An Introduction to Sociology is your essential guide to understanding the social forces that shape our lives and the world around us. This innovative textbook introduces you to the key theories, themes, and concepts in the discipline of sociology and helps you to develop as a sociologist by providing comprehensive coverage of all the main areas of study. Presenting you with the history, current debates and recent research developments for each topic, this book covers everything from classical sociologies and traditional subjects such as class, families, and religion, through to more progressive areas like digital society, social media, migration, and the interconnectedness of modern global society. The book's extensive coverage means it can be used throughout your studies, from first year to final year. Key features: Each chapter is written by an internationally renowned expert who uses specialist insight and the latest research to provide a reliable and up-to-date overview. Includes a selection of unique learning features such as "Hear from the Expert" boxes and "Key Cases" from around the world, as well as reflective activities and revision questions that will enhance your knowledge. Features a section titled "What is sociology useful for?" which includes chapters on the public value of sociology and the role of sociology in contemporary society. The book is supported by a wide-ranging collection of online teaching and learning resources including exclusive video content from SAGE Video, links to SAGE Journal Articles, sample essay questions, and a selection of multiple-choice questions. This definitive text is perfect for first-year sociology undergraduates and anyone studying sociology at university or college level.

This edited collection addresses the challenges for critically engaged research, teaching and scholarship on race and racism in a climate marked by sweeping changes in universities. Each chapter engages with debates about universities and 'publics', and the public orientation and reach of academic work. How do these factors play out in the work of scholars pursuing racial and social justice? What are the constraints of the marketised university or the bureaucratised political field or the celebrity-hungry arena of media culture? How can we use scholarly research and knowledge to create different and better meanings and outcomes in any of these places? With a focus on engaged and activist scholarship attuned to theory and practice, the chapters consider these issues in France, the UK, USA and Costa Rica. The chapters include discussions of teaching for social justice, collaborating and advocating for migrant and local communities and deploying scholarly knowledge in political work and the media. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

This edited collection addresses the challenges for critically engaged research, teaching and scholarship on race and racism in a climate marked by sweeping changes in universities. Each chapter engages with debates about universities and 'publics', and the public orientation and reach of academic work. How do these factors play out in the work of scholars pursuing racial and social justice? What are the constraints of the marketised university or the bureaucratised political field or the celebrity-hungry arena of media culture? How can we use scholarly research and knowledge to create different and better meanings and outcomes in any of these places? With a focus on engaged and activist scholarship attuned to theory and practice, the chapters consider these issues in France, the UK, USA and Costa Rica. The chapters include discussions of teaching for social justice, collaborating and advocating for migrant and local communities and deploying scholarly knowledge in political work and the media. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

First published in 1998, this influential volume develops previous research by the author and explores issues and solutions regarding the roles of law enforcement, drug referral and official and media reactions. Section one analyzes the rationale for drug enforcement and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of four main approaches. It looks at the pressure on the police to take action in local drugs markets, particularly within a context where the police emphasize their responsiveness to public demands in a more "consumerist" age. Section two examines welfarist policies directed towards drug users and minor drug offenders. Section 3 focuses on the media and coverage of crack-cocaine and ecstasy in the 1990s - particularly where these have been based upon police briefings and reports.

First published in 1998, this influential volume develops previous research by the author and explores issues and solutions regarding the roles of law enforcement, drug referral and official and media reactions. Section one analyzes the rationale for drug enforcement and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of four main approaches. It looks at the pressure on the police to take action in local drugs markets, particularly within a context where the police emphasize their responsiveness to public demands in a more "consumerist" age. Section two examines welfarist policies directed towards drug users and minor drug offenders. Section 3 focuses on the media and coverage of crack-cocaine and ecstasy in the 1990s - particularly where these have been based upon police briefings and reports.

This book analyses and bridges the gap between critical social research on race and politics by reviewing the academic field of race theorising and scholarship, covering changes in race and racism debates in recent decades, and assessing the extent, scope, and limits of academic engagements with, and impact on, policy and politics. This approach will take the reader through and beyond `impact' debates, public sociology and scholarship, racism, diversity, and post-race.

This book analyses and bridges the gap between critical social research on race and politics by reviewing the academic field of race theorising and scholarship, covering changes in race and racism debates in recent decades, and assessing the extent, scope, and limits of academic engagements with, and impact on, policy and politics. This approach will take the reader through and beyond `impact' debates, public sociology and scholarship, racism, diversity, and post-race.

Contents:
Acknowledgments. Introduction. PART 1: DRUG TRAFFICKERS. 1: The Good Old Days: reciprocity and public service. 2: Going for Cover: trafficking as a sideline. 3: Things Get Nasty: enter the criminal diversifier. 4: Contested Streets: retailing into the 1990s. PART 2: ENFORCEMENT STRATEGIES 5: Policing Localities: street operations. 6: Inner City Drug Squads: surveillance and but operations. 7: Policing Localities: street operations. PART 3: KEY ISSUES IN DRUG ENFORCEMENT. 8: Informants and Stings: tradition and innovation in plainclothes work. 9: Intelligence Rules: the centralisation of British policing. 10: The Punishment Illusion: your money and your life?. Conclusion: A Little Knowledge. Appendix: Extracts form ACPO's `Broome Report'. Bibliography. Subject Index. Author Index.

Traffickers presents new findings into the most mythologised and least understood area of crime and law enforcement. The chamelion reality of the world of drug trafficking is described in the words of traffickers and detectives. Drug enforcement combines the banal and spectacular in surveillance, covert operations and criminal intelligence. The war on drugs is a harbinger of wider changes in the organisation of policing and international cooperation. Traffickers explores the struggle that transforms policing and punishment as it stimulates the imagination.

An Introduction to Sociology is your essential guide to understanding the social forces that shape our lives and the world around us. This innovative textbook introduces you to the key theories, themes, and concepts in the discipline of sociology and helps you to develop as a sociologist by providing comprehensive coverage of all the main areas of study. Presenting you with the history, current debates and recent research developments for each topic, this book covers everything from classical sociologies and traditional subjects such as class, families, and religion, through to more progressive areas like digital society, social media, migration, and the interconnectedness of modern global society. The book's extensive coverage means it can be used throughout your studies, from first year to final year. Key features: Each chapter is written by an internationally renowned expert who uses specialist insight and the latest research to provide a reliable and up-to-date overview. Includes a selection of unique learning features such as "Hear from the Expert" boxes and "Key Cases" from around the world, as well as reflective activities and revision questions that will enhance your knowledge. Features a section titled "What is sociology useful for?" which includes chapters on the public value of sociology and the role of sociology in contemporary society. The book is supported by a wide-ranging collection of online teaching and learning resources including exclusive video content from SAGE Video, links to SAGE Journal Articles, sample essay questions, and a selection of multiple-choice questions. This definitive text is perfect for first-year sociology undergraduates and anyone studying sociology at university or college level.

How have research agendas on race and ethnic relations changed over the past two decades and what new developments have emerged? Theories of Race and Ethnicity provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge collection of theoretically grounded and empirically informed essays. It covers a range of key issues in race and ethnicity studies, such as genetics and race, post-race debates, racial eliminativism and the legacy of Barack Obama, and mixed race identities. The contributions are by leading writers on a range of perspectives employed in studying ethnicity and race, including critical race feminism, critical rationalism, psychoanalysis, performativity, whiteness studies and sexuality. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style, this volume is suitable for researchers and advanced students, offering scholars a survey of the state of the art in the literature, and students an overview of the field.

The Transnational Imaginaries of M. G. Vassanji is a collection of scholarly articles that engages with, analyzes, and appreciatively critiques the fiction and nonfiction writing of M. G. Vassanji, a multiple award-winning author. Vassanji's works have a sense of multiple connections across four continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. He challenges the imperial centers of Western powers through the content of his work and his deeply-felt humanist engagements with the politics of displacement, settlement, partition and postcolonialism. Ranging across almost his entire oeuvre, the contributors to this book argue that Vassanji's work should be read as one emerging from a transnational space that connects people, places and issues across the world. Collectively, the chapters in this book, using a range of theoretical frameworks, claim that Vassanji's work both fits into and goes beyond the usual categorizations, structures and styles of analysis applied to writers from the colonies.

How have research agendas on race and ethnic relations changed over the past two decades and what new developments have emerged? Theories of Race and Ethnicity provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge collection of theoretically grounded and empirically informed essays. It covers a range of key issues in race and ethnicity studies, such as genetics and race, post-race debates, racial eliminativism and the legacy of Barack Obama, and mixed race identities. The contributions are by leading writers on a range of perspectives employed in studying ethnicity and race, including critical race feminism, critical rationalism, psychoanalysis, performativity, whiteness studies and sexuality. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style, this volume is suitable for researchers and advanced students, offering scholars a survey of the state of the art in the literature, and students an overview of the field.

Racializaton has become one of the central concepts in the study of race and racism. This volume brings together leading international scholars from a range of backgrounds to address key facets of the concept in a wide range of social and political arenas, including gender relations, policing, urban communities, youth cultures, immigration, and political life.