Sociology Textbooks Research Articles

New Zealand Sociology Textbooks

The historical sequence of core New Zealand sociology texts is presented through brief descriptions of their content and form, together with some comments on other sociology-related texts and New Zealand-produced sociology texts that have wider distributions. Texts are progressively larger and with a more extensive range of coverage and move from being compilations of previously published work to original material. As the pedagogic form and content of the texts thickens, there is a consequent tendency for the texts to be distanced from ongoing sociological research in New Zealand and there is less attention to the key features of New Zealand society as the framework for organizing the text.

Textbooks, Syllabuses and Disciplinary Formation in Sweden

In the history of an academic discipline, it takes a while before a textbook production appears. In Sweden, a body of sociological textbooks began to develop in the 1950s. Sociology had become an independent university discipline in 1947 with a chair, given to Torgny T. Segerstedt, and a department at Uppsala University, followed gradually by the universities in Lund, Stockholm, Gothenburg and, somewhat later, Umeå. The participating authors and the areas covered in the first textbook can be read as an image of the state of Swedish sociology by that time. But textbooks can also serve a purpose in the disciplinary formation process itself. This article discusses the role and use of textbooks, course literature and syllabuses in the defining and boundary-work of the new Swedish university discipline of sociology.

The First French Sociology Textbooks (1920—45)

The first French sociology textbooks were based on a 1920 official curriculum for Ecoles Normales (teacher training schools). The textbooks for students of philosophy and for students at the Ecole Normale Supérieure are related to the same curriculum. This article compares the textbooks written for the Ecole Normale, students of philosophy and students of the Ecole Normale Supérieure. Célestin Bouglé, director of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, played a key role in the undertaking. Sociology in the Ecole Normale is supposed to give to the trainees a Weltanschauung, practical norms and a certain practical knowledge, while university students are invited to try to understand the world and to see sociology as part of general culture.

Theory Use in Introductory Sociology Textbooks

Introductory sociology textbooks are one of the disciplinary sites that illustrate both the prominent place, and many uses, of theory in sociology. This article examines the place of theory in a selection of introductory sociology textbooks published in Australia, Britain and the US. It identifies the emergence of theory as a separate topic warranting its own sections or chapters, and considers the historical changes in explicit advice provided about the nature and use of theory in sociology. It also illustrates some of the uses of theory exhibited there that go beyond those directly addressed in textbook advice.

The Tradition of Norwegian Sociology Textbooks

The four main Norwegian introductory textbooks are reviewed; their use by a wider Nordic audience made it possible for a small country to support so many books. The texts are described in relation to the characteristics of their authors, and it is shown how they have reflected the general style of Norwegian sociology and have followed its broad trajectory in the postwar period.

Sociologists and `the Japanese model': a passing enthusiasm?

This article critiques the construction of `the Japanese model' of employment relations by sociologists in English language sociological research monographs, organization textbooks and introductory general textbooks. It demonstrates how marked differences emerged across the different genres and relates them to the different purposes of researchers and textbook writers.The article examines three particular puzzles. First, why did general textbooks adopt `the Japanese model' in the 1990s when media commentaries were announcing the demise of the Japanese model in Japan? Second, why did the 1990s textbooks use 1980s organization textbooks rather than research monographs for their sources? Third, why are general textbooks ready to distance themselves from the model in 2006 when researchers confirm continuing vitality in the Japanese model in large Japanese companies? Answering these questions reveals how sociological knowledge of Japanese employment has been generated, disseminated and used in research, teaching and policy debates.

Sociology Dismissing Religion? The Presentation of Religious Change in Introductory Sociology Textbooks

This paper explores whether the field of sociology harbors a dismissive attitude towards religion. Specifically it examines whether introductory sociology textbooks present the classic secularization theory over the more recent religious economies explanation of religious change. The classical secularization thesis suggests that religion is declining in importance in modern societies and may disappear completely. The religious economies perspective proposes that religion has actually become more influential and dynamic over time. While both theories are well represented in the sociology of religion literature, we explore whether generalist sociology textbooks reflect this reality. This article provides a content analysis of 31 introductory sociology textbooks published between 2003 and 2006. We assess the presence and promotion of the above theories in these textbooks. Our analysis reveals that 20 (65%) of the 31 textbooks in our study present only secularization theory, while seven (23%) of the textbooks cover both secularization theory and religious economies theory. We assess the ramifications of such a lopsided arrangement and conclude by encouraging a more open dialogue on this issue.

The “Adventures” of the Sociology Course in Greek Secondary Education

This article reports the results of a study of the sociology course in Greek secondary education. The aim is to reveal under which circumstances the course has ended up becoming one of the most downgraded courses, and more importantly, how the specific rationale of the course’s structure has resulted in the (re)production of a distorted image of the science of sociology. For that purpose, the 25-year history of the course has been analyzed from the view of: (1) the sociology curriculum’s variations over the years, (2) the underlying rationale of the official documents and the sociology textbooks, and (3) the sociology teachers’ perceptions on the course of sociology. The findings have indicated that the downgrading of the course has resulted in the devaluation of the science of sociology inside the educational community, and that through the school’s rationale (curriculum and teacher’s) a specific interpretation of sociology is being reproduced, which presents it as an everyday and simple science that deals mostly with social problems and their solutions. The ultimate result is that the sociological imagination will possibly never become part of students’ views on life.

Coverage and Representations of Sexuality in Introductory Sociology Textbooks

Mirroring increased cultural and disciplinary attention to sexuality, many introductory sociology textbooks have begun to include coverage of the topic. Our study first assesses the extent of textual coverage of sexuality in a sample of 38 introductory textbooks published after 2000. Secondly, we focus on 14 textbooks with a sexuality chapter and/or textbooks with more than the average textual coverage of sexuality. We find that the emergent “core” of the sociology of sexuality centers on sex research, historical and cross-cultural trends in sexuality, media representations, gender and sexuality, homosexuality and society, and sexual violence. These textbooks vary widely in their attention to the intersection of race, class and sexuality and theoretical applications. We find lingering heteronormativity, homogenization of homosexuality, and problematic representations of non-normative sexuality within the chapters. We conclude with comments on the relevance of these findings and offer some suggestions to ensure that coverage of sexuality better reflects scholarship and discourse within the discipline.

Transformative Processes: Some Sociological Questions

Exploring concepts such as sacrifice, forgiveness, sanctification, and commitment as control variables that can emerge spontaneously in marital interactions and that can transform or regulate the quality of marriage seems, at least at first glance, incongruent with the sociological perspective on marital success. Sociologists, especially in recent decades, have focused primarily on how structural forces, cultural ideologies, and institutionalized inequalities influence the likelihood that people will marry and stay married. For example, although the overall rate of marriage in the United States has remained high, sociologists point out that marriage and divorce rates fluctuate with major economic transitions. The divorce rate in the United States more than tripled between the late 186Os and 1910 (Cherlin, 1992) as the nation underwent a tumultuous transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy. The most recent surge in the divorce rate occurred between 1960 and 1980, during the height of an economic restructuring characterized by the demise of the industrial economy, the rise of an information and services economy, and a massive increase in employment among women. Major economic transitions often coincide with the creation of new cultural and marital ideologies; in fact, both of the above eras witnessed revolutions that championed greater individualism, freedom, and equality. Over the course of the twentieth century, these ideals have increasingly infused marriages. Although traditional marriages were based on religion, patriarchy, economic dependence, and procreation, couples today usually base their marriages on love, free choice, companionship, self-fulfillment, and equality. Marriages that consistently fail to meet these expectations often end in divorce. A second major focus in sociology has been on how social inequalities, especially those based on race, class, and gender, shape access to marriage and marital satisfaction. Families of color, for example, especially those historically exploited for cheap labor, often received little institutional support for developing strong marriages. For many, the demands of work took priority over marriage and family life and intruded on the privacy and sanctity of domestic life (Baca Zinn, 2007). Many racial minorities and poor people today hold marriage in high regard, but believe they lack sufficient resources to marry (Edin, 2000; Harknett & McLanahan, 2004), and their high rates of divorce seem to confirm their belief (Cherlin, 1992; Lawson & Thompson, 1999). Traditional marital arrangements have also been undermined by the growing participation of women in the labor market and in the political arena. This participation has led many women to demand a more equitable sharing of housework and child care by their male partners, and their economic independence has made them less likely to tolerate unhappy marriages. Thus, sociologists have examined marriage and divorce rates primarily within the context of shifting economic and cultural forces, noting that these forces have resulted in new marital expectations, and have emphasized that institutionalized inequalities impact rates of marriage and marital success. Although this perspective differs from the current article's focus on internal marital dynamics, research by psychologists and sociologists often overlaps and is complementary. Most sociologists, for example, would agree that studies of marital conflict are of limited value in predicting marital success; indeed, family sociology textbooks frequently cite research showing that conflict-habituated marriages can be quite stable (Cuber & Haroff, 1966). In addition, the sociological emphasis on the macrolevel factors that influence marital success complements the psychological focus on the importance of human agency and marital interactions. Jessie Bernard, for example, noted that commitment was fundamental to the very concept of marriage as it recognized that couples would inevitably have to cope with marital discord (Bernard, 1972). …

Globalization and local identity: Introductory statement by the WSE President

The author, President of the World Society for Ekistics, has served as Professor of Sociology at Princeton University for more than three decades, specializing in the study of Elites and Leadership, Urbanism,and Social Architecture (for the School of Architecture). An early Ekistician, she taught architects and planners at the Athens Center of Ekistics and was part of the overall research program. The goal to have a sociologist play such a central role during those formative years of ekistics was to expand the perspective of architects, planners, and builders to include sociological and psychological concepts and ideas. The recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, she is the author of a leading textbook in Sociology, The Urban Neighborhood (Random House,1968) actually begun in Athens, and most recently, Community, Pursuing the Dream, Living the Reality (Princeton University Press,2004) which received the Amalfi Prize of 2005. She is currently at work on Adult, that is Retirement Communities. The text that follows is an introductory statement to the international symposion on Globalizationand Local Identity, organized jointly by the World Society for Ekisticsand the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005.

Globalization and local identity: Introductory statement by the WSE President

The author, President of the World Society for Ekistics, has served as Professor of Sociology at Princeton University for more than three decades, specializing in the study of Elites and Leadership, Urbanism,and Social Architecture (for the School of Architecture). An early Ekistician, she taught architects and planners at the Athens Center of Ekistics and was part of the overall research program. The goal to have a sociologist play such a central role during those formative years of ekistics was to expand the perspective of architects, planners, and builders to include sociological and psychological concepts and ideas. The recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, she is the author of a leading textbook in Sociology, The Urban Neighborhood (Random House,1968) actually begun in Athens, and most recently, Community, Pursuing the Dream, Living the Reality (Princeton University Press,2004) which received the Amalfi Prize of 2005. She is currently at work on Adult, that is Retirement Communities. The text that follows is an introductory statement to the international symposion on Globalizationand Local Identity, organized jointly by the World Society for Ekisticsand the University of Shiga Prefecture in Hikone, Japan, 19-24 September, 2005.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SOCIAL PATHOLOGY? CONCEPTUAL FASHIONS AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF DEVIANCE

Social scientific concepts go in and out of fashion. Social pathology was once a popular title for undergraduate sociology courses and textbooks, but it fell out of favor about fifty years ago. Similarly, there is evidence that fewer contemporary sociologists are using the concept of deviance in their analyses. This article sketches a natural history of sociological concepts that denote categories of troubling conditions; it argues that such concepts pose definitional problems that make them pedagogically helpful but analytically problematic.

The Nation, Europe and the World: Textbooks and Curricula in Transition

The fascinating analyses bring out how the importance and the shape of the others in narratives of the nation vary in the unequal structure of the world and the geopolitics of knowledge production ...the diversity of the essays makes for immensely engaging reading. * American Journal of Sociology Textbooks in history, geography and the social sciences provide important insights into the ways in which nation-states project themselves. Based on case studies of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Turkey Bulgaria, Russia, and the United States, this volume shows the role that concepts of space and time play in the narration of 'our country' and the wider world in which it is located. It explores ways in which in western European countries the nation is reinterpreted through European lenses to replace national approaches in the writing of history. On the other hand, in an effort to overcome Eurocentric views,'world history' has gained prominence in the United States. Yet again, East European countries, coming recently out of a transnational political union, have their own issues with the concept of nation to contend with. These recent developments in the field of textbooks and curricula open up new and fascinating perspectives on the changing patterns of the re-positioning process of nation-states in West as well as Eastern Europe and the United States in an age of growing importance of transnational organizations and globalization. Hanna Schissler teaches modern German history at the University of Hanover and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig. Yasemin Nuhoglu Soysal teaches sociology at the University of Essex and is the current president of the European Sociology Association.

Patients, Potions, and Physicians: A Social History of Medicine in Ireland, 1654-2004 (review)

Reviewed by: Patients, Potions, and Physicians: A Social History of Medicine in Ireland, 1654-2004 Greta Jones Tony Farmar . Patients, Potions, and Physicians: A Social History of Medicine in Ireland, 1654-2004. Dublin: A. & A. Farmar, in association with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. 2004. x + 254 pp. Ill. €30.00 (1-899047-99-9). This volume is published by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland to commemorate its 350th anniversary. This venerable College contains a remarkable archive, underused as far as medical historians are concerned, which forms the basis of much of the narrative in the book. To these documents Tony Farmar has added further material from the census and newspapers. He also uses fictional accounts of doctors to illustrate attitudes toward the medical practitioner in the past. For the final chapters, information from interviews with leading protagonists in Irish medicine from the 1950s onward has been added. The result is a lively, interesting, and accessible book. The author was not going to be able to produce a definitive account of the social history of medicine in Ireland in 218 pages. The social background to, and the health of, the Irish people is treated in rather a snapshot fashion, and the theme of the book could be described more accurately as a social history of the medical encounter between doctors and patients. In this respect, however, it is excellent. Farmar provides a strong sense of the complexities of medical practice and the changing relationship between doctors and patients over the years. The difficulties of earning a medical living, the etiquette governing medical examinations and the discharge of bills, the relationship between medical students and their mentors, and all the odd and sometimes amusing encounters in the course of dispensing physic are recounted here. John F. Fleetwood's classic account of the history of Irish medicine is strong on institutional change; this book humanizes that story, providing all kinds of insights into the relationships and practical day-to-day concerns of patients and doctors. Farmar is nevertheless a shrewd observer of the medical scene. He avoids many of the traps into which putative historians of Irish medicine fall, of which one, which he describes as "boosterism," is sometimes found among those writing mainly for a medical or general audience. In contrast, Farmar does not underestimate the tensions and failures in Irish medicine, including the sectarian dimension. He incorporates recent research on the problems of the medical profession [End Page 205] during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The survival of fairy and folk medicine is interposed with a down-to-earth account of the popularity of patent medicines in the late nineteenth century, of which the Irish were inordinate consumers. The rather stodgy state into which Irish medical schools had drifted by the middle of the twentieth century is frankly discussed. There are problems in some places. In covering such a wide period, Farmar has relied, at certain crucial points, on a rather scissors-and-paste approach. Thus the arrival of the National Health Service in Northern Ireland is based upon a series of jaundiced accounts from disaffected medics, including stories about patients approaching the new Health Service for pills for their pets. This is supplemented by a tendentious extract from a sociology textbook on state versus private models of health care. The introduction of the NHS was a defining moment for Irish medicine both north and south, and it needs more extensive treatment than this. Yet Farmar interviewed Robert Collis, a representative of the "new generation" of socially conscious medics emerging in the 1940s, and the opportunity to tell a more rounded story of this period was there. Despite these reservations, Patients, Potions, and Physicians is a welcome addition to the literature of Irish medicine. It has great appeal to the general audience, but there are also many gems along the way for practitioners of the history of medicine. As an account of the texture of the patient-doctor relationship it is a significant contribution to the historiography of Irish medicine. Greta Jones University of Ulster at Jordanstown Copyright © 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press

The Madding Crowd Goes to School: Myths about Crowds in Introductory Sociology Textbooks

The authors examined the crowd sections of 20 introduction to sociology textbooks, coding them for the presence of seven crowds myths—claims about crowds that have no empirical support and have been rejected by scholars in the field. The number of myths per book ranges from five to one. The authors conclude by making suggestions for rewriting these chapters and for improving the book reviewing process.

Sociology and the Environment: An Analysis of Coverage in Introductory Sociology Textbooks

Using content analysis, this research examines the impact of the first 25 years of environmental sociology research on current introductory sociology textbooks. The investigators searched the texts for 40 key concepts in environmental sociology and for the inclusion of works by 20 award-winning environmental sociologists. On average, the texts cited 7 of the 40 key concepts. Eliminating multiple citations to a page, the total number of pages cited averaged just under three percent per book. On average, the texts cite four works by influential environmental sociologists. The texts, however, omitted some of the most central, unique concepts in the field. The texts typically treated environmental issues as social problems rather than as the by-products of institutionalized behaviors or practices. There tends to be a positive relationship between the sales of a text and the discussion of the environment.

The Categorization and Review of Sociology Textbooks

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.

From Localization to Asianization?

Sociological textbooks in Japan are charming to Chinese sociology which survived in 1979 after longer-than-twenty-years' interval. Textbooks written by Ken'ichi Tominaga and Hiroyuki Torigoe, which the author read as a student, are systematically written, although the former attempts to grasp patterns common to human societies from the perspective of general theory and the latter seeks particular characteristics of the Japanese society using culturalist approaches.Japanese sociology still displays the sociological traits of a late-starting non-Western society, and its textbooks are basically the products of its dialogue with Western sociology and its localization toward the Japanese intellectual climate. To the author's regret, however, Japanese textbooks rarely refer to Asian societies, although it is strongly expected that unique concepts that are conceived in Japan will be able to explain social phenomena in Asian societies, including China.

Sociology Textbooks and the Diversity in Sociology Education

Sociology Textbooks and the Diversity in Sociology Education