Sociology in America

by Gans, Herbert J.

• ISBN13: 9780803938274
• ISBN10: 0803938276
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1990-06-01
• Publisher: Sage Pubns

Summary

Sociology in America takes a careful and critical look at the practice of this diverse discipline in the United States. Drawn from plenary sessions of the 1988 annual meeting of the American Sociological Associaton, these original papers by well-known contributors ask questions concerning the impact of sociology on American society and the constraints and directions imposed by that society on the discipline. Later sections of the book focus specifically on sociological impacts on policy and on various social issues. Other authors attempt to define sociology's constituencies in the broader society or the role of sociologists as social critics. Finally, sociology is viewed from the outside - by non-American sociologists and by representatives of other disciplines. This variety of viewpoints on the practice of the discipline in the US will make thought-provoking reading for professionals and students in the field.

Table of Contents

Sociology's Effects On America

The Influences of Sociological Ideas on American Culture

Sociology's Critical Irony

Countering American Individualism

America's Effects On Sociology

External Influences on Sociology

The Curious Importance of Small Groups in American Sociology

Sociology and American Public Policy

Witnesses, Engineers or Story Tellers

The Influence of Social Research on Social Policy

Sociology and Nuclear War

Sociology and Critical American Issues

Sociological Foundations of the Civil Rights Movement

Defining The Underclass

A Critical Look

Political Dimensions of Underclass Conceptualizations

The Wrong Stuff

Reflections on the Place of Gender in American Sociology

Sociology and Its Consitiuencie

Sand

The Cultural Contradictions of Teaching Sociology

Organizations and Sociology

Sociology and Social Criticism

The Virtues of Dissent in Sociology

Sociology for Whom?

Criticism for Whom?

Social Criticism and Sociological Elitism

Born Again Sociology

Foreign Sociologists Look At Us Sociology

American Sociology Viewed from Abroad

General Theory and American Sociology

Notes on American Sociology and American Power

Sociology and the Other Social Sciences

Sociology and History

Producing Comparative History

Sociology, Economics and the Economy

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