Sociology: Guides and Handbooks

For this fourth edition of a text for students in the social sciences, Lofland (University of California-Davis) adds new examples and methodological materials drawn from more recent qualitative studies. Increased emphasis on qualitative studies provides greater illustrative continuity across chapters. This edition reflects the prominent role of computers and various software programs for qualitative analysis and the rise of Institutional Review Boards across college campuses. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In this substantial revision of the previous edition, additions include some 325 new titles and electronic sources and updated editions of previous works cited. The emphasis is on English-language works published from 1997 to 2004. Aby describes 610 general and specific topic reference sources in annotations of approximately 60 to 250 words; annotations for Web sites, journals, and organizations are often briefer. Organization is by field (criminology to women's studies) and type of reference source; entries may also be accessed by the author/title and subject indexes. Citations include the standard identifiers. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Contains entries organized into four parts: reference sources applicable across all the disciplines; disciplines firmly established by scholarly tradition among the social sciences; emerging disciplines, with roots in the humanities or moving from the pure sciences into the social sciences; and disciplines related to the social sciences or with recognized social implications for other disciplines.

Covers the development of sociology as a discipline, international perspectives, scientific approaches to sociology, the fabric of social life, social aggregations, social distinctions and diversity, social institutions, societal problems and disaffections, locality and social life, the quantification of social life, collective behavior and social movements, and social dynamics and change. Also contains sections dealing with nontraditional perspectives, theory, and methodology; the sociology of the self; the sociology of the life course; the sociology of normative behavior; creative behavior; macrolevel issues (sociologies of mental health, technology, violence, the environment, etc.); and applied and interdisciplinary uses of sociology.

A major study of the principles of bibliography by one of the world's foremost scholars of the discipline.

Provides a modern, comparative, and wide-ranging overview of key developments in modern social thought.