Sociology Book Research Articles

The Role of Sport in the Black Community

“Athletics is to the Black community what technology is to the Japanese and what oil is to the Arabs. We're allowing that commodity to be exploited… We really need to turn it around … if those schools cannot do for us what we need done, i.e., provide an education for the next generation, then we should be looking to steer clear of those institutions.” (Charles Farrell, Director, Rainbow Coalition for Fairness in Athletics) While many observers would not agree with Farrell's claim that schools are responsible for the low graduation rate of African American student athletes, most would agree that sport is a precious commodity to the black community. The message from most of the media identifies sport as a way for anyone who has talent and is willing to work hard to improve his or her station in life. Nearly every article written about African American athletes by sports magazines (e.g., Sports Illustrated, Sport, etc.) points to the athletes' rise from the ghetto, drug-infested neighborhoods, etc., as evidence of sport's ability to elevate one's status. And, of course, they also include the obligatory comparison of the athlete who made it to all of his or her friends who did not make it — those with or without athletic talent. Still, there are others who dismiss the idea that sport is a route to social mobility for African Americans (Edwards 1973; Curry and Jiobu 1984; Eitzen and Sage 1993; Coakley 1994; Leonard 1997), and it is not unusual to find that sport sociology books and occasional magazine or newspaper articles and vignettes detail the long odds one faces when trying to make a career of sport. Has sport ever been the escalator that the above essays tout? What has the meaning of sport been to the black community? This paper examines some crucial athletic events in American sport and their impact on the black community. It then comments on the media's role in creating / maintaining sport's status in the black community.

Best-Sellers by Sociologists: An Exploratory Study

Sociology's support from the general public, in its taxpayer and other roles, depends in significant part on how informative that public finds sociology, and what uses it can make of the discipline's work. Since one of the many things we do for various sectors of the general public is to inform its reading members through our books and nonjournal articles, this study aims to determine what sociology that general public has read and is reading, and it takes a first cut at answering that question by estimating sociology's bestselling books. The study is about sales, not readership, and this article reports 53 titles that have sold over 50,000 copies.1 The identification of these titles turned out to be a difficult empirical problem, and discussion of the study must thus begin with a report on methods. What books by sociologists have been read most often by the general public can really only be answered by a readership study among a sample of that public. What I have done instead, and as a very exploratory effort, is to ask a large number of editors at commercial and university presses, and authors, about the sales of sociological books other than texts and classics.

MEDINA, Belen T.G., THE FILIPINO FAMILY: A Text With Selected Readings

MEDIAN, Belen T.G., THE FILIPINO FAMILY: A Text With Selected Readings. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1992, 272 pp., $22.00 hardcover.Although there have been a number of introductory and general sociology books with a particular focus on the Philippine setting that have been published over the last four decades or so; a comparatively less attention has been given to works dealing with specific substantive area(s) in sociology, to date. Medina's The Filipino Family ... answers the need to fill this apparent gap. Written by an author who is a sociologist and a Filipina herself, the book offers a double advantage of looking at the Filipino from the perspective of an insider.Altogether, this volume contains twelve chapters covering the common subject areas in Family Sociology. Starting off with an introductory chapter on the study of the family, it is followed by two chapters on and kinship; three chapters on courtship, mate selection, love and marriage; three chapters on marital roles, power, decision-making and marital adjustment. There is one chapter each on parenthood and later years. The book ends with a brief chapter on social change and its effects on the contemporary Filipino family.Relying mainly on the works of many scholars, the book essentially provides an overview of existing studies and literature relating both to the in general and to the Filipino in particular. There is an extensive bibliography of studies done by Filipino scholars which, to a large extent, contributed to a truly authentic insight of the Filipino family. Non-Filipino sources primarily deal with materials which are more theoretical in nature, but less of those with relevant empirical evidence.Just like the system in other cultures that is challenged by urbanization and industrialization, the Filipino is confronted with the need to balance itself between continuity and change. Throughout the book the author presents the reader with evidence of continuity as well as change that is taking place in the Filipino family. For example, the persistence of some traditional practices and values such as respect for one's elders, the kumpadre system or ritual co-parenthood, extended emphasis, bilateral kinship structure and the uncontested role of the wife as holder of the purse, are still very much in evidence in Philippine society today. The guerida arrangement characterized by maintaining a second family is believed to be declining due to the increased use of contraceptive measures. The dissemination of Western values through the mass media, the presence of hotels and motels, as well as knowledge of contraception; however, have contributed to the rise of extra-marital affairs. …

Health, Illness and the Social Body. A Critical Sociology (Book).

Health, Illness and the Social Body. A Critical Sociology (Book).

Advances in Medical Sociology (Book).

Advances in Medical Sociology (Book).

Handbook of Clinical Sociology (Book).

Handbook of Clinical Sociology (Book).

Social Theory in Brazil

Brazil is larger than most North Americans realize. Covering more than 3 million square miles, it has a population of 119 million, as measured by its 1980 census (and about 140 million in 1991 estimates), and is as large as the rest of South America combined. But it is less known to us than countries like Mexico or Argentina, almost surely because its national language is Portuguese rather than (as in the rest of South America) Spanish. Spanish, like French, German, and English, is a Portuguese, like Dutch or Danish, is not. Scholars whose native language is of the world languages address each other in that language and (sometimes quite unrealistically) expect scholars everywhere else to be able to read their work. Scholars whose native language is Dutch or Danish may write for each other in that language, but when they address the world they do so in of the world languages; they know that no one reads their native tongue. Being relatively small, the countries where those languages are spoken cannot support a large scholarly output in a language read only in of those countries. But Brazil, a very large country, has an educated class large enough to support publication and diffusion of knowledge in the national language. Thus, although Brazilian scholars are typically at home at least in French and English, they do not produce their major works in those languages. Scholars in the world languages seldom read Portuguese, so a vicious circle creates in other countries an ignorance of the sizable, varied, and interesting scholarly output of Brazilian social science. That is my speculation as to how this situation came about; the speculation may be debatable, but the fact is not. I would not have known this had I not, through a series of accidents, come to spend a term teaching in Brazil in 1976, under the auspices of the Ford Foundation, in the postgraduate program in social anthropology of the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. I returned to the Museu in 1990, this time as a Fulbright teaching fellow. Before my first trip I required myself at least to learn to read Portuguese, however haltingly, and thus could read anthropological and sociological books, journals, and dissertations when I got there. Afterward I kept in touch with the people I had worked with, principally Gilberto Velho, who sent me more materials to read. Over the years I thus acquired some familiarity with Brazilian social science literature, and saw that it contained much that would be of interest to English-speaking social scientists if they had access to it. Alan Sica, the editor of this journal, had expressed an interest in broadening its reach, and agreed to publish a small selection of Brazilian work if I would translate it. This section is the result. Making a small selection from such a large literature poses an insoluble sampling problem. My selection differs considerably from what others might choose, and may even seem eccentric. None of three articles I chose looks much like conventional American

Some Soviet works in Arabic

65 such works, covering a wide variety of areas: Marxism-Leninism, general social science, philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, ethnography, economics, politics, government, law, mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, metalurgy, transport, agriculture, medicine, folklore, prose, and children's books. While most of this list's forthcoming books in the social and exact sciences were specially written for Arab readers, works of fiction were generally translated from Russian; the social sciences category included a book entitled, We and the Arabs; history dealing with the 'British colonisers in Yemen' and politics with Sadat's experiment in peace. Several of these books seem to be propagandist in nature. A few years ago, Abba Eban remarked that 'propaganda is the art of persuading others of what one does not necessarily believe oneself.'3 This bon mot is, however, not invariably applicable; moreover, how can one ascertain whether the propagandist is convinced of his case or not? It is not easy, moreover, to determine what constitutes propaganda. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines it as 'any association, systematic scheme, or concerted movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine or practice'. It is the 'systematic scheme' which seems most relevant here. According to this definition, it appears that Soviet works in Arabic are published on a two-tier level - one more propaganda-oriented and popular, the other attempting to be less polemical and more scholarly. While the boundaries separating these two tiers are not always well defined, both are intended to serve Soviet interests in the Arab countries, but in different ways. We shall discuss each separately, with several illustrations from the 1980s.

Ideas about Illness: An Intellectual and Political History of Medical Sociology (Book).

Ideas about Illness: An Intellectual and Political History of Medical Sociology (Book).

Medical Sociology (Book).

Medical Sociology (Book).

Time, Place, and People in History and Sociology: Boundary Definitions and the Logic of Inquiry

There may have been a time when one could characterize the difference between sociology and history in terms of sociological attention to generalization and theory in contrast to historical specificity. A quarter of a century ago, E. H. Carr (1961) was earnestly exorcising the ghost of Ranke from his discipline while C. Wright Mills (1956) was vehemently ranting against the twin devils of abstract empiricism and grand theory. Happily, we now only evoke the distinction between sociological universalism and historical particularism in required graduate classes or in ritualistic self-affirmations at professional meetings. When sociological books include chapters on Marc Bloch or E. P. Thompson and historical books liberally cite Marx, Weber, and Durkheim while urging social historians to seek higher levels of generalization, how do we explain the difference between the two disciplines to our poor confused graduate students?

Qualitative Methodology and Sociology (Book).

Qualitative Methodology and Sociology (Book).

TEXTBOOK REFERENCE TO THE OLDER POPULATION

The terminology used to refer to the population aged 65 and over in introductory sociology and social gerontology textbooks was examined and the issue of ageism was raised in relation to labels used in beginning textbooks. Analysis showed that in 20 sociology textbooks the most common referent was “old people,” while in 13 gerontology textbooks it was “elderly.” Despite an expressed preference for the term “senior citizens,” very few sociology books used that term whereas about two‐thirds of the gerontology books used it. In the beginning sociology books, discussion of elderly was most often found in the topical chapters that dealt with stratification or inequality. While there was no commonly accepted best term of reference, a number of textbooks did address the question of terminology and the difficulty of finding suitable language.

Writing well: Ten commandments for educators

We recognize the difficulty of treating adequately a topic-the habit of good writingwhich has inspired hundreds of books and thousands of articles. We recognize, too, that writing is an art as well as a craft. The people who declare that can't teach anyone to write may be correct if that means you cannot teach the loftier aspects of writing without the prospective writer possessing as prerequisites unusual imagination, genius for expression, and a fresh perspective toward the world. All of us, however, writing lectures, memos, reports, articles, letters, scholarly studies, books, and the like can learn the craft of writing-can improve the way we write. Indeed, to paraphrase an ancient adage, by writing well we can leave the world of writing better off (not worse) because we wrote. Writing well is not that difficult. It requires attention to faults most of us commit frequently, easy to correct. According to the contemporary American poet, Ezra Pound, bad writing is immoral. Perhaps. His indictment prompts us to think of ten commandments that lead, if practiced, to good writing. For memory's sake, we call these the ten commandments of good writing. Before turning to these commandments, however, we should comment on the state of academic, scholarly, or administrative writing today-as reflected in scholarly professional journals and magazines, reports and memoranda, letters and studies. Generally, the quality of writing in educationa, pronted media today is poor, substandard. The writing is verbose, jargon-infested, almost always over-long, bland, and lifeless-prose not written as if intended for people to read it. Some of this writing is simply obfuscation. What, for example, does the following passage, excerpted from a significant book in sociology, mean:

Teaching Medical Sociology (Book).

Teaching Medical Sociology (Book).

Dominant Issues in Medical Sociology (Book).

Dominant Issues in Medical Sociology (Book).

Ruling Class, Ruling Culture: Studies of Conflict, Power and Hegemony in Australian Life.R. W. Connell

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsRuling Class, Ruling Culture: Studies of Conflict, Power and Hegemony in Australian Life. R. W. Connell Ivan SzelenyiIvan Szelenyi Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 84, Number 5Mar., 1979 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/226935 Views: 8Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1979 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Marcos Nascimento, Raewyn Connell Reflecting on twenty years of Masculinities: an interview with Raewyn Connell, Ciência & Saúde Coletiva 22, no.1212 (Dec 2017): 3975–3980.https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-812320172212.27242016Zlatko Skrbis, John Germov The Most Influential books in Australian sociology (MIBAS), 1963–2003, Journal of Sociology 40, no.33 (Sep 2004): 283–303.https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783304046282

The Behavior of Law

Hailed as one of the most important works in the history of sociology, and a precursor to the revolutionary theoretical approach of pure sociology, this short and lucid book is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1976. To honour this seminal book, Emerald is pleased to announce that it will publish a special edition of "The Behavior of Law", including a number of additional features: a new foreword from Mark Cooney; an interview with the author, entitled "How Law Behaves"; reflections from a number of prominent sociologists on "The Behavior of Law"'s impact over the last thirty years. It features an author profile written by Randall Collins.

The Dental Patient's Cultural Response to the Need for Dental Care

The social and cultural characteristics of patients affect perceived need for care and the services necessary to meet this need. The dentist, in improving utilization, acceptance of recommended care, and achievement of optimal oral health status for the patient, needs to be aware of social and cultural influences. Certain simple actions could assist in turning an awareness of these characteristics into action. 1. The dentist should be aware of his own present and past social cultural orientation. What are the predominant values of the culture in which he is working? 2. What are the predominant social and cultural groups of the community from which patients are drawn? What are the predominant values of these groups? Are they divergent from the dentist's values? 3. Read articles and books that describe and discuss these groups. You do not have to go any further than your newspaper or popular magazines to get a fair reading of white middle class values. You may have to investigate to find ethnic readings. In either case, however, you do not necessarily have to read sociology books. 4. Listen to friends, colleagues, or people in the line at the grocery store. What are their feelings about legislation, money, health, and food? In more natural settings you will get a better feel for real attitudes and values than in the confines of a dental office. 5. Discuss orientations toward health and dentistry with your auxiliaries. They are usually local and possibly from a background different from yours. If more of your patients are like them than are like you, you may need to consider their evaluations carefully. 6. With this improved background and appreciation of subcultural differences, you will begin to pick up cues in history taking and treatment planning. Listen to the patient, and remember that an early reaction or explanation to a concern or remark by the patient will decrease the intensity of any problem later that may have come from a lack of understanding. Remember that all middle class people are not alike. Do not sit back and relax because you think you have a homogeneous practice. Subcultural differences are also characterized by family size, urban-rural childhoods, sex, age, and education. Every dentist has subcultural variations among his patients. 7. In doing treatment planning, prepare the range of appropriate treatments, the associated costs and the possible methods of payment. Try to separate those things which are essential to good dental care and the operation of your practice from those things that make you comfortable. Give the patient choices whenever possible. The most sensitive predictor of dental care utilization is perceived illness. The dental profession, individually and collectively, can make more persons aware of early signs of illness. Efforts directed toward the public and the patient which suggest that certain conditions are signs of need for dental care should, over time, lead to higher and more appropriate utilization, irrespective of subcultural values. As this lack of knowledge and the cost barriers are overcome, the impact of other socioeconomic factors should be minimal.

A Comparison of Book Reviewing by the AJS and the ASR

Complementary to a scientific interest in professional journals as a means of scholarly communication, editors of these journals have several reasons for exploring the types of public they serve and the selective processes by which each journal issue comes into being. Within sociology there is an interest in comparing the American Journal of Sociology (AJS), the oldest journal, with the American Sociological Review (ASR), the official journal of the American Sociological Association. An annual report on the Row of manuscripts for the ASR is given in the American Sociologist, and a similar report is given by the editor of the AJS at the annual meeting of editorial advisors. A step toward more detailed analysis of editorial operations was taken by the editorial office of the AJS a couple of years ago when tabulations were made of the amount of time taken for each step between receipt of manuscript and publication: interval for referees to indicate they would read the paper, interval for reply from referees, and so on. That tabulation will be repeated in the near future, and editors of other sociological journals have been requested to make parallel tabulations in the interest of greater efficiency. The sharp rise in the number of sociological books published has created a greater competition between articles and book reviews for the available space in each issue, One has the impression that writing by sociologists has increased more rapidly than the total number of pages available in sociological journals, much as the latter have multiplied. Thus editors repeatedly face the question of how many and which books should be reviewed. And, with this pressure for space in each issue, is there perhaps too much overlapping of reviews by the AJS and ASR? The problem of space allocated to reviews in each journal separately is also a major problem in insuring coverage of the output of books, avoiding adoption of fashions as to which books or which kind will be reviewed, etc. (see Stinchcombe and Ofshe 1969). Previous tabulations were made of books reviewed between 1962 and 1965 and between 1966 and 1967 by the AJS and/or the ASR. The frequencies for 1962-65 are given in table 1 and those for 1966-67 in table 2. During the first period, each journal reviewed about a third of the books reviewed by the other. During the second period, the ASR continued to review a third of the books covered by the AJS, but the AJS reviewed less