Examines the impact of class status on an individual's participation or non-participation in the political process. Focusing on the relative absence of white working-class involvement in many contemporary US liberal and left social movements, this title goes straight to the source: members of the working class and activists in various movements.

"Rhyming Hope and History" exposes the frayed relations between activism and social movement scholarship and examines the causes and consequences of this disconnect between theory and practice. Both scholars and activists explore solutions, weighing the promise and perils of engaged theory and the barriers to meaningful collaboration. This volume asserts that partnerships among scholars and activists benefit both academic inquiry and social change efforts.
Contributors: Kevin M. Carragee, Suffolk U; Catherine Corrigall-Brown, U of California, Irvine; Myra Marx Ferree, U of Wisconsin, Madison; Richard Flacks, U of California, Santa Barbara; Adria D. Goodson; Richard Healy and Sandra Hinson, Grassroots Policy Project; David Meyer, U of California, Irvine; Cynthia Peters, Worker Education Program of the Service Employees International Union, Local 2020; Barbara Risman, North Carolina State U; Robert J. S. Ross, Clark U; Leila J. Rupp, U of California, Santa Barbara; Cassie Schwerner, Schott Foundation; Valerie Sperling, Clark U; David A. Snow, U of California, Irvine; Verta Taylor, U of California, Santa Barbara.
David Croteau is formerly associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University. William Hoynes is professor of sociology and director of media studies at Vassar College. Charlotte Ryan is codirector of the Media Research and Action Project at Boston College. William A. Gamson is professor of sociology at Boston College.

Make the familiar new."Experience Sociology" empowers students to use the lenses of Culture, Structure, Power to see sociology everywhere. Bringing theory and sociological concepts together, "Experience Sociology" helps students move beyond an individual perspective to gain a sociological perspective.

"Experience Sociology" engages students with a clear framework for understanding sociology based on three familiar concepts: Culture, Structure, and Power. For every topic in the book - from the family to the economy to the environment - students learn to recognize the effects of the culture that has taught them, see the structures that constrain or empower them, and notice how power operates at every level of society.