565

tHE SOCIOLOGY OF rELIGION: CUrrENt rESEarCH 566

World Religions 567 • Religion in the United States 571 • New Religious Movements 575 • Religious Affiliation and Socioeconomic Status 579 • Gender and Religion 580 • The Global Rise of Religious Nationalism 583

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 587

Is America Experiencing Secularization or Religious Revival? 587 • How Resurgent Is Evangelicalism? 588 • Is Religious Violence on the Rise? 589

Part V: SOCIaL CHaNGE IN tHE MODErN WOrLD 595

tHE SOCIOLOGY OF tHE BODY: HEaLtH, ILLNESS, aND SEXUaLItY 597

BaSIC CONCEPtS 602

Changing Conceptions of Health, Illness, and Medicine 602 • Diverse Conceptions of Human Sexuality 603

tHEOrIES aND HIStOrICaL aPPrOaCHES tO UNDErStaNDING HEaLtH, ILLNESS, aND SEXUaLItY 606

Colonialism and the Spread of Disease 606 • Sociological Theories of Health and Illness 607 • History of Sexuality in Western Culture 612

rESEarCH ON HEaLtH, ILLNESS, aND SEXUaLItY tODaY 613

Social Patterning of Health and Illness in the United States 614 • Global Health Inequalities 621 • Contemporary Research on Sexual Behavior over the Life Course 624 • Reproduction in the Twenty-First Century: Pushing the Limits of Technology 629

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 631

Does Income Inequality Threaten Health? 631 • Is Alternative Medicine as Effective as “Mainstream” Medicine? 632 • Are Eating Disorders Primarily a “Women’s” Problem? 634 • Is Sexual Orientation Inborn or Learned? 636

POPULatION, UrBaNIZatION, aND tHE ENVIrONMENt 641

BaSIC CONCEPtS 643

Population Analysis: Demography 643 • Dynamics of Population Change 646

UrBaN SOCIOLOGY: SOME INFLUENtIaL tHEOrIES 649

The Chicago School 649 • Jane Jacobs: “Eyes and Ears upon the Street” 653 • Urbanism and the Created Environment 654 • Saskia Sassen: Global Cities 656

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rECENt rESEarCH ON POPULatION, UrBaNIZatION, aND tHE ENVIrONMENt 658

Premodern Cities 659 • The Rise of the Megalopolis 660 • Urbanization in the Global South 662 • Rural, Suburban, and Urban Life in the United States 665 • Population Growth, Urbanization, and Environmental Challenges 674

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 681

Is There a New Ecological Paradigm? 681 • Will Global Population Growth Outstrip Resources? 683

GLOBaLIZatION IN a CHaNGING WOrLD 689

BaSIC CONCEPtS 691

Social Change 692

CUrrENt tHEOrIES: IS GLOBaLIZatION tODaY SOMEtHING NEW—Or HaVE WE SEEN It aLL BEFOrE? 697

The Skeptics 697 • The Hyperglobalizers 699 • The Transformationalists 699 • Whose View Is Most Nearly Correct? 700

rECENt rESEarCH ON GLOBaLIZatION aND SOCIaL CHaNGE 701

Factors Contributing to Globalization 701 • The Effect of Globalization on Our Lives 705 • Globalization and Risk 708 • Globalization and Inequality 711

UNaNSWErED QUEStIONS 716

What Comes after Modern Industrial Society? 716 • Is There a Need for Global Governance? 717

GLOSSARY A1

BIBLIOGRAPHY A14

CREDITS A84

INDEX A86

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Preface xiii

Preface

W e wrote this book with the belief that sociology plays a key role in mod-ern intellectual culture and occupies a central place within the social sciences. We have aimed to write a book that combines classic theo- ries of sociology with empirically grounded studies and examples from real life that reveal the basic issues of interest to sociologists today. The book does not bring in overly sophisticated notions; nevertheless, ideas and findings drawn from the cut- ting edge of the discipline are incorporated throughout. We hope it is a fair and nonpartisan treatment; we endeavored to cover the major perspectives in sociol- ogy and the major findings of contemporary American research in an evenhanded, although not indiscriminate, way.

maJor tHEmES

The book is constructed around eight basic themes, each of which helps give the work a distinctive character. One of the central themes is the micro and macro link. At many points in the book, we show that interaction in micro-level contexts affects larger, or macro-level, social processes, and that these macro-level pro- cesses influence our day-to-day lives. We emphasize that one can better under- stand a social situation by analyzing it at both the micro and macro levels.

A second theme is that of the world in change. Sociology was born out of the transformations that wrenched the industrializing social order of the West away from the ways of life that characterized earlier societies. The world created by these changes is the primary object of sociological analysis. The pace of social change has continued to accelerate, and it is possible that we stand on the threshold of transitions as significant as those that occurred in the late eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries. Sociology has prime responsibility for charting the transforma- tions of the past and grasping the major lines of development taking place today.

Another fundamental theme is the globalization of social life. For far too long, sociology has been dominated by the view that societies can be studied as independent and distinctive entities. But even in the past, societies never really existed in isolation. In current times, we can see a clear acceleration in processes of global integration. This is obvious, for example, in the expansion of international trade across the world, or the use of social media, which played a key role in recent popular uprisings against repressive governments throughout the Middle East. The emphasis on globalization also connects closely with the weight given to the interdependence of the industrialized and developing worlds today.

The book also focuses on the importance of comparative study. Sociology cannot be taught solely by understanding the institutions of any one particular

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society. Although we have focused our discussion primarily on the United States, we have balanced it with a rich variety of materials drawn from other cultures. These include research carried out in other Western countries and in Russia and eastern European societies, which are currently undergoing substantial changes. The book also includes much more material on developing countries than has been usual in introductory texts. In addition, we strongly emphasize the relationship between sociology and anthropology, whose concerns often overlap. Given the close connections that now mesh societies across the world and the virtual disappear- ance of traditional social systems, sociology and anthropology have increasingly become indistinguishable.

A fifth theme is the necessity of taking a historical approach to sociology. This involves more than just filling in the historical context within which events occur. One of the most important developments in sociology over the past few years has been an increasing emphasis on historical analysis. This should be understood not solely as applying a sociological outlook to the past but as a way of contributing to our understanding of institutions in the present. Recent work in historical soci- ology is discussed throughout the text and provides a framework for the interpreta- tions offered in the chapters.

Throughout the text, particular attention is given to a sixth theme—issues of social class, gender, and race. The study of social differentiation is ordinarily regarded as a series of specific fields within sociology as a whole—and this volume contains chapters that specifically explore thinking and research on each sub- ject (Chapters 8, 10, and 11, respectively). However, questions about gender, race, and class relations are so fundamental to sociological analysis that they cannot simply be considered a subdivision. Thus many chapters contain sections con- cerned with the ways that multiple sources of social stratification shape the human experience.

A seventh theme is that a strong grasp of sociological research methods is crucial for understanding the world around us. A strong understanding of how social science research is conducted is crucial for interpreting and making sense of the many social “facts” that the media trumpet.

The final major theme is the relation between the social and the personal. Sociological thinking is a vital help to self-understanding, which in turn can be focused back on an improved understanding of the social world. Studying sociology should be a liberating experience: The field enlarges our sympathies and imagina- tion, opens up new perspectives on the sources of our own behavior, and creates an awareness of cultural settings different from our own. Insofar as sociological ideas challenge dogma, teach appreciation of cultural variety, and allow us insight into the working of social institutions, the practice of sociology enhances the possibili- ties of human freedom.

orGanIZatIon

Every chapter in the Eleventh Edition follows the same structure, making it easier for students to study. Each chapter opens with an attention-grabbing question that challenges students’ misconceptions about the topic.

Each chapter is broken down into four sections:

1. Basic concepts 2. Important theories 3. Current research 4. Unanswered questions

xiv Preface

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Preface xv

At the end of each section, students have the opportunity to test themselves with integrated “Concept Check” quizzes. “Globalization by the Numbers” infograph- ics transform raw numbers into visually interesting full-page displays that put the United States in a global context, illustrating for readers how the United States compares to other countries on key metrics. Furthermore, the Eleventh Edition features “Big Picture” concept maps that integrate the learning objectives, key terms, “Concept Checks,” and “Thinking Sociologically” activities into a handy one-stop review tool at the end of each chapter.

The chapters follow a sequence designed to help students achieve a progressive mastery of the different fields of sociology, but we have taken care to ensure that the book can be used flexibly and will be easy to adapt to the needs of individual courses. Chapters can be deleted or studied in a different order without much loss. Each has been written as a fairly autonomous unit, with cross-referencing to other chapters at relevant points.

What’s NeW iN the eLeveNth editioN

chapter 1 (What is Sociology?): In the “Theories and Theoretical Approaches” section, a new discussion of the life and work of Herbert Spencer has been added. The discussion of W. E. B. DuBois references Aldon Morris’s new book, The Scholar Denied, and includes a new discussion of double consciousness and DuBois’s later life. The discussion of conflict theories in sociology has been expanded, now with dedicated subsections on Marxism and feminist theories. The discussion of Jean Baudrillard and postmodernity now references the phenomenon of reality TV.

chapter 2 (asking and answering Sociological Questions): Quantitative methods and qualitative methods have been added as new key terms. The discus- sion of ethnography now touches on issues related to generalizability. The section on sampling has been expanded and representative sample has been added as a key term. The section on experiments now includes a discussion of causality. A new full-page Globalization by the Numbers infographic, titled “Opinion of the United States,” captures the considerable differences among nations in the proportion of the population that holds favorable attitudes toward the United States—and shows how these attitudes have changed over time, including since the election of Donald Trump. This data is also presented in a new table. The discussion of divorce rates has been updated with more recent data.

chapter 3 (culture and Society): The chapter opener has been updated with more recent data on social media usage. The “Basic Concepts” section has been completely reorganized to ensure a better flow and now includes a dedicated sec- tion on nonmaterial culture, which has been added as a key term. The “Values and Norms” section now includes a new discussion of the characteristics of “American” culture. Data on smoking among U.S. adults have been updated to highlight chang- ing norms. The section on the cultural turn in sociology now includes a new discussion of Wendy Griswold’s “cultural diamond.” The discussion of industrial societies now highlights the shift toward a postindustrial society. Part 3 includes a new discussion of how power relations are culturally embedded. Pierre Bour- dieu’s concept of cultural capital is introduced and the three forms of cultural capital explained. In the section on the global south, data on poverty have been updated. A new section on cultural appropriation has been added, with research by George Lipsitz. Countercultures has been added as a key term, along with a discus- sion of gays and lesbians in the twentieth century. In Part 4, the discussion of the

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nature/nurture debate has been expanded and now highlights research by Peter Bearman, Molly Martin, Andrew Penner, and Bernice Pescosolido. The discussion of the Internet and whether it is hastening the spread of a global culture now high- lights recent developments in the Middle East, including the fact that Apple had to remove the built-in Facetime app in order to sell the iPhone there. A new Global- ization by the Numbers infographic explores how countries around the world view national identity and determine whether a person is a “true” American, German, or Swede, including the importance of birthplace, language, and national customs and traditions. In the discussion of how easily cultures change, William F. Ogburn’s concept of cultural lag is introduced and gene editing proposed as an example of a technology that could cause cultural lag.

chapter 4 (Socialization and the life course): The discussion of agents of socialization has been expanded and now touches on both resocialization and anticipatory resocialization, which have been added as key terms. The section on families as agents of socialization now discusses Annette Lareau’s study of the differing child-rearing strategies employed by upper-middle-class and working- class parents. The section on schools and education has been expanded and now introduces the topic of the hidden curriculum. The discussion of the mass media as an agent of socialization has been thoroughly revised and now considers studies of violent media, including violent video games. This section also includes recent data on Internet and social media use. The section on work now touches on Arlie Hochschild’s (1983) in-depth interview study of emotion work. The discussion of identity now introduces and explains the concept of a “master status,” which has been added as a key term. In the “Socialization through the Life Course” section, data on child abuse have been updated. The debate about today’s children growing up too fast is now balanced with a counterargument. Within the section on young adulthood, a new graph looks at how the transition to adulthood is being delayed today by comparing the proportion of young adults who had hit certain benchmarks in 1975 versus 2015. A section on midlife, a new life course stage recognized in the twentieth century, has been added. The discussion of later life has been updated with the most recent data on the size of the older population. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic, “Life Course Transitions,” has been updated with the most current data, and a new data point on life expectancy has been added. In Part 2 on theories of socialization, a discussion of Charles Horton Cooley’s “looking- glass self” has been added. Part 3 now centers on recent research on race socializa- tion, highlighting the recent string of police shootings of unarmed black men. The discussion of gender learning has been thoroughly reworked, citing more research, including a recent study of the way boys and girls are portrayed in children’s pro- gramming. It also points out how stores like Target are eliminating gender divi- sions in their toy sections. A new “Unanswered Question” has been added: “How do children learn to bully? Can they unlearn?” This new section explores the origins of bullying and also highlights the findings of a recent social network analysis study of anti-bullying initiatives.

chapter 5 (Social interaction and Everyday life in the age of the internet): Parts 2 and 3 of this chapter have been reorganized to ensure a better flow. A new Globalization by the Numbers infographic, “Who owns a smart- phone?” illustrates how rates of smartphone ownership in developing countries have skyrocketed in recent years and yet a significant digital divide remains; the infographic also breaks down smartphone ownership in the United States by age, educational attainment, and income. Trolling is highlighted as a new online form of interactional vandalism. Part 3 now includes a discussion of Jeffrey Lane’s recent

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ethnographic study of interaction on the “digital street,” specifically how social media is reshaping street interactions between teenagers in low-income urban areas. In Part 4, the discussion of impression management in the Internet age now references the April 2017 incident in which Harvard rescinded admissions offers to at least 10 students for their participation in a controversial Facebook chat group. A new “Unanswered Question” has been added: “What happens when dating moves online?” This discussion of online dating includes data on usage and also high- lights a recent social network analysis study of 126,000 dating site users that found strong evidence of homogamy and hypergamy.

chapter 6 (groups, Networks, and organizations): The learning objective for Part 4 has been reworked. Data on obesity in America have been updated. In the section on the Internet as social network, data on Internet usage and disparities in access have been updated. In Part 4, data on telecommuting have been updated. The data in the “Globalization by the Numbers” infographic on Internet connectivity have been updated.

chapter 7 (conformity, Deviance, and crime): The Globalization by the Numbers infographic has been updated with the most recent data on global incar- ceration rates. Data on the state and federal prison population have been updated. The discussion of public opinion on capital punishment has been updated and now includes a new figure charting public opinion. The section on crime statistics now introduces the Uniform Crime Reports. Data on crime reporting, violent and property crime rates, arrests by gender, and hate crimes have all been updated. A new figure, titled “Rate of Violent Victimization,” compares victimization rates by gender, race, and residence.

chapter 8 (Stratification, class, and inequality): The chapter opener has been updated with student loan debt figures from the class of 2016. In the discus- sion of systems of stratification, Max Weber’s concept of life chances is introduced and defined. The discussion of income distribution in the United States has been updated and now considers average income growth between 2009 and 2015. Data on wealth inequality, including racial disparities in wealth, have been updated. In the section on education, a new figure compares the median earnings of young adults by educational attainment in 2015. The discussion of the richest Americans has been updated and now highlights cofounder and CEO of Snapchat as a recent addition. In the section on the working class, the unemployment rate as well as median weekly earnings by educational attainment have been updated. Cultural capital has been made a key term in this chapter. The discussion of social mobility in the United States has been updated based on a 2016 report on equity in higher education as well as updated data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic, which compares levels of income inequality in different countries, now highlights both the income share held by the top 10 percent of the population as well as the bottom 10 percent of the population in order to give a fuller picture of income inequality; the distribution of income in the United States has been updated with 2015 data. The discussion of poverty in the United States, including number and percentage in poverty and the federal poverty line, has been updated with 2015 data. The discussion of the working poor has been updated based on a 2017 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data on pov- erty rates by race/ethnicity have been updated. A new figure shows poverty rates by race and age. Data on the elderly poverty rate as well as data on Social Security have been updated. The discussion of homelessness in the United States has been updated. In Part 4, the unanswered question about how current economic patterns

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will affect our lives now discusses an important 2016 study by Stanford economist Raj Chetty about intergenerational income mobility that found that only 50 percent of today’s young adults are likely to outearn their parents.

chapter 9 (global inequality): The chapter opener has been substantially revised based on the most recent rankings of the richest people in the world, now highlighting Zara founder Amancio Ortega. Data on the number of global billion- aires as well as global wealth inequality overall have been updated. The learning objectives for the chapter have been reworked to reflect content changes. In the basic concepts section, GDP data and the related World Bank income classifications have been updated, along with Global Map 9.1. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic has been updated with the most current data from the World Bank on GNI, population, population growth, life expectancy, fertility rate and infant mor- tality rate. Throughout the sections comparing high-income, middle-income, and low-income countries, data have been updated. In the discussion of global commod- ity chains, the statistics on global exports have been updated and the ranking of the world’s most valuable brands updated. In Part 3, data on world population growth and urbanization rate have been updated. In the section on health, the discussion of immunization rates has been expanded and now references recent measles out- breaks among unvaccinated populations; the discussion of the 2014 Ebola outbreak has also been updated. The section on hunger and malnutrition now includes a dis- cussion of hunger in war-torn countries such as Syria as well as the future impact of global climate change on agricultural production. Data related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been updated. In the section on education and literacy, data on lit- eracy rates in low-income and high-income countries have been updated. In Part 4, “Unanswered Questions,” the discussion of whether global poverty is increasing has been expanded and now looks at who makes up the global poor; it also reflects the World Bank’s revised definition of poverty. A new question, “What about inequal- ity within countries?” has been added, including a new figure that shows the share of total income going to the top 1 percent from 1900–2013 in two different sets of countries. The question related to globalization now includes a discussion of Brexit.

chapter 10 (gender inequality): The chapter-opening discussion of female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies has been revised to reflect 2017 data as well as recent gender-discrimination lawsuits at Fox News and Google. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is now introduced. A discussion of Sandra Lipsitz Bem’s classic The Lenses of Gender has been added, along with the key term biological essentialism. A new discussion of a national study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration illustrates how as gender roles change, girls may become more physically aggressive. The discussion of baby Storm, whose parents kept the baby’s sex a secret, has been updated. The section on the social con- struction of gender has been expanded to include the example of Nikki Jones’s study of young inner-city African American women. In the section on cross-cultural research, a discussion of Margaret Mead’s New Guinea study, Sex and Tempera- ment in Three Primitive Societies, has been added. The discussion of transgen- der individuals has been expanded and transgender has been made a key term. In Part 2, a new section on socialist feminism has been added. Transnational femi- nism is also discussed. In the section on gendered inequalities in education, a new study by the Department of Education illustrates how black boys are more likely than white boys to be disciplined harshly. Data throughout the section on gendered inequalities in the workplace, including women’s labor force participation and occupational segregation, have been updated. A discussion of men’s declining labor

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force participation has been added. Recent initiatives that encourage more women to pursue high-tech professions are highlighted. The discussion of the gender pay gap, along with the accompanying figure, have been updated with 2016 data. A new section on gender inequalities in entrepreneurship provides statistics on women- owned business firms and discusses Sarah Thébaud’s 2015 experimental research on perceptions of female business owners. In the section on sexual harassment, the 2017 incident at Fox News is now discussed. The discussion of global gendered inequalities has been substantially revised based on a 2016 report by the Interna- tional Labour Organization, highlighting recent initiatives adopted by Japan to promote gender equity. Data on female participation in senior management posi- tions across the globe have been updated. The discussion of the division of house- hold labor now highlights data from the 2016 American Time Use Survey. New research on the “flexibility stigma” faced by working fathers is discussed. The dis- cussion of gender inequality in politics has been updated. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic on gender inequality shows countries’ most up-to-date rat- ings on the Gender Inequality Index as well as current statistics on women’s labor force participation, representation in government, and participation in secondary school. In Part 4, a new section presents Sweden as an example of a country with progressive family-leave policies. A new unanswered question, “How does gender inequality affect men?” highlights recent research into how traditional gender role beliefs and practices exert a profound toll on men. The section on sexual assault now discusses the Stanford rape case; data on the sexual assault of men have been added.

chapter 11 (Race, Ethnicity, and Racism): A new chapter-opening quiz and accompanying discussion highlights predictions by the U.S. Census that the United States will soon be a “majority-minority” nation, tracing the history of racial cat- egorization in the United States in order to present race as a social construction. The learning objectives have been revised to reflect the significant changes to the chapter. In the basic concepts section, the discussion of race has been expanded and reconceived and its accompanying definition has been significantly revised. The discussion of ethnicity has also been expanded. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic has been updated to reflect the most up-to-date racial and ethnic popu- lations in a number of countries. An overhauled Part 2 (“Thinking about Racism”) now includes new discussions of Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s concept of color blindness as well as the concept of white privilege. The discussion of institutional racism has been expanded and now takes an in-depth look at the Department of Justice report produced in 2015 in response to a grand jury’s exoneration of a white police offi- cer in Ferguson, Missouri, in the shooting death of Michael Brown. A new section, titled “Overt Racism: Racism with Racists,” tackles the 2016 presidential election as well as recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia. A new discussion of racial microaggressions has been added. Data throughout Part 3, including the sizes of the main racial/ethnic groups in the United States and the migrant population, have been updated. The discussion of Puerto Ricans now references the 2017 referen- dum. In Part 4, the discussion of immigration has been thoroughly updated with more recent data, including the size of the foreign-born population in the United States, the demographic makeup of the immigrant population, and the number of unauthorized immigrants. Data on the educational attainment of racial minori- ties have been updated, along with the accompanying figures. Data in the section on employment and income, including unemployment rates and earnings by racial group, have been updated. The section on health now documents how the racial gap in infant mortality and life expectancy has actually decreased in recent years. The discussion of residential segregation now highlights a recent report on segregation

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60 years after the landmark passage of Brown. The section on political power has been updated to reflect the recent election.

chapter 12 (aging): In the opener, data on the size of the older population in the United States have been updated. In the discussion of the graying of society, data on life expectancy have been updated. The figures showing the median age of the U.S. population as well as average life expectancy have both been updated. The discussion of Alzheimer’s disease has been updated based on a 2017 report by the Alzheimer’s Association. Data in the section on poverty, including percentage of older adults who receive Social Security and median income of older households, have been updated. Elderly poverty rates by race and gender have been updated, along with the accompanying figure. Data on the percentage of older Americans using social media have been updated. The discussion of elder abuse has been updated, including new estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse. The discussion of health problems among older adults has been updated, including data on out-of- pocket health care expenditures and costs related to nursing homes. In Part 4, the discussion of the political impact of population aging now considers voter turn- out in the 2016 presidential election. The section on government support has been updated with a recent poll on the state of Social Security. The discussion of Medi- care and Social Security has been updated with 2017 data. A new Globalization by the Numbers infographic shows the predicted growth of the elderly population in eleven different countries as well as the age and race breakdown of the older popu- lation in the United States. The discussion of global aging has been updated based on a 2017 report by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs on world population projections.

chapter 13 (government, Political Power, and Social Movements): The chapter opener has been updated, including the percentage of the world popula- tion that lives in countries considered “free” by Freedom House. In Part 1, a new section dedicated to “populist authoritarianism” has been added; populism and authoritarianism have been added as key terms. The discussion of citizenship rights has been expanded and now considers recent anti-immigration policies. The section on the power elite now explains the concept of the “deep state” and includes a discussion of the Trump cabinet and its net worth. Figure 13.1 on military bud- gets has been updated with data for 2016. In Part 3, the discussion of democracy in the United States now considers the rise of populist movements. The section on elections now highlights Trump’s 2016 Electoral College win as well as the rise of populist authoritarianism in Europe. A discussion of voting patterns in the 2016 presidential election, including voter preferences by income, age, race, and educa- tion, has been added. The discussion of why support for Democrats has eroded has been revised and highlights the results of a 2017 poll of 18- to 29-year-olds. The discussion of party identification has been updated. A new discussion of the 2016 elections, specifically the role of the alt-right movement, has been added. The sec- tion on interest groups has been expanded and now includes a detailed discussion of spending in the 2016 election. A new figure shows totals spent on congressional and presidential elections from 1998 to 2016. The section dedicated to the political participation of women includes a new discussion of the strong gender gap in the 2016 election as well as the United States’ current global ranking based on percent- age of women in a country’s lower legislative house. A discussion of the role of the Internet and social media in the 2016 presidential election, specifically Trump’s use of Twitter to mobilize his supporters, has been added to the section on political participation. The discussion of social movements includes a reference to the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. The section on technology and social movements

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has been updated and now considers the rise of anti-immigration political move- ments throughout Europe, including the role of social media in Brexit. The discus- sion of nationalism now considers the work of Benedict Anderson on how national identities are socially constructed. A new section considers states without nations, including Sudan; a new map of Africa compares colonial boundaries with tribal and ethnic groups. In Part 4, the discussion of why voter turnout is so low in the United States has been substantially revised to reflect turnout in the 2016 presidential election as well as new research on the impact of voter ID laws on low-income and minority voters. A new question asks, “Did the Internet shape the outcome of the 2016 presidential election?” The discussion of whether democracy is in trouble highlights a recent Pew survey on size of government as well as a recent ranking of OECD countries based on government spending.

chapter 14 (Work and Economic life): The chapter-opening discussion of Pou Chen has been updated and now references the shoes worn by Usain Bolt at the Rio Olympics. In the basic concepts section, the discussion of the value of house- work has been updated based on a more recent report by Bridgman et al. Data on volunteering have been updated. In the section on the different types of capitalism, the discussion of media conglomerates has been updated. Data on the informal economy have been updated. The discussion of corporate mergers and acquisitions considers recent moves by Chinese firms. In the section on transnational corpo- rations, the revenues of the world’s 500 largest firms have been updated as well as the accompanying table showing the largest 50 economies. Data in the section on strikes, including the figure showing work stoppages involving 1,000 workers or more, have been updated. In the section on unemployment, the discussion of unem- ployment since the recession has been updated. The figure showing unemployment in the United States has been updated through 2016. Data in the section on labor unions, including union membership and median weekly earnings of unionized vs. nonunionized workers, have been updated. In Part 4, the unanswered ques- tion about automation has been significantly revised and now considers how rapid advances in software hold the promise of automating occupations that currently require college degrees. The unanswered question about the permanency of future jobs has been updated based on a 2016 report on the rise and nature of alternative work arrangements that found that the proportion of the U.S. workforce engaged in alternative work arrangements has increased more than 50 percent in the last decade.

chapter 15 (Families and intimate Relationships): The chapter-opening question has been reworked and is now presented as a multiple-choice question about the proportion of children who live in a typical family made up of a mother, father, and their children. In the opener, data on U.S. families and households have been updated and the media examples have been swapped out, highlighting recent ads for Google Home and Honey Maid. The discussion of polygamy has been revised. In the section on functionalism, the discussion of critiques of Parsons’s view of families has been expanded. A new section on symbolic interactionist approaches to families has been added. In the section on feminist approaches, the discussion of housework has been updated with data from the 2015 Time Use Survey as well as new research on same-sex couples. In the section on historical perspectives on families, data on average household size have been updated. In Part 3, five addi- tional trends in family change are highlighted. In the section on marriage and families in the United States, data on median age at first marriage, cohabitation, and average age at first birth have all been updated. The Globalization by the Num- bers infographic on maternity leave benefits has been refreshed with a handful of

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new countries as well as more current data from the International Labour Organi- zation. The discussion of social class now references the opioid epidemic. Data in the section on nonmarital childbearing, along with the accompanying figure, have been updated. The discussion of divorce has been updated with more recent data on the economic toll of divorce on men. Data in the sections on remarriage and single- parent families have been updated. A new section on child-free families has been added. The discussion of same-sex marriage has been updated and now highlights a 2017 ruling in Taiwan that has paved the way for gay marriage in that country.

chapter 16 (Education): The chapter-opening question and accompanying dis- cussion of high school graduation rates has been updated with the most recent data. The discussion of education inequality by neighborhood highlights new statistics on school funding. The discussion of school discipline now draws on a recent report by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, which found that black students are disproportionately referred to law enforcement. Racial gaps in SAT scores are now highlighted. The statistics reflecting the gender gap in education have been updated. The percentage of women pursuing degrees in STEM fields has been added. In the section on educational reform, a new discussion of functional literacy has been added. Data on global literacy, including the adult literacy rates map, have been updated. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic has been refreshed with a new selection of countries. In Part 4, the discussion of interna- tional education has been updated with data from the 2015–2016 academic year.

chapter 17 (Religion in Modern Society): The chapter-opening discussion of the world’s fastest-growing religions has been significantly revised based on the 2017 report by the Pew Research Center on the changing global religious land- scape. The discussion of secularization has been updated with more recent data on the percentage of Americans who report attending church on a weekly basis as well as the percentage of the population in countries across the globe who say that reli- gion is very important in their lives. The discussion of the growing number of Mus- lims in the world now reflects more recent data. The Globalization by the Numbers infographic has been updated with more recent data on global religious affiliation as well as religious affiliation in the United States. Global Map 17.1 on major reli- gions of the world has been simplified. The discussion of trends in religious affilia- tion in the United States, specifically the “rise of the nones,” has been updated. The declining membership of Catholicism is examined. Views on same-sex marriage are compared among the major religious groups in the United States. In the sec- tion on Islamic revivalism, the discussion of ISIS has been updated to reflect recent developments, including recent territory losses. The discussion of the growth in evangelicalism has been updated with more recent data. In the section on religious violence, a discussion of public opinion regarding ISIS among Muslim-majority countries has been added.

chapter 18 (The Sociology of the Body: Health, illness, and Sexuality): In the opener, data on obesity in the United States have been updated and a new map added. A new Globalization by the Numbers infographic compares obesity rates worldwide. In the section on symbolic interactionist approaches, a new study of attitudes toward people with schizophrenia is discussed and stigma has been added as a new key term. New research is highlighted in the section on social class– based inequalities in mental health. In the discussion of race-based inequalities in health, data on life expectancy, infant mortality, median wealth, cigarette smoking, and rates of hypertension have all been updated. The discussion of the gender gap in health has been updated with more recent data as well as new research on the widening education gap in mortality among U.S. white women. In the section on

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global health inequalities, data on malaria and the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been updated. The section on sexual behavior over the life course highlights 2015 data on the percentage of high school students who report having had intercourse. The dis- cussion of homophobia now references the results of a 2015 survey of LGBT youth and their experiences with bullying. The discussion of same-sex marriage has been updated to reflect recent developments, including an updated list of countries where same-sex marriage is legal. The unanswered question about whether income inequality threatens health has been updated with 2015 data on income distribu- tion in the United States. The section on complementary and alternative medicine has been updated with more current statistics on usage. The discussion of medical marijuana has been updated to reflect recent legislation.

chapter 19 (Population, urbanization and the Environment): The chap- ter-opening discussion of world population growth has been updated based on the 2017 revision of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affair’s World Popula- tion Prospects report. In the section on basic concepts, data on birthrates, death rates, and infant mortality have all been updated. The discussion of demographic transition has been expanded and now includes a new figure of the four stages; dependency ratio has been added as a key term. Part 3 has been reorganized and now begins with premodern cities, moves to the rise of the megalopolis and then considers urbanization in the global south. Data on urbanization have been updated and a new figure shows the proportion urban by income group. In the section on the environmental challenges of urbanization, a new discussion of heat-related deaths in India and water woes in Pakistan has been added. The section on the social chal- lenges of urbanization now highlights specific examples of countries with youth- ful populations. The discussion of rural America now touches on the current opioid epidemic and rising suicide. Data in the section on suburbanization on the grow- ing diversity of suburbs have been updated. The section on urban problems now includes a new discussion of Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, which shows how racial segregation today is largely due to governmental housing policies. This section also highlights recent research by Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond on eviction and the destructive impact of housing insecurity on relations among the poor. The discussion of the environment has been expanded, with new information on China; data on per-person national income have been updated. The discussion of energy use now mentions Bill Freudenberg’s disproportionality thesis; energy use projections have been updated. The discussion of global warming and climate change has been thoroughly updated, highlighting the Paris climate accord. In Part 4, a new question asks, “Is there a new ecological paradigm?” The accompanying discussion introduces the terms human exceptionalism paradigm, new ecological paradigm, and Anthropocene.

chapter 20 (globalization in a changing World): In the chapter opener, data on film production have been updated based on 2015 data from UNESCO. The sec- tion on political changes driving globalization now explores the recent challenges the United Nations and European Union have faced, including new discussions of the refugee crisis and Brexit. New examples of IGOs have been added. A discussion of the emergence of a form of nationalism based on ethnicity, religion, or culture has been added. New research on transnational corporations has been added; data on transnational corporations and the revenue of the top 500 corporations have been updated. The discussion of genetically modified foods has been updated with more recent data. Data on global poverty and global trade have also been updated. The section on the campaign for global justice now considers recent criticism against free trade agreements levied by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Data on farm

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subsidies in the United States have been updated. A new Globalization by the Num- bers infographic paints a picture of wealth inequality around the world.

aCKNoWLedGMeNts

During the writing of all eleven editions of this book, many individuals offered comments and advice on particular chapters and, in some cases, large parts of the text. They helped us see issues in a different light, clarified some difficult points, and allowed us to take advantage of their specialized knowledge in their respective fields. We are deeply indebted to them. Special thanks go to Chris Wegemer, who worked assiduously to help us update data in all chapters and contributed signifi- cantly to the editing process.

We would also like to thank the many readers of the text who have written with comments, criticisms, and suggestions for improvements. We have adopted many of their recommendations in this new edition.

Ryan Acton, University of Massachusetts–Amherst

Ryan Alaniz, University of Minnesota

Cristina Bradatan, Texas Tech University

Joseph Boyle, Brookdale Community College

Andrew Butz, Portland Community College

Rob Crosnoe, University of Texas at Austin

Janette Dill, University of Akron

Nancy Downey, University of Nevada, Reno

David Embrick, Loyola University Chicago

Kathryn J. Fox, University of Vermont

Kelly Fulton, University of Texas at Austin

Farrah Gafford, Xavier University of Louisiana

Robert Gallagher, Broward College

Chad Goldberg, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Kerry Greer, Indiana University

Heather Guevara, Portland Community College

Drew Halfmann, University of California, Davis

Gregory Hamill, Oakton Community College

Ted Henken, Baruch College (CUNY)

Cedric Herring, University of Illinois at Chicago

Olivia Hetzler, County College of Morris

Nicole Hindert, Northern Virginia Community College

Christine Ittai, Stetson University

Hanna Jokinen-Gordon, Florida State University

Tony S. Jugé, Pasadena City College

Xavia Karner, University of Houston

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Kevin Keating, Broward College

Alissa King, Kirkwood Community College

Megan Klein, Oakton Community College

Christopher Knoester, Ohio State University

Jenny Le, Texas A&M University

Alexander Lu, Indiana University

Timothy Madigan, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania

Aaron Major, University at Albany (SUNY)

Robert Mackin, Texas A&M University

John Malek-Ahmadi, College of Western Idaho

Catherine Marrone, Stony Brook University (SUNY)

Mike McCarthy, New York University

Stephanie Medley-Rath, Lake Land College

Glenda Morling, Kellogg Community College

Julie Netto, Western Connecticut State University

Roger Neustadter, Northwest Missouri State University

Erik Nielsen, Pennsylvania State University

Lauren Norman, Delta State University

Mary Pattillo, Northwestern University

Margaret Preble, Thomas Nelson Community College

Lina Rincon, Framingham State University

Teresa Roach, Florida State University

Kim Smith, Portland Community College

David Tabachnick, Muskingum University

Ahoo Tabatabai, Columbia College of Missouri

Oliver Wang, California State University, Long Beach

Amanda White, St. Louis Community College

Claire Whitlinger, Furman University

Rowan Wolf, Portland Community College

Jane Zavisca, University of Arizona

We have many others to thank as well. We are extremely grateful to project edi- tor Katie Callahan, production managers Elizabeth Marotta and Stephen Sajdak, and editorial assistants Miranda Schonbrun and Erika Nakagawa for managing the myriad details involved in producing this book. Media editor Eileen Connell and associate media editor Mary Williams deserve special thanks for creating all the rich materials, including the InQuizitive course, test bank, DVDs, and other instructor-support materials that accompany the book. Cat Abelman and Elyse Rieder painstakingly researched the best photos to grace these pages. Art director Hope Miller Goodell, designer Chin-Yee Lai, and Kiss Me I’m Polish showed excep- tional flair and originality in designing and illustrating the book.

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We are also grateful to our editors at Norton, Steve Dunn, Melea Seward, Karl Bakeman, and Sasha Levitt, who have made many direct contributions to the various chapters, and have ensured that we made reference to the very latest research. We would also like to register our thanks to a number of current and for- mer graduate students—many of whom are now tenured professors at prestigious universities—whose contributions over the years have proved invaluable: Wendy Carter, Joe Conti, Francesca Degiuli, Audrey Devine-Eller, Neha Gondal, Neil Gross, Black Hawk Hancock, Dmitry Khodyakov, Paul LePore, Alair MacLean, Ann Meier, Susan Munkres, Josh Rossol, Sharmila Rudrappa, Christopher Wilde- man, David Yamane, and Kathrin Zippel.

rESourcES For StudEntS and InStructorS

For students

inQuizitive InQuizitive—Norton’s adaptive learning platform—personalizes quiz questions and provides answer-specific feedback in an engaging, game-like environment. The Eleventh Edition InQuizitive course includes a new “How to Read Charts and Graphs” activity.

everyday sociology Blog

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Designed for a general audience, the Everyday Sociology blog is an exciting and unique online forum that encourages visitors to actively explore sociology’s rel- evance to popular culture, mass media, and everyday life. Moderated by Karen Sternheimer (University of Southern California), the blog features postings on topical subjects, video interviews with well-known sociologists, and contributions from special guests during the academic year.

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“Thinking about Gender” DVD

xxvi Preface

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• Discussion questions and multiple-choice quizzes for select Sociology in Practice DVD clips

• Census activities (select chapters) • Exercises based on the “Unanswered Questions” in Part 4 of every chapter

Sociology in Practice dvds These DVDs contain several hours of video clips drawn from documentaries by independent filmmakers. The Sociology in Practice DVD series has been expanded to include a new DVD of documentary clips on gender. The DVDs are ideal for ini- tiating classroom discussion and encouraging students to apply sociological con- cepts to popular and real-world issues. The clips are offered in streaming versions in the Coursepacks, and select clips are accompanied by a quiz, exercise, or activity. All the clips are closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.

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The Test Bank for the Eleventh Edition includes approximately 55–65 multiple- choice and 10–15 essay questions per chapter. In addition to Bloom’s taxonomy, each question is tagged with difficulty level and metadata that places it in the con- text of the chapter, making it easy to construct tests. It is available online as a PDF or RTF and in ExamView.

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 1

THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY

We live in a world today that is increasingly complex. What makes this possible? Why are the conditions of our lives so different from those of earlier times? How will our lives change in the future? To what extent are things that seem natural actually socially constructed? Does the individual matter? These types of questions led to the study of sociology. As you read this text, you will encounter examples from dif- ferent people’s lives that will help answer these important questions.

In Chapter 1, we explore the scope of sociology and learn what insights the field can bring, such as the development of a global perspec- tive and an understanding of social change. Sociology is not a body of theories everyone agrees on. As in any complex field, the questions we raise allow for different answers. In this chapter, we compare and con- trast differing theoretical traditions.

Chapter 2 explores the tools of the trade and considers how soci- ologists do research. A number of basic methods of investigation are available to explore the social world. We must be sure that the infor- mation underlying sociological reasoning is as reliable and accurate as possible. The chapter examines the problems encountered when gath- ering such information and indicates how best to deal with them.

Part I

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What Is Sociology?

The admissions process at major American universities has:

a always favored prettier or more handsome people. b always favored minorities. c always favored athletes. d undergone serious revision over time.

 3

1

Turn the page for the correct answer.

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4 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

T he correct answer is d, because the criteria for admission to universities have changed over time. In the early twentieth century, college admissions began to undergo a series of major transformations, for reasons that were kept discreet- ly out of the public eye (Karabel, 2005; Gladwell, 2005). In 1905, the SAT was instituted, and for the first time, people started getting into college on the basis of standardized tests. Within a few years, the Harvard class had become 15 percent Jewish, as Jews (not unlike Asians today) excelled at the standardized test in disproportionate numbers. Sociologists to this day disagree about whether this success can be explained by cultural character- istics or economic advantages that even relatively poor ethnic and religious minorities experience in comparison with other minority groups that don’t do as well.

Nevertheless, reflecting the wider anti- Semitism of the era, the people who were running Harvard looked at this outcome as a very undesirable turn of events. The administrators drew an analogy between the university and hotels in upstate New York— first the Jews will arrive, then the Gentiles will leave, and then the Jews will leave and nobody will be here or want to come here anymore (Zimmerman, 2010). So Harvard determined that it needed to find another way of conducting admissions. Rather than putting quotas on Jews, they decided to change to a system of admissions very much like the one we know today. They would start to look at “the whole person,” rather than give advantages to people simply because they’d done well on a standardized test. In recent years, these institutions have generally transitioned to looking for “best graduates” rather than “best students”; that is, not students who will excel academically in college, but instead, those who will become successful after college (Gladwell, 2005). Excellent high school students compete for a limited number of spots at elite American colleges, with many able candidates being rejected in favor of athletes or student leaders in lower academic standing.

1 BASIC CONCEPTS

Learn what sociology covers as a field and how everyday topics are shaped by social and historical forces. Recognize that sociology involves not only acquiring knowledge but also developing a sociological imagination.

2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGICAL THINKING

Learn how sociology originated and understand the significance of the intellectual contributions of early sociologists.

3 MODERN THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Be able to identify some of the leading theorists and the concepts they contributed to sociology. Learn the different theoretical approaches modern sociologists bring to the field.

4 HOW CAN SOCIOLOGY HELP US?

Understand how adopting a sociological perspective allows us to develop a richer understanding of ourselves and the world.

l e A r n Ing ob j ecTI v e S

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Today, it seems natural that a col- lege would want to get to know a stu- dent as a whole person. In your college application, you had to write an essay that helped define you as a total human being. You may have tried to show what an interesting person you are by dis- cussing the clubs you were a part of and the sports you participated in. While answer c is not entirely correct, athletes do experience a growing advantage in admissions over their peers, despite on average lower GPAs and SAT scores. Part of the reason for this advantage may be that athletes are still able (and more likely) to pursue careers in high- paying professions (Bowen and Shul- man, 2001). When Ivy League schools switched to the new system, they would also send representatives to various schools around the country to interview prospective students. They didn’t want too many “nerds.” They wanted well- rounded, good- looking people— future leaders who would have an impact on the country and who would make these schools look good in return. And so they would conduct interviews and keep notes on whether an applicant was tall, hand- some, or pretty (by whatever standard that was determined).

There were things the admissions office simply didn’t like: people with big ears, for example. Short people were also undesirable, as recommendation files from that time indicate. In the mid- 1950s, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale were actually keep- ing records on the number of men who entered the freshman class who were over six feet tall. Today, all schools release records about their incoming freshman classes, but they are more likely to keep track of race, class, and gender variables than height or ear size. Thus, answer choice a is incorrect if we are considering the present day; though physical appearance was at one time a salient aspect of college admissions criteria, it is generally no longer a consideration. Indeed, when people hear statistics about incom- ing college freshman classes, they more frequently ask about affirmative action. Some whites might wonder, “Is it true that I can’t get into some competitive schools because so many of the spaces now go to minorities?”

It’s interesting how frequently this question is asked. The average person who wants to know is actually using what C. Wright Mills called the sociological imagination, a phrase he

What Is Sociology? 5

sociological imagination • The application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. Someone using the sociological imagination “thinks himself away” from the familiar routines of daily life.

Colleges today consider the whole person when making admissions decisions, but that wasn’t always the case.

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6 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

coined in 1959 in a now- classic book (Mills, 2000; orig. 1959). Mills tried to understand how the average person in the United States understood his or her everyday life. According to Mills, each of us lives in a very small orbit,

and our worldview is limited by the social situations we encounter on a daily basis. These include the family and the small groups we are a part of, the school we attend, and even the dorm in which we live. All these things give rise to a certain limited perspective and point of view.

The average person, according to Mills, doesn’t really understand his or her personal problems as part of any kind of larger framework or series of goings- on. Mills argued that we all need to overcome our limited perspective. What is necessary is a certain quality of mind that makes it possible to understand the larger meaning of our experiences. This quality of mind is the sociological imagination.

When some white college applicants wonder if they are not getting into competi- tive schools because so many of the spaces go to minorities, they are connecting their individual experience to a conception of the larger social structure. This conception about college admissions is perpetuated as a valid idea by cable- television news; cer- tain newspapers, magazines, and websites; and everyday conversation.

But is it true? One thing that Mills did not mention is that having a sociological imagination requires more than making connections between individual lives and ideas about social structure. Since Mills’s time, sociologists have come to focus more strongly than ever on the careful assessment of evidence. When you look at the data, you will realize that it is absolutely impossible for most college rejections to be due to affirmative action. In a current entering class at an Ivy League school, for example, out of 1,000 students, there may be 100 blacks and 75 Latinos. The 1,000 students were selected from about 20,000 applicants. A significant portion of the 19,000 who were rejected may think that they didn’t get in because a black or a Latino applicant got in instead of them. But we know from the data that this is impossible: There is no way that 175 people could be keeping 19,000 people out of any school. For this reason, answer choice b is also incorrect.

As you can see, it’s not enough to have a sociological imagination in the way that Mills intended it. We want you to learn how to sort through the evidence in a way that begins with imagination but insists on the kind of methods that can give us firmer and better answers to important sociological questions. How to do this in a rigorous way will be the subject of Chapter 2.

THE ANSWER IS D.

1 BASIC CONCEPTS

The scope of sociological study is extremely wide, but in general, sociologists ask them- selves certain questions that help to focus the sociological imagination and provide them with the concepts that motivate research. These questions that orient the discipline include, how are the things that we take to be natural actually socially constructed? How

social structure • The underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave in their relationships with one another.

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Basic Concepts 7

is social order possible? Does the individual mat- ter? How are the times in which we are living dif- ferent from the times that came before?

Social Construction

There is a basic flaw in human reasoning that goes something like this: The things that we see before us are inevitable. They are natural and cannot be changed. What sociol- ogy teaches us is that, in many ways, we are freer than we think— that the things we think are natural are actually created by human beings. We might consider the question we started this chapter with as an example: The college admissions system is a social construction located in a specific place and time. Criteria for admission to American colleges have shifted according to historical and demographic trends and changes in university leadership (Gladwell, 2005).

Another example comes from everyday experiences with sex and gender. A baby is usually born with either a penis or a vagina. By way of that characteristic, the baby begins a process of being assigned to the category of “boy” or “girl.” This distinction is extremely important because the baby’s sex is almost always the first thing you want to know before you interact with him or her. If you can’t figure it out, you may ask the parents.

Is this true of any other characteristic? You usually don’t need to know the race of a baby before interacting with him or her. You don’t need to know the economic class of a baby. Most babies today, regardless of their economic standing, are dressed in mass- produced clothes from stores such as Baby Gap or Target. In general, most parents do not try to signal the class of their baby with his or her garments. The same principle applies to race and ethnicity. Some parents will dress their baby to affili- ate with a certain race or ethnic group, but— except on holidays— this practice is less commonplace. Not as many people feel they need to know the race of a baby to interact with the infant.

Sex is different. If you are a parent, you do not want someone coming up to your baby boy and asking, “Is it a boy or a girl?” So what do you do to avoid this scenario? You dress your baby in blue if he is a boy or in pink if she is a girl. Some parents do not do this at the beginning— until they start getting asked that question. Then they start dressing their baby in a certain way so that people will stop asking. Of course, even if you do dress your baby in the traditional blue or pink, there may still be people who come up and ask, “Is it a boy or a girl?” But it is not something that will happen often, because most people are pretty good at reading social cues— such as a blue or pink cap.

Now, the fact that many people need to know the sex of a baby suggests that we interact differently depending on whether we think the baby is a boy or a girl. If a baby is a boy, a person might walk up and say something in a traditional masculine style, such as “Hey, bud! How you doin’?” If it’s a girl, the person might say something that is more appropri- ate for a little girl or more in keeping with the norms of traditional femininity. Eventu- ally, we get to the point where these interactions start to mold the kind of person the baby becomes. Children come to see themselves as being either a boy or a girl. They start to move their bodies like a little boy or a little girl. They know that this is how others see them, and they know that when they go out onto the street, they occupy the role of boy or girl. This happens through a process of interaction.

Even though it is not simply a natural occurrence that a person starts to behave as a boy or a girl, many of us are raised to believe that the differences between men and women are

social construction • An idea or practice that a group of people agree exists. It is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted.

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8 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

purely biological. Sociologists disagree. Does this mean that sociologists want to dismiss the role of biology? No. The goal of sociology is not to try to teach you that the biological realm is a residual category with a minor role in explaining human behavior. One purpose of sociology is to disentangle what is biological from what is socially constructed. It is in part to try to determine how social phenomena relate to biological phenomena. Most soci- ologists admit that there is a place for the biological. However, many studies show that the things that the average human being thinks are biological, and thus natu- ral, are actually socially constructed.

The more you start to think about disentangling what is natural from what is socially constructed, the more rigorously you will begin to think like a sociologist.

Social Order

A professor looks out onto a lecture hall and sees a roomful of silent students taking notes and exhibiting self- control and discipline. There must be somebody in the room who wishes that he or she were doing yoga instead, or who would like to turn around and say something to a friend in the back. But the fact of the matter is that almost everyone appears to be doing the same thing: sitting quietly, listening, taking notes (or at least pretending to). How can we explain this orderly behavior? How can we explain the exis- tence of social order in a lecture hall or in a society? We certainly need social order to get through the day, but how can we understand it?

Sociologists have offered up many different explanations to try to answer such ques- tions. One explanation is that it is rational for individuals to act this way. Students know it is in their self- interest to sit quietly and pay, or pretend to pay, attention. Perhaps a student hopes to apply to graduate school and wants to get a letter of recommendation from the professor. This goal motivates the student to respond to the classroom envi- ronment: The professor’s willingness to write a letter is an incentive for good behavior. The recommendation acts as an incentive, stimulating the response of the student who wants it. The student tries to make a good impression, all the while keeping in mind that if he or she turns around and talks to the friend week after week instead of listening, the professor might write an unflattering letter or refuse to write one at all. This explana- tion based on self- interest and incentives is what economists would use to explain most things. While some sociologists adopt such theories, most find such explanations to be based on an all- too- narrow conception of human nature. They appeal to a different set of theories.

Thus, another explanation for social order is the existence of norms. It is a norm of social life that when students come into a classroom, they sit and take notes and pay attention. We learn and internalize norms as young people through a process called socialization. Once we have internalized a norm, we tend to follow through with the

People interact differently with babies based on the babies’ gender. How do sociologists analyze these interactions?

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Basic Concepts 9

expectations of the norm in most of our interac- tions. Norms are important to sociologists because they explain some of the ways in which we are inside society and, simultaneously, society is inside us.

Yet another explanation for social order focuses on beliefs and values. Perhaps students place a value on the classroom, on the univer- sity, or on higher education. If this is the case, then the social order upheld in classrooms is more than a norm. The lecture hall is a symbol of a greater whole, a sacred place that is part of a larger moral universe. Students sit quietly because they believe professors in this ceremonial order deserve respect, maybe even deference.

It is important to keep in mind that we do not need to choose among these theories. Multiple factors can operate together. All these explanations address the question of social order from a sociological perspective. As such, the existence of social order is not taken for granted. For the average person, the question of social order arises in response to disruptions or breaks in that order. The average person who sees an event such as the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, or the Sandy Hook school shooting, may ask, “How could this event have happened?” The sociologist reverses that question and instead asks, “How is it that disruptions in the social order do not happen more frequently?”

Agency and Structure

A long- standing debate in the social sciences revolves around questions of free will and determinism. For example, a deterministic framework would predict that where an individual ends up in life is significantly, if not entirely, influenced by the position into which he or she is born. The sociological imagination can be quite deterministic in that it pushes us to see that, in many ways, the lives of individuals are quite determined by their social roles, gender, race, and class. Yet we would not want you to take away the lesson that individuals are trapped, or controlled like puppets.

Let us return to our example of college admissions. It is true that Ivy League gradu- ates have a significantly higher average income than graduates of state- level schools. This difference in income would suggest that the place at which one attends college is a crucial determinant of one’s success in later life. However, conventional studies looked only at students who had the same SAT scores and grades; they did not factor in other, personal characteristics that may have had an effect on later success in life.

In 2002, Alan Krueger and Stacy Dale published a study comparing the aver- age yearly incomes of students who had attended an Ivy League college with those who had been admitted to an Ivy League school but chose to attend a state- level col- lege instead. Despite an apparent disparity in opportunities for students who attended Ivy League versus non– Ivy League universities, Krueger and Dale discovered that the average salaries of the two groups of students were essentially the same. Contrary to the popular conception that attending elite institutions guarantees future success, it appears that highly motivated students, rather than institutional structures, prove more a determinant of this success; in other words, the individual does matter (2002; Gladwell, 2005).

socialization • The social processes through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self. Although socialization processes are particularly significant in infancy and childhood, they continue to some degree throughout life. No individuals are immune from the reactions of others around them, which influence and modify their behavior at all phases of the life course.

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10 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

Sociologists tend to think in probabilities. They look at the probabilities that people will end up in certain living situations on the basis of characteristics, de- emphasizing to some extent the power of the individual. However, the sociological imagination does leave room for the person to have an impact, even as we acknowledge that he or she is constrained.

Think about a girl from a working- class family whose parents have active sociologi- cal imaginations and a very deterministic understanding of their child’s life chances. The parents did not go to college. Instead, they entered the workforce after high school, and they expect that their daughter will do the same. When the teenager tells her par- ents that she would like to go to college and be a lawyer, the parents might think of the probability of an individual from their class position achieving such a goal— how unlikely it is. They might tell their child to consider the odds against her, and encourage her to pursue a different goal so that she will not be disappointed. What if she took this advice with a grain of salt and applied to college anyway? She would be no different from many of your classmates— and possibly even you. Many of you can think of people who started out just like this, with similar constraints, but who ended up in college due to their refusal to accept the odds as their fate.

Social Change

Another question sociologists ask is how people live in light of the social transformations of their time.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat and one of the first great social theorists, visited the United States from France. He wanted to understand how the con- ditions of democracy and equality were possible. Ever since the publication of his result- ing study, Democracy in America (1969; orig. 1835), the United States has been viewed through the lens of sociology as a nation of joiners in which, more so than in Europe, people are involved in many groups and activities. Yet sociologists constantly revisit questions about whether the way we live today is different from how we lived in earlier times, and one of the enduring questions is whether Americans are less involved today in public- spirited activities than in the past.

Another great theorist, Max Weber (1947; orig. 1922), looked at the way the world had been changing due to the influence of massive large- scale organizations, and how the emergence of an organizational society and large bureaucratic organizations had changed and transformed social life. Karl Marx, in Capital (1977; orig. 1867), examined how indus- trialization had changed the structure of an entire society, transforming the relation-

ships of individuals to their work and to one another from feudalism to capitalism. Émile Durkheim, in The Division of Labor in Society (1964; orig. 1893), discussed how the historical changes wrought by indus- trialization and urbanization had led to the increasing specificity of the roles indi- viduals filled, and how this specialization functioned to benefit society as a whole. These sound like abstract topics, but they were central to understanding how the world was changing at particular times.

c o n c e P t c h e c k s  1. What is the sociological imagination, accord-

ing to C. Wright Mills?

2. How does sociology help us disentangle what is biological from what is socially constructed?

3. How does the concept of social structure help sociologists better understand social phenomena?

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The Development of Sociological Thinking 11

2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGICAL THINKING

When students start studying sociology, many are puzzled by the diversity of approaches they encounter. Indeed, sociologists often disagree about how to study human behavior and how best to interpret research results. Why is this? Why can’t sociolo- gists agree more consistently, as natural scientists seem to do? The answer is bound up with the very nature of the field. Sociology is about our lives and our behavior, and studying ourselves is the most complex endeavor we can undertake. To understand this complexity, sociologists are guided by the four questions we’ve discussed: How are the things we take to be natural actually socially constructed? How is social order possible? Does the individual matter? How are the times in which we live different from those that came before?

Theories and Theoretical Approaches

AUGUSTE COMTE

The French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) invented the word sociology to describe the discipline he wished to estab- lish. Comte believed that the scientific method could be applied to the study of human behavior and society, and that this new field could produce knowledge of society based on scientific evidence. Comte believed that sociology, as the scientific study of social life, should model itself after physics; he initially called the subject social physics, a term that many of his con temporaries used. Comte also felt that sociology should contribute to the welfare of human- ity by using science to predict and control human behavior. His ideas about social planning were predicated on an understanding that society and the social order are not natural or preordained by a divine power, but rather are constructed by individuals. Later in his career, Comte drew up ambitious plans for the reconstruction of French society in particular, and for human societies in general, based on scientific knowledge. The question of whether sociologists should seek to serve humanity with their work is one that sociolo- gists still ask.

HErbErT SPEnCEr

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)—a British philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, and political theorist— was both highly influ- enced by, and highly critical of, Comte’s writing. Spencer held that development is a natural outcome of individual achievement. In The Study of Sociology (1873), he argued that society can change and improve the quality of life for all people only when everyone changes their behavior to maximize their individual potential. In other words, he believed privileged members of society enjoyed a high quality of life because they had earned this status. He fur- ther argued that the state should not assist in improving the life

Auguste Comte (1798–1857)

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)

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12 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

chances of individuals, because to do so would interfere with the natural order: The best persons succeed, and the rest fall behind due to their own lack of effort or ability.

While Spencer’s wri tings are considered an important influence on functionalist perspectives, which we will learn about later in this chapter, his ideas have fallen out of favor with many contemporary sociologists. His ideas were roundly attacked by Lester Frank Ward, the first president of the American Sociological Association (Carneiro and Perrin, 2002). However, Spencer’s belief in the “survival of the fittest” had a profound influence on economics and political science, especially among scholars and policy mak- ers endorsing a “ laissez- faire” approach.

ÉMILE DUrKHEIM

Although Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) drew on aspects of Comte’s work, he thought that many of his predecessor’s ideas were too speculative and vague and that Comte had not success- fully carried out his program— to establish sociology on a sci- entific basis. To have a scientific basis, according to Durkheim, sociologists must develop methodological principles to guide their research. Sociology must study social facts— aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals, such as the state of the economy or the inf luence of religion. Durkheim’s famous first principle of sociology was “Study social facts as things!” By this principle, he meant that social life can be analyzed as rigor- ously as objects or events in nature.

Like a biologist study ing the human body, Durkheim saw society as a set of independent parts, each of which could be studied separately. These ideas drew on the writings of Spencer, who also likened society to a biological organism. Each of a body’s

specialized parts— such as the brain, heart, lungs, and liver— contributes to sustaining the life of the organism. These specialized parts work in harmony with one another; if they do not, the life of the organism is threatened. So it is, according to Durkheim, with society. For a society to endure over time, its specialized institutions— such as the political system, the economy, the family, and the educational system— must func- tion as an integrated whole. Durkheim referred to this social cohesion as organic solidarity. He argued that the continuation of a society depends on cooperation, which presumes a general consensus among its members regarding basic values and customs.

Another theme pursued by Durkheim, and by many others since, is that societies exert social constraint over their members’ actions. Durkheim argued that society is far more than the sum of individual acts; when we analyze social structures, we study characteristics that have a “firmness” or “solidity” comparable to those of structures in the physical world. Think of a person standing in a room with several doors. The structure of the room constrains the range of the person’s possible activities. The position of the walls and doors, for example, defines routes

social facts • According to Émile Durkheim, the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals. Durkheim believed that social facts could be studied scientifically.

organic solidarity • According to Durkheim, the social cohesion that results from the various parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole.

social constraint • The conditioning influence on our behavior of the groups and societies of which we are members. Social constraint was regarded by Durkheim as one of the distinctive properties of social facts.

Émile Durkheim (1858–1917)

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The Development of Sociological Thinking 13

of exit and entry. Social structure, according to Durkheim, constrains our activities in a parallel way, limiting what we can do as individuals. It is “external” to us, just as the walls of the room are.

Durkheim’s analysis of social change was based on the development of the division of labor; he saw it as gradually replacing reli- gion as the basis of social cohesion and provid- ing organic solidarity to modern societies. He argued that as the division of labor expands, people become more dependent on one another because each person needs goods and services that those in other occupations supply.

Another of Durkheim’s famous studies (1966; orig. 1897) analyzed suicide. Although suicide seems to be a personal act, the outcome of extreme personal unhappiness, Durkheim showed that social factors such as anomie— a feeling of aimlessness or despair provoked by modern social life— influence suicidal behavior. Sui- cide rates show regular patterns from year to year, he argued, and these patterns must be explained sociologically. According to Durkheim, processes of change in the modern world are so rapid and intense that they give rise to major social difficulties, which he linked to anomie. Traditional moral controls and standards, formerly supplied by religion, largely break down under modern social development, and this breakdown leaves many individu- als feeling that their lives lack meaning. Durkheim later focused on the role of religion in social life. In his study of religious beliefs, practices, and rituals, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1965; orig. 1912), he explored the importance of religion in maintaining moral order in society.

KArL MArX

Karl Marx (1818–1883)—German economic, political, and social theorist— also sought to explain social changes arising from the Industrial Revolution; however, his ideas contrast sharply with those of Comte and Durkheim. When he was a young man, his politi- cal activities brought him into conflict with the German authori- ties; after a brief stay in France, he settled in exile in Britain. Much of his writing focuses on economic issues, but because he was con- cerned with connecting economic problems to social institutions, his work is rich in sociological insights.

Marx’s viewpoint was founded on what he called the materialist conception of history. According to this view, it is not the ideas or values human beings hold that are the main sources of social change, as Durkheim claimed. Rather, social change is prompted primarily by economic influences. The conflicts between classes— rich versus poor— provide the motivation for historical development. In Marx’s words, “All human history thus far is the history of class struggles.”

Though he wrote about various phases of history, Marx concentrated on change in modern times. For him, the most important changes were bound up with the

division of labor • The specialization of work tasks by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. All societies have at least some rudimentary form of division of labor, especially between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women. With the development of industrialism, the division of labor became vastly more complex than in any prior type of production system.

anomie • The concept first brought into wide usage in sociology by Durkheim to refer to a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.

materialist conception of history • The view developed by Marx according to which material, or economic, factors have a prime role in determining historical change.

Karl Marx (1818–1883)

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14 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

development of capitalism. Those who own capital— factories, machines, and large sums of money— form a ruling class. The mass of the population makes up a class of wage workers, a working class, who do not own the means of their livelihood but must find employment pro- vided by the owners of capital. Capitalism is thus a class system in which conflict is inevi- table because it is in the interests of the ruling

class to exploit the working class and in the interests of the workers to seek to over- come that exploitation.

According to Marx, in the future, capitalism will be supplanted by a society with no divisions between rich and poor. He didn’t mean that all inequalities would disappear. Rather, societies will no longer be split into a small class that monopolizes economic and political power and a large mass of people who benefit little from the wealth their work creates. The economic system that will develop in response to capitalist conflict will be characterized by communal ownership and will lead to a more equal society than we know at present.

Marx’s work had a far- reaching effect on the twentieth- century world. Until the fall of Soviet communism at the end of the twentieth century, more than a third of the earth’s population lived in societies whose governments derived inspiration from Marx’s ideas. In addition, many sociologists have been inf luenced by Marx’s ideas about class divisions.

MAX WEbEr

Like Marx, the German- born Max Weber (pronounced “Vaber,” 1864–1920) cannot be labeled simply a sociologist, because his interests spanned many areas. His writings cov- ered the fields of economics, law, philosophy, and comparative history as well as sociol-

ogy, and much of his work also dealt with the development of modern capitalism. He was influenced by Marx but was also critical of some of Marx’s major views. For instance, he rejected the materialist con- ception of history and saw class conflict as less significant than did Marx. In Weber’s view, economic factors are important, but ideas and values have just as much effect on social change.

Some of Weber’s most inf luential writings analyzed the distinctiveness of Western society compared with other major civilizations. He studied the religions of China, India, and the Near East, thereby making major contributions to the sociology of religion. Comparing the leading religious systems in China and India with those of the West, Weber concluded that certain aspects of Christian beliefs had strongly inf luenced the rise of capitalism. He argued that the capitalist outlook of Western societies had not emerged, as Marx supposed, only from eco- nomic changes. In Weber’s view, cultural ideas and values shape society and affect individual actions.

One of the most persistent concerns of Weber’s work was the study of bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is a large organization that is divided into jobs based on specific

capitalism • An economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order to produce profit.

bureaucracy • A type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by full- time, salaried officials.

Max Weber (1864–1920)

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functions and staffed by officials ranked according to a hierarchy. Industrial firms, government organizations, hospitals, and schools are examples of bureaucracies. Weber saw the advance of bureaucracy as an inevitable feature of our era. Bureaucracy enables large organizations to run efficiently, but at the same time, it poses problems for effective democratic participation in modern societies. Bureaucracy involves the rule of experts who make decisions without consulting those whose lives are affected by these decisions.

Some of Weber’s writings also address the character of sociology itself. He was more cautious than either Durkheim or Marx in proclaiming sociology to be a science. According to Weber, it is misleading to imagine that we can study people by using the same procedures by which we use physics or biology to investigate the physical world. Humans are thinking, reasoning beings; we attach meaning and significance to most of what we do, and any discipline that deals with human behavior must acknowledge this fact.

neglected Founders

Although Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber are foundational figures in sociology, other thinkers from the same period made important contributions. Very few women or members of racial minorities had the opportunity to become professional sociologists during the “classical” period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even the foundational figures in sociology frequently ignored women and racial minorities, at the same time that they were creating the first theories to systematically address inequality, stratification, subjective meaning, and exploitation. As a result, the few women and members of racial minorities who

The Development of Sociological Thinking 15

Table 1.1 Interpreting Modern Development

DURKHEIM 1. The main dynamic of modern development is the division of labor as a basis for social cohesion and organic solidarity.

2. Durkheim believed that sociology must study social facts as things, just as science would analyze the natural world. His study of suicide led him to stress the influence of social factors, qualities of a society external to the individual, on a person’s actions. Durkheim argued that society exerts social constraint over our actions.

MARX 1. The main dynamic of modern development is the expansion of capitalism. Rather than being cohesive, society is divided by class differences.

2. Marx believed that we must study the divisions within a society that are derived from the economic inequalities of capitalism.

WEBER 1. The main dynamic of modern development is the rationalization of social and economic life.

2. Weber focused on why Western societies developed so differently from other societies. He also emphasized the importance of cultural ideas and values on social change.

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conducted sociological research of lasting importance often remain neglected by the field. These individuals and the theories they developed deserve the attention of soci- ologists today.

HArrIET MArTInEAU

Harriet Martineau (1802–1876), born and educated in England, has been called the “first woman sociologist.” As with Marx and Weber, her interests extended beyond

sociology. She was the author of more than 50 books, as well as numerous essays, and was an active proponent of women’s rights and the abolition of slavery. Martineau is now credited with intro- ducing sociology to England through her translation of Comte’s founding treatise of the field, Positive Philosophy (Rossi, 1973). Additionally, she conducted a systematic study of American soci- ety during her extensive travels throughout the United States in the 1830s, which is the subject of her book Society in America (1962; orig. 1837).

Martineau is significant to sociologists today for several rea- sons but in particular for her methodological insight. First, she argued that when one studies a society, one must focus on all its aspects, including key political, religious, and social institutions. Second, she insisted that an analysis of a society must include all its members, a point that drew attention to the conspicuous absence of women’s lives from the sociology of that time. Third, she was the first to turn a sociological eye on previously ignored issues and

institutions, including marriage, children, domestic and religious life, and race relations. Finally, like Comte, she argued that sociologists should do more than just observe; they should also act in ways that benefit society.

W. E. b. DU bOIS

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard University. Among his many contributions to sociology, perhaps most

important is the concept of “double consciousness,” a way of talking about identity through the lens of the experiences of Afri- can Americans (Morris, 2015). He argued that American society lets African Americans see themselves only through the eyes of others: “It is a particular sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two- ness— an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unrec- onciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (1903). Du Bois made a persuasive claim that one’s sense of self and one’s identity are greatly inf luenced by historical experiences and social circumstances— in the case of African Americans, the effect of slavery and, after emancipation, segregation and prejudice.

Harriet Martineau (1802–1876)

W. E. b. Du bois (1868–1963)

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Throughout his career, Du Bois focused on race relations in the United States; as he said in an oft- repeated quote, “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line” (Du Bois, 1903). His inf luence on sociology today is evidenced by continued interest in the questions he raised, particularly his concern that sociology must explain “the contact of diverse races of men” (Du Bois, 1903). Du Bois was also the first social researcher to trace the problems faced by African Americans to their social and economic underpinnings, a connection that most soci- ologists now widely accept. Finally, he connected social analysis to social reform. He was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a longtime advocate for the collective struggle of African Americans.

Later in his life, Du Bois became disenchanted by the lack of progress in American race relations. He moved to the African nation of Ghana in 1961 when he was invited by the nation’s president, Kwame Nkrumah, to direct the Encyclopedia Africana, a government publication in which Du Bois had long had an interest. He died in Ghana in 1963. Although Du Bois receded from American life in his later years, his impact on American social thought and activism has been particularly profound, with many ideas of the Black Lives Matter movement informed by his writings (Morris, 2015).

Understanding the Modern World: The Sociological Debate

From Marx’s time to the present, many sociological debates have centered on Marx’s ideas about the influence of economics on the development of modern societies. According to Marx, the stimulus for social change in the modern era resides in the pressure toward constant economic transformation produced by the spread of capitalist production.

Capitalism is a vastly more dynamic economic system than any other that pre- ceded it. Capitalists compete to sell their goods to consumers; to survive in a competi- tive market, firms have to produce their wares as cheaply and efficiently as possible. This competition leads to constant technological innovation because increasing the effectiveness of the technology used in a particular production process is one way in which companies can secure an edge over their rivals. There are also strong incentives to seek new markets in which to sell goods, acquire inexpensive raw materials, and make use of cheap labor power. Capitalism, therefore, according to Marx, is a restlessly expanding system pushing outward across the world. This is how Marx explained the global spread of Western industry.

Subsequent Marxist authors have refined Marx’s portrayal. However, numerous critics have set out to rebut Marx’s view, offering alternative analyses of the influences shaping the modern world. Virtually everyone accepts that capitalism has played a major part, but other sociologists have argued that Marx exaggerated the effect of purely economic factors in producing change and that capitalism is less central to modern social development than he claimed. Most of these writers have also been skeptical of Marx’s belief that a socialist system would eventually replace capitalism.

One of Marx’s earliest and most acute critics was Max Weber, whose alterna- tive position remains important today. According to Weber, noneconomic factors have played the key role in modern social development. Weber’s celebrated work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1977; orig. 1904) proposes that religious

The Development of Sociological Thinking 17

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18 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

values— especially those associated with Puritanism— were of fundamental impor- tance in creating a capitalistic outlook. This outlook did not emerge, as Marx had sup- posed, only from economic changes.

Weber’s understanding of the nature of modern societies, and the reasons for the spread of Western ways of life across the world, also contrasts substantially with that of Marx. According to Weber, capitalism— a distinct way of organizing economic enterprise— is one among other major factors shaping social development in the mod- ern period. Underlying these capitalist mechanisms, and in some ways more funda- mental than those mechanisms, is the effect of science and bureaucracy. Science has shaped modern technology and will presumably do so in any future society, whether socialist or capitalist. Bureaucracy is the only way of organizing large numbers of people effectively and therefore inevitably expands with economic and political growth. The developments of science, modern technology, and bureaucracy are exam- ples of a general social process that Weber referred to collectively as rationalization.

Rationalization means the organization of social, economic, and cultural life according to principles of efficiency, on the basis of technical knowledge.

Which interpretation of modern soci- eties, that deriving from Marx or that coming from Weber, is correct? Scholars are divided on the issue. Moreover, within each camp are variations, so not every theorist agrees with all the points of one interpretation. The contrasts between these two standpoints inform many areas of sociology.

3 MODERN THEORETICAL APPROACHES

Although the origins of sociology were mainly European, over the last century, the subject has become firmly established worldwide, and some of the most important developments have taken place in the United States.

Symbolic Interactionism

The work of George Herbert Mead (1863–1931), a philosopher teaching at the University of Chicago, inf luenced the development of socio- logical thought, in particular through a per- spective called symbolic interactionism. Mead placed particular importance on the study of language in analyzing the social world. According to him, language allows us to become self- conscious beings aware of our

c o n c e P t c h e c k s  1. According to Émile Durkheim, what makes

sociology a social science? Why?

2. According to Karl Marx, what are the differ- ences between the two classes that make up a capitalist society?

3. In what key ways did Weber’s interpretation of modern development differ from that of Marx?

rationalization • A concept used by Weber to refer to the process by which modes of precise calculation and organization, involving abstract rules and procedures, increasingly come to dominate the social world.

symbolic interactionism • A theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead that emphasizes the role of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction.

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own individuality. The key element in this pro- cess is the symbol, something that stands for something else. For example, the word tree is a symbol by which we represent the object tree. Once we have mastered such a concept, Mead argued, we can think of a tree even if none is visible. Symbolic thought frees us from being limited in our experience to what we can actu- ally see, hear, or feel.

Unlike animals, according to Mead, human beings live in a richly symbolic uni- verse. This idea applies even to our very sense of self. Each of us is a self- conscious being because we learn to look at ourselves as if from the outside— as others see us. When a child begins to use “I” to refer to that object whom others call “you” (himself or herself), the child is exhibiting the beginnings of self- consciousness.

All interactions among individuals, symbolic interactionists say, involve an exchange of symbols. When we interact with others, we constantly look for clues to discern what type of behavior is appropriate in the context and interpret what others are up to. Symbolic interactionism directs our attention to the detail of interpersonal interaction and how that detail is used to make sense of what others say and do. For instance, suppose two people are on a first date. Each spends a good part of the eve- ning sizing the other up and assessing how the relationship is likely to develop, if at all. Neither wishes to be seen doing this too openly, although each recognizes that it is going on. Both individuals are careful about their own behavior, being eager to pres- ent themselves in a favorable light; but, knowing this, both are looking for aspects of the other’s behavior that reveal his or her true nature. A complex and subtle process of sym- bolic interpretation shapes their interaction.

Functionalism

Symbolic interactionism has been criticized for concentrating too much on things that are small in scope. Symbolic interactionists have struggled to deal with larger- scale structures and processes— the very things that a rival tradition of thought, functionalism, emphasizes. Functionalist thinking in sociology was orig- inally pioneered by Comte, who saw it as closely bound up with his overall view of the field.

To study the function of a social activity is to analyze its contribution to the continu- ation of the society as a whole. The best way to understand this idea is by analogy to the human body, a comparison that Comte, Durkheim, and other functionalist authors made. To study an organ such as the heart, we need to show how it relates to other parts of the body. When we learn how the heart pumps blood, we understand its vital role in the con- tinuation of the organism’s life. Similarly, analyzing the function of some aspect of soci- ety, such as religion, means examining its role in the continued existence and health of a society. Functionalism emphasizes the importance of moral consensus in maintain- ing order and stability in society. Moral consensus exists when most people share the same values. Functionalists regard order and balance as the normal state of society— this social equilibrium is grounded in a moral consensus among the members of soci- ety. According to Durkheim, for instance, religion reaffirms people’s adherence to core social values, thereby helping to maintain social cohesion.

symbol • One item used to stand for or represent another— as in the case of a flag, which symbolizes a nation.

functionalism • A theoretical perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform— that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society.

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20 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

Functionalism became prominent in sociology through the writings of Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) and Robert K. Merton (1910–2003), each of whom saw functional- ist analysis as providing the key to the development of sociological theory and research. Merton’s version of functionalism has been particularly influential.

In his work, Merton distinguished between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are those known to, and intended by, the participants in a social activity. latent functions are consequences of that activity of which participants are unaware. Merton used the example of a rain dance performed by the Hopi tribe of Arizona and New Mexico. The Hopi believe that the ceremony will bring the rain they need for their crops (manifest function). This is why they organize and par ticipate in the dance. But using Durkheim’s theory of religion, Merton argued that the rain dance also promotes the cohesion of Hopi society (latent function). A major part of sociologi- cal explanation, according to Merton, consists in uncovering the latent functions of social activities and institutions.

Merton also distinguished between functions and dysfunctions. To look for the dysfunctional aspects of social behavior means to focus on features of social life that challenge the existing order. For example, it is incorrect to suppose that religion is always functional— that it contributes only to social cohesion. When two groups sup-

port different religions or different versions of the same religion, the result can be major social conf licts, causing widespread social disruption. Thus, wars have often been fought between religious communities— as in the struggles between Protestants and Catholics in European history.

manifest functions • The functions of a type of social activity that are known to and intended by the individuals involved in the activity.

latent functions • Functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by the members of a social system in which they occur.

Figure 1.1 Theoretical Approaches in Sociology

The solid lines indicate direct influence, the dotted line, an indirect connection. Mead is not indebted to Weber, but Weber’s views—stressing the meaningful, purposive nature of human action—have affinities with the themes of symbolic interactionism.

Auguste Comte

Émile Durkheim

FUNCTIONALISM

Karl Marx

Max Weber

George Herbert Mead

MARXISM SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

(1858–1917)

(1798–1857)

(1818–1883)

(1864–1920)

(1863–1931)

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For much of the twentieth century, functionalist thought was considered the lead- ing theoretical tradition in sociology, particularly in the United States. In recent years, its popularity has declined as its limitations have become apparent. While this was not true of Merton, many functionalist thinkers— Talcott Parsons is an example— unduly stressed factors leading to social cohesion at the expense of those producing divi- sion and conflict. In addition, many critics claim that functional analysis attributes to societies certain qualities they do not have. Functionalists often wrote as though soci- eties had “needs” and “purposes,” even though these concepts make sense only when applied to individual human beings.

Conflict Theories

Functionalism and symbolic interactionism are not the only modern theoretical traditions of importance in sociology. A third inf luential approach is conflict theory. In general, conf lict theories underscore the role of coercion and power in producing social order. Social order is believed to be maintained by domination, with power in the hands of those who possess the greatest political, economic, and social resources; historically, those with power would include white men with ample economic and political resources. Two particular approaches typically classified under the broad heading of conflict theories are Marxism and feminist theories.

MArXISM

Marxists, of course, all trace their views back to the writings of Karl Marx, but today, some schools of Marxist thought take very different theoretical positions.

In all its variations, Marxism differs from non- Marxist traditions of sociology in that its adherents view sociology as a combination of sociological analysis and political reform. Marxism is supposed to generate a program of radical political change. Moreover, Marxists lay more empha- sis on conflict, class divisions, power, and ide- ology than do many non- Marxist sociologists, especially those influenced by functionalism. The concept of power is of great importance to Marxist sociologists and to sociology in general. Power refers to the ability of indi- viduals or groups to make their own interests count, even when others resist. Power sometimes involves the direct use of force but is almost always accompanied by the development of ideas (ideologies), which are used to justify the actions of the power- ful. Power, ideology, and conflict are always closely connected. Many conflicts are about power because of the rewards it can bring. Those who hold the most power may depend on the influence of ideology to retain their dominance, but they are usually also able to use force if necessary.

conflict theory • A sociological perspective that emphasizes the role of political and economic power and oppression as contributing to the existing social order.

Marxism • A body of thought deriving its main elements from the ideas of Karl Marx.

power • The ability of individuals or the members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. Power is a pervasive element in all human relationships. Many conflicts in society are struggles over power, because how much power an individual or group is able to achieve governs how far they are able to put their wishes into practice.

ideologies • Shared ideas or beliefs that serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. Ideologies are found in all societies in which there are systematic and ingrained inequalities among groups. The concept of ideology connects closely with that of power, since ideological systems serve to legitimize the power that groups hold.

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22 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

FEMInISM AnD FEMInIST THEOrY

Feminist theory is one of the most promi- nent areas of contemporary sociology. This development is notable because gender issues are scarcely touched upon in the work of the major figures who established the discipline. The success of feminism’s entry into sociology required a fundamental shift in the discipline’s approach.

Many feminist theorists’ experiences in the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s influ- enced their work as sociologists. Like Marxism, feminism links sociological theory and politi- cal reform. Many feminist sociologists have been advocates for political and social action to elimi- nate the inequalities between women and men in both the public and the private spheres.

Feminist sociologists argue that women’s lives and experiences are central to the study of society. Historically, sociology, like most academic disciplines, has pre- sumed a male point of view. Concerned with women’s subordination in society, feminist socio logists highlight gender relations and gender inequality as important determi- nants of social life in terms of both social interaction and social institutions such as the family, the workplace, and the educational system. Feminist theory emphasizes that gendered patterns and gendered inequalities are not natural but socially constructed. (We will cover this point in more detail in Chapter 10.)

Today, feminist sociology focuses on the intersection of gender, race, and class. A feminist approach to the study of inequality has influenced new fields of study, such as men’s studies, sexuality studies, and LGBTQ studies. Taken together, these theoretical perspectives underscore power imbalances and draw attention to the ways that social change must entail shifts in the balance of power— consistent with the overarching themes of conflict theories.

rational Choice Theory

Max Weber thought that all behavior could be divided into four categories: (1) behav- ior oriented toward higher values, such as politics; (2) behavior oriented toward habit, such as walking to school on a familiar path; (3) behavior oriented toward affect (emo- tions), such as falling in love; and (4) behavior oriented toward self- interest, such as making money. Behavior in the last category is often called “instrumental,” or “rational,” action. In recent years, many sociologists have adopted an approach that focuses on this type of behavior. This approach has led numerous scholars to ask under what condi- tions human behavior can be said to constitute rational responses to opportunities and constraints.

The rational choice approach posits that if you could have only a single variable to explain society, self- interest would be the best one. A person who believes in this approach might even use it to explain things that seem irrational. One popular

feminist theory • A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequality in society and to work to overcome it.

feminism • Advocacy of the rights of women to be equal with men in all spheres of life. Feminism dates from the late eighteenth century in Europe, and feminist movements exist in most countries today.

rational choice approach • More broadly, the theory that an individual’s behavior is purposive. Within the field of criminology, rational choice analysis argues that deviant behavior is a rational response to a specific social situation.

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Modern Theoretical Approaches 23

rational choice theory sees decisions to marry as maximizing self- interest in a mar- riage market; this understanding might explain why marriage has declined the most in poor African American communities with low rates of employment. The explanation— that it is not in the self- interest of women to marry men who cannot support them (Wilson, 1987)—goes against competing explanations suggesting that poor African Americans don’t marry because they don’t share mainstream values. The rational choice argument sees the decline as having little to do with values and much to do with self- interest under existing conditions. According to this theory, if employment rates for black men were to change, so would the number of “eligible” men and the desire of women to marry them.

Rational choice theorists find few irrational mysteries in life. One of the few some note is love, which they define as the irrational act of substituting another person’s self- interest for one’s own (Becker, 1991). But such a definition makes it difficult to distin- guish among basic altruism, friendship, and romantic love. Indeed, although a rational choice approach often can be useful, it cannot explain some aspects of life. Consider an angry driver who tries to teach a tailgater a lesson by tailgating the tailgater. Self- interest does not explain this action, because the “teacher” is unlikely to personally reap the benefits of a lesson well learned (Katz, 1999).

Postmodern Theory

Advocates of postmodernism claim that the classic social thinkers’ idea that history has a shape— it “goes somewhere” and leads to progress— has collapsed. No longer do any “grand narratives,” or metanarratives— overall conceptions of history or society— make any sense (Lyotard, 1985). In fact, there is no such thing as history. The postmodern world is not destined, as Marx hoped, to be a socialist one. Instead, it is dominated by the new media, which “take us out” of our past. Postmodern society is highly pluralistic and diverse. As countless films, videos, TV programs, and websites circulate images around the world, the many ideas and values we encounter have little connection with our local or personal histories. Everything seems constantly in flux: “[F]lexibility, diver- sity, differentiation, and mobility, communication, decentralization and international- ization are in the ascendant. In the process our own identities, our sense of self, our own subjectivities are being transformed” (Hall, Held, and McGrew, 1988).

One important theorist of postmodernity, Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007), believed that electronic media created a chaotic, empty world. Despite being influenced by Marxism in his early years, Baudrillard argued that the spread of electronic communication and the mass media reversed the Marxist theorem that economic forces shape society. Instead, he asserted, social life is influenced above all by signs and images. In a media- dominated age, Baudrillard said, meaning is created by the flow of images, as in TV pro- grams. Much of our world is now a make- believe universe in which we respond to media images rather than to real persons or places. Is “reality” television a portrayal of social “reality,” or does it feature televised people who are perceived to be “real”? Do hunters in Louisiana really look and act like the Robertson family on Duck Dynasty,

postmodernism • The belief that society is no longer governed by history or progress. Postmodern society is highly pluralistic and diverse, with no “grand narrative” guiding its development.

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24 chApTer  1 What Is Sociology?

and do the tough guys in Amish Mafia resemble the peaceful Amish who live and work in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania? Baudrillard would say no and would describe such images as “the dissolution of life into TV.”

Theoretical Thinking in Sociology

So far, we have been discussing theoretical approaches— broad orientations to the sub- ject matter of sociology. Theoretical approaches are distinct from theories. Theories are more narrowly focused and represent attempts to explain particular social condi- tions or types of events. Theories are usually formed during the research process and in turn suggest other p roblems for subsequent research. An example would be Durkheim’s theory of suicide, referred to earlier in this chapter.

Sociologists do not share a unified position on whether theories should be specific, wide- ranging, or somewhere in between. Merton (1957), for example, argued that soci- ologists should concentrate on what he called theories of the middle range. Rather than attempting to create grand theoretical schemes (in the manner of Marx, for instance), sociologists should develop more modest theories. Middle- range theories are specific enough to be tested by empirical research, yet sufficiently general to cover a range of phenomena.

Consider the theory of relative deprivation, which holds that how people evalu- ate their circumstances depends on the persons to whom they compare themselves. Thus, feelings of deprivation do not conform directly to the level of material poverty one experiences. A family living in a small home in a poor area, where everyone is in simi- lar circumstances, is likely to feel less deprived than a family living in a similar house in a neighborhood where other homes are much larger and other people more affluent.

Assessing theories in sociology, especially theoretical approaches, is a challenging and formidable task. The fact that there is no single theoretical approach that dominates the whole of sociology might be viewed as a limitation. But this is not the case: The jos- tling of rival theoretical approaches and theories actually highlights the vitality of the sociological enterprise. In studying human beings (ourselves), theoretical variety rescues us from dogma. Human behavior is complex, and no single theoretical perspective could adequately cover all its aspects. Diversity in theoretical thinking provides a rich source of ideas for research and stimulates the imaginative capacities so essential to progress in sociological work.

LEVELS OF AnALYSIS: MICrOSOCIOLOGY AnD MACrOSOCIOLOGY

An important distinction among the theoretical perspectives we’ve discussed in this chapter involves the level of analysis at which each is directed. The study of everyday

behavior in situations of face- to- face interaction is called microsociology. Macrosociology, by contrast, is the analysis of large- scale social systems, such as the political system or the economy. It also includes analysis of long- term processes of change, such as the development

microsociology • The study of human behavior in the context of face- to- face interaction.

macrosociology • The study of large- scale groups, organizations, or social systems.

socio11_4pp_ch01_001-029.indd 24 2/2/18 10:41 AM

of industrialization. Although micro analysis and macro analysis may seem distinct from each other, in fact, the two are closely connected (Giddens, 1984; Knorr- Cetina and Cicourel, 1981).

Macro analysis is essential for understanding the institutional background of daily life. The ways in which people live their everyday lives are shaped by the broader institutional framework. Consider a comparison of the daily cycle of activities in a medieval culture and in an industrialized urban environment. In modern societies, we are constantly in contact with strangers— however indirect and impersonal. No mat- ter how many indirect or electronic relationships we enter into, even the most complex societies require the presence of other people. While we may opt to just text or e- mail an acquaintance, we can also choose to f ly thousands of miles to spend the weekend with a friend.

Micro studies, in turn, are necessary for illuminating broad institutional patterns. Face- to- face interaction is the basis of all forms of social organization, no matter how large scale. In studying a business corporation, we could analyze the face- to- face interactions of directors in the board- room, staff working in their offices, or workers on the factory f loor. We would not gain a clear picture of the whole cor- poration in this way, because some of its business involves e-mail, phone calls, and printed materials. Yet we could certainly contribute significantly to understanding how the organization works.

Later chapters will give further exam- ples of how interaction in micro contexts affects larger social processes and how macro systems in turn influence the more confined settings of social life.

Microsociology focuses on face- to- face interactions (left), while macrosociology analyzes large- scale social forces (right). How might a microsociologist and a macrosociologist analyze this food court differently?

Modern Theoretical Approaches 25

c o n c e P t c h e c k s  1. What are the differences between symbolic

interactionism and functionalist approaches to the analysis of society?

2. How do rational choice theorists explain human behavior?

3. What role does theory play in sociological re- search?

4. How are macro and micro analyses of society connected?

socio11_4pp_ch01_001-029.indd 25 2/2/18 10:41 AM

26 Chapter  1 What Is Sociology?

4 HOW CAN SOCIOLOGY HELP US?

As we discussed at the beginning of the chapter, sociological thinking is relevant to your day- to- day life— from applying to college to falling in love. C. Wright Mills emphasized these practical applications of sociology when developing his idea of the sociological imagination. When we observe the world through the prism of the socio- logical imagination, we are affected in several important ways.

First, sociology allows us to see the social world from many perspectives. If we properly understand how others live, we better understand their problems. Practi- cal policies that lack an informed awareness of the ways of life of the people they affect have little chance of success. Thus, a white social worker operating in a pre- dominately black community won’t gain the confidence of its members if he or she isn’t sensitive to the differences in social experiences of whites and blacks in the United States.

Second, we are better able to assess the results of public- policy initiatives. For example, a program of practical reform may fail to achieve its goals or may produce unintended negative consequences. Consider the large public- housing blocks built in city centers in many countries following World War II. The goal was to provide high standards of accommodation for low- income groups from slum areas and to offer shopping amenities and other civic services close at hand. However, research later showed that many people who moved to the large apartment blocks felt iso- lated and unhappy. High- rise apartment blocks and shopping malls in poorer areas often became dilapidated and provided breeding grounds for muggings and other violent crimes.

Third, and perhaps most important, sociology can provide us with self- enlightenment— increased self- understanding. The more we know about our own behavior and how our society works, the better chance we have to influence our futures. Sociology doesn’t just help policy makers make informed decisions. Those in power may not always consider the interests of the less powerful or underprivileged when making policies. Self- enlightened groups can benefit from sociological research by using the information gleaned to respond to government policies or form policy initiatives of their own. Self- help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and social movements such as the envi- ronmental movement are examples of social groups that have directly sought practical reforms, with some success.

Finally, developing a sociological eye toward social problems and developing rigor- ous research skills opens many career doors— as industrial consultants, urban planners, social workers, and personnel managers, among other jobs. An understanding of society also serves those working in law, journalism, business, and medicine.

Those who study sociology frequently develop a social conscience. Should sociolo- gists themselves agitate for programs of reform or social change? Some argue that soci- ology can preserve its intellectual independence only if sociologists remain neutral in moral and political controversies. Yet are scholars who remain aloof more impartial in their assessment of sociological issues than others? No sociologically sophisticated person can be unaware of the inequalities, the lack of social justice, or the deprivations suffered by millions of people worldwide. It would be strange if sociologists did not take sides on practical issues, and it would be illogical to ban them from drawing on their expertise in doing so.

socio11_4pp_ch01_001-029.indd 26 2/2/18 10:41 AM

How Can Sociology Help Us? 27

We have seen that sociology is a discipline in which we often set aside our personal views to explore the inf luences that shape our lives and those of others. Sociology emerged as an intellectual endeavor along with the development of modern societies, and the study of such societies remains its principal concern. But sociologists are also preoccupied with the nature of social interaction and human societies in general.

Sociology has major practical implica- tions for people’s lives. Learning to become a sociologist shouldn’t be a dull academic endeavor but rather an exciting pursuit! The best way to make sure the pursuit is exciting is to approach the subject in an imaginative way and to relate sociologi- cal ideas and findings to your own life.

c o n c e P t c h e c k s  1. Describe three ways that sociology can help

us in our lives.

2. What skills and perspectives do sociologists bring to their work?

socio11_4pp_ch01_001-029.indd 27 2/2/18 10:41 AM

CONCEPT CHECKS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

TERMS TO KNOW

THE BIG PICTURE

Chapter 1

What Is Sociology?

1 2 3 4

Modern Theoretical Approaches

The Development of Sociological Thinking

Basic Concepts

How Can Sociology Help Us?

p. 6 p. 11 p. 18 p. 26

Learn what sociology covers as a field and how everyday topics are shaped by social and historical forces. Recognize that sociology involves not only acquiring knowledge but also developing a sociological imagination.

1. What is the sociological imagination, according to C. Wright Mills?

2. How does sociology help us disentangle what is biological from what is socially constructed?

3. How does the concept of social structure help sociologists better understand social phenomena?

sociological imagination • social structure • social construction • • socialization

1. Healthy older Americans often encounter exclusionary treatment when younger people assume they are feebleminded and thus overlook them for jobs they are fully capable of doing. How would functionalism and symbolic interactionism explain the dynamics of prejudice against the elderly?

Learn how sociology originated and understand the significance of the intellectual contributions of early sociologists.

social facts • organic solidarity • social constraint • division of labor • anomie • materialist conception of history • capitalism • bureaucracy • rationalization

1. According to Émile Durkheim, what makes sociology a social science? Why?

2. According to Karl Marx, what are the differences between the two classes that make up a capitalist society?

3. In what key ways did Weber's interpretation of modern development differ from that of Marx?

Be able to identify some of the leading theorists and the concepts they contributed to sociology. Learn the different theoretical approaches modern sociologists bring to the field.

symbolic interactionism • symbol • functionalism • manifest functions • latent functions • conflict theory • Marxism • power • ideologies • feminist theory • feminism • rational choice approach • postmodernism • microsociology • macrosociology

1. What are the differences between symbolic interactionism and functionalist approaches to the analysis of society?

2. How do rational choice theorists explain human behavior?

3. What role does theory play in sociological research?

4. How are macro and micro analyses of society connected?

1. Describe three ways that sociology can help us in our lives.

2. What skills and perspectives do sociologists bring to their work?

Understand how adopting a sociological perspective allows us to develop a richer understanding of ourselves and the world.

Exercises: Thinking Sociologically

socio11_4pp_ch01_001-029.indd 28 2/2/18 10:41 AM

CONCEPT CHECKS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

TERMS TO KNOW

THE BIG PICTURE

Chapter 1

What Is Sociology?

1 2 3 4

Modern Theoretical Approaches

The Development of Sociological Thinking

Basic Concepts

How Can Sociology Help Us?

p. 6 p. 11 p. 18 p. 26

Learn what sociology covers as a field and how everyday topics are shaped by social and historical forces. Recognize that sociology involves not only acquiring knowledge but also developing a sociological imagination.

1. What is the sociological imagination, according to C. Wright Mills?

2. How does sociology help us disentangle what is biological from what is socially constructed?

3. How does the concept of social structure help sociologists better understand social phenomena?

sociological imagination • social structure • social construction • • socialization

1. Healthy older Americans often encounter exclusionary treatment when younger people assume they are feebleminded and thus overlook them for jobs they are fully capable of doing. How would functionalism and symbolic interactionism explain the dynamics of prejudice against the elderly?

Learn how sociology originated and understand the significance of the intellectual contributions of early sociologists.

social facts • organic solidarity • social constraint • division of labor • anomie • materialist conception of history • capitalism • bureaucracy • rationalization

1. According to Émile Durkheim, what makes sociology a social science? Why?

2. According to Karl Marx, what are the differences between the two classes that make up a capitalist society?

3. In what key ways did Weber's interpretation of modern development differ from that of Marx?

Be able to identify some of the leading theorists and the concepts they contributed to sociology. Learn the different theoretical approaches modern sociologists bring to the field.

symbolic interactionism • symbol • functionalism • manifest functions • latent functions • conflict theory • Marxism • power • ideologies • feminist theory • feminism • rational choice approach • postmodernism • microsociology • macrosociology

1. What are the differences between symbolic interactionism and functionalist approaches to the analysis of society?

2. How do rational choice theorists explain human behavior?

3. What role does theory play in sociological research?

4. How are macro and micro analyses of society connected?

1. Describe three ways that sociology can help us in our lives.

2. What skills and perspectives do sociologists bring to their work?

Understand how adopting a sociological perspective allows us to develop a richer understanding of ourselves and the world.

Exercises: Thinking Sociologically

socio11_4pp_ch01_001-029.indd 29 2/2/18 10:41 AM

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 30 22/01/18 12:06 pm

Asking and Answering Sociological Questions

2

 31

Sociology today:

a relies increasingly on statistical studies that use big data sets. b has no place for empathy. c relies too much on qualitative methods to be a science.

Turn the page for the correct answer.

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 31 22/01/18 12:06 pm

32 Chapter  2  Asking and Answering Sociological Questions

W hen was the last time you posted on a friend’s Facebook page, liked a photo, or changed your relationship status? Many of us use social networking to keep up with friends and family and share details about our lives with a wider audience. Indeed, Facebook not only allows us to keep up with those we care about, but it also serves as a detailed record of our social relationships.

In recent years, scholars have taken data from our Facebook pages to ask questions about who we interact with, who we befriend, and who we love. One study claimed that Facebook could predict whether our romantic relationships would last. To make this argument, they drew on a large data set of more than 1 million individuals in romantic relationships, as well as their Facebook friends— a total of nearly 380 million Facebook users. They found that if two people were romantic partners, and their friendship groups overlapped a great deal, meaning they had the same group of friends, they had a higher likelihood of staying together (Backstrom and Kleinberg, 2013).

If your answer to the question on the previous page was that sociology today relies more and more on studies that, like this one, use big data, then you are correct. Increas- ingly, studies are relying on statistical or quantitative methods and computer pro- grams that make it possible to analyze the vast amounts of data the Internet generates. These methods allow sociologists to process more data than ever before.

Even as we reap all the scientific potential that can be seen in the age of big data, we must also contend with its potential arrogance. Some researchers feel more confident than ever before in the claims that can be made from big data sets. Researchers who have

quantitative methods • Approaches to sociological research that draw on objective and statistical data and often focus on documenting trends, comparing subgroups, or exploring correlations.

1 BASIC CONCEPTS

Learn the steps of the research process. Name the different types of questions sociologists address in their research— factual, theoretical, comparative, and developmental.

2 ASkINg ANd ANSwErINg SOCIOlOgICAl QuESTIONS: HISTOrICAl CONTExT

Contrast Park’s and Ogburn’s visions of sociology as a science. Understand their influence on contemporary sociological research.

3 ASkINg ANd ANSwErINg SOCIOlOgICAl QuESTIONS TOdAy: rESEArCH mETHOdS

Familiarize yourself with the methods available to sociological researchers and recognize the advantages and disadvantages of each.

4 uNANSwErEd QuESTIONS

Understand how research methods generate controversies and ethical dilemmas for sociologists.

l e A r n ing ob j ecti v e S

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 32 22/01/18 12:06 pm

Basic Concepts 33

never been to a slum, nor have any personal relationship to a single poor person, feel they can speak with authority about inequality and poverty from a study based on interesting statistical correlations. In the age of big data, empathy and involvement with communities and people under study are less frequently the basis of social scientific insights. But if you answered b— sociology has no place for empathy— that would not be correct either.

Sociology has a rich tradition that also includes qualitative methods, which rely on observations, interviews, and archival data. Here, personal involvement and empathy count for a great deal, though most of the insights in qualitative studies also derive from other kinds of sociological thinking as well. While quantitative analyses may make use of numer- ical data (such as those collected in surveys or Facebook friend lists), qualitative analyses may use data derived from interactions, interviews, conversations, or observations of a social scene. For example, a qualitative study of the same question asked in the Facebook study of romantic relationships might use fewer cases to focus on richer details of how individuals dissolve their relationships. In Uncoupling, Diane Vaughan (1986) explored this question by using interviews with people who broke up to better understand how relationships end.

Does the reliance on qualitative methods make sociology less of a science? It does not. Do quantitative methods make sociology more scientific? They do not. When many people think of a “science,” they typically imagine fields like physics or chemistry. Yet, as we shall see, what makes chemistry and physics a science is not the sample size or even the subject matter, but rather a set of values that can be deployed in any research. In this chapter, we begin by discussing those values to clarify the meaning of science in social science.

THE ANSwEr IS A.

1 BASIC CONCEPTS

Regardless of whether it is quantitative or qualitative, sociological research that is striving to be scientific tries to meet basic standards (King, Keohane, and Verba, 1994).

First, the goal of sociological research is inference. By this we mean that when we make observations particular to a specific setting or group, the goal is to be able to generalize beyond that specific entity to others of its kind. In other words, while sociologists can- not collect data about the whole world, they are able to use more limited data to make broader claims about phenomena they cannot directly observe (King et al., 1994). Take as an example Uncoupling. If Diane Vaughan limited her claim to the 103 interviews she recorded, this material on its own would not constitute a sociological analysis. Moving beyond these interviews to make more general claims about how we— as humans— form and break romantic relationships is part of what makes her analysis scientific.

Second, sociologists must ensure that other researchers can retrace the paths to their findings. Ideally, others in the scientific community can reproduce their results. The procedures researchers use for collecting and analyzing data should be public; the reliability of research data can only be verified if the ways in which that data was

qualitative methods • Approaches to sociological research that often rely on personal and/or collective inter views, accounts, or observations of a person or situation.

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 33 22/01/18 12:06 pm

34 Chapter  2  Asking and Answering Sociological Questions

collected and processed are made explicit to the scientific community, allowing other researchers both to learn from the methods used and to address the limitations of these methods. What’s more, careful documentation of the way one arrives at conclusions about the social world allows research findings to be comparable even when conducted by researchers at different times.

Third, the conclusions of all scientific research, including sociology, are uncertain. This might be surprising. Isn’t the purpose of studying the social world to be able to make force- ful arguments about it? The values of science sometimes demand that we do the opposite. The scientific validity of inferences can be assessed only if researchers are clear about all the sources of their uncertainty. In sociology, like any science, the highest status is con- ferred on those who are honest about how certain their conclusions really are. Sociologists need to specify all the possible sources of uncertainty in their study.

All three of the previous standards of empirical research are found in both the natural sciences and the social sciences. They are also shared by quantitative and qualitative social science. It is important to highlight a fourth element that is emphasized more in the social sciences— particularly in qualitative research. This is called reflexivity. For social scientists, it is particularly important to acknowledge that the investigator is a crucial part of the world she studies and cannot necessarily divorce herself from it. This includes power dynamics among subjects and the ways in which personal val- ues or personal identity influence both the nature of the questions asked and the inter- pretation of data. Social scientists must thus be ready to reflect on how the way they are part of the social scenes they study may affect the kinds of conclusions they draw. For example, a middle- class researcher studying a poor population should be clear about how his or her class position influenced a sociological argument or the relations with subjects.

These four principles help identify work that is living up to the highest ideals of social science. Some good scientific work might not necessarily be strong in all the areas at once, but the goal of social science should be to achieve as many of them as possible. While these principles are useful for understanding how sociology can strive to be a sci- ence, they don’t provide a practical guide for how one might begin defining and going on to answer a research question. To do this, we now consider the research process.

The Research Process

In order to understand the way sociology asks and answers questions, it is helpful to think of the research it does as a process. We can better understand the main concepts of research design by breaking down the process into seven stages of research— beginning with the definition of a research question and ending with the dissemination of the study findings.

1. Define The ReseaRch PRoblem

All research starts with a research problem. This problem may be an area of factual igno- rance about, say, certain institutions, social processes, or cultures. A researcher might seek to answer questions such as, What proportion of the population holds strong reli- gious beliefs? Are people today disaffected with “big government”? How far does the eco- nomic position of women lag behind that of men? Do LGBTQ and straight teens differ in their levels of self- esteem?

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 34 22/01/18 12:06 pm

The best sociological research begins with problems that are also puzzles. A puzzle arises not simply from a lack of information but also from a gap in our understanding. Much of the skill in producing worthwhile sociological research consists in correctly identify- ing puzzles.

Rather than just answering the question, What is going on here? skilled researchers try to illuminate why events happen as they do. Thus, we might ask, Why are patterns of religious belief changing? What accounts for the recent decline in the proportion of the popula- tion voting in presidential elections? Why are women poorly represented in science and technology jobs? What are the characteristics of high schools with high levels of bullying?

No piece of research stands alone. One project may lead to another because it raises issues the researcher had not previously considered. A sociologist may discover puzzles by reading the work of other researchers in books and professional journals or by being aware of social trends. For example, an increasing number of public health programs have sought to treat the men- tally ill while they continue to live in the community rather than confining them in asylums. Sociologists might be prompted to ask, What has caused this shift in attitude toward the mentally ill? What are the likely consequences for the patients themselves and for the rest of the community?

2. Review The liTeRaTuRe

Once a research problem is identified, the sociologist must review related research: Have previous researchers spotted the same puzzle? How have they tried to solve it? What aspects of the problem has their research left unanalyzed? Have they looked only at small segments of the population, such as one age group, gender, or region? Drawing on oth- ers’ ideas helps the sociologist clarify the relevant issues and the appropriate research methods.

Basic Concepts 35

figure 2.1 steps in the Research Process

Your �ndings are registered and discussed in the wider academic community, leading perhaps to the initiation of further research.

Select a topic for research.

Familiarize yourself with existing research on the topic.

What do you intend to test? What is the relationship among the

variables?

Choose one or more research methods: experiment, survey, observation,

use of existing sources.

Collect your data; record information.

Work out the implications of the data you collect.

What is their signi�cance? How do they relate to previous �ndings?

DEFINE THE PROBLEM

REVIEW THE LITERATURE

FORMULATE A HYPOTHESIS

SELECT A RESEARCH DESIGN

CARRY OUT THE RESEARCH

REPORT THE RESEARCH FINDINGS

INTERPRET YOUR RESULTS

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 35 22/01/18 12:06 pm

36 Chapter  2  Asking and Answering Sociological Questions

3. make The PRoblem PRecise

A third stage involves clearly formulating the research problem. If relevant literature already exists, the researcher may have a good idea of how to approach the problem. At this stage, hunches sometimes become hypotheses— educated guesses about what is going on. For the research to be effective, the researcher must formulate a hypothesis in such a way that the factual material gathered will provide evidence either supporting or disproving it.

4. woRk ouT a Design

The researcher then decides how to collect the research materials, choosing from a range of methods based on the study objectives as well as the aspects of behavior under study. For some purposes, a survey (usually involving questionnaires) might be suitable. In other circumstances, interviews or an observational study might be appropriate.

5. caRRy ouT The ReseaRch

Researchers then proceed to carry out the plan developed in step 4. However, during the actual research, unforeseen practical difficulties may arise that force the researcher to rethink his or her initial strategy. For example, it might prove impossible to contact certain questionnaire recipients or interview subjects. A business firm or government agency might not let the researcher carry out the work as planned. Yet omitting such persons or institutions from the study could bias the results, creating an inaccurate or incomplete picture of social reality. For instance, a researcher studying how business corporations have complied with affirmative action programs might find that companies that have not complied do not wish to be studied.

6. inTeRPReT The ResulTs

Once the information has been gathered, the researcher’s work is not over— it is just beginning! The researcher must analyze the data, track trends, and test hypotheses. Most important, researchers must interpret their results in such a way that they tell a clear story and directly address the research puzzle outlined in step 1. Although it may be pos- sible to reach clear answers to the initial questions, many investigations are ultimately not fully conclusive.

7. RePoRT The finDings

The research report, usually published as a journal article or book, provides an account of the research question, methods, findings, and the implications of the findings for social theory, public policy, or practice. This stage is only final in terms of the individual project. Most reports identify unanswered questions and suggest new questions for further research. All individual research investigations are part of the continuing process of

research within the sociological community.

RealiTy inTRuDes!

The preceding sequence of steps is a simpli- fied version of what happens in actual research

hypotheses • Ideas or educated guesses about a given state of affairs, put forward as bases for empirical testing.

socio11_4pp_ch02_030-052.indd 36 22/01/18 12:06 pm

projects. These stages rarely succeed each other so neatly; the difference is like that between the recipes outlined in a cook- book and the actual process of preparing a meal. Experienced cooks often don’t work from recipes at all, yet they might cook better meals than those who do. Following fixed schemes can be unduly restricting; much outstanding sociologi- cal research would not fit rigidly into this sequence, though it would include most of the steps outlined here.

2 ASkINg ANd ANSwErINg SOCIOlOgICAl QuESTIONS: HISTOrICAl CONTExT

When sociology began as a discipline, it was a highly theoretical field. It consisted of much armchair speculation, and many of the notions it developed about how the world worked were not well grounded in evidence. But in the 1920s, there developed in Ameri- can sociology, largely at the University of Chicago, a more intense commitment to the idea that such theoretical speculations were not enough— that sociology as a discipline needed to ground its concepts and theories in facts and data.