The Categorization and Review of Sociology Textbooks

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the tendencies in sociology textbooks in postwar Japan published in recent years and to grasp their specific features.Therefore, the study reviewed sociology textbooks published since 1985 and categorized them based on the bibliography of the Japanese sociology database.The results of this analysis are as follows : (a) With respect to the content, a large number of the textbooks created by one author cover systematic theory and academic introduction to sociology as well as introductory theories to each field in sociology. (b) With respect to the form, the textbooks tend to include the photographs, diagrams, and words of the key concepts. (c) There has been an increase in the type of textbooks that introduce the perspectives of sociology.On the other hand, textbooks that relate and discuss “social problems” or “social planning” and “social researches” or “social indicator theories, ” which were published frequently in the 1970s, have gradually disappeared in recent years. With a focus on perspective and intention, sociology education may come to a deadlock. To prevent this, it is necessary, in addition to an introduction to perspectives, to develop an empirical method in which newly uncovered “problems” can be tied to social practice.