Title overview
For courses in Introductory Sociology.
Help students see how their world shapes them and how they in turn can shape the world
Sociology: Structure and Change shows how the structure of society influences individual lives, and how individuals can exert agency to influence the social world.
Taking a fresh, contemporary approach to sociology, author Jodie Lawston provides real-world examples of what others have done to engage in social change. She then prompts students to outline what they can do to become agents of change themselves. By focusing on the relationship between social structure and agency, the text arms students with the sense that they can have a positive influence on the world.
Hallmark features of this title
- Structure Matters interactives enable students to relate social structure issues to their own experiences, which helps them to understand the true force of social structure on individuals.
- Structure Matters adaptive scenario activities explore various explanations for a social phenomenon.
- Structure Matters simulations illustrate examples of why social structure matters.
- Agents of Change interactives make students aware of their own agency to bring about social change, giving them hope that they can help shape the world.
- Agents of Change: What Have Others Done? sections highlight real-world examples of how people have engaged in social change.
- Agents of Change: What Can You Do? sections help students take tangible steps toward truly getting involved.
Key features
Highlights of the DIGITAL UPDATE for Revel (available for Spring 2021 classes)
Instructors, contact your sales rep to ensure you have the most recent version of the course.
- UPDATED: Data-rich interactive maps, figures, and tables with Social Explorer technology let students interact with real data to explore key concepts. For the Digital Update, all have been updated with the latest available data.
- UPDATED: Trending Now Current Event Bulletins bring currency into your classroom with author-written articles that connect key concepts with real-life current events.
- UPDATED: Narrative updates throughout the text ensure that the text's real-world examples are as current as possible. Highlights include:
- new research on gender differences in standardized testing performance
- new material on the historic number of women who ran in the 2018 midterms
- updated coverage of the Time's Up and #MeToo movements
Features of Revel; published 2018
- The Pearson Originals docuseries is a series of high-quality social impact videos that exemplify and humanize key sociological concepts. These videos help students connect with stories on a personal level, view people with greater empathy and contextualize core concepts.
- Sociology Explained Pearson Originals videos illustrate complex sociological concepts in a simplified and entertaining way.
Table of contents
1. Introduction to Sociology
2. Sociological Research
3. Culture
4. Socialization
5. Social Structure and Interaction
6. Groups and Organizations
7. Deviance, Crime, and Social Control
8. Social Class Stratification in the United States
9. Global Stratification
10. Race and Ethnicity
11. Gender and Sexuality
12. Family and Intimate Relationships
13. Education
14. Religion
15. The Economy and Work
16. Politics and Government
17. Health, Medicine, and Aging
18. Population, Urbanization, and the Environment
19. Collective Behavior and Social Movements
Author bios
About our authors
Jodie M. Lawston is Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at California State University San Marcos, and Faculty Director of Community Engaged Scholarship in the Division of Community Engagement. She has a B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include women’s incarceration, immigrant detention and social justice movements. Lawston’s first book, Sisters Outside: Radical Activists Working for Women Prisoners (State University of New York Press 2009), examines women’s grassroots resistance against the expanding prison system. Her second book (State University of New York Press 2011) is a co-edited anthology with Ashley Lucas of UNC Chapel Hill, Razor Wire Women: Prisoners, Activists, Scholars and Artists. This is the first anthology on women’s incarceration that juxtaposes scholarship on women in prison with the art, activism and short stories of incarcerated women. Lawston’s third book, In Between the Shadows of Citizenship: Mixed Status Families, was co-edited with April Shueths and was published by the University of Washington Press in 2015. Other scholarly publications include articles in the anthologies (Re) Interpretations: The Shapes of Justice in Women’s Experience; Milestones for American Women: Our Defining Passages; Beyond Cages and Walls: Bridging Prison Abolition and Immigrant Justice Movements; and Designing Women: Gender and Female Criminality. Lawston has peer-reviewed articles published in Gender & Society, Sociological Focus, Social Justice and the National Women’s Studies Association Journal (now called Feminist Formations). With Ashley Lucas, she guest-edited a special issue of the National Women’s Studies Association Journal entitled “Women and Criminal Justice: Policing, Prosecution, and Incarceration,” and she guest-edited a special issue of Social Justice with Martha Escobar of UC San Diego titled, “Policing, Detention, Deportation, and Resistance: Situating Immigrant Justice and Carcerality in the 21st Century.”