A contemporary introduction to sociology : culture and society in transition / Jeffrey C. Alexander, Kenneth Thompson ; with the assistance of Lisa McCormick [and five others]

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sociological stories -- The individual and the social -- The sociological imagination -- Society today: so what's new? -- How do we understand today's social world? -- Avoiding easy answers: theory and evidence? -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Research methods -- Introduction -- Some key research terms -- Concepts and theories -- Methodology and methods -- Postmodernism, relativism, and research methods -- Research in the future -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Culture -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Thinking sociologically about culture -- Postmodernity, globalization, and the cultural turn -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading.

Media and communication -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- The importance of the mass media -- The mass media-concepts and history -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Socialization and the life cycle -- Introduction -- An individual or a sociological story? -- The paradox of socialization -- The "self" in history -- Creating the self -- Primary socialization: the family -- Secondary socialization -- Life stages and the life cycle -- Emotion work in postmodern life -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Sexuality -- An individual or a social story? -- Naturalism versus constructivism -- Sexuality before modernity -- Modern sexuality -- Polluting non-procreative sex -- Underground sexual practices -- Sexuality in the postmodern transition -- Historical developments -- Sex today -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading.

Marriage and the family -- Introduction -- An individual or a sociological story? -- Marriage and family: the social forces of change -- Marriage from modern to postmodern society -- The modern family -- The postmodern family: emerging possibilities -- The conservative backlash -- A new consanguinity? -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Inequality -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Social stratification -- Social mobility -- Beliefs and attitudes -- Inequality: past, present and future -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Gender -- Introduction -- An individual or sociological story? -- Gender at work -- Exploitation and violence -- Everyday culture and mass media -- Looking to the future - changing times -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading.

Race and ethnicity -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- The social construction of ?race? and ?ethnicity? -- Minority group theory -- The great debate: origins of the racial underclass in america -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Crime and deviance -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Defining and describing deviance and crime -- Theories of crime and deviance -- The future of crime and deviance in postmodern society -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Work and the economy -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Structural and cultural dimensions of work and the economy -- Organization of work -- Conflict and control -- From modernity to postmodernity -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Education -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Education and modernity -- Different perspectives on education -- Education in a multicultural, postmodern society -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading.

Health and medicine -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Medicine, structure, and organization -- Social and cultural construction of health and medicine -- Social structure and inequalities -- Race, ethnicity, and gender -- Health and medicine in the twenty-first century -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Religion -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- What is religion? -- Religion, modernity and the secularization thesis -- Religion and cultural change -- Personal stories and ethnographies -- New age -- Public religion -- Cassie's story and the future of religion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Urbanism and population -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- The growth of cities -- Urban sociology in the twentieth century -- The city of the future-postmodern urbanism -- Population trends and the future -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Politics, publics, and the state -- An individual or a social story? -- States and impersonal power -- Pre-political societies -- Personal rule in traditional societies -- The origins of impersonal authority in modernity -- The rise of absolutist states -- States as bureaucracies -- States as servants of the collectivity -- States and domination -- The autonomy of the state -- Politics and personal power -- What is politics? -- Authority and legitimation -- Postmodern authority: charisma and culture -- Social power and politics -- The power behind the throne: the power elite? -- Does the economic elite control politics? -- Citizenship, publics, and the civil sphere -- Solidarity and public life -- Presidents and publics -- The struggle for full citizenship -- Political parties -- The discourse of decline -- The deepening of the civil sphere -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Social change, collective action and social movements -- Introduction -- An individual or a social story? -- Analyzing social change -- Defining and analyzing social change -- Industrial society -- Post-industrial society -- Information society, globalization, and social movements -- Globalization -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Study questions -- Further reading -- Bibliography -- Index.