Kurt Finsterbusch

Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Social Issues

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

The Taking Sides Collection on McGraw-Hill Create(TM) includes current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. This Collection contains a multitude of current and classic issues to enhance and customize your course. You can browse the entire Taking Sides Collection on Create, or you can search by topic, author, or keywords. Each Taking Sides issues is thoughtfully framed with Learning Outcomes, an Issue Summary, an Introduction, and an Exploring the Issue section featuring Critical Thinking and Reflection, Is There Common Ground?, and Additional Resources and Internet References. Go to McGraw-Hill Create(TM) at www.mcgrawhillcreate.com, click on the "Collections" tab, and select The Taking Sides Collection to browse the entire Collection. Select individual Taking Sides issues to enhance your course, or access and select the entire Finsterbusch: Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Social Issues, 19/e ExpressBook for an easy, pre-built teaching. Using Taking Sides in the Classroom is also an excellent instructor resource. Visit the Create Central Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/createcentral for more details.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: McGraw Hill LLC
• Seitenzahl: 280
• Altersempfehlung: 18 bis 22 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. Februar 2016
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 272mm x 213mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 581g
• ISBN-13: 9781259666407
• ISBN-10: 1259666409
• Artikelnr.: 43155669

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

Unit: Culture and Values
Issue: Is It Necessary to Become Less Consumerist?
Yes: Gary Gutting, from "Less, Please," Commonweal (2013) No: Michael
Fisher, from "Review of James Livingston's Against Thrift: Why Consumer
Culture Is Good for the Economy, the Environment, and Your Soul," U.S.
Intellectual History (2012)
Professor Gary Gutting, holder of the Notre Dame Endowed Chair in
Philosophy, praises the modern economy for its amazing progress in
production and consumer benefits but also recognizes its negative effects
on our character and authentic well-being. It has led to economic
insatiability and shrinking of the common good. Therefore, he favors less
consumption. Michael Fisher, graduate student in American history at the
University of Rochester, summarizes in this review article the thesis of
James Livingston that the consumer culture is good, not bad. Though Fisher
supports Livingston's thesis, he does not agree with Livingston's positive
view of advertising. Nevertheless, he and Livingston favor more
consumption.
Issue: Does Social Media Have Largely Positive Impacts on Its Users?
Yes: Karen Hua, from "Where Millennials Make Friends and Mobilize for
Change," Forbes (2015) No: Stephen Marche, from "Is Facebook Making Us
Lonely?" The Atlantic (2012)
Karen Hua, a staff writer for Forbes, concentrates on teens and finds them
using social media to make friends and deepen friendships. She counters the
viewpoint that social media provides superficial contacts by observing
"that today's teenagers are forming deep, personal connections and
relationships online." Stephen Marche, a journalist who is on the staff of
The Atlantic, recognizes the amazing benefits of social media but reports
on stories and studies which fined that Facebook and other social media can
isolate us from people we know to people we meet online. Thus social media
which are designed to increase our communication with our family and
friends can actually make us lonelier.
UNIT: Sex Roles, Gender, and the Family
Issue: Is the American Family in Trouble?
Yes: Isabel V. Sawhill, from "The New White Negro: What It Means That
Family Breakdown Is Now Biracial," Washington Monthly (2013) No: W.
Bradford Wilcox, from "Unequal, Unfair, and Unhappy: The 3 Biggest Myths
about Marriage Today," The Atlantic (2013)
Isabel V. Sawhill, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings
Institution, director of the Budgeting for National Priorities Project, and
codirector of the Center on Children and Families, points out that
marriages in college educated families are not declining but they are
declining significantly for noncollege educated families, both white and
black. W. Bradford Wilcox, associate professor of sociology and director of
the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, describes the
positive situation of families today. The majority of marriages are happy
and are much more equal and fair than decades ago.
Issue: Can Women Have It All?
Yes: Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, from "Sheryl Sandberg's Radically Realistic
"And" Solution for Working Mothers," The Atlantic (2013) No: Anne-Marie
Slaughter, from "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," The Atlantic (2012)
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, best-selling author, journalist, and a Senior Fellow
with the Council on Foreign Relations' Women and Foreign Policy program,
discusses the issues in Sheryl Sandberg's famous book; Lean In. Sandberg's
advice to career women is not to opt out but to lean in, that is, to firmly
choose both career and parenting. Unfortunately men still run the country
so the societal changes that could facilitate Lean In are missing. Full
commitment to both career and family will not be easy. Anne-Marie
Slaughter, the Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and
International Affairs at Princeton University and formerly dean of
Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,
explains why Sandberg is wrong and women cannot successfully pursue career
and family at the same time. They must decide which to do well and which to
do adequately but not avidly.
Issue: Is Same-Sex Marriage Harmful to America?
Yes: Peter Sprigg, from "The Top Ten Harms of Same-Sex 'Marriage'," Family
Research Council (2013) No: Jay Michaelson, from "Joe Biden Takes a
Marriage Equality Victory Lap," The Daily Beast (2015)
Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research
Council, identifies 10 negative effects of same-sex marriages. Many of
these worries concern how various institutions are likely to change as a
result of same-sex marriages, and how authorities are likely to change
their regulations and enforcement practices. Jay Michaelson supports Joe
Biden, Vice President of the United States, who applauds the Supreme
Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage as a form of civil rights.
Evan Wolfson, founder of Freedom to Marry organization, said that Biden
deserves the most credit for the legalization of same-sex marriage.
UNIT: Stratification and Inequality
Issue: Is Increasing Economic Inequality a Serious Problem?
Yes: Joseph E. Stiglitz, from "Slow Growth and Inequality Are Political
Choices. We Can Choose Otherwise," Washington Monthly (2014) No: Robert
Rector and Rachel Sheffield, from "Understanding Poverty in the United
States: Surprising Facts About America's Poor," The Heritage Foundation
(2011)
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia
University, demonstrates the vast inequality in America and argues that it
results from exploitation and should be reduced. It has extensive negative
impacts on many institutional areas such as health care. He suggests ways
to fix these problems which the corporations will fight. Robert Rector is
Senior Research Fellow in the Domestic Policy Studies Department, and
Rachel Sheffield is a research assistant in the Richard and Helen DeVos
Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation. They
argue that inequality is not so bad because the poor are rather well-off
when we look at all the facts. The living conditions of the poor have
improved for decades. Most of the poor have consumer items that were
significant purchases for the middle class a few decades ago. They
establish their thesis on countless facts such as "82 percent of poor
adults reported never being hungry at any time in the prior year due to
lack of money for food."
Issue: Has America Made Substantial Progress in the Rights of Blacks?
Yes: Noah C. Rothman, from "The 'Conversation about Race' That Isn't a
Conversation: Twenty Years of Talk about Race Obscures This Country's
Remarkable Progress," Commentary (2015) No: Valerie Tarico, from "When
Slavery Won't Die: The Oppressive Biblical Mentality America Can't Shake:
An Interview with Black Theologian Kelly Brown Douglas on America's
Greatest Sins," AlterNet (2015)
Noah C. Rothman, associate editor of HotAir.com, does not deny that strong
racial prejudice still exists among whites, but he also shows many of the
ways that behavior and institutions have become less discriminatory.
Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer of two books and a number of
articles. She begins with the painful story of Dylann Roof's shooting of
nine people in a black church in Charleston because she wants to expose the
racist thinking that is behind such acts. Her discussion with Kelly Brown
Douglas also covers slavery and Trayvon Martin.
Issue: Has Gender Equality Come a Long Way?
Yes: Ronald Brownstein, from "Poll: American Men Embracing Gender
Equality," National Journal (2015) No: Leisa Peterson, from "Who Am I to Be
Financially Feminist? (A Guide for Female Entrepreneurs)," Huffington Post
(2015)
Ronald Brownstein, Atlantic Media's editorial director for strategic
partnerships, reports on surprising findings of a recent poll that details
major changes in gender attitudes of males and income, racial, and ethnic
groups. "The survey suggests that men from all rungs on the economic and
social ladder were open to the 'partnership of equals.'" Leisa Peterson,
money mindfulness expert and founder, WealthClinic, points out the many
ways that she and other women today are discriminated against. She uses
statistics and comparative studies to prove her thesis that women are worse
off in several ways.
Issue: Is Government Dominated by Big Business?
Yes: G. William Domhoff, from "Is the Corporate Elite Fractured, or Is
There Continuing Corporate Dominance? Two Contrasting Views." Class, Race
and Corporate Power (2015) No: Mark S. Mizruchi, from "The Fracturing of
the American Corporate Elite," Harvard University Press (2013)
Political sociologist G. William Domhoff presents two theories about who
rules America. One is that the corporate elite is fractured and no longer
stays united enough to rule America. The second is that the corporate elite
is united enough to rule America. He argues for the second view. Mark S.
Mizruchi, professor of sociology at Michigan University, argues the first
view, that the corporate elite is fractured to the point that it does not
ru le America but uses its influence for the specific interests of
individual corporations. This contributes to declining effectiveness of the
American polity.
Issue: Does Capitalism Have Serious Defects?
Yes: Jerry Z. Muller, from "Capitalism and Inequality," Foreign Affairs
(2013) No: Chris Berg, from "Why Capitalism Is Awesome," Cato Policy Report
(2013)
Jerry Z. Muller, professor of history at the Catholic University of America
and author of The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought,
reports on how capitalism inevitably increases inequality because
competition results in winners and losers. It is productive but it also
increases commodification which erodes cultural values. It is a force for
both good and bad. Chris Berg, a research fellow with the Institute of
Public Affairs in Melbourne, Australia, and author of In Defence of Freedom
of Speech, provides an enthusiastic defence of capitalism because it
stimulates millions of innovations that improve millions of items that
benefit us.
Issue: Does Government Need to Be Restrained?
Yes: Chris Edwards, from "Forget Too Big to Fail . . . The Federal
Government Is Too Big to Work," Washington Examiner (2015) No: Richard
Eskow, from "We Need a Bold Left to Challenge Government Downsizing,"
Campaign for America's Future (2015)
Chris Edwards editor of Cato Institute's DownsizingGovernment.org, argues
that the federal government runs badly. It is wasteful and inept. It does
too much and does not have strong incentives for efficiency and
effectiveness. Its problems include top-down planning and bloated
bureaucracy. Cut it back. Richard Eskow, writer, a former Wall Street
executive and a radio journalist, argues that the government must not be
cut back because its services are badly needed. The anti-government side
does want increases to the military budget, but the domestic side generates
more jobs and growth.
Issue: Was Welfare Reform the Right Approach to Poverty?
Yes: Josh Sager, from "The Flaw in Conservative Anti-Welfare Arguments,"
The Progressive Cynic (2013) No: George F. Will, from "The Harm Incurred by
a Mushrooming Welfare State," The Washington Post (2015)
Josh Sager, health policy intern at Community Catalyst, argues that most
people on welfare want what all Americans want which is a job, the ability
to provide for a family, and have pride in what they do. He denies the view
of the right that they are lazy and enjoy being dependent and would get
jobs when their welfare is taken away. Rather he advocates addressing the
underlying causes of poverty. George F. Will, an American newspaper
columnist with the Washington Post and political commentator with Fox News,
points out the negative results of welfare. He blasts the American
government for classifying large numbers of Americans as "needy." He gets
his statistics from Nicholas Eberstadt, who documents the massive expansion
of the welfare state and its erosion of recipients' character.
Issue: Is the Progressive Vision the Answer for Improving the U.S. School
System?
Yes: Ruth Conniff, from "A Progressive Vision for Education," The
Progressive (2014/2015) No: Russ Walsh, from "Fix Society, and the Schools
Will Follow," The Progressive (2014)
Ruth Conniff, editor and chief of The Progressive, criticizes No Child Left
Behind for its excessive testing and teaching to the tests. She promotes a
superior model of education which seeks to truly engage students and
promote critical thinking. It gives teachers more control and thus treats
them as professionals. This has worked in middle-class schools and she
advocates its use in poor areas. Russ Walsh, author, teacher, and
coordinator of college reading at Rider University in Pennsylvania, reports
on the book Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the
Attack on Public Education, by John Kuhn. It blasts most school reform
efforts as covers for corporate takeovers of the schools behind the
rhetoric of reform.
Issue: Will the Fourth Industrial Revolution Bring About a Wonderful World?
Yes: Danny Crichton, from "Fear Not the Robot: Automation Will Continue to
Raise Our Quality of Life," National Review (2015) No: Katherine
Mangu-Ward, from "Will They Take Our Jobs?" Reason (2015)
Danny Crichton sees new technologies greatly increasing production and
therefore consumption. Technologies will improve our lives. Digitally run
robots are and will produce much faster than humans can and bring us into a
wonderful world. Katherine Mangu-Ward sees technology as both good and bad.
She is worried that the robots will take away many of our jobs and make
most people unneeded in the labor force. What will happen? The results
could pull our society apart.
UNIT: Crime and Social Control
Issue: Are the Police in America to Be Condemned?
Yes: Nancy A. Heitzeg, from ""Broken Windows," Broken Lives and the Ruse of
"Public Order" Policing," Truthout (2015) No: Nick Wing, from "If Most
Police Officers Are 'Good Cops,' These Are Even Better," Huffington Post
(2015)
Nancy A. Heitzeg, a professor of sociology and director of the critical
studies of race/ethnicity program at St. Catherine University, presents and
refutes the theory behind the "broken windows" approach to policing which
is tough on crime and produces high imprisonment rates. She also presents
several cases of police killing unarmed blacks and argues that the police
need to be better controlled. Nick Wing, Senior Viral Editor at The
Huffington Post emphasizes that most cops are good cops and act
responsibly. He presents many reports by policemen and police chiefs which
tell very positive stories about policemen to balance the very negative
stories in the media.
Issue: Is American Justice Too Severe?
Yes: Eric Holder, from "Bold Steps to Reform and Strengthen America's
Criminal Justice System," Vital Speeches of the Day (2013) No: Zaid Jilani,
from "Who Are the Biggest Killers in America? The Numbers Will Shock You,"
AlterNet (2015)
Eric Holder judges the current judicial system as broken and needing a
major overhaul. The prison system needs to continue to punish and deter but
also to rehabilitate. Their populations should be reduced, which requires
revised judicial laws and policies. "Too many Americans go to too many
prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason."
His reforms must also make communities safer. Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet
staff writer who makes a good case that the really dangerous criminals are
not the poor but the rich and powerful. They make decisions that kill
hundreds of thousands of people, while murderers kill about 15,000 a year.
For example, medical malpractice kills about 225,000 people a year. They
also swindle, defraud, and cheat people out of $486 billion a year versus
all property crimes mounting to $17.6 billion a year. These facts point out
the real failure of the criminal justice system.
Issue: Is the United States in Significant Danger of Large-Scale Terrorist
Attacks?
Yes: James R. Clapper, from "Statement for the Record: Worldwide Threat
Assessment of the US Intelligence Community," Senate Intelligence Committee
(2015) No: Washington's Blog, from "There Are Far Fewer Terror Attacks Now
Than in the 1970s," Washington's Blog (2015)
James R. Clapper, director of national intelligence, gave this statement to
Congress in 2015. It covers all types of terrorism from cyber terrorism to
WMD and organized crime terrorism. Washington's Blog points out that
terrorists' attacks have become practically nonexistent since 2003
(shootings by psychos are not included in these statistics). Its point is
that the threat of terrorism in the United States has been greatly
exaggerated.
UNIT: The Future: Population/Environment/Society
Issue: Does Immigration Benefit the Economy?
Yes: Robert Lynch and Patrick Oakford, from "The Economic Effects of
Granting Legal Status and Citizenship to Undocumented Immigrants," Center
for American Progress (2013) No: Association for Mature American Citizens,
from "How Much Does Illegal Immigration Cost You?" The Heritage Foundation
(2015)
Robert Lynch, Everett E. Nuttle Professor and chair of the Department of
Economics at Washington College, and Patrick Oakford, research assistant at
the Center for American Progress, show that legal status and a road to
citizenship for the unauthorized will bring about significant economic
gains in terms of economic growth, earnings, tax revenues, and jobs and the
sooner we provide legal status and citizenship, the greater the economic
benefits will be for the nation. The main reason is that the immigrants
will produce and earn significantly more than they cost and the results
will ripple throughout the economy. The Association for Mature American
Citizens argues that "Unlawful immigration and amnesty for current unlawful
immigrants can pose large fiscal costs for U.S. taxpayers." The benefits
would include Social Security, Medicare, welfare, education, police, and
other services. Each such household would receive benefits that would
exceed various payments to government of $14 ,387.
Issue: Is Humankind Dangerously Harming the Environment?
Yes: Daniel Immerwahr, from "Growth vs. the Climate," Dissent (2015) No:
Ramez Naam, from "How Innovation Could Save The Planet," The Futurist
(2013)
Daniel Immerwahr reviews the history of environmental concern to 1980 and
then the unconcern until recently. He reports the arguments of many major
spokespersons for the environmental crisis view and the solutions that they
propose. All of them argue that major cutbacks in resource use will be
required, but a few of them believe that the quality of our lives could
improve at lower consumption levels. Ramez Naam, a computer scientist,
author, and former Microsoft executive, argues that innovations will deal
with the serious issues of population growth, peak oil, resources
depletion, climate change, and limits to growth. After reviewing some of
the recent great accomplishments and some of the risks facing the planet,
he shows how ideas and innovations have solved similar crises in the past
and then gives reasons for being optimistic about the future.
Issue: Should America Seek the Role of World Hegemon or World Leader?
Yes: Salvatore Babones, from "The Once and Future Hegemon," The National
Interest (2015) No: Will Ruger, from "The Case for Realism and Restraint,"
Reason (2015)
Salvatore Babones, an associate professor of sociology and social policy,
argues that America has been the hegemonic power since the collapse of the
Soviet Union and is still the hegemonic power even though Obama is not
currently asserting this power. We work with other countries but none of
them are near us in military or economic power. Will Ruger, an associate
professor of political science, agrees that America stands alone in terms
of power but advocates restraint in the use of that power. Our goals are
better achieved when we share power.