Introduction to Sociology 3e

Citation

Conerly, T. R., Holmes, K., & Tamang, A. L. (2021). Introduction to Sociology 3e. OpenStax. Free official edition: https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-3e

Chapter Summary

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Sociology

Opening with the crowd in a busy commuter station, the chapter defines sociology as the systematic study of society and social interaction, introduces the sociological imagination, and traces the discipline's origins in the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution through figures such as Comte, Martineau, Marx, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber and Du Bois. It sets out the three major theoretical perspectives—structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism—at macro and micro levels and ends with why sociology is worth studying.

Chapter 2: Sociological Research

The chapter compares the scientific method with interpretive approaches, explains variables, operational definitions, reliability and validity, and surveys methods: surveys, field research and participant observation, ethnography, case studies, experiments and secondary data analysis. A final section on ethics covers the American Sociological Association's code and cases of research misconduct.

Chapter 3: Culture

Culture is distinguished from society and analysed through values, beliefs, norms (mores and folkways), symbols and language. The chapter discusses ethnocentrism, xenocentrism and cultural relativism; high, popular, sub- and counter-cultures and cultural change; and how the three main perspectives interpret culture.

Chapter 4: Society and Social Interaction

Beginning with a day in the life of a teenager in sub-Saharan Africa, the chapter classifies societies by technology (pre-industrial, industrial, post-industrial), presents Durkheim on mechanical and organic solidarity, Marx on class conflict and alienation, and Weber on rationalisation, and explains the social construction of reality, roles and status.

Chapter 5: Socialization

The chapter covers theories of self-development from Cooley and Mead to Kohlberg and Gilligan, the nature–nurture question, agents of socialisation (family, peers, schools, workplaces, religion, media) and socialisation across the life course, including resocialisation in total institutions.

Chapter 6: Groups and Organization

Introduced by a comparison of the Tea Party and MeToo movements, the chapter distinguishes primary and secondary groups, in-groups and out-groups and reference groups, examines group size, leadership styles and conformity experiments, and analyses formal organisations, bureaucracy and McDonaldization.

Chapter 7: Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

Opening with the shift in marijuana policy, the chapter defines deviance as norm violation relative to context, explains sanctions and social control, compares functionalist, conflict and interactionist explanations (including labelling), and describes crime, the law and the US criminal justice system, noting inequities in punishment.

Chapter 8: Media and Technology

The chapter discusses technology and the digital divide, the history and social role of mass and new media, advertising, the global implications of technology, and theoretical perspectives on media, including gatekeeping and the effects of media on gender stereotypes.

Chapter 9: Social Stratification in the United States

Stratification is defined through wealth, power and status, with caste and class systems and meritocracy as an ideal type. The chapter examines US social classes and mobility, briefly introduces global stratification, and compares functionalist (Davis–Moore), conflict and interactionist views.

Chapter 10: Global Inequality

Starting from the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, the chapter classifies countries (for example by income and as core, semi-peripheral and peripheral), distinguishes relative, absolute and subjective poverty, examines consequences of poverty, and compares modernisation and dependency theories.

Chapter 11: Race and Ethnicity

Opening with the killing of Trayvon Martin, the chapter treats race as a social construct and ethnicity as shared culture, defines minority groups by power, and covers prejudice, discrimination, racism and antiracism, intergroup relations from pluralism and assimilation to genocide, and the histories of major racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Chapter 12: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

The chapter distinguishes sex from gender, discusses gender identity and expression, gender socialisation and inequality, the feminist movement and sociological perspectives on gender, and the sociology of sexuality and sexual attitudes across cultures.

Chapter 13: Aging and the Elderly

Using demographic data and cohorts, the chapter examines the "graying" of the United States and global ageing, the biological, social and psychological processes of ageing, attitudes to death and dying, ageism, poverty and elder abuse, and functionalist, conflict and interactionist theories of ageing.

Chapter 14: Relationships, Marriage, and Family

The chapter defines marriage and family across cultures, describes changing US family forms (cohabitation, same-sex couples, single parents, singlehood), and discusses divorce and its effects and violence and abuse within families.

Chapter 15: Religion

Religion is approached through Durkheim's definition, Weber's view of religion as a force for change and Marx's critique, with types of religious organisation (ecclesia, denomination, sect, cult), an overview of major world religions, and religion in the United States, including liberation theology and megachurches.

Chapter 16: Education

The chapter compares educational systems around the world, explains manifest and latent functions and conflict, feminist and interactionist perspectives on schooling, and examines issues such as desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education, socioeconomic status and diversity.

Chapter 17: Government and Politics

Opening with Florida's 2018 referendum restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions, the chapter distinguishes power and authority (with Weber's types of authority), compares monarchies, oligarchies, dictatorships and democracies, discusses politics and voter participation in the United States, and contrasts pluralist and power-elite perspectives.

Chapter 18: Work and the Economy

The chapter traces economic systems from agricultural to industrial and post-industrial economies, contrasts capitalism and socialism with convergence theory, considers globalisation's benefits and drawbacks, and examines work in the United States, including the polarisation of jobs and immigration.

Chapter 19: Health and Medicine

Beginning with the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak, the chapter introduces medical sociology and the social construction of health, social epidemiology and global health, health disparities and mental health in the United States, comparative health systems, and theoretical perspectives such as the sick role and medicalisation.

Chapter 20: Population, Urbanization, and the Environment

Using fracking as an opening case, the chapter covers demography (Malthusian, zero population growth, cornucopian and demographic transition theories), urbanisation and its tensions, and environmental sociology, including pollution, climate change and environmental racism.

Chapter 21: Social Movements and Social Change

The final chapter examines collective behaviour (crowds, masses and publics, with emergent-norm, value-added and assembling perspectives), types and stages of social movements and theories of why they arise, and causes of social change such as technology, social institutions, population and environment, and modernisation.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Sociology

• Sociological imagination: C. Wright Mills's term for seeing how personal experience connects to wider social forces.
• Three major perspectives: structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism.

Chapter 2: Sociological Research

• Operational definition: specifying exactly how a concept will be measured.
• Reliability and validity: whether a measure is consistent and whether it measures what it claims to.

Chapter 3: Culture

• Norms (mores and folkways): rules of behaviour with and without moral weight.
• Cultural relativism: judging a culture by its own standards rather than one's own.

Chapter 4: Society and Social Interaction

• Mechanical and organic solidarity: Durkheim's bonds based on similarity versus interdependence.
• Social construction of reality: shared definitions of situations shape social life.

Chapter 5: Socialization

• Looking-glass self: Cooley's idea that self-image reflects how we think others see us.
• Agents of socialisation: family, peers, institutions and media that teach norms and values.

Chapter 6: Groups and Organization

• Primary and secondary groups: close, enduring groups versus task-focused, impersonal ones.
• McDonaldization: the spread of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control to more areas of life.

Chapter 7: Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

• Deviance: a violation of norms whose definition depends on context.
• Labelling theory: deviance as a status assigned by others' reactions.

Chapter 8: Media and Technology

• Digital divide: unequal access to technology and its consequences.
• Gatekeeping: control by media producers over what reaches the public.

Chapter 9: Social Stratification in the United States

• Caste and class systems: closed and open systems of ranking.
• Social mobility: movement between social classes.

Chapter 10: Global Inequality

• Core, semi-peripheral and peripheral nations: positions in the world economy.
• Modernisation and dependency theories: competing explanations of global inequality.

Chapter 11: Race and Ethnicity

• Race as a social construct: racial categories defined socially rather than biologically.
• Prejudice, discrimination and racism: attitudes, actions and systems of racial inequality.

Chapter 12: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

• Sex versus gender: biological characteristics versus socially constructed roles and identities.
• Gender socialisation: learning gender roles through family, school, peers and media.

Chapter 13: Aging and the Elderly

• Cohort: a group sharing a demographic characteristic, such as birth period, used to study ageing.
• Ageism: stereotyping and discrimination against older people.

Chapter 14: Relationships, Marriage, and Family

• Changing family forms: cohabitation, same-sex partners, single parents and singlehood in contemporary families.

Chapter 15: Religion

• Sacred and profane: Durkheim's distinction underlying his definition of religion.
• Ecclesia, denomination, sect, cult: types of religious organisation by social influence.

Chapter 16: Education

• Manifest and latent functions: the intended and unintended consequences of schooling.
• Hidden curriculum: the norms and values taught implicitly in schools.

Chapter 17: Government and Politics

• Power versus authority: control versus legitimate influence, with Weber's traditional, charismatic and rational-legal authority.

Chapter 18: Work and the Economy

• Capitalism, socialism and convergence theory: competing economic systems and the idea that industrial economies grow alike.

Chapter 19: Health and Medicine

• Social epidemiology: the study of how disease is distributed across social groups.
• Medicalisation: defining behaviours or conditions as medical problems.

Chapter 20: Population, Urbanization, and the Environment

• Demographic transition theory: population change as societies move from high to low birth and death rates.
• Environmental racism: the disproportionate exposure of minority communities to environmental hazards.

Chapter 21: Social Movements and Social Change

• Collective behaviour: non-institutionalised activity by crowds, masses and publics.
• Social movement stages: preliminary, coalescence, institutionalisation and decline.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Clear, consistent use of the three perspectives. From Chapter 1 onward, almost every chapter has a "Theoretical Perspectives" section applying functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism to its topic (culture, deviance, stratification, ageing, religion, education, government, health), which helps beginners compare explanations systematically.
• Revised openings and inclusive emphasis. The third edition rewrote several chapter introductions as narratives (a teenager in sub-Saharan Africa, Tea Party and MeToo, marijuana policy, voting-rights referendums), and the preface highlights extended attention to discrimination, which runs through chapters on race, gender, education, law enforcement and health.
• Engaging feature boxes. "Sociological Research" (for example the Lynds' Middletown study and Garfinkel's breaching experiments), "Sociology in the Real World", "Big Picture" (such as Weber's Protestant work ethic) and "Social Policy and Debate" (such as the minimum wage or "Is the U.S. Bilingual?") connect concepts to research, everyday life and policy.
• Built-in self-testing. Each section has learning objectives, key terms, a summary, multiple-choice and short-answer quiz questions and further research links, with answers to odd-numbered quiz questions in an answer key.

Limitations

• Strong US focus. Chapters on stratification, race and ethnicity, family, religion, politics, work and health devote major sections to the United States, and Chapter 9's title and content centre on US class structure.
• Ageing sources beneath the new edition. Although the narratives and some data were updated, many reference lists still cite sources retrieved in 2011–2014, and some summaries refer to older events (for example the effects of the 2008 recession on elderly poverty).
• Simplified treatment of contested topics. Summary statements sometimes compress complex debates, for instance in the brief definitions of sex, gender and transgender identity at the start of Chapter 12, so instructors may need to supplement them.
• Limited theory beyond the classics. Contemporary theorists appear only occasionally (Bourdieu's cultural capital is mentioned a handful of times); students wanting deeper engagement with modern social theory need other texts.

Where It Fits in the Course

The OpenStax text is a topic-by-topic survey comparable in scope to Giddens and Sutton's Sociology, which is generally described as a more global and theory-rich introduction. Students can start with OpenStax for its clear structure and quizzes and use Giddens and Sutton for broader international coverage. Mills's The Sociological Imagination and Bauman and May's Thinking Sociologically are short works about how sociologists think; they complement Chapter 1's introduction of the sociological imagination and are well read alongside or just after the opening chapters.

The two other titles go well beyond this book's theoretical coverage. Joas and Knöbl's Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures surveys modern social theory that this text only touches on, and Bourdieu and Wacquant's An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology develops ideas such as cultural capital that appear here only briefly. Both are best read after a full introductory course.

How to Use This Book

The book is designed for a one-semester introductory sociology course and requires no previous study of sociology. Chapters 1 and 2 are essential foundations (the discipline, its perspectives and its methods). Chapters 3–7 cover core concepts of culture, society, socialisation, groups and deviance; Chapters 9–12 form a coherent unit on inequality; and Chapters 13–21 treat institutions and social change, from which instructors can choose according to course aims.

Read each section's learning objectives first, then use the section summary, key terms and quiz to check understanding, comparing odd-numbered answers with the answer key. The short-answer questions work well for discussion or writing, and the "Further Research" links lead to sources for projects. Because many statistics and examples are US-specific, compare them with data from your own country where possible.

Edition and Sources

This guide is based on Introduction to Sociology 3e (OpenStax, 2021), read in the official free web PDF linked from https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-3e. It draws on the preface (aims, third-edition changes, features and assessment), the full table of contents, and for all 21 chapters the introductions, every section heading, the complete section summaries and a sample of quiz questions, together with feature-box titles, the answer key format and the reference lists at the end of selected sections.