Sociology

Herausgeber: Finsterbusch, Kurt

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The Annual Editions series is designed to provide convenient, inexpensive access to a wide range of current articles from some of the most respected magazines, newspapers, and journals published today. Annual Editions are updated on a regular basis through a continuous monitoring of over 300 periodical sources. The articles selected are authored by prominent scholars, researchers, and commentators writing for a general audience. Annual Editions volumes have a number of organizational features designed to make them especially valuable for classroom use: a general introduction; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; an annotated listing of supporting World Wide Web sites; Learning Outcomes and a brief overview at the beginning of each unit; and a Critical Thinking section at the end of each article. Each volume also offers an online Instructor's Resource Guide with testing materials. Using Annual Editions in the Classroom is a general guide that provides a number of interesting and functional ideas for using Annual Editions readers in the classroom. Visit www.mhhe.com/annualeditions for more details.

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Produktdetails

• Annual Editions: Sociology
• Verlag: Dushkin Publishing
• 2012/13
• Seitenzahl: 259
• Erscheinungstermin: Februar 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 272mm x 206mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 499g
• ISBN-13: 9780078051227
• ISBN-10: 0078051223
• Artikelnr.: 34157502

Autorenporträt

Kurt Finsterbusch is a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He received a BA in history from Princeton University in 1957, a BD from Grace Theological Seminary in 1960, and a PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1969. He is the author of Understanding Social Impacts (Sage Publications, 1980), and he is the coauthor, with Annabelle Bender Motz, of Social Research for Policy Decisions (Wadsworth, 1980) and, with Jerald Hage, of Organizational Change as a Development Strategy (Lynne Rienner, 1987). He is the editor of Annual Editions: Sociology (McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Learning Series); Annual Editions: Social Problems (McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Learning Series); and Sources: Notable Selections in Sociology, 3rd ed. (McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 1999).

Inhaltsangabe

Annual Editions: Sociology 12/13, Fortieth Edition
Preface
Series
Correlation Guide
Topic Guide
Internet References
Unit 1: Culture
Unit Overview
1. Understanding American Worldview, J. LaVelle Ingram, PhD, Life in
the USA, 2007
J. LaVelle Ingram created this article to explain to immigrants the
peculiar worldview of the country they are adopting. It is contrasted
with other worldviews and explains some important cultural differences
between societies.
2. The Myth of the "Culture of Poverty", Paul Gorski, Educational
Leadership, April 2008
The culture of poverty myth accuses the poor of having beliefs, values,
and behaviors that prevent them from achieving. Thus their failure is
their fault. This myth must be challenged. Most poor people do have the
work ethic, value education, and other characteristics that contradict
the culture of poverty myth. Opportunity structures play a big role in
poverty.
3. The Test of Time, Brigid Schulte, The Washington Post, January 17,
2010
Many people feel like the author, that their lives are hurried,
frantic, and super busy, but when carefully measured they have loads of
free time (in her case around 30 hours a week). The time diary studies
have revealed many very interesting things about our lives and culture.
4. I Can't Think!, Sharon Begley, Newsweek, March 7, 2011
Research summarized here reveals that the mind is stimulated as the
subjects it considers become more complex, but after a point it
experiences overload and begins to make more errors and bad decisions.
Sharon Begley reports on the ways that our increasing exposure to
information is impacting us.
5. Islam in America, Bobby Ghosh, Time, August 30, 2010
America prides itself in its diversity but that is changing with
respect to Muslims. Bobby Ghosh/Dearborn presents painful stories of
intolerance and hatred against American Muslims, and reviews the
arguments against Islam and some of the widely held erroneous beliefs
that poison feelings toward them. The article also sketches the history
of intolerance in America.
6. Diversity within Unity: A New Approach to Immigrants and Minorities,
The Communitarian Reader: Beyond the Essentials, edited by Amitai
Etzioni, Andrew Volmert, and Elanit Rothschild, Rowan & Littlefield,
2004
This statement signed by many communitarians seeks to assuage the
increasing fear of impacts of immigration. It favors diversity of
cultures within unity on shared core values.
7. What Do We Deserve?, Namit Arora, Humanist, May/June 2011
A major key to political, economic, and cultural issues is the question
"What is just or right?" Namit Arora uses Michael Sandel's book,
Justice, to explore this question. People should be rewarded for their
skill and effort but since chance and innate advantages play such a
large role in outcomes, some adjustments are required for outcomes to
be considered fair. How these adjustments are made shape political
philosophies and differentiate societies.
Unit 2: Socialization and Social Control
Unit Overview
8. The Social Construction of Gender, Margaret L. Andersen and Dana
Hysock, from Thinking about Women, 8/e (Allyn & Bacon, 2009)
Socialization by parents, teachers, peers, public figures and many
others contributes greatly to what we are. The authors focus on the
role of socialization in the formation of gender identity which helps
explain why men and women are different.
9. Worth Every Penny: Can Cash Incentives Create Model Citizens?, Jim
Giles, New Scientist, September 24, 2007
Jim Giles proposes a very sensible idea that many consider radical. He
proposes that people be rewarded for doing what is beneficial to
society. He would pay people for doing good. Believe it or not, this is
a revolutionary idea.
10. The New Sex Scorecard, Hara Estroff Marano, Psychology Today,
July/August 2003
As everyone knows, men and women are different. Recent research has
greatly increased our understanding of these differences and Hara
Estroff Marano reviews these differences including mental, sexual,
health, emotional, and psychological.
11. Fighting Crime: An Economist's View, John J. Donohue, Milken
Institute Review, First Quarter, 2005
It is amazing what conclusions we would come to about crime and
punishment if we used economic logic as John J. Donohue shows in this
article. We would stop building prisons, abolish the death penalty,
expand the police force, adopt sensible gun controls, and legalize
drugs among other things.
12. Wrongful Convictions, Radley Balko, Reason, July 2011
How many people are convicted of crimes that they did not commit?
Radley Balko scans the research on this difficult topic and estimates
that 3 to 5 percent of convictions convict innocent people. DNA has
exonerated 268 convicted murderers over two decades but only a small
number of cases are reviewed via DNA testing. The painful story of the
suffering endured by the wrongfully convicted is told through the case
of Paul House.
13. Cruel and Unusual: The True Costs of Our Prison System, Robert
DeFina and Lance Hannon, Commonweal, January 28, 2011
One of America's black eyes is its prison system and the laws that send
so many people to jail for long terms. America leads the world by far
on incarceration rates due largely to the politically popular tough on
crime policy involving mandatory sentencing and the
three-strikes-and-you're-out rule. Research indicates, however, that
high incarceration rates contribute very little to lowering crime
rates.
14. How Wall Street Crooks Get Out of Jail Free, William Greider, The
Nation, April 11, 2011
The one area where tough on crime is not applied is corporate crime.
Despite the horrific impacts of the recent financial crisis on the
economy and country not one financial executive has gone to jail.
William Greider explains how the political system works to protect the
cheaters and not the cheated.
15. The Aggregate Burden of Crime, David A. Anderson, Journal of Law
and Economics, October 1999
David A. Anderson makes a valiant effort to compute the annual costs of
major types of crime and the net annual total costs of all crime which
he claims exceeds $1 trillion or over $4000 per capita. Fraud and
cheating on taxes costs Americans over 20 times the costs of theft,
burglary, and robbery.
Unit 3: Groups and Roles in Transition
Unit Overview
16. The Frayed Knot, The Economist, May 26, 2007
The thesis that marriage is in trouble is a half truth. It is true for
the lower class and not for college educated class. Thus there is a
marriage gap and it contributes to the income gap.
17. How to Land Your Kid in Therapy, Lori Gottlieb, The Atlantic,
July/August 2011
Lori Gottlieb develops an interesting thesis about parenting: the good
is better than the very good. The very good in raising children she
criticizes is the "too good" parenting. For example, parents believe
that they should try to make their children as happy as possible, but
that can make them less adaptive and less happy in later life.
18. Peer Marriage, Pepper Schwartz, The Communitarian Reader: Beyond
the Essentials, edited by Amitai Etzioni, Andrew Volmert, and Elanit
Rothschild, Rowan & Littlefield, 2004
Pepper Schwartz celebrates the widespread diffusion of peer marriages
in which spouses regard each other as full social equals, both have
careers, share family decision making, and more equally share
child-rearing responsibilities. He argues that peer marriages generally
result in stronger families and greater satisfaction.
19. Death by Gender, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Dissent, Spring 2010
One of the greatest inequalities in the world is gender inequality in
patriarchal societies. Women and girls are often killed by their
fathers, brothers, or male cousins for the "honor" of the family when
they have been raped or molested or perceived as contaminated for
behaviors that would be normal in other societies. Gender inequality
has many other facets including the trafficking of women as sex slaves
and their forced recruitment as suicide bombers.
20. The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage: Why Same-Sex Marriage Is an
American Value, Theodore B. Olson, Newsweek, January 18, 2010
Gay marriage is hotly debated today and probably will be for a
considerabl e time into the future. The arguments are based on values
and cost benefit analyses of its impacts. Now the arguments have moved
into the courts to determine whether constitutional rights were
violated when California Proposition 8 overturned legislation which
legalized gay marriages. Currently Proposition 8 has been overturned
but the legal battle is continuing. This article covers all of the
issues that lie behind this debate.
21. An Age of Transformation, The Economist, May 31, 2008
The transformation that The Economist assesses is the transformation of
America from urban and rural life to suburban life. More people live in
the suburbs than cities and rural areas together. In the past cities
excelled in jobs and heterogeneity. Now these characterize the suburbs.
22. Relationships, Community, and Identity in the New Virtual Society,
Arnold Brown, The Futurist, March/April 2011
How have online relationships and communication impacted us and how
might they impact us in the future? Arnold Brown explores a wide range
of changes wrought by online relationships and activities and how they
affect individuals and organizations. They are increasingly impacting
identity formation and reformation.
Unit 4: Stratification and Social Inequalities
Unit Overview
23. A World Enslaved, E. Benjamin Skinner, Foreign Policy, March/April
2008
Did you know that there are more slaves living today than at any time
in human history? E. Benjamin Skinner claims that you could buy a child
slave for sex and work for $50 in Haiti and fly home with her in one
day. He claims that there are 300,000 slaves in Haiti. This is how he
begins his exposé of worldwide slavery.
24. The Rule of the Rich, Bill Moyers, The Progressive, February 2011
It is common knowledge that large corporations and the rich have
massive influence over the American political system and its policies,
but Bill Moyers sheds considerable light on the methods and processes
whereby the rich rule this country. He uses stories and history to stir
us to the point where we want to fight the corruption of the system.
25. Antipoverty Policy for the Excluded Poor, Herbert J. Gans,
Challange, November/December 2009
Herbert J. Gans describes how the poor are more resented and victimized
in America compared to other industrial nations and are minimally
helped by social programs. Our policies and the functioning of our
economy favor upper groups and give little opportunities for the poor.
26. Connecting the Dots, David K. Shipler, from John Edwards et al.,
Ending Poverty in America, The New Press, 2007
Poverty is a complicated subject. The obvious aspects are the lack of
good jobs, lack of skills, and lack of opportunity. Less obvious are
the reasons why the steps to eliminate poverty are not taken. David K.
Shipler explains how multiple problems intersect and make it nearly
impossible for many of the poor to get out and stay out of poverty.
27. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: An Overview, Robert Ek and
Larry Goolsby, Policy and Practice, February 2010
In 1996 America ended Aid for Families with Dependent Children and
replaced it with a new welfare program called Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families with a strong emphasis on temporary and encouraging
mothers to work. TANF was a success because it caused welfare rolls to
shrink, but some problems remain.
28. Inequalities That Endure? Racial Ideology, American Politics, and
the Peculiar Role of the Social Sciences, Lawrence D. Bobo, from The
Changing Terrain of Race and Ethnicity, edited by Maria Krysan and
Amanda E. Lewis (Russell Sage Foundation 2004)
One way to understand the continuing racism in the U.S. is to see that
the past attitudes, behaviors and institutions recreate themselves in
the present. Change occurs but change is also resisted by those who
fail to perceive the workings of the persisting inequalities in
America.
29. Whites Swim in Racial Preference, Tim Wise, from Poverty and Race
in America, edited by Chester Hartman, 2006
According to Tim Wise, America has had a strong affirmative action
program from its founding. It was a white affirmative action program
and though it has been cut back some it is still in existence. Whites,
however, are ignorant of its presence because they have come to assume
that they have earned all that they have.
30. Understanding Unconscious Bias and Unintentional Racism, Jean
Moule, Phi Delta Kappan, January 2009
Jean Moule identifies unconscious bias that leads to unintentional
racism of which the perpetrators are usually unaware. These biases are
based on stereotypes and are hard to correct at both the conscious and
especially the subconscious levels. Moule points out the many very
negative impacts that unconscious biases cause.
31. Female Power, The Economist, January 2, 2010
Do you agree with The Economist that "The economic empowerment of women
across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the
past 50 years. It is remarkable because of the extent of the change . .
. [and] because it has produced so little friction." This article
documents and explains this revolution.
32. The End of Men, Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, July/August 2010
Hanna Rosen overstates her case in the title but she does show that
women are advantaged over men in many ways. More women are working than
men. Over 50 percent of managers are women. Three-fifths of college
degrees will be earned by women. The deeper question behind these facts
is whether modern life that favors verbal skills over physical skills
is loading the dice in favor of women?
Unit 5: Social Institutions: Issues, Crises, and Changes
Unit Overview
33. Who Rules America? Power, Politics, and Social Change, G. William
Domhoff, McGraw-Hill, 2006
G. William Domhoff is the leading proponent of the power elite view of
American politics, which is explained in this article as it applies to
political influence in America today.
34. Neutralized: Can American Democracy Survive the Demise of Impartial
Institutions?, John B. Judis, The New Republic, April 28, 2011
According to John B. Judis, democracy is threatened because so many
institutions are losing their impartiality and are becoming highly
politicalized or ideologically narrow. The judicial system and public
academic institutions must be impartial in their judicial decisions,
teaching and research. Also, countries are better off when their news
media and sources of information are largely professional and unbiased.
35. Foresight for Government, David M. Walker, The Futurist,
March/April 2007
Today's governments must govern in terms of long-term challenges. They
must prepare for the future. David M. Walker, the comptroller general
of the United States, is responsible for making the Government
Accountability Office an anticipatory agency and discusses some of
greatest future challenges that our government must face.
36. The Capitalist Manifesto: Greed Is Good (To a Point), Fareed
Zakaria, Newsweek, June 22, 2009
Fareed Zakaria describes how American capitalism works. It "means
growth, but also instability." It is both good and bad, but mostly
good. It is driven by self-interest (greed) to produce good products at
low cost for high sales and good profits, but self-interest can go
astray when institutions fail to turn self-interest into socially
beneficial actions.
37. Reversal of Fortune, Bill McKibben, Mother Jones, March 2007
Bill McKibben raises the age-old question "Does money buy happiness?"
in a new way, that is, "Is more better?" The data indicate that
economic "growth no longer makes us happier." In fact, the things that
contribute most to happiness are under stress in modern life.
38. Getting Higher Ed in Shape, Daniel deVise, The Washington Post
Magazine, February 20, 2011
Daniel deVise criticizes the U.S. higher educational system. The top
research universities and liberal arts colleges may be the best in the
world but the rest should be improved in eight ways: 1) measure how
much students learn in college, 2) end merit aid which largely funds
the children of upper-income families, 3) make the bachelor degree a
three-year degree, 4) revive the core curriculum (it is out of date),
5) bring back homework (a half century ago it was 25 hours a week, now
15), 6) tie public funds to finishing college, 7) cap athletic
subsidies, and 8) stop re-teaching high school in community college.
These proposals should provoke debates.
39. Medical Guesswork, John Carey, BusinessWeek, May 29, 2006
John Cary reports that most doctors' medical decisions are based on
very little empirical evidence. His report features medical crusader
Dr. David Eddy who is championing evidence-based medicine.
40. Pandemic Pandemonium, Josh N. Ruxin, The National Review,
July/August 2008
Josh N. Ruxin warns that the worst health problem today is the eminent
danger of a pandemic. Pandemic threats include AIDS, malaria,
tuberculosis, and influenza. Developed countries are not too concerned
about these diseases but their vitality in poor countries allows for
the development of very dangerous strands of these diseases that can
threaten a large part of the world.
41. In Search of the Spiritual, Jerry Adler, Newsweek, August
29-September 5, 2005
Jerry Adler presents a full and rich report on spirituality and
religion in America which covers both statistics and practices.
Unit 6: Social Change and the Future
Unit Overview
42. The New Population Bomb: The Four Megatrends That Will Change the
World, Jack A. Goldstone, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2010
The four world-changing trends are 1) shift of population growth from
developed countries to the developing countries, 2) The aging of the
labor force in developed countries and increasing numbers of young
people in developing countries, 3) rapid growth of Muslim countries,
and 4) most of the world's population will become urbanized, with the
largest cities being in the poorest countries, where critical services
are scarce. These are very challenging trends that will collapse many
governing structures unless major adaptive changes are made. "The
strategic and economic policies of the twentieth century are obsolete,
and it is time to find new ones."
43. How to Feed 8 Billion People, Lester R. Brown, The Futurist,
January/February 2010
The demand for food is growing faster than the supply of food because
of "population growth, the growing consumption of grain-based animal
protein, and, most recently, the massive use of grain to fuel cars."
Meanwhile soils are eroding, water shortages are increasing, and the
improvements that made the green revolution are near their limits so
expanding production is difficult and per capita grain production is
declining. Lester R. Brown proposes conservation, productivity, and
consumption changes to address the food crisis.
44. Immigration Benefits America, Steven J. Gold, Society, September
2009
As stated in his title, Steven J. Gold argues that immigration socially
and economically benefits America even though many immigrants come from
cultures quite different from ours. Many voice fears that immigrants
will change our culture and society for the worse, but history shows
that America successfully assimilates immigrants from quite different
backgrounds.
45. A Safe Operating Space for Humanity, Johan Rockstrśm et al.,
Nature, September 24, 2009
The authors identify nine Earth-system processes and associated
thresholds that could generate unacceptable environmental change if
crossed: climate change; rate of biodiversity loss; interference with
the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; stratospheric ozone depletion;
ocean acidification; global freshwater use; change in land use;
chemical pollution; and atmospheric aerosol loading. Three thresholds
have already been crossed and three are close to being crossed. The
authors conclude that the planet is in bad shape and threatening human
civilization unless adaptive actions are taken immediately.
46. Conquering Climate Change, Dennis M. Bushnell, The Futurist,
May/June 2010
There is enough uncertainty about many aspects of global warming to
keep the debate alive even though most relevant scientists support the
human caused global warming thesis. But how much certainty is required
before ameliorative actions are taken? Dennis M. Bushnell explores this
issue and recommends serious actions immediately to avoid or minimize
many potential devastating consequences.
47. Who's Afraid of Human Enhancement? A Reason Debate on the Promise,
Perils, and Ethics of Human Biotechnology, Nick Gillespie et al.,
Reason, January 2006
A major cultural debate of this century is how society will deal with
biotechnology. The potential for reducing diseases, disabilities, and
abnormalities on the one hand and to enhance performance on the other
hand is great. Eventually children can be "designed." This article
debates "What should biotechnology be allowed to do?"
48. Biotech on the Farm: Realizing the Promise, Clifton E. Anderson,
The Futurist, September/October 2005
The fact that new technology can produce both good and bad outcomes is
at the heart of the debate about genetic engineering. Clifton E.
Anderson explains how it can help farmers feed future populations with
better diets but also entails high risks. He recommends a Genetic
Science Commission to guide the development of genetic research to
maximize the benefits and minimize the harms.
49. Defeating Terrorism: Is It Possible? Is It Probable?, Marvin J.
Cetron, The Futurist, May/June 2007
One of the leading futurists, Marvin J. Cetron, directed the most
extensive project forecasting the future of terrorism and reports its
findings here. It is scary!
50. War in the Fifth Domain: Are the Mouse and Keyboard the New Weapons
of Conflict?, The Economist, July 3, 2010
The possibilities of cyber warfare are frightening. Cyber terrorists
could cause financial chaos costing trillions, screw up electrical
grids, or widely infect military hardware. Worst-case scenarios include
oil refineries and pipelines exploding; air-traffic-control systems
collapsing; orbiting satellites spinning out of control, major
corporations being hacked to death, and the Internet being crippled.
Society could soon break down as food becomes scarce and money runs
out. Protection from these attacks is extremely difficult.
51. A New End, a New Beginning: Prepare for Life as We Don't Know It,
John L. Petersen, The Futurist September/October 2009
John L. Petersen, a noted futurist, forecasts that major changes or a
transformation lie ahead, because multiple trends are converging,
problems are much larger than government, the problems are systemic, we
are not taking appropriate steps now, the issues are too complex to
adequately understand, and the issues are global. We must plan for the
transition now.
52. A User's Guide to the Century, Jeffrey D. Sachs, The National
Interest, July/August 2008
Jeffrey Sachs attempts to identify, briefly describe, and assess the
consequences of the major developments of the twenty-first century. The
world is converging technologically and economically, economic and
population growth are threatening the environment, and vast
inequalities in income and power between and within nations are
destabilizing governance structures and increasing conflicts.
53. Can America Fail?, Kishore Mahbubani, The Wilson Quarterly, Spring
2009
Kishore Mahbubani argues that America is guilty of groupthink which
prevented us from anticipating the meltdown of the housing and
financial markets. Now our worship of individual responsibility and
freedom makes us irresponsible, our hatred of taxes leads to crippling
debt, our over extension of American power makes us hated throughout
the world, our self-righteousness closes our ears to the voices of
others, and our unquestioning acceptance of our political system
guarantees its subordination to special interests. Unless we wake up
America will fail.
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