Title: Handbook of sociology.

POPLINE Document Number: 201482

Author(s):

Smelser NJ

Source citation:

Newbury Park, California, Sage Publications, 1988. 824 p.

Abstract:

The ideal handbook should be comprehensive, balanced, historical, and up-to-date. Although this ideal was kept in mind in designing this handbook, it was impossible to include every topic that many would argue should be in this book, such as social psychology. It was felt that an overemphasis on inclusiveness, balance, and catholicity would make for a certain blandness of tone in the chapters. Each author was asked to balance coverage and selectivity. Each chapter is self-contained. Part I of the handbook deals with theoretical and methodological issues. Chapters 1 and 2 present 2 distinct and in many respects opposed representations of the knowledge in sociology as a social science. Chapter 3 extracts what is arguably the most central organizing concept in sociology--social structure--and traces the vicissitudes of that concept as it has been employed at both macroscopic and microscopic levels of analysis. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the methodological status of data and its measurement and the problem of inferring causal relationships, respectively, which are the 2 major methodological pillars on which sociological analysis stands. Part II focuses on inequality and is organized according to the major bases of inequality in society: economic, racial and ethnic, age, and gender and sex. The major institutions of society constitute the focus of part III. That section begins with political and economic institutions, the family, and education. The latter provides a bridge to 4 chapters that are concerned with institutions that deal with culture, knowledge and its applications, and medicine. Finally, part IV contains 4 chapters that are best categorized as dealing with social processes and social change. Chapter 19 deals with the organization of social processes around the dimension of space. Chapter 20 reviews recent developments in the familiar sociological subfield of deviance and social control. Chapter 21 deals with the dynamics of social movements. The book concludes with the most macroscopic topic of all, international economic arrangements and their impact on developmental processes within nations.

Keywords:

Sociology
Manual
Measurement
Labor Force
Ethnic Groups
Age Factors
Sex Factors
Employment
Political Factors
Family Characteristics
Religion
Mass Media
Population Distribution
Economic Development
Social Sciences
Research Methodology
Human Resources
Economic Factors
Cultural Background
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Macroeconomic Factors
Family and Household
Communication
Geographic Factors