Current Social Issues

Seeing Social Problems: Readings on Contemporary Issues in the United States provides students with engaging, thought-provoking articles that examine a wide array of current social issues, the types of behaviors that perpetuate such problems, and how these issues affect the daily lives of Americans. Students are invited to critically consider how key issues have evolved and changed over time and to devise new ways for society to improve, both as people and as a nation.

In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. The result is a superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought.

* Revised chapter sequence based on user feedback: chapters flow from macro to micro level following the most commonly taught table of contents * New 'Social Constructions of Social Problems' feature provides insights for students on how social problems develop. * New 'The Globalization of Social Problems' boxes offer cross-cultural comparisons, and illustrate the universality of many social problems. * New 'Thinking About the Future' feature stimulates the sociological imagination, providing an uplifting, pro-active approach, enabling students to offer their own solutions and provide lively class debate. * Cutting-edge topics include gay genetics, charter schools, blended families, the impact of divorce on children, voter apathy, world hunger, and deforestation. * Expanded discussions of feminist and post-modernist viewpoints, global warming, pollution, HMOs and non-marital births. * Vincent Parrillos Website is linked to the Companion Website with Online Practice Tests. The authors website includes interactive social problems activities. *Eclectic theoretical approach to the study of social problems, covering all three major sociological perspectives (functionalist, conflict, int

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Drawing from a wide selection of current research and writings, "Reading Between the Lines" brings together accessible readings that examine a broad range of social problems and reflect different conceptual approaches. The text provides a conceptual framework for understanding social problems and enables an integrated race, class, and gender analysis..

The New York Times bestselling work of undercover reportage from our sharpest and most original social critic, with a new foreword by Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job—any job—can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity—a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Read it for the smoldering clarity of Ehrenreich's perspective and for a rare view of how "prosperity" looks from the bottom. And now, in a new foreword, Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, explains why, twenty years on in America, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the current, most critical political, economic and social issues, and challenges facing Serbia on its road towards integration in the European Union. The chapters in the book are written by highly renowned authorities in their respective research fields including prominent scholars, academics, and researchers.Thorough analysis of the challenges and issues currently facing the Serbian society and state encompasses the following: Finance and banking sector, including the cooperation with international and European financial organizations, and its internal competitive environment; Economic sector, including the effects of globalization on the entrepreneurship in Serbia and the intellectual potential of the Serbian economy; IT sector, which includes semantic technologies, the data-driven economy, and open-data ecosystems in Serbia and in related European areas; Foreign policy issues of Serbia related to the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia; Serbia and the European migrant crisis; Corruption phenomenon in all sectors and on all levels of Serbian society, including the varieties of its mechanisms, as well as methods and instruments for combating it; Media sector, including its status, challenges, and prospects in the context of Serbias Euro-integration; Social gender issues including womens domestic violence in Serbia and methods for its reduction; Status of rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases in Serbia. The book provides a representative account of the most important, current challenges and issues in Serbia. It can serve as an authoritative source of information on the covered topics for the general public, as well as for specialists in different fields, interested in having a deeper insight into these topics.

The reader Seeing Social Problems: Readings on Contemporary Issues in the United States examines a wide array of social problems that currently exist in the United States and that impact every member of society. Designed to present the kind of information found in a standard textbook, but in an accessible, relatable, high-interest way, the text links the readings to real-world issues of the day. The carefully curated reading selections are organized into eight sections, each of which includes several articles. Topics include socioeconomic inequality and poverty, racial and ethnic inequality, gender inequality and homophobia, and crime. Students also explore social problems as they are manifested in medicine and health, families, and education, as well as environmental social problems. Each section begins with an introduction that features basic information and instructional content related to the topic. The chapter readings then provide a variety of perspectives. Developed to be specific and manageable in scope, while also increasing students' understanding of foundational concepts, Seeing Social Problems is well-suited to survey courses in sociology that focus on society's challenges.

A three volume reference guide that examines current, critical social issues in historical and global contexts, with topics on the environment, health, science, the media, ethnic conflicts, poverty, immigration, and more. This landmark reference work is a comprehensive, one-stop interdisciplinary resource that examines important, current social issues in global and historical perspective. Approximately 140 in-depth, balanced text entries cover a broad range of critical topics pertaining to the natural environment, health, energy, science, the media, ethnic conflict, poverty, labor, justice, individual rights, family, gender, and immigration, to name just a few. Each original, signed article provides historical context as well as a thorough discussion and analysis of a contemporary issue in today's interconnected global society. Articles also include essential primary documents, as well as extensive further reading lists, Web sites of notable institutions and organizations, statistical data, and photographs. In all, Global Social Issues provides essential, objective information that enables students to understand and evaluate the major challenges facing human society worldwide and to foster awareness and critical thinking as "global citizens" of the 21st century.

From one of the leading policy experts of our time, an urgent rethinking of how we can better support each other to thrive Whether we realize it or not, all of us participate in the social contract every day through mutual obligations among our family, community, place of work, and fellow citizens. Caring for others, paying taxes, and benefiting from public services define the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. Today, however, our social contract has been broken by changing gender roles, technology, new models of work, aging, and the perils of climate change. Minouche Shafik takes us through stages of life we all experience—raising children, getting educated, falling ill, working, growing old—and shows how a reordering of our societies is possible. Drawing on evidence and examples from around the world, she shows how every country can provide citizens with the basics to have a decent life and be able to contribute to society. But we owe each other more than this. A more generous and inclusive society would also share more risks collectively and ask everyone to contribute for as long as they can so that everyone can fulfill their potential. What We Owe Each Other identifies the key elements of a better social contract that recognizes our interdependencies, supports and invests more in each other, and expects more of individuals in return. Powerful, hopeful, and thought-provoking, What We Owe Each Other provides practical solutions to current challenges and demonstrates how we can build a better society—together.