This is a superb book. By presenting basic sociological topics in terms of the paradoxes they contain, O′Brien situates the discipline and its subject matter in historical and intellectual context, while using examples that are contemporary, accessible, and of interest and relevance to students. I look forward to using Social Prisms in my sociology courses and to the animated class discussions that I′m sure her book will engender. –Anita Ilta Garey, University of New Hampshire ‘Pine Forge Press has done it again! Social Prisms bolsters the well-deserved reputation of Pine Forge Press for publishing serious and innovative yet interesting and accessible works for undergraduate sociology courses. Students will enjoy O′Brien′s frequent references to the popular culture (sports, television, movies) which is so central to their existence outside the classroom, and be challenged by her call to embrace rather than resolve the many paradoxes of contemporary social life in America.’ –David Yamane, University of Notre Dame
Table of Content
Prologue
The Paradox of Reduction
Some Observations on Sociology as Science
The Case of the Designer Genes
Reconsidering the Nature/Nurture Binary
To Belong or Not to Belong? Paradoxes of Community
Which Box Do I Check? Paradoxes of Social Difference
How Do We Cut the American Pie? The Myth of Meritocracy
Family Equations
Whose Family? Whose Values?
The Paradox of Value in the Age of Certainty
Reflections on Max Weber and Georg Simmel
Epilogue
Paradoxes of Subjectivity
About the author
Jodi O’Brien is Professor of Sociology and Women and Gender Studies at Seattle University. She is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Gender and Society and co-editor of the “Contemporary Sociological Perspectives” book series. Her books include The Production of Reality, Social Prisms, and Everyday Inequalities. Her courses and research focus on difference, power and discrimination, and religion and sexuality.
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