Full Description
Sociology was in serious trouble in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Harvard University was down to only 67 students majoring in sociology in 1992. Yale's department faced a 40% cut in faculty and near extinction. In the last decade, Washington University (St. Louis, MO) and the University of Rochester shut down their departments. George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) regrouped in order to stave off further cuts. However, in the past decade, sociology has surged back and become more important than ever to policy makers and pundits. Why?
Is Sociology Dead? covers three areas of Dr. Jack Nusan Porter's work: the role of sociological theory in society; the image of sociology in the media; and what he calls the "creative praxis," (the application of social theory to real life problems). The theoretical section of the book covers such areas as conflict theory; situational and small group theory; and what could be termed as post-9/11 approaches as chaos, postmodern, and rational choice theory that address the questions of random murder, terrorism, and genocide. The second section deals with an overview of sociology's image in the U.S. media and covers in detail how sociology was treated in radical textbooks in the 1960s. The final section applies new theoretical approaches to a host of contemporary political, business, technological, and urban issues.
Contents
Part 1 Message to the Reader
Part 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Introduction: The Death of Sociology? Toward a New Paradigm
Part 4 I: Sociological Theory
Chapter 5 Conflict Theory: Classical and Contemporary
Chapter 6 Situational Theory
Chapter 7 Small Groups: Theory and Methods
Chapter 8 Means of Conflict Resolution
Chapter 9 The Urban Middleman: A Comparative Analysis
Chapter 10 What is Evil? Some New Post-Modern Theories to Explain the Post-9/11 Era
Part 11 II: Images of Sociology
Chapter 12 The Image of Sociology: A Mixed Bag
Chapter 13 The Making of a Sociologist
Chapter 14 Radical Sociology Textbooks
Chapter 15 Confronting the Media: The Impact of Jonestown
Chapter 16 The Sociological Imagination of Film
Part 17 III: Creative Praxis
Chapter 18 Talking Police Blues: The Pedagogic Dilemma of the Academic
Chapter 19 Corporations that Grant Degrees?
Chapter 20 Computer Networks and Metanetworks
Chapter 21 Two Newtons or One? One Affluent, One Not!
Chapter 22 The Sociological Imagination in Politics
Chapter 23 Toward a Sociology and History of Peace
Part 24 IV: Postscript
Chapter 25 Jack Nusan Porter: Thoughts on Internal and External Peace
Part 26 Sources
Part 27 Index
Part 28 About the Author
