Many of our current social problems have been attributed to the breakdown or loss of community as a place and to the fragmentation of connections due to an extreme value of individualism in the Western world, particularly in the United States. Not all scholars and researchers agree that individualism and technology are the primary culprits in the loss of community as it existed in the middle decade of the 20th century. Nonetheless, people exist in groups, and connections are vital to their existence and in the daily performance of activities. The second edition of the Sociology of Community Connections will identify and help students understand community connectedness in the present and future.

The connections between communities and forests are complex and evolving, presenting challenges to forest managers, researchers, and communities themselves. Dependency on timber extraction and timber-related industries is no longer a universal characteristic of the forest community. Remoteness is also a less common feature, as technology, workforce mobility, tourism, and 'amenity migrants' increasingly connect rural to urban places.Forest Community Connections explores the responses of forest communities to a changing economy, changing federal policy, and concerns about forest health from both within and outside forest communities. Focusing primarily on the United States, the book examines the ways that social scientists work with communities-their role in facilitating social learning, informing policy decisions, and contributing to community well being. Bringing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, political science, and forestry, the authors review a range of management issues, including wildfire risk, forest restoration, labor force capacity, and the growing demand for a growing variety of forest goods and services. They examine the increasingly diverse aesthetic and cultural values that forest residents attribute to forests, the factors that contribute to strong and resilient connections between communities and forests, and consider a range of governance structures to positively influence the well being of forest communities and forests, including collaboration and community-based forestry.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

This wide-ranging handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the field of education as viewed from a sociological perspective. Experts in the area present theoretical and empirical research on major educational issues and analyze the social processes that govern schooling, and the role of schools in and their impact on contemporary society. A major reference work for social scientists who want an overview of the field, graduate students, and educators.

..".[This is] the kind of book that inspires and invites change... the 'tipping point' that students need to become more aware, involved, and engaged in their schools, communities and societies." -Jennifer Klein, DePaul UniversityThis Second Edition of The Engaged Sociologist: Connecting the Classroom to the Community brings the public sociology movement into the classroom by showing students how to use the tools of sociology to become effective participants in our democratic society. Through exercises and projects, authors Kathleen Korgen and Jonathan M. White encourage students to apply these tools to get hands-on training in sociology and to develop their sociological imaginations as they work for a more just and civil society. *10% of the proceeds from this book will be donated to Free the Children*New and Retained Features *new* Updated and additional exercises and projects, including more global activities, allow students to connect the sociological knowledge they are learning to their campus and the larger community. Each chapter contains both hands-on data collection exercises (surveys, interviews, observations) and library-based research. *new* Increased connection to theory helps students see how their practical efforts are grounded in sociological research and theory. *new* Enhanced "Sociologist in Action" sections include powerful examples of how sociology students and professional sociologists use sociology in efforts to improve society. More examples of student "Sociologists in Action" have been added to this edition. *new* More material on the environment, including expanded discussions of Hurricane Katrina and its outcomes as well as of global warming, provides more coverage of a hot-button topic of concern to many students, engaging their interest and encouraging them to act to improve environmental issues. Discussion questions challenge students to ponder and converse about what they've learned and to use their sociological imagination to relate the issues covered in each chapter to their individual lives. Ancillaries - *new* Instructors' Resources on CD-Rom, featuring a test bank, are available to qualified instructors by contacting Customer Care at 1-800-818-SAGE (7243) between 6 am - 5 pm, PST. - *new* A new student study site at www.pineforge.com/korgen2study features Web addresses that link to helpful organizations; additional exercises for several chapters; a survey, a scoring sheet, and interview guidelines for the last chapter; and resources for job and volunteer opportunities. Intended Audience: This is an ideal supplement or affordable, brief stand-alone, core text for courses in which the instructor wishes to include a public sociology component, particularly Introduction to Sociology, Principles of Sociology, Social Problems, or Applied Sociology. "The Engaged Sociologist will help students connect their own lives to the larger society, as they learn about the 'sociological imagination' and the power it has to positively affect the community."-SirReadaLot.org

Measures for Community and Neighborhood Research is the first book of its kind to compile measures focused on communities and neighborhoods in one accessible resource. Organized into two main sections, the first provides the rationale, structure and purpose, and analysis of methodological issues, along with a conceptual and theoretical framework; the second section contains 10 chapters that synthesize, analyze, and describe measures for community and neighborhood research, with tables that summarize highlighted measures. The book will get readers thinking about which aspects of the neighborhood may be most important to measure in different research designs and also help researchers, practitioners, funders, and others more closely examine the impact of their work in communities and neighborhoods.

New Social Connections offers a fresh approach to new explorations of the reconfigurations of sociological thought and questions the subjects and objects of sociological enquiry. The collection provides a mix of literature review, original theory and makes use of reflexive and innovative autobiogaphical material. Issues examined include the role of history in sociology, postcolonialism, public sociology, the future of sociological theory, the turn to ̀nature' and sociological careers. --Book Jacket.