Annual Editions: Sociology 06/07
, by Finsterbusch, Kurt- ISBN: 9780073516080 | 0073516082
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 3/2/2006
This thirty-fifth edition of ANNUAL EDITIONS: SOCIOLOGY provides convenient, inexpensive access to current articles selected from the best of the public press. Organizational features include: an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; a general introduction; brief overviews for each section; a topical index; and an instructor's resource guide with testing materials. USING ANNUAL EDITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM is offered as a practical guide for instructors. ANNUAL EDITIONS titles are supported by our student website, www.dushkin.com/online.
UNIT 1. Culture
Part A. Special Cultural Issues
1. Islam and Women, Lauren Weiner, Policy Review, October/November 2004
An important part of the conflict between Islam and Western civilization is their differing views on the role of women in society. Lauren Weiner explains many of these differences and points out that many Muslim women support the militant Muslim perspective.
2. The Kindness of Strangers, Robert V. Levine, American Scientist, May/June 2003
Robert Levine examines one aspect of culture, the willingness to help strangers. From the perspective of many different places, he examines place characteristics that influence helping behavior. Density is a big factor as is area of the country.
Part B. American Culture and Cultural Change
3. The Atrophy of Social Life, D. Stanley Eitzen, Society, September/October 2004
Social interaction is the basic building block of intimate relationships, small groups, formal organizations, communities, and societies. Therefore, Stanley Eitzen is concerned about numerous social trends which he reports “that hinder or even eliminate social interaction, and that indicate a growing isolation as individuals become increasinly separated from their neighbors, their co-workers, and even their family members.”
4. Self-Reliance: Those Rugged Individuals, Joannie Fischer, U.S. News & World Report, June 28/July 5, 2004
Joannie Fischer traces some of the religious and intellectual roots for the famous characteristics of Americans of self-reliance and rugged individualism.
5. It’s Morning After in America, Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, Spring 2004
Kay Hymowitz presents many facts demonstrating cultural changes toward traditional values. The new generation “adore their parents,…want to succeed,…[are] optimistic, trusting, cooperative, dutiful, and civic-minded.” Crime has dropped, sexual practices and marriage issues are more conservative, and political attitudes have shifted to the right.
UNIT 2. Socialization and Social Control
Part A. Influences on Personality and Behavior
6. What Makes You Who You Are, Matt Ridley, Time, June 2, 2003
Matt Ridley reviews the latest science on the nature versus nurture debate. Both are important and we are slowly coming to understand how they interact.
7. The New Sex Scorecard, Hara Estroff Marano, Psychology Today, July/August 2003
As everyone knows, men and women are different. Recent research has greatly increased our understanding of the differences and Hara Estroff Marano reviews these differences including mental, sexual, health, emotional, and psychological.
8. How to Save a Troubled Kid?, Wendy Cole, Time, November 22, 2004
According to Wendy Cole parents are putting troublesome children into tough-love academies, because these strong-discipline schools have good records in helping children march in the right direction. Cole presents both the pros and cons for this form of socialization.
Part B. Crime, Law Enforcement, and Social Control
9. Fighting Crime, John J. Donohue, Current, June 2005
It is amazing what conclusions we would come to about crime and punishment if we used economic logic as John J. Donohue shows in this article. We would stop building prisons, abolish the death penalty, expand the police force, adopt sensible gun controls, legalize drugs among other things.
10. Parents or Prisons, Jennifer Roback Morse, Policy Review, August/September 2003
A key role of parents is to help a child develop a conscience and self control. Two loving married parents do this job the best. Single parenthood increases the probability that a child will end up in the criminal justice system at some point in his/her life. This article shows that society pays serious social costs for the failure of many marriages.
11. The Aggregate Burden of Crime, David A. Anderson, Journal of Law and Economics, October 1999
David Anderson makes a valiant effort to compute the annual costs of major types of crime and the net annual total costs of all crime that he claims exceeds $1 trillion or over $4000 per capita. Fraud and cheating on taxes costs Americans over 20 times the costs of theft, burglary, and robbery.
UNIT 3. Groups and Roles In Transition
Part A. Family, Marriage, and Divorce
12. Can Marriage Be Saved?, Frank Furstenberg, Dissent, Summer 2005
Frank Furstenberg assures his readers that the institution of marriage is not on the rocks. There are family issues to be concerned about, especially the welfare of children, but the focus should be on resources. The often cited unhealthy marriage and family trends occur only among the most socially disadvantaged.
13. Overworked, Time Poor, and Abandoned by Uncle Sam, Janet C. Gornick, Dissent, Summer 2005
According to Janet Gornick the above title describes the American parent, especially the mother. Yes parents are under considerable stress, but appropriate public policies would greathly help them.
14. Great Expectations, Polly Shulman, Psychology Today, March/April 2004
Polly Shulman provides sage advice on how to have a good marriage. She explains how unrealistic expectations and erroneous beliefs can lower the chances for success in marriage.
Part B. Sex, Gender, and Gender Roles
15. The Morality of Time, Kathleen Gerson, Dissent, Fall 2004
All agree that there is a problem of overwork which conflicts with family life. In the past fathers overworked and were relieved of family work. Today, women overwork and are not relieved of family work. Kathleen Gerson criticizes those who criticize women for sacrificing family for work when usually they do not have much of a choice. The options are too limited and new policies could greatly reduce the conflict.
16. Out of the Shadows, Into the World, The Economist, June 19, 2004
The Economist presents a special report on Arab women today. Slowly but surely, the lot of Arab women is improving on many measures.
Part C. City and Community
17. Will Great Cities Survive?, Joel Kotkin, The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2005
Joel Kotkin presents the long view on cities. For millennia “great cities have been among humanity’s supreme achievements.” But now they have an uncertain future because their size has become a burden, they no longer provide security, new technologies undermine the reasons for centralizing activities, and urbane secularism undercuts the historical sacredness of cities.
18. Community Building: Steps Toward a Good Society, Amitai Etzioni, Current, January 2001
As America becomes more diverse and more unequal, can we build community? Identity politics have partly corrected past injustices but have also divided the nation along group lines. According to Amitai Etzioni, a new thrust is needed. He reviews the threats to community and recommends communitarian solutions including ways to curb inequality, ways to increase bonding, and ways to increase value commitments.
UNIT 4. Stratification and Social Inequalities
Part A. Income Inequalities
19. The Rich and the Rest, Sam Pizzigati, The Futurist, July/August 2005
Sam Pizzigati raises many issues about today’s very unequal income distribution that warrant thoughtful discussion including the idea of minimum and maximum income levels.
20. Working and Poor in the USA, Beth Shulman, The Nation, February 9, 2004
The promise of America was that the poor could rise up into the middle class and a decent life. According to Beth Shulman, however, “one quarter of American workers are stuck in low-wage jobs that do not provide the basics for a decent life.” Once the world leader in mobility from the lower class to the middle class, America now trails most western European countries on mobility measures. Many of the stories captured in these facts are painful.
Part B. Welfare and Welfare Reform
21. Corporate Welfare, Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Time, November 9, 1998
In this essay, the authors explain how hundreds of companies get on the dole to the tune of two weeks’ pay for every working American. The federal government has issued over $125 billion to corporate America, which tilts the playing field toward the already powerful in society.
22. Understanding Welfare Reform, Scott Winship and Christopher Jencks, Harvard Magazine, November/December 2004
The 1996 Welfare Reform has been a great success. Welfare rolls were cut in half and the poverty rate among female-headed families declined. The authors explain these changes and many other more subtle impacts of the reform.
Part C. Racial and Ethnic Issues and Inequalities
23. Shame in Our Own House, Gay McDougall, The American Prospect, October 2004
Gay McDougall explains how racism in the United States prevented our government from supporting international human-rights treaties and providing world leadership on rights issues.
24. Why We Hate, Margo Monteith and Jeffrey Winters, Psychology Today, May/June 2002
The authors demonstrate the prevalence of prejudice and hatred in America and explain this in terms of social identity theory. Whenever people are divided into groups, negative attitudes develop toward the “out” group.
25. The Melting Pot, Part I: Are We There Yet?, Anne Wortham, The World & I, September 2001
Anne Wortham explores the subject of assimilation in its many dimensions. America may have an enviable record of assimilation, but its limitations are great. Rising intermarriage statistics demonstrate increasing assimiliation, but continuing housing segregation is one indicator of impediments to assimilation.
Part D. Sex Inequalities and Issues
26. Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce, Harvard Business Review, March 2005
The authors examine why almost 4 of 10 highly qualified professional women voluntarily take a period of time out from work (most women do not have this option). Caring for children or parents is the main reason but there are also “push” factors.
27. Reversing the “Gender Gap”, Joel Wendland, Political Affairs, March 2004
Joel Wendland counters the recent magazine articles announcing a gender gap that favors women. Yes girls do better in school than boys and graduate from high school and college in greater numbers, but on many other dimensions of inequality women still substantially trial men.
28. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution, Alice Leuchtag, The Humanist, January/February 2003
One of the evil plagues haunting the world today is sex slavery and it is getting worse. It is the product of extreme poverty and considerable profits. The exploitation involved is horrendous. Human rights groups are trying to stop the practice. Alice Leuchtag covers many aspects of this issue.
UNIT 5. Social Institutions: Issues, Crises, and Changes
Part A. The Political Sphere: Power, Politics, and Administration
29. Who Rules America?, G. William/Domhoff, Who Rules America? Power and Politics in the Year 2000, The McGraw-Hill Companies/Mayfield, 1997
G. William Domhoff is the leading proponent of the power elite view of American politics, which is explained in this article as it applies to political influence in America today.
30. 4 Places Where the System Broke Down, James Carney, Time, September 19, 2005
Unfortunately the tragedy caused by Katrina in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast revealed a lot about the way government can malfunction in times of crisis or emergencies. The governments and agencies that failed so badly were supposed to be able to handle these types of situations. The sociologist must ask whether the failures identified in this article were just the failures of individual leaders or were systemic failures.
Part B. The Economic Sphere: Changing Consumption, Workplaces, Workforce
31. Off the Books, W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, Reason, August 2002
The authors identify many benefits of free enterprise besides the economic growth that it encourages, including more leisure, better type of work, greater safety, more convenience, a cleaner environment, and more variety.
32. Surveying the Global Marketplace, Murray Weidenbaum, USA Today, January 2004
According to Murray Weidenbaum, the global economy is very mixed up and that is a good thing. The Honda has more parts made in America than the Pontiac. Half of Xerox’s employees work abroad. More than half of the revenues of many multinational American companies originate overseas. Globalization lowers the prices that we pay in the stores but also creates problems and calls for new institutions to manage it.
33. Born to Buy, Juliet Schor, Dollars & Sense, September/October 2004
This article focuses on consumption. It explains how consumption and the materialistic values that under gird it have some serious negative effects on us without increasing our happiness.
Part C. The Social Sphere: Education, Health, and Religion
34. Learning for Ourselves, John C. Lundt, The Futurist, November/December 2004
According to John Lundt, public education continues to use the same education paradigm that was used in ancient times. The world that receives the graduates, however, has changed dramatically so it is time for a major change in the education system. Variety choice, competition, and self-learning must increase, and the school day and age-based educational programming should fade.
35. The Health of Nations, Arnold S. Relman, The New Republic, March 7, 2005
Arnold Relman is very critical of health care in America and thinks that the whole system needs to be revised. In 1963 medical care was not market driven and medical costs were much lower. Today the opposite is true and the costs are headed toward infinity. The system must change and he suggests how.
36. In Search of the Spiritual, Jerry Adler, Newsweek, August 29–September 5, 2005
Jerry Adler presents a full and rich report on spirituality and religion in America that covers both statistics and practices.
UNIT 6. Social Change and the Future
Part A. Population, Environment, and Society
37. The Challenge of an Aging Society, Richard D. Lamm and Robert H. Blank, The Futurist, July/August 2005
According to the authors, when we look into the future of health care, it becomes clear that we will have to ration health care because of the unmanageable costs of the aging population. The big question is how do we do what needs to be done while being fair to present and future generations?
38. Pushing Beyond the Earth’s Limits, Lester R. Brown, The Futurist, May/June 2005
According to Lester Brown world agriculture can feed the present world population, but as developing countries like China demand better diets including more meat “tightening food supplies will be our greatest trouble and…it will emerge in the next few years.” This is his conclusion from his extensive examination of the world food situation.
Part B. Technology for Better or for Worse
39. The Secret Nuclear War, Eduardo Goncalves, The Ecologist, April 2001
An extremely consequential technology is nuclear. The energy it produces has greatly benefitted mankind, but at what price? Eduardo Goncalves reports on all the nuclear accidents, testings, experiments, leaks, production, cover-ups, and storage and reuse of nuclear materials that he can find out about. The death toll could be as high as 175 million, and the shameful behavior of countless agencies that he reports is shocking.
40. Biotech on the Farm, Clifton E. Anderson, The Futurist, September/October 2005
The fact that new technology can produce both good and bad outcomes is at the heart of the debate about genetic engineering. Clifton Anderson explains how it can help farmers feed future populations with better diets but also entails high risks. He recommends a Genetic Science Commission to guide the development of genetic research to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms.
Part C. The New Crisis: Terrorism
41. EMP: America’s Achilles’ Heel, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Imprimis, June 2005
Frank Gaffney, Jr. reports on the threat of a terrorist group detonating a single specialized nuclear weapon 300 miles above the U.S. creating an electromagnetic pulse. This could destroy America as a twenty-first century society and super power by knocking out all unhardened computers and badly damaging the country’s electricity infrastructure.
42. The Prospects of Global Terrorism, Rohan Gunaratna, Society, September/October 2005
Although nearly 100 medium-to-large terrortist attacks against U.S. and European targets have been prevented and billions of dollars have been spent on counter-terrorism, nevertheless, the worldwide threat of terrorism has not diminished. The current strategy has helped but additional strategies are needed.
43. Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber, Aparisim Ghosh, Time, July 4, 2005
Aparisim Ghosh introduces us to an Iraqi suicide bomber and reveals what he is thinking and feeling. Other than being extremely dedicated to his cause he seems quite normal.
Part D. The Reshaping of the World
44. Embracing Today’s Global Economy, John A. Challenger, USA Today, September 2005
One of the biggest issues today is globalization, which has its supporters and attackers. John Challenger is a defender who argues that a world of trading partners who depend on each other will be better than the world today.
45. Understanding Our Moment in History, William Van Dusen Wishard, Vital Speeches of the Day, 2005
The author is a specialist in trend analysis and his research convinces him that the world is transiting between two ages. The world as we know it is coming to an end because of globalization, information technologies, urbanization, the explosion of knowledge and technologies, the quickening pace of change, and a long-term spiritual and psychological reorientation.
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