"Our students already live sociologically. They are drawn to topics of urgent sociological concern-race, class, gender, family, popular culture, health, and crime-by a need to understand the forces that shape their world, as well as a desire to change that world for the better. Yet they do not always find it easy to connect sociological concepts with real-world applications. Helping students make that connection is what we have sought to do with Living Sociologically: Concepts and Connections, Concise Edition. The task was made more urgent by the extraordinary events of 2020, which unfolded as we created the Concise version. Alongside our students - metaphorically, as we all became remote teachers and learners - we witnessed and sought to make sense of the protests and uprisings after the murder of George Floyd; the economic devastation and medical challenges of COVID-19; and the fear, misinformation, and rage leading up to (and falling out from) the presidential election. Sociology gives us both structure and vocabulary to analyze these events - and search together for not just meaning but resolution. Students naturally want to know how the study of sociology can inform their career and professional choices. Throughout this textbook, we illustrate not only the ways in which sociologists live their profession, but also the rich and surprising ways in which sociological theories inform parenting and romantic relationships, political commitments, economic decisions, cultural expressions, and religious beliefs. Living sociologically is not only interesting-it's useful. Sociology provides not only big ideas to understand social life but also concrete tools for acting in the world with purpose and meaning. Sociology helps connect the individual level with the system level, revealing a layer of reality that is not always immediately obvious. We wrote Living Sociologically because we wanted a teaching resource that was grounded in the sociological tradition but also offered a more contemporary and practical approach to the discipline. By the end of the Introduction to Sociology course, our hope is that students will be critical rather than cynical, empirically committed rather than scientifically or politically dogmatic, and attuned to social relationships as well as individual stories"--

Students are drawn to topics of urgent sociological concern--race, class, gender, family, popular culture, health, and crime--by a need to both understand the forces that shape their world, and their desire to make the world better. It can be challenging, however, for students to link sociological concepts with real-world applications. Living Sociologically: Concepts and Connections helps students make those connections. Encouraging students to observe, explore, and think critically about the social world, Living Sociologically offers a new, class-tested framework for teaching introduction to sociology. The "paired concepts" approach demonstrates the interdependent ways in which social forces work, and encourages students to engage with complexity and contradiction. It also connects students to a broader set of questions and provides them with critical, analytical tools for their post-college lives. In addition, each chapter includes an opening vignette, examples of contemporary research, box features that exemplify the five paired concepts, career boxes, methods and interpretation boxes, case studies, review sections, and practical activities.

"Our students already live sociologically. They are drawn to topics of urgent sociological concern-race, class, gender, family, popular culture, health, and crime-by a need to understand the forces that shape their world, as well as a desire to change that world for the better. Yet they do not always find it easy to connect sociological concepts with real-world applications. Helping students make that connection is what we have sought to do with Living Sociologically: Concepts and Connections, Concise Edition. The task was made more urgent by the extraordinary events of 2020, which unfolded as we created the Concise version. Alongside our students - metaphorically, as we all became remote teachers and learners - we witnessed and sought to make sense of the protests and uprisings after the murder of George Floyd; the economic devastation and medical challenges of COVID-19; and the fear, misinformation, and rage leading up to (and falling out from) the presidential election. Sociology gives us both structure and vocabulary to analyze these events - and search together for not just meaning but resolution. Students naturally want to know how the study of sociology can inform their career and professional choices. Throughout this textbook, we illustrate not only the ways in which sociologists live their profession, but also the rich and surprising ways in which sociological theories inform parenting and romantic relationships, political commitments, economic decisions, cultural expressions, and religious beliefs. Living sociologically is not only interesting-it's useful. Sociology provides not only big ideas to understand social life but also concrete tools for acting in the world with purpose and meaning. Sociology helps connect the individual level with the system level, revealing a layer of reality that is not always immediately obvious. We wrote Living Sociologically because we wanted a teaching resource that was grounded in the sociological tradition but also offered a more contemporary and practical approach to the discipline. By the end of the Introduction to Sociology course, our hope is that students will be critical rather than cynical, empirically committed rather than scientifically or politically dogmatic, and attuned to social relationships as well as individual stories"--

Students are drawn to topics of urgent sociological concern--race, class, gender, family, popular culture, health, and crime--by a need to both understand the forces that shape their world, and their desire to make the world better. It can be challenging, however, for students to link sociological concepts with real-world applications. Living Sociologically: Concepts and Connections helps students make those connections. Encouraging students to observe, explore, and think critically about the social world, Living Sociologically offers a new, class-tested framework for teaching introduction to sociology. The "paired concepts" approach demonstrates the interdependent ways in which social forces work, and encourages students to engage with complexity and contradiction. It also connects students to a broader set of questions and provides them with critical, analytical tools for their post-college lives. In addition, each chapter includes an opening vignette, examples of contemporary research, box features that exemplify the five paired concepts, career boxes, methods and interpretation boxes, case studies, review sections, and practical activities.

Seasonal Sociology offers an engrossing and lively introduction to sociology through the seasons, examining the sociality of consumption practices, leisure activities, work, religious traditions, schooling, celebrations and holidays.

Increasingly, we hear of ‘smart’ cities, communities, governance and people as constituting the basis of initiatives by which we might address various social and environmental problems, particularly those connected with sustainability, usually by means of an ‘intelligent’ connection with the ‘network society’. This book addresses the issues raised by the emergence of ‘smart’ dimensions and initiatives in society, critically engaging with questions surrounding the feasibility of what smart initiatives propose and the extent to which they can really offer solutions to the challenges we face. With attention to the notion of ‘smart’ as applied to the individual, the community, politics and the home, the authors consider the interconnections between these various facets of ‘smart living’ and their relationship to the notion of the smart society as a whole. Drawing on a concrete study of an attempt to concretize smart ideas in the design of a smart, solar home as part of an international project, Smart Society offers the first extended sociological engagement with the notion of smart living.