Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1506345786
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Is it true that "numbers don′t lie?" Is America "the land of equal opportunity?" Is marriage a "dying institution?" Each of the 23 essays in Second Thoughts reviews a familiar conventional wisdom, and introduces relevant sociological concepts and theories in order to explain, qualify, and sometimes debunk that conventional wisdom.

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1506345786
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Is it true that "numbers don′t lie?" Is America "the land of equal opportunity?" Is marriage a "dying institution?" Each of the 23 essays in Second Thoughts reviews a familiar conventional wisdom, and introduces relevant sociological concepts and theories in order to explain, qualify, and sometimes debunk that conventional wisdom.

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483354873
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
Co-authored by Karen A. Cerulo, the Eastern Sociological Society’s Robin L. Williams Lecturer for 2013-2014 Do birds of a feather flock together or do opposites attract? Is honesty the best policy? Are children our most precious commodity? Is education the great equalizer? Adages like these shape our social life. This Sixth Edition of Second Thoughts reviews several popular beliefs and notes how these conventional wisdoms cannot be taken at face value, but instead require careful second thoughts. This unique text encourages students to step back and sharpen their analytic focus with 25 essays that use social research to expose the gray areas of commonly held beliefs, revealing the complexity of social reality and sharpening students’ sociological vision.

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780761988243
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Third Edition of Second Thoughts: Seeing Conventional Wisdom Through the Sociological Eye addresses the disparities that exist between conventional wisdom and social life. Through twenty-two essays, authors Janet M. Ruane and Karen A. Cerulo examine popular conceptions of important social subjects that we may accept as commonly held beliefs. This book illuminates how reviewing conventional wisdom with a sociological eye can lead to a more insightful understanding of social life.

Second Thoughts: Sociology Challenges Conventional Wisdom

Second Thoughts: Sociology Challenges Conventional Wisdom PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412988098
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Do birds of a feather flock together or do opposites attract? Does haste make waste or should you strike while the iron is hot? Adages like these—or conventional wisdoms—shape our social life. This Fifth Edition of Second Thoughts reviews several popular beliefs and notes how such adages cannot be taken at face value. This unique text encourages students to step back and sharpen their analytic focus with 24 essays that use social research to expose the gray areas of commonly held beliefs, revealing the complexity of social reality and sharpening students’ sociological vision.

Second Thoughts

Second Thoughts PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: Pine Forge Press
ISBN: 1412956536
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: THE ECONOMY Essay 20 Welfare Is Ruining This Country A frequently expressed opinion when talk turns to welfare reform is that too many people are on the dole and too many recipients have other options. In this essay, we review some of the least understood dimensions of welfare and explore exactly where welfare moneys are going. Learning More About It Exercises Essay 21 Immigrants Are Ruining This Nation?Why don?t you go back where you came from?? This angry cry seems to be getting more and more familiar as the United States faces the highest levels of immigration in its history. Is immigration ruining this nation? This essay reviews the historical impact and future trends of immigration in the United States. Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY Essay 22 Technology Is Taking Over Our Lives This essay examines new communication technologies and explores their role in contemporary social life. We begin by considering the ways in which technology has changed the development of community and intimacy. We explore as well the impact of new technologies on our definitions of social relations, social actors, and the public and private spheres. Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: EDUCATION Essay 23 Education Is the Great Equalizer Conventional wisdom tells us that educating the masses will bring equal opportunities to people of all races, ethnicities, and genders. In this essay, we explore the truth of this claim and review the progress we have made in bringing a quality education to all. Learning More About It Exercises SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: RELIGION Essay 24: We Are One Nation Under God God bless America ... it?s an invocation frequently heard across the U.S. Yet, in light of our country?s long standing commitment to the separation of church and state, God bless America is also a prayer that can make some uncomfortable. Are we united or divided with regard to the place of God in our nation? This essay explores the issue. Learning More About It Exercises Conclusion: Why Do Conventional Wisdoms Persist? The Positive Functions of Conventional Wisdom Conventional Wisdom as Knowledge In Closing Learning More About It References Glossary / Index.

The Real World

The Real World PDF Author: Kerry Ferris
Publisher: W. W. Norton
ISBN: 9780393656145
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
The most relevant textbook for today's students.

Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You

Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You PDF Author: Agustín Fuentes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520285999
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
There are three major myths of human nature: humans are divided into biological races; humans are naturally aggressive; and men and women are truly different in behavior, desires, and wiring. In an engaging and wide-ranging narrative, Agustín Fuentes counters these pervasive and pernicious myths about human behavior. Tackling misconceptions about what race, aggression, and sex really mean for humans, Fuentes incorporates an accessible understanding of culture, genetics, and evolution, requiring us to dispose of notions of “nature or nurture.” Presenting scientific evidence from diverse fields—including anthropology, biology, and psychology—Fuentes devises a myth-busting toolkit to dismantle persistent fallacies about the validity of biological races, the innateness of aggression and violence, and the nature of monogamy and differences between the sexes. A final chapter plus an appendix provide a set of take-home points on how readers can myth-bust on their own. Accessible, compelling, and original, this book is a rich and nuanced account of how nature, culture, experience, and choice interact to influence human behavior.

Arguing for Our Lives

Arguing for Our Lives PDF Author: Robert Jensen
Publisher: City Lights Books
ISBN: 087286605X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
We live in a time when public discourse is more skewed than ever by the propaganda that big money can buy, with trust in the leadership of elected officials at an all-time low. The "news" has degenerated into sensationalist sound bites, and the idea of debate has become a polarized shouting match that precludes any meaningful discussion. It's also a time of anxiety, as we're faced with economic and ecological crises on a global scale, with stakes that seem higher than ever before. In times like these, it's essential that we be able to think and communicate clearly. In this lively primer on critical thinking, Robert Jensen attacks the problems head on and delivers an accessible and engaging book that explains how we can work collectively to enrich our intellectual lives. Drawing on more than two decades of classroom experience and community organizing, Jensen shares strategies on how to challenge "conventional wisdom" in order to courageously confront the crises of our times and offers a framework for channeling our fears and frustrations into productive analysis that can inform constructive action. Jensen connects abstract ideas with the everyday political and spiritual struggles of ordinary people. Free of either academic or political jargon, this book is for anyone struggling to understand our world and contribute to making it a better place. Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and a founding board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. "At the moment, what passes for political debate is the bickering of two vociferous and wrong-headed parties. Robert Jensen reacquaints us with the political and social skills we'll need if we're to reclaim politics for the 21st century. This is a brave book, one that packs more wisdom in its few pages than a shelf's worth of political theory, because it's also a book about political practice. Jensen patiently, honestly, and rigorously exemplifies the highest virtues of a public intellectual."—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System "The first date or dinner party taboo is famous: 'No religion, no politics.' Debating, discussion, engagement with ideas that matter—these are all supposed to be left to professionals, specialists who talk to each other in mutually incomprehensible ways. Meanwhile decades of advertising, sound bites, PR, filtered information, and internet trolling have numbed us even more. But we don't have to live this way. We could immediately start living in a better world, one in which every conversation was an opportunity to learn more about ourselves, others, and the precious little world we all have to try to live on together. To do that, though, we would have to re-learn how to think and talk, how to agree and disagree. Robert Jensen's Arguing For Our Lives can help us do that."—Justin Podur, Associate Professor, York University and author of Haiti's New Dictatorship (Pluto Press 2012) "Arguing for Our Lives is a crucial book for reclaiming not only the pedagogical and political virtues of critical thinking, but for securing the foundations for critical agency and engaged citizenship. This is an indispensable book for students, educators, and others willing to fight the current ongoing assault by religious, political, and moral fundamentalists on critical thought, if not reason itself, that has engulfed American politics. Everyone should read Arguing for Our Lives if they believe there is a connection between how we think and how we act, how we understand democracy and how we experience and struggle for it."—Henry Giroux, author of Twilight of the Social: Resurgent Politics in the Age of Disposability (Paradigm, 2012)

Introducing Social Research Methods

Introducing Social Research Methods PDF Author: Janet M. Ruane
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118874242
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Introducing Social Research Methods: Essentials for Getting the Edge is a concise and student-friendly introduction to research methods that uses examples from around the world to illustrate the centrality of social science research in our everyday lives. Explains complex, multi-faceted concepts and methodologies in straightforward prose Designed for students who are new to or skeptical of social science research methods as useful tools for approaching real-world challenges Persuasively argues that social scientific proficiency unlocks an array of personal and professional opportunities beyond the realms of academia A supplementary website features a glossary, test bank, Power Point presentations, a comprehensive list of web resources, a guide to relevant TED lectures and much more

Know What You Don't Know

Know What You Don't Know PDF Author: Michael A. Roberto
Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0135072824
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Problems remain hidden in organizations for a number of reasons, including fear, organizational complexity, gatekeepers who insulate leaders from problems that are coming up, and finally, an overemphasis on formal analysis in place of intuition and observation. This book lays out the key skills and capabilities required to ensure that problems do not remain hidden in your organization. It explains how leaders can become effective problem finders, unearthing problems before they destroy an organization. The book explains how leaders can become an anthropologist, going out and observe how employees, customers, and suppliers actually behave. It then goes on to present how they can circumvent the gatekeepers, so they can go directly to the source to see and hear the raw data; hunt for patterns, including refining your individual and collective pattern recognition capability; "connect the dots" among issues that may initially seem unrelated, but in fact, have a great deal in common; give front-line employees training in a communication technique; encourage useful mistakes, including create a "Red Pencil Award"; and watch the game film, where leaders reflect systematically on their own organization's conduct and performance, as well as on the behavior and performance of competitors.