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Introduction to Sociology
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Introduction to Sociology

Fifth Edition

Other Titles in:
Sociology (General)

July 2019 | 600 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
The authors are proud sponsors of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.

Join the conversation with one of sociology’s best-known thinkers.  


In the fully updated Fifth Edition of Introduction to Sociology, bestselling authors George Ritzer and Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy show students the relevance of sociology to their lives. While providing a rock-solid foundation, the text illuminates traditional sociological concepts and theories, as well as some of the most compelling contemporary social phenomena: globalization, consumer culture, the digital world, and the “McDonaldization” of society. Packed with current examples and the latest research of how “public” sociologists are engaging with the critical issues of today, this new edition encourages students to view the world through a sociological perspective, and to participate in a global conversation about social life in the twenty first century.

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Letter from the Authors
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
CHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY IN THE GLOBAL AGE
A Sociology of Revolutions and Counterrevolutions

 
The Changing Nature of the Social World—and Sociology

 
Central Concerns for a Twenty-First-Century Sociology

 
Sociology: Continuity and Change

 
Sociology’s Purpose: Science or Social Reform?

 
Sociology, the Other Social Sciences, and Common Sense

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 2. THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY
How Do Theories Help Us Understand Politics and Other Social Institutions?

 
The Giants of Classical Sociological Theory

 
Other Important Early Theorists

 
Contemporary Sociological Theory

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCHING THE SOCIAL WORLD
Sociology as a Science

 
The Scientific Method

 
The Development of Scientific Knowledge

 
Sociological Research

 
Secondary Data Analysis

 
Issues in Social Research

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 4. CULTURE
A Reflection of U.S. Culture

 
A Definition of Culture

 
The Basic Elements of Culture

 
Cultural Differences

 
Major Types of Culture

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 5. SOCIALIZATION AND INTERACTION
Socialization and Variance

 
The Individual and the Self

 
The Individual as Performer

 
Socialization

 
Interaction

 
Micro-Level Social Structures

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 6. ORGANIZATIONS, SOCIETIES, AND GLOBAL RELATIONSHIPS
Questioning Governmental Authority

 
Organizations

 
Contemporary Organizational Realities

 
Societies

 
Global Relationships

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 7. DEVIANCE AND CRIME
Norms, Labels, and Judgment

 
Deviance

 
Theories of Deviance

 
Crime

 
Globalization and Crime

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 8. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Student “Haves” and “Have-Nots” in Higher Education

 
Dimensions of Social Stratification

 
Economic Inequality

 
Social Mobility

 
Theories of Social Stratification

 
Consumption and Social Stratification

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 9. GLOBAL STRATIFICATION
Something Is Right in Denmark

 
Positions in Global Stratification

 
Other Global Inequalities

 
Changing Positions in Global Stratification

 
Theories of Global Stratification

 
Consumption and Global Stratification

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 10. RACE AND ETHNICITY
Minorities Acquire Political Power

 
The Concepts of Race and Ethnicity

 
Majority–Minority Relations

 
Racism

 
Race and Ethnicity in a Global Context

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 11. GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Challenging Gender Stereotypes

 
Gender and Sex

 
The Sociology of Sexuality

 
Sexuality, Gender, and Globalization

 
Global Flows Related to Gender

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 12. FAMILIES
Fictional Families Get Real

 
Family, Marriage, and Intimate Relationships

 
Broad Changes in Marriage and the Family

 
Theorizing the Family

 
Problems in the Family

 
Global Families

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 13. EDUCATION
Going to the “Right” Parties on Campus

 
Thinking about Education

 
Education and Consumption

 
Inequality in Education

 
Globalization and Education

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 14. RELIGION
Commercialism Encroaches on a Holy City

 
Early Sociologists and Religion

 
What Is Religion?

 
Components of Religion

 
Types of Religious Institutions

 
Theorizing Religion

 
Religion and Globalization

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 15. POLITICS AND THE ECONOMY
The Interrelationship of Government and the Economy

 
Politics: Democracy or Dictatorship

 
Who Rules the United States?

 
Global Politics

 
The Economy: Major Forms and Changes

 
Work, Consumption, and Leisure

 
Globalization and the Economy

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 16. THE BODY, MEDICINE, HEALTH, AND HEALTH CARE
The Opioid Crisis

 
The Body

 
The Sociology of Health and Medicine

 
Globalization and Health

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 17. POPULATION, URBANIZATION, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Too Few, Too Old

 
Population

 
Urbanization

 
Cities and Globalization

 
The Environment

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
CHAPTER 18. SOCIAL CHANGE, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND COLLECTIVE ACTION
Workers’ Rights, Consumer Activism, and Social Change

 
Social Movements

 
Emergence, Mobilization, and Impact of Social Movements

 
Collective Action

 
Social Change: Globalization, Consumption, and the Internet

 
Summary

 
Key Terms

 
Review Questions

 
 
Glossary
 
References: Chapter-Opening Vignettes
 
References: Comprehensive List
 
Index

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