The Tumbleweed Society

This book examines how we navigate questions of commitment and flexibility at work and at home in a world where insecurity has become the norm. How do people today, especially parents, think and talk about what we owe each other on the job and in intimate relationships-with partners, children, and others-when so much is perpetually up in the air?

In The Tumbleweed Society, Allison Pugh offers a moving exploration of sacrifice, betrayal, defiance, and resignation, as people cope in a society where relationships and jobs seem to change constantly. Based on eighty in-depth interviews with parents who have varied experiences of job insecurity and socio-economic status, Pugh finds most seem to accept job insecurity as inevitable but still try to bar that insecurity from infiltrating their home lives. Rigid expectations for enduring connections and uncompromising loyalty in their intimate relationships, however, can put intolerable strain on them, often sparking instability in the very social ties they yearn to protect. By shining a light on how we prepare ourselves and our children for an uncertain environment, Pugh gives us a detailed portrait of how we compel ourselves to adapt emotionally to a churning economy, and what commitment and obligation mean in an insecure age.

In northwestern Texas, Phoebe's upbringing as a southwestern belle who can also rope and ride equips her to square off against the meanest, dirtiest, and most ill-mannered cowpokes in the territory.

"Even as they see their wages go down and their buying power decrease, many parents are still putting their kids' material desires first. These parents struggle with how to handle children's consumer wants, which continue unabated despite the economic downturn. And, indeed, parents and other adults continue to spend billions of dollars on children every year. Why do children seem to desire so much, so often, so soon, and why do parents capitulate so readily? To determine what forces lie behind the onslaught of Nintendo Wiis and Bratz dolls, Allison J. Pugh spent three years observing and interviewing children and their families. In Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture, Pugh teases out the complex factors that contribute to how we buy, from lunchroom conversations about Game Boys to the stark inequalities facing American children. Pugh finds that children's desires stem less from striving for status or falling victim to advertising than from their yearning to join the conversation at school or in the neighborhood. Most parents respond to children's need to belong by buying the particular goods and experiences that act as passports in children's social worlds, because they sympathize with their children's fear of being different from their peers. Even under financial constraints, families prioritize children "feeling normal". Pugh masterfully illuminates the surprising similarities in the fears and hopes of parents and children from vastly different social contexts, showing that while corporate marketing and materialism play a part in the commodification of childhood, at the heart of the matter is the desire to belong."--pub. desc.

The work-family conflict that mothers experience today is a national crisis. Women struggle to balance breadwinning with the bulk of parenting, and social policies aren't helping. Of all Western industrialized countries, the United States ranks dead last for supportive work-family policies. Can American women look to Europe for solutions? Making Motherhood Work draws on interviews that Caitlyn Collins conducted over five years with 135 middle-class working mothers in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the United States. She explores how women navigate work and family given the different policy supports available in each country. Taking readers into women's homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces, Collins shows that mothers' expectations depend on context and that policies alone cannot solve women's struggles. With women held to unrealistic standards, the best solutions demand that we redefine motherhood, work, and family.

Ellie's grandmother doesn't want her around the farm, but times are tough, and her salesman father can't take her on the road. Ellie's challenge is to break through her grandmother's isolation and find kinship among strangers.

How low-income people cope with the emotional dimensions of poverty Could a lack of close, meaningful social ties be a public—rather than just a private—problem? In Social Poverty, Sarah Halpern-Meekin provides a much-needed window into the nature of social ties among low-income, unmarried parents, highlighting their often-ignored forms of hardship. Drawing on in-depth interviews with thirty-one couples, collected during their participation in a government-sponsored relationship education program called Family Expectations, she brings unprecedented attention to the relational and emotional dimensions of socioeconomic disadvantage. Poverty scholars typically focus on the economic use value of social ties—for example, how relationships enable access to job leads, informal loans, or a spare bedroom.However, Halpern-Meekin introduces the important new concept of “social poverty,” identifying it not just as a derivative of economic poverty, but as its own condition, which also perpetuates poverty. Through a careful and nuanced analysis of the strengths and limitations of relationship classes, she shines a light on the fundamental place of core socioemotional needs in our lives. Engaging and compassionate, Social Poverty highlights a new direction for policy and poverty research that can enrich our understanding of disadvantaged families around the country.

Essentials of Sociology, adapted from George Ritzer’s Introduction to Sociology, provides the same rock-solid foundation from one of sociology's best-known thinkers in a shorter and more streamlined format. With new co-author Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy, the Third Edition continues to illuminate traditional sociological concepts and theories and focuses on some of the most compelling features of contemporary social life: globalization, consumer culture, the internet, and the “McDonaldization” of society. New to this Edition New “Trending” boxes focus on influential books by sociologists that have become part of the public conversation about important issues. Replacing “Public Sociology” boxes, this feature demonstrates the diversity of sociology's practitioners, methods, and subject matter, featuring such authors as o Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow) o Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton (Paying for the Party) o Matthew Desmond (Evicted) o Arlie Hochschild (Strangers in Their Own Land) o Eric Klinenberg (Going Solo) o C.J. Pascoe (Dude, You're a Fag) o Lori Peek and Alice Fothergill (Children of Katrina) o Allison Pugh (The Tumbleweed Society) Updated examples in the text and "Digital Living" boxes keep pace with changes in digital technology and online practices, including Uber, Bitcoin, net neutrality, digital privacy, WikiLeaks, and cyberactivism. New or updated subjects apply sociological thinking to the latest issues including: the 2016 U.S. election Brexit the global growth of ISIS climate change further segmentation of wealthy Americans as the "super rich" transgender people in the U.S. armed forces charter schools the legalization of marijuana the Flint water crisis fourth-wave feminism

Children will see how learning to slow down gives you a chance to notice and appreciate the beauty in the world. In our fast-paced society, children are often missing the value of slowing down. Slow Down, Tumbleweed! is about a wild and roaming tumbleweed who thinks the world is only interesting if you rush through life. Then she gets caught on a fence and is forced to slow down. As she learns to sit in stillness and quiet, Mabel notices the beauty of the world around her—the music of wind chimes, the shapes in the clouds, the long eyelashes of a heifer. She sees there is so much that is interesting and beautiful right here, right now. You don’t have to chase it. Slow Down, Tumbleweed! teaches children the importance of slowing down, pausing to take a breath, and cultivating mindfulness. It shows the peace and gratitude you feel when you learn to be calm and open your awareness. This book celebrates all of life—both moving fast and moving slow.