Sociology

Citation

Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2026). Sociology (10th ed.). Polity.

Chapter Summary

This is a full-scale introductory textbook with 21 chapters, a glossary and references; catalogue records give its length as roughly 950 to 1,000 pages. The publisher calls the tenth edition thoroughly revised and fully updated, and describes it as written in a fluent, easy-to-follow style that is both rigorous and accessible. It gives a firm grounding in the classics of the field and their decolonial critique, and draws attention to themes shaping the social world today, from the increasing digitization of society to the role of identity in many contexts. The summary below groups the 21 chapters by theme.

Introduction and Chapters 1–3: What is Sociology?; Studying Social Life; Theories and Perspectives

The book opens with the basics that the publisher lists first: the purpose of sociology, its methodology and its theories. After an introduction, Chapter 1 asks what sociology is, Chapter 2 covers how social life is studied, and Chapter 3 presents the main theories and perspectives, including, according to the publisher, the classic studies and their decolonial critique.

Chapters 4–6: Global Connections; The Environment; Cities and Urban Life

The next group moves from the discipline to the world it studies: global connections, the environment (the publisher names climate change among the issues the edition discusses), and cities and urban life. The publisher says the focus on global connections that has animated the book since its first edition is developed further in this one.

Chapters 7–12: Stratification and Social Class; Gender and Sexuality; Race, Ethnicity and Migration; Health, Illness and Disability; Poverty, Social Exclusion and Welfare; Global Inequality

A long run of chapters on inequality and difference covers class and stratification, gender and sexuality, race, ethnicity and migration, health, illness and disability, poverty and welfare, and global inequality. The publisher says this edition analyses global inequalities today.

Chapters 13–17: Social Interaction and Communication; Crime, Deviance and Control; Families and Personal Relationships; Education; Work and Employment

These chapters deal with everyday life and the institutions that structure it: interaction and communication, crime and deviance, families and personal relationships, education, and work and employment.

Chapters 18–21: Religion; Media; Politics, Power and Social Movements; Nations, War and Terrorism

The final chapters treat religion, the media, politics, power and social movements, and nations, war and terrorism. The publisher names the media and politics among the core topics, and lists the resurgence of military conflict and the growing polarization of politics among the key issues of the time that the edition discusses.

Key Concepts

Foundations (Introduction and Chapters 1–3)

• Sociological thinking: the contents begin with the purpose of sociology and what it is for.
• Methodology: Chapter 2 asks how sociologists gather and weigh evidence.
• Theories and perspectives: the major schools of sociological thought, introduced early so later chapters can draw on them.

The changing social world (Chapters 4–6 and 13–21)

• Global connections: treated in its own chapter and as a theme across the book.
• Digitization and digital technologies: highlighted by the publisher as transforming social life.
• Identity: named by the publisher as a theme shaping the social world today.

Inequality and institutions (Chapters 7–12 and 13–21)

• Stratification and poverty: class, poverty and welfare form distinct chapters.
• Global inequality: inequality considered at world scale rather than within a single society.
• Institutions of power: crime and deviance, religion, media, politics and war each have a chapter.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth in one volume. The contents range from theory and method through families, health and work to religion, media, crime and politics, so a single book can anchor a whole introductory course.
• Global orientation. A dedicated chapter on global connections and another on global inequality mean examples are not confined to one country.
• Current issues. The publisher says the edition takes up climate change, the resurgence of military conflict, political polarization and the digital transformation of daily life.
• Established textbook. This is the tenth edition of a long-running introduction, presented by the publisher as revised throughout and aimed at first-year university and college courses.

Limitations

• Length. At nearly a thousand pages the book is far more than a one-term course can read in full; instructors and students must choose chapters.
• Editions move. Chapter titles and order have changed since the eighth edition (2017), and the ninth edition (2021) came between them, so chapter and page references from one edition may not match another.
• Breadth over argument. As a survey textbook it presents many fields in turn and does not develop a single sustained argument.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the introductory sociology course, Giddens and Sutton is the large, single-volume survey that the other books either supplement or contrast with. Introduction to Sociology 3e is an openly licensed survey textbook for a first sociology course and covers similar ground at a more modest length. Mills's The Sociological Imagination and Bauman and May's Thinking Sociologically are short books about the habit of sociological thought rather than surveys of subject areas, and are good companions for the first chapters.

For readers who want theory in greater depth, Joas and Knöbl's Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures surveys social theory since the Second World War, and Bourdieu and Wacquant's An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology is an introduction to one thinker's approach to method and theory; both go beyond the theory chapter here.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at first-year university and college courses and assumes no previous sociology. It is more useful as a reference to dip into than as a text to read cover to cover.

A practical plan:

• Start with the foundations: the introduction and Chapters 1–3 on what sociology is, how social life is studied, and the main theories, which frame everything else.
• Then follow the course syllabus: choose from the topical chapters (work, family, health, class, gender, race and ethnicity, media, crime, politics) as they come up, rather than reading in strict order.
• Use the global chapters (Chapters 4 and 12) to see how individual topics connect to worldwide processes.
• Check the edition: confirm which edition a course uses before matching chapter numbers, and read the chapter introductions first so that a long chapter can be sampled rather than finished.