Seeing Sociology: An Introduction

Offering ultimate flexibility in the course syllabus, SEEING SOCIOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION, 3rd Edition offers a student- and instructor-friendly module format that breaks material into manageable, easy-to-assign pieces. Each of the text's 13 chapters is presented in five to eight stand-alone modules, enabling you to teach your course in a traditional order or reorganize topics to suit your individual classroom needs.

The uniquely integrated relationship between the text and the visuals elevates chapter topics beyond the sum of their parts to give students insight about how to describe and know their world using sociological concepts.

Photographs, charts, and other visuals take on unprecedented significance in SEEING SOCIOLOGY's instructional content and approach. Each image was chosen by Joan Ferrante or taken for this text with a clear pedagogical purpose. Photographs and accompanying captions are integrated into the flow of the text to illustrate key sociological concepts and enhance student understanding. The engaging new “What Do Sociologists See?” feature further enhances the book's visual emphasis, demonstrating how sociological concepts apply to the everyday world.

The chapter-ending “Putting It All Together” section synthesizes key information from the chapter's modules into a concise one-page summary that helps students understand how each module fits into the “big picture” concept of the chapter and how the modules relate to one another.

In the Third edition, the Applying Theory module within each chapter highlights a specific social force or issue and analyzes it from four theoretical perspectives in sociology: functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism, and feminism.

New “What Do Sociologists See?” photo features at the end of each module demonstrate how to apply key sociological concepts to everyday images.

New and updated “Applying Theory” modules now concentrate on functionalism, conflict, symbolic interactionism, and feminism. They discuss real-world topics such as blue jeans, interactive gaming, nail salons, and sex testing in utero.

The feminist perspective is addressed in all chapters.

New and updated modules cover such topics as research methods (Chapter 1); how both institutions and individuals influence social structure (Chapter 4); the relationship between upward mobility and unearned failures/unearned successes (Chapter 7); the two-tier labor market of privileged and disadvantaged workers (Chapter 10); and the connection between education and the U.S. and global economies (Chapter 12).

Chapter 11 on families has been extensively updated to address how the social definition of a “normal” family continues to change.