Contemporary Social Problems - Softcover

Parrillo, Vincent N.; Etc.; Stimson, John; Mayo, Mary Lou; Stimson, Ardyth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205173950 ISBN 13: 9780205173952

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon, 1995

Synopsis

This introductory text is theoretically-balanced, incorporating the three major theoretical perspectives: functionalist, conflict, and interactionist. The text focuses on the individual, with a chapter on "The Individual in a Complex Society: Alienation, Anomie and Postmodernism". Every chapter includes alternative scenarios, with a pessimistic scenario and an optimistic scenario, to show students how action taken today can affect the future. Topics new to the third edition include gun control, AIDS, abortion, domestic, school and street violence, and reactions to immigrants and illegal aliens. Every chapter includes an international section on how other societies face similar social problems.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Using an eclectic and comprehensive blend of theoretical viewpoints to analyze contemporary problems, the author illustrates how social problems are socially constructed, and provides many cross-cultural examples of problems in other societies. Topics that are new or updated for the sixth edition include:

• An expanded discussion of the sociological imagination and its role in helping to recognize and solve problems (Ch. 2).
• New material comparing per capita consumption in Most and Least Developed Countries, and on worldwide efforts to decrease the number of undernourished people (Ch. 3).
• How the threat of terrorism affects those living and working in cities (Ch. 4); an assessment of the 1996 Welfare Reform (Ch. 6); public opinion about homosexuality, civil unions, and gay adoptions (Ch. 7); legal decisions on college affirmative action policies (Ch. 8); international terrorism (Ch. 9); the stratification of health care in the U.S.; and the social costs of lack of health care (Ch. 11); “club drugs” like Ecstasy, Rohypnol, GHB, and Ketamine (Ch. 13).

Edition details

• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0205173950
• ISBN 13: 9780205173952
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 608