- John J. Macionis |
- Linda M. Gerber |
- Sandra Colavecchia |
Title overview
For courses in Introductory Sociology
Change the way your students see the world
Sociology provides students with the opportunity to connect their own lived experiences to a broader societal context. One of the hopes of the authors is that students will find that the topics addressed in this book relate to their own lives. The textbook addresses many of the pressing concerns facing Canadians and global citizens in the twenty-first century. For more than 150 years, sociologists have been working to better understand how society operates. Sociologists may not have all the answers, but we have learned quite a lot. A beginning course in sociology is your introduction to the fascinating and very useful study of the world around you. After all, we all have a stake in understanding our world and, as best we can, improving it.
Hallmark features of this title
- Current Event Bulletins bring currency into your classroom with author-written articles that connect key concepts with real-life current events. Our authors regularly add new or revised articles to ensure that your students have relevant examples to help them engage with the course.
- Thinking About Diversity: Race, Class, and Gender features prompt students to think critically about how differing identities intersect and impact society.
- Global Perspective boxes highlight contrasts amongst different nations. In some cases, they highlight differences between high- and low-income nations. In other cases, they highlight differences between Canada and other high-income countries.
New and updated features of this title
- New Power of Society figures. If you could teach your students only one thing in the introductory course, what would it be? Probably, most instructors would answer, “to understand the power of society to shape people's lives.” Each chapter begins with a Power of Society figure that does exactly that - forcing students to give up some of their cultural common sense that points to the importance of “personal choice” by showing them evidence of how society shapes our major life decisions.
- A brand-new chapter entitled “Mass Media and Social Media.” This new chapter examines, among many other topics, how social media is transforming our lives.
- Recent Canadian data and sociological research published in books and peer-reviewed journal articles appear throughout the tenth Canadian edition of Sociology.
- New photos, many of which address recent Canadian events and/or notable Canadian or international figures, have been added.
Table of contents
- The Sociological Perspective
- Sociological Investigation
- Culture
- Society
- Socialization
- Social Interaction in Everyday Life
- Mass Media and Social Media
- Groups and Organizations
- Sexuality and Society
- Deviance
- Social Stratification
- Social Class in Canada
- Global Stratification
- Gender Stratification
- Race and Ethnicity
- Aging and the Elderly
- The Economy and Work
- Politics and Government
- Families
- Religion
- Education
- Health and Medicine
- Population, Urbanization, and Environment
- Collective Behaviour and Social Movements
- Social Change: Traditional, Modern, and Postmodern Societies
Author bios
John J. Macionis (pronounced “ma-SHOW-nis”) has been in the classroom teaching sociology for more than forty years. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, majoring in sociology, and then completed a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.
His publications are wide-ranging, focusing on community life in the United States, interpersonal intimacy in families, effective teaching, humor, new information technology, and the importance of global education. In addition to authoring this best-seller, Macionis has also written Society: The Basics, the most popular paperback text in the field, now in its fifteenth edition. He collaborates on international editions of the titles: Sociology: Canadian Edition; Society: The Basics, Canadian Edition; and Sociology: A Global Introduction. Sociology is also available for high school students and in various foreign-language editions. All the Macionis titles are available as low-cost Revel editions that offer an interactive learning experience. John stands alone in the field for taking personal responsibility for writing all electronic content, just as he authors all the supplemental material. John proudly resists the trend toward “outsourcing” such material to non-sociologists.
In addition, Macionis edited the best-selling anthology Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology, which is also available in a Canadian edition. Macionis and Vincent Parrillo have written the leading urban studies title, Cities and Urban Life, soon available in a seventh edition. Macionis is also the author of Social Problems, now in its seventh edition and the leading title in this field. The latest on all the Macionis titles, as well as teaching materials and dozens of Internet links of interest to students and faculty in sociology, are found at the author's personal website. Follow John on his Facebook author page (John J. Macionis). Additional information and instructor resources are found at the Pearson site.
John Macionis recently retired from full-time teaching at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he was Professor and Distinguished Scholar of Sociology. During that time, he chaired the Sociology Department, directed the college's multidisciplinary program in humane studies, presided over the campus senate and the college's faculty, and taught sociology to thousands of students.
Linda M. Gerber was born in Toronto (to Finnish parents) and raised in Thornhill (just north of Toronto). Finnish was her first language, and she remains sufficiently fluent
to speak the language with relatives on regular trips to Finland. After graduating from the Nightingale School of Nursing (in Toronto), she toured Europe on a Eurailpass
over the summer, and spent the next year nursing in Helsinki, Finland. Upon her return, she completed a nursing degree at the University of Toronto before switching to sociology at the MA and PhD levels. While still an undergraduate in nursing, she married Gerhard Gerber, whose family had escaped from East Germany when he
was 10 years old. As a graduate student, she was a consultant in highway planning, doing socio-impact assessment for a range of highway planning projects in southern and central Ontario. She also taught a course on Canadian Native peoples at York University's Glendon campus.
Sandra Colavecchia is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at McMaster University. Dr. Colavecchia completed her PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Bonnie Fox, Dr. Margrit Eichler, and Dr. Harriet Friedmann. Dr. Colavecchia's area of expertise is in the sociology
of intimate relationships and families. She teaches these courses: Intimate Relationships and Families, Introduction to Sociology, and Canadian Society: Social Problems, Social Policy, and the Law. Professor Colavecchia's research and teaching interests include contemporary trends in intimate relationships and families, family finances, intersections between paid work and caregiving, and the impact of social media and other technologies in our private lives. Prior to working on this text, Professor Colavecchia co-authored a textbook in the area of the sociology of families (McDaniel, S., Tepperman, L., & Colavecchia, S. 2018. Close Relations: An Introduction to the Sociology of Families. 6th edition. Toronto: Pearson) and contributed book chapters to various undergraduate textbooks in introductory sociology and families.