Exploring Sociology: Readings for Introductory Sociology provides students with a carefully selected collection of articles that highlight the influence of social forces on all people regardless of culture, ethnicity, gender, tradition, or faith. The anthology provides readers an introduction to the study of sociology and underscores how our lives are shaped in large part by external forces. Section I familiarizes students with the sociological perspective and ways in which to think sociologically. Section II provides readers with an introduction to social science research methods through a field experiment that investigates handwashing in public bathrooms. In Section III, students learn about the concept of culture, and in Section IV, socialization, group behavior, and conformity. The reading in Section V demonstrates how behaviors usually classified as deviant can be normalized given the right social conditions. Section VI explores various types of inequalities, including class, race, and gender. The final section examines social institutions, including marriage, family, education, religion, the economy, and government, and shows how these institutions form the foundation of modern societies and guide our daily lives. Engaging and approachable, Exploring Sociology is an exemplary supplemental textbook for foundational courses in sociology.

Queer South Rising: Voices of a Contested Place is a collection of essays about the South by people who identify as both Southern and queer. The collection's name hints at the provocative nature of its contents: placing Queer and South side-by-side challenges readers to think about each word differently. The idea that a queer South might rise undermines the Battle Cry of ""The South's Gonna rise Again!"" embedded in the collective memory of a conservative South. This rising does not refer to a kind of Enlightenment transcendence where the region achieves some sort of distinctive prominence. It suggests instead ruptures, like furrows in a plowed field where seeds are sown. The rising Whitlock envisions is akin to breaking and turning over meanings of Southern place. The title further serves to remind readers of the complexities of the place as it calls into question notions of a universal, homogenous LGBT, queer, identity. Queer South Rising is the first truly interdisciplinary collection of essays on the South and queerness that deliberately aims for multiple approaches to the topics. This collection is intended for a wide audience of ""regular"" folks. Essays explore multiple intersections of Southern place-religion, politics, sexuality, race, education-that transcend regional boundaries. This book counters conventional scholarly texts; it invites all readers interested in the South and queer themes to engage with the narratives it holds-and perhaps question their assumptions. Whitlock has sought, in collecting these essays, to seek out a diverse group of authors-across disciplines, professions, and interests-to shatter perceptions about a nostalgic, romanticised Southern culture in general.

This book explores why democratization processes in Sub-Saharan Africa have made so little progress despite more than two decades of multi-party politics on the subcontinent. By applying multiple linear regression analyses to a new data set on multi-party elections in Sub-Saharan Africa, the study investigates the relationship between political mobilizations and electoral competitiveness. It finds that the more societal groups engage in political mobilizations, such as protests and strikes, the more competitive elections become. Based on these results, the author argues for a change in the policies of international democracy assistance programs. The study's findings suggest that efforts to promote democracy would likely be more successful if international donors focused their support on organizations that have active constituencies and are willing to use their mobilization capacity to address ruling elites with political or socio-economic grievances.

With the advent of digital devices and software, self-tracking practices have gained new adherents and have spread into a wide array of social domains. The Quantified Self movement has emerged to promote 'self-knowledge through numbers'. In this groundbreaking book Deborah Lupton critically analyses the social, cultural and political dimensions of contemporary self-tracking and identifies the concepts of selfhood and human embodiment and the value of the data that underpin them. The book incorporates discussion of the consolations and frustrations of self-tracking, as well as about the proliferating ways in which people's personal data are now used beyond their private rationales. Lupton outlines how the information that is generated through self-tracking is taken up and repurposed for commercial, governmental, managerial and research purposes. In the relationship between personal data practices and big data politics, the implications of self-tracking are becoming ever more crucial.

In this new and persuasively argued study, philosopher Rod Cameron argues that definitive absolute Idealism changes the definition of logic, annuls ethics, and diminishes objective truth. Entitlement to "logic" is due to knowledge of the logos. The logos is religion and reasoning's common origin. They are thus made compatible. Logic accesses ontology: a metaphysical realm of causation. Logic performs philosophy's missing function: synthesis. The individual and the nation, Cameron argues, share the same essences. This correlation allows the nation to cater to the individual. It answers major political questions and discloses purposefulness in history. Ontology and this teleology define culture, which allows "race" to be categorized as an attribute of culture. Joined to absolute truths, race matters. Defending culture rebuffs both multiculturalism and antiracism. The ability to defeat pseudo-absolutes is vital for our existence and effectively preempts authoritarianism. Those searching for meaning in these troubled times will absorb Cameron's clear exposition of these concepts with great interest.

DEEP NIGHTS is a true story of the battle that is waged every night on the streets of America, a gritty, raw inside look at the everyday lives of the police officers who suit up, put on the badge and gun and go out each night to protect the streets and neighborhoods of their beats. It is a moving story of one officer's journey from an idealistic fresh young recruit to a jaded, battle-scarred sergeant. Chronicling the thrill and triumph of risking life and limb to capture dangerous criminals, the frustration of an overworked, failing justice system, the lives of victims shattered by drugs and violence, and seeing death too close and personal, this is a brutally honest, no punches pulled story of entrenched bureaucracy and corruption, the scandals the public never hears about, and the quiet heroism of cops on their nightly beat. Against it all is the backdrop of the lives of the men and women in uniform; the humor, the hardship, the personal struggles, and the camaraderie that forms an unbreakable bond in this profession they simply call "the Job."

This book comprehensively discusses the topic of Jews fleeing the Holocaust to China. It is divided into three parts: historical facts; theories; and the Chinese model. The first part addresses the formation, development and end of the Jewish refugee community in China, offering a systematic review of the history of Jewish Diaspora, including historical and recent events bringing European Jews to China; Jewish refugees arriving in China: route, time, number and settlement; the Jewish refugee community in Shanghai; Jewish refugees in other Chinese cities; the "Final Solution" for Jewish refugees in Shanghai and the "Designated Area for Stateless Refugees"; friendship between the Jewish refugees and the local Chinese people; the departure of Jews and the end of the Jewish refugee community in China. The second part provides deeper perspectives on the Jewish refugees in China and the relationship between Jews and the Chinese. The third part explores the Chinese model in the history of Jewish Diaspora, focusing on the Jews fleeing the Holocaust to China and compares the Jewish refugees in China with those in other parts of the world. It also introduces the Chinese model concept and presents the five features of the model.

The United States imprisons more than two million men and women in federal prisons and city, county, and state jails. More than 150,000 individuals are incarcerated in each of the states of California and Texas. Calling attention to the flaws in the justice system, The Mysterious Story of Gitano Cervantes tells the stories of five men housed in Swest state units. Author Finbar Manghan, who has served as a volunteer chaplain in the prisons, looks at the cases of the five men who have been prison residents for a combined period of seventy years. Two are white, two are black, and one is Hispanic. Three of them claim to be innocent, while two admit their guilt; the sentences of the latter are such that they will almost certainly die in prison. One is innocent beyond any reasonable doubt. The experiences of all of them have been tragic. The Mysterious Story of Gitano Cervantes addresses a host of issues related to the men's stories, including false imprisonment, medical mistreatment, misrepresentation of self due to life's humiliations, mental harassment, medical bungling, and betrayal. Manghan reviews the court and prison experiences of these men and explores the need for reform throughout the criminal justice system in America.

Developmentalist Cities addresses the missing urban story in research on East Asian developmentalism and the missing developmentalist story in studies of East Asian urbanization. It does so by promoting inter-disciplinary research into the subject of urban developmentalism: a term that editors Jamie Doucette and Bae-Gyoon Park use to highlight the particular nature of the urban as a site of and for developmentalist intervention. The contributors to this volume deepen this concept by examining the legacy of how Cold War and post-Cold War geopolitical economy, spaces of exception (from special zones to industrial districts), and diverse forms of expertise have helped produce urban space in East Asia. Contributors: Carolyn Cartier, Christina Kim Chilcote, Young Jin Choi, Jamie Doucette, Eli Friedman, Jim Glassman, Heidi Gottfried, Laam Hae, Jinn-yuh Hsu, Iam Chong Ip, Jin-Bum Jang, Soo-Hyun Kim, Jana M. Kleibert, Kah Wee Lee, Seung-Ook Lee, Christina Moon, Bae-Gyoon Park, Hyun Bang Shin.

This volume brings together a cross-section of papers presented at the 33rd International Council of Social Welfare (ICSW) conference in Tours, France, in July 2008. Although it is a more or less random compilation, the contributions raise important topics offering great insight into the multiplicity of ways that nations and communities are responding to the challenges of globalisation as well as internal demands for greater social justice and equality as well as mechanisms for civil society. The authors are working across disparate national settings which makes it especially interesting by providing very different perspectives and allows as well to look at possible convergences. A main issue is a global approach to social policy and social development but tailored to local communities is required. It is as well underlined that limitations on strict "professional" domains can easily do more harm than allowing gain.

From cartoons to boardrooms comes the statement, "It's not personal. It's just business."
Just a Job? Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life offers a provocative perspective on ethics at work. The book questions the notions that doing ethics at work has to be work, and that work is somehow a sphere where a different set of rules applies. This problematic line between work and life runs through the ways we commonly talk about ethics, from our personal relationships to the domains of work, including the organization, the profession, and the market. Talk about ethics is far more than "just talk," and this book shows how and why it matters.
Drawing from the fields of communication and rhetoric, the authors show how the very framing of ethics--even before we approach specific decisions--limits the potential roles of ethics in our work lives and the pursuit of happiness, and treats it as something that is meaningful only at special moments such as when faced with dilemmas, or as the last chapter in a business book. Separating ethics from life, we put it beyond our daily reach.
The authors argue against ethical myopia limited to spectacular scandals or comprehensive professional codes. Instead, they propose a master reframe of ethics based on a new take on virtue ethics, including Aristotle's practical ideal of eudaimonia or flourishing, which tells new stories about the ordinary as well as extraordinary aspects of professional integrity and success. By reframing ethics as not special, they elevate it to its rightful position in work and personal life.
Generously illustrated with examples and ideas from scholarly as well as popular sources, this book asks us to reconsider the meaning of and path toward the "good life."