The papers which make up the chapters of this book were given at a seminar in Oxford. The event took place following the election of the first Labour government for 17 years and following an announcement of the consultation process leading up to the publication of a Transport White Paper. The debates in the book contain reflections on the legacy of the previous administration and the challenges facing the new government.

· Written with the conviction that sociology can play a major role (perhaps THE major role) in helping college students understand how their lives are shaped by the complexities of global social forces in our new century. · Helps students develop an approach to thinking about social issues and evaluating claims and arguments that they can use long after the course has ended. · Reflects the following qualities from the sociological tradition: a commitment to the principles of scientific investigation, a deep concern for social issues and human welfare, and a macro approach that takes account of history, geography, and relations between the societies and regions of the globe. · Strives less to introduce sociology, and more to demonstrate the power and value of thinking sociologically about societies today. · Centers on a small number of organizing themes and principles, introduced in Chapter 1 and used throughout the remainder of the text (see detailed table of contents). · Contains 16 chapters and 7 topical essays interspersed between Chapters 1-10. The first 10 chapters are the core foundation of the text. Chapters 11-15 apply sociological thinking to a series of significant global issues including war, work, health, and population growth. Chapter 16 brings the text to a close with a discussion of how individuals and organizations can create positive change in the world. · Written to help teach the process of investigation, the sociological craft of research, critical thinking, and careful analysis. Rather than presenting students with answers, the core Chapters 1-10 are each organized around a specific question or problem selected for its interest to students as well as its importance to the U.S. and the world (see table of contents). Thus, sociological terms and concepts are introduced as they become relevant to the analysis --never for their own sake. · The Topical Essays broaden the coverage of issues and diversity of viewpoints in the text, while the book maintains its overall thematic coherence. Most essays are written by leading scholars and researchers in sociology, save one essayist who is an undergraduate student (Tracey Dawson) and one, a cartoonist (Nick Rutter) who has illustrated Gay Seidman's essay on Sweatshops and Chapters 11-16. · Active Learning Exercises extend and reinforce the emphasis on critical thinking throughout the book. · A Web Site specifically devoted to Sociology For a New Century provides many helpful ways students can strengthen their ability to think and see sociologically. · A Sociological Atlas in the back of the book provides 32 four-color maps of global, sociological information as well as a wealth of web sites and other information resources. · Graphical Displays of Social Data and informative Photographs and Cartoons throughout the chapters make learning easier and more fun. · Teaching Resources, available upon adoption of the text, contains an excellent set of various tests, a bank of PowerPoint visuals to use in lectures, and an annotated set of literary and visual resources, in addition to an annotated bibliography of teaching resource materials.

Presents a global view of stratification in an interesting but theoretically sound way, using an effective combination of academic works, lively stories, and news reports. Helps to educate the social science major or general student about social and cultural differences across the world, and teaches about growing global interdependence and how this is connected to contemporary social problems.