Family Sociology

In a friendly, jargon-free style, sociologist and broadcaster Jay Gabler introduces you to sociology's history and basic methods, and - once you have your sociological lens adjusted - makes it clear how to survey the big questions of culture, gender, ethnicity, religion, politics, and crime with new eyes. You'll find everything you need to succeed in an introductory sociology class as well as to apply sociological ideas to give you extra insight into your personal and professional lives.

In this new edition, Steve Bruce discusses the continuing arguments for social egalitarianism, considering issues such as gay marriage, women in combat roles, and the 2010 Equality Act to debunk contemporary arguments against parity. As gender divisions are increasingly questioned, he looks ahead to the likely consequences of this for society.

Renew your imagination for what family life can be. Many of us feel overwhelmed about the prospect of raising children in our high-performance, rapid-pace culture. Reflecting on difficulties from our own families of origin can increase our doubt and insecurity about being a good parent. Positive examples of family life can seem few and far between. Mark and Lisa Scandrette understand these challenges, and in Belonging and Becoming they cast a compelling vision of what the family can be.

In colorful and moving details, this audiobook explores how polyamorous relationships come to be, how they grow and change, how they manage the ins and outs of daily family life, and how they cope with the challenges they face both within their families and from society. Using polyamorists own words, Dr. Elisabeth Sheff examines polyamorous households and reveals their advantages, disadvantages, and the daily lives of those living in them.

Best-selling authors John McKnight and Peter Block offer compelling, new understanding of how and why the spirit of "community" has been lost in our neighborhoods, cities, and society, and what ordinary citizens, leaders, and professionals can do to restore it. We need our neighbors and community to stay healthy, produce jobs, raise our children, and care for those on the margin. Institutions and professional services have reached their limit of their ability to help us.

The kinds of families we see today are different than they were even a decade ago, some fantastically so, as paths to parenthood have been rejiggered by technology, activism, and law. In Modern Families, Joshua Gamson brings us extraordinary family creation tales - his own included - that illuminate this changing world of contemporary kinship. We meet a child with two mothers, made with one mother's egg and the sperm of a man none of them has ever met and carried by the other mother.

All families have secrets but the facts requiring secrecy change with time. Nowadays a lesbian partnership, a "bastard" son, or a criminal grandfather might be of little or no consequence but could have unraveled a family at an earlier moment in history. Margaret K. Nelson is interested in how families keep secrets from each other and from outsiders when to do otherwise would risk eliciting not only embarrassment or discomfort, but profound shame and, in some cases, danger.

This groundbreaking study of agriculture's role in the war defies long-held notions that Northern industrialization and urbanization led to clashes between North and South. Huston argues that the ideological chasm between plantation owners in the South and family farmers in the North led to the political eruption of 1854-1856 and the birth of a sectionalized party system.

Education, employment, and home ownership have long been considered stepping stones to the middle class. But in Abandoned Families, social policy expert Kristin Seefeldt shows how many working families have access only to a separate but unequal set of poor-quality jobs, low-performing schools, and declining housing markets, which offer few chances for upward mobility. Through in-depth interviews over a six-year period with women in Detroit, Seefeldt charts the increasing social isolation of many low-income workers.

In this enlightening and compassionate guide, Dr. Dan Boynton reveals how the subtle force of emotional fusion operates within every family system, quietly shaping the way we think, feel, connect, and even disagree. Whether your family is loving and functional or marked by unspoken tension and loyalty binds, these patterns are present, sometimes hidden, sometimes right on the surface.

Success and wealth often seem like distant aspirations, achievable only through extraordinary effort and luck. However, upon closer examination, it becomes apparent that success and wealth are not merely products of individual endeavors but are deeply intertwined with the environments in which individuals are raised. This book explores the mechanisms through which successful family environments foster achievement and prosperity across generations.