Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, Brief Edition. This item is unavailable.Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, Brief Edition

This new Brief Sixth Edition of David Newman’s text is the streamlined version of Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life with the same goal: to be a textbook that, in the author’s words, "reads like a real book." 

Newman shows to see the “unfamiliar in the familiar”—to step back and see organization and predictability in their take-for-granted personal experiences. Newman uses the metaphors of “architecture” and “construction,” to help students understand that society is not something that exists “out there,” independently of themselves; it is a human creation that is planned, maintained, or altered by individuals. Instead of surveying every subfield in sociology, this text focuses on the structural features of society, the social construction of self and identity, and social inequality in the context of social institutions.

The new edition includes examples and analysis of contemporary events and trends, including:

• The changes in our national politics brought about by the 2016 presidential election
• Increasing societal attention paid to fatal encounters between police and unarmed people of color or incidents of sexual harassment and assault
• School shootings and the debates over gun ownership
• The continued dramatic growth of communication technology, particularly social networking sites

David M. Newman earned his B.A. from San Diego State University in 1981 and his graduate degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle (M.A. 1984, PhD 1988). After a year at the University of Connecticut, David came to DePauw University in 1989 and has been there ever since. David teaches courses in Contemporary Society, Deviance, Mental Illness, Family, Social Psychology, and Research Methods. He has published numerous articles on teaching and has presented research papers on the intersection of gender and power in intimate relationships. Recently most of his scholarly activity has been devoted to writing and revising several books, including Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life: Brief Edition (Sage, 2017); Identities and Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality (McGraw-Hill, 2017); and Families: A Sociological Perspective (McGraw-Hill, 2009). His most recent book, Redemption or Stigma? The Promise, Practice and Price of Second Chances in American Culture (Lexington Books), is projected to be published in 2019. It examines the cultural meaning, institutional importance, and social limitations of "second chance" and "permanent stigma" narratives in everyday life.