Collins Web-Linked Dictionary of... | Buy

Web-linked Dictionary Sociology This dictionary provides a clear and balanced guide to terms and concepts used in every area of sociology. Includes thousands of definitions of key terms Covers methodological concepts and research methods relating to sociology, as well as related terms in the fields of anthropology, psychology, economics, and political science Now includes numerous useful links to authoritative Web sites to further expand research in the field Contains biographical entries on classical sociologists and contemporary theorists

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Sociology
Web-Linked Dictionary

Introduction

Sociology is not a tidy subject. As the 'science of society and social relations' its boundaries are wide and difficult to draw. It overlaps with all other social science disciplines, which, as the general science of society, it must take into account or can even be said to include. Since, in addition, its discourses are also continuous with those of 'lay' society, its subject matter is often controversial and charged by 'values' as well as by disciplinary disputes.

These features and other complexities of the subject are not a weakness of the subject, but are in many ways its strength: the fact that sociology reflects and interacts with real world issues and has no arbitrarily constructed disciplinary closure. However, they do present the compiler of a dictionary of sociology with considerable problems, not least the need to arrive at working criteria of inclusion and exclusion when no one set of criteria is likely to reflect all possible conceptions of the subject. It is important, therefore, to make clear what the criteria have been for this volume. Included are:

(a) major sociological terms and topic areas which have been central in the development of the subject or which are currently important, together with many more minor sociological terms;
(b) entries on other social science disciplines, including key terms from these disciplines where the terms have achieved a wide usage within sociology;
(e) entries on the most influential sociologists, and entries on major social theorists and philosophers whose influence on the subject has often been on a par with those whose disciplinary links are more explicitly with sociology;
(d) entries on the main research methods used in sociology, including basic statistical terms, together with entries on epistemological and ontological terms and issues which sociology shares with philosophy;
(e) a selection of frequently used 'common language' terms in sociology where these are likely to present problems for students.

The breadth of coverage attempted means that the volume includes a greater number of headwords than most previous dictionaries of the subject. A further general feature is that, whereas other dictionaries have mostly adopted a discursive approach in communicating the meanings of terms, in this volume a brief definition (or definitions) immediately follows every headword. This is intended to be useful to the person who wishes to use a dictionary to establish a meaning without having to sort through many paragraphs to arrive at it. This is not to say that the reader will find only short entries in the Dictionary. On the contrary, it contains many longer more encyclopedic entries, but these always begin with initial briefer definitions. It should finally be noted that this Dictionary does not set out to be a comprehensive or a definitive work of scholarship, e.g. it is relatively little concerned with the complex etymologies of terms, or to convey all usages. Rather its main aim is to function as a study aid.

Using the Dictionary

Entries are arranged in alphabetical order which treats all words appearing in the headword as a continuous word -- thus civilizing process precedes civil society.

Where headwords indicate only a cross-reference in SMALL CAPITALS, the location of a definition is usually indicated by the appearance of this headword in italics within the cross-referenced entry.

It should not be assumed that the length of an entry reflects the importance of a term within the subject. This is true of person entries as well as those dealing with individual terms. Material of relevance on a particular entry will often he found in related entries, indicated by SMALL CAPITAlS, also used more generally to indicate cross-references to key terms defined elsewhere.

Works cited in the text are listed in a general Bibliography which appears at the rear of the Dictionary, although where the title of the work is given in full in the text, these texts are not always included in the Bibliography.

Excerpted from Sociology
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.