PREFACEplace as equally important agents of childhood socialization as the former “big
three”—family, religion, and education. And while some of us are zooming down
the information superhighway; others are stuck on barely passable dirt tracks.We have also reconceptualized the standard way of organizing four other chapters.
We feel that these changes will more accurately reflectwhere sociology is nowand the
interests of our students, and thus more adequately prepare students to engage with
sociological ideas.- Chapter 11, Age: From Young to Old.Most other textbooks have a chapter on
age. They deal exclusively with aging—that is, with old people. Now, I have noth-
ing against old people—I am, or will soon be, one myself! But students often feel
the age chapter is not about them, but about their parents or grandparents, about
“other people.”
Of course this chapter retains the sociological treatment of aging, but we’ve
also added new material on youth. Half the chapter focuses on youth as an iden-
tity and as a source of inequality. After all, when we discuss age stratification, it is
bothold and young who experience discrimination. Our students know this: we
should acknowledge it in our textbooks. And, again, it has been sociologists who
have been at the forefront of exploring and understanding youth—as identity and
as a basis for inequality. - Chapter 15, Religion and Science. We often think of religion and science as com-
petitors, even as enemies. After all, both seek answers to life’s big questions, but
they use very different methods and come up with different answers. Sociologically,
they exhibit many formal similarities—hierarchies of positions, organizational
networks, hierarchies of knowledge. Both guide social action, offering normative
claims derived from their respective “truths.”
More than that, students often feel that they must choose between the two.
But religious belief and scientific knowledge co-exist. In fact, the United States is
simultaneously one of the most scientifically advanced and one of the most deeply
religious countries in the world. The same person may be both religious and sci-
entific in different situations. Most clergy in the U.S. keep up with advances in med-
icine and law in order to minister to their congregations effectively, and many, if
not most, scientists attend church or temple. Students are eager to talk about reli-
gion, although some may feel initially uncomfortable discussing it sociologically.
Placing the discussion alongside an equally sociological discussion of science will
facilitate the sociological conversation about both subjects. - Chapter 16, The Body and Society: Health and Illness.Virtually every textbook
has a chapter on health and medicine, which discuss both our experience of health
and illness and the social institutions that engage with us in those experiences. We’ve
organized this chapter to include far more about the body—that is, the “social
body,” the ways in which our experiences of our bodies are socially constructed.
Students are eager to discuss the other sociological aspects of the body besides,
for example, the sick role. Body modification (tattoos, piercing, cosmetic surgery)
lends itself to marvelous class discussions about the construction of identity through
the body, and the ways we assert both individuality and conformity. This discus-
sion connects well with traditional discussions of health and illness. And, once
again, sociologists have been among the more visible researchers in this new and
growing field of interest, as the newest section of the ASA on the Sociology of the
Body attests. - Chapter 19, Sociology of Environments: The Natural, Physical, and Human Worlds.
Few issues are more pressing to the current generation of college students than the
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