Social sciences: the big issues

"Fully revised and updated, the fourth edition of Social Sciences: The Big Issues explores key debates about how we live our personal, domestic, and emotional lives at a time of enormous, previously-unimaginable change and disruption, including a pandemic that locked down households and economies. Since the third edition, everyone's life has changed. The pandemic - at least temporarily - stopped social life as we knew it and forced governments virtually to close down their economies. This is where this edition of The Big Issues starts. Staying at home posed a radical departure from routine life, but reactions to COVID-19 have exposed the endurance of particular social relations - especially inequalities - which characterize societies worldwide. A few of the new Big Issues covered in this edition include: Changing selves and personal lives in light of racism and sexual and identity politics in a pandemic; Changing patterns of consumption in relation to market production and what it means for climate change; Changing intersections of citizenship, migration, and globalization in the context of the virus crossing borders - and both the opportunities and sources of inequality involved; Changing ideas about power, politics and populism in the aftermath of Brexit Building on the strong foundation of this well-loved text, this fully revised fourth edition explores how big issues and social forces intersect to create both change and evidence of continuity, especially of social inequalities. It provides a clear, accessible introduction to the ideas and approaches of the social sciences across a range of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, and politics"--

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Getting started -- 1.2 Getting started involves asking questions -- 1.3 Changing people: changing lives -- 1.4 Changing places: changing times -- 1.5 Case study: the coronavirus pandemic -- Chapter 2 Identity matters -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 What do we mean by identity? -- 2.3 Changing media, changing messages -- 2.4 Embodied identities -- 2.5 Buying and selling: material identities -- 2.6 Where do you come from? -- 2.7 Conclusion -- Chapter 3 Political action, citizenship and social order -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Should we stay or should we go? -- 3.3 Forces for change -- 3.4 Who is a citizen? What does citizenship involve? -- 3.5 Weighing up the argument -- 3.6 The challenge of other arguments -- 3.7 Taking action -- 3.8 Thinking again about evaluation -- 3.9 Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Markets: buying and selling -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Processes of production and consumption -- 4.3 Consumer society? -- 4.4 Where is power? -- 4.5 Conclusion -- Chapter 5 Mobilities and inequalities: place and race -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Mobilities and diaspora -- 5.3 Place -- 5.4 Place and race -- 5.5 Conclusion -- Chapter 6 A globalized planet: opportunities and inequalities -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Different worlds -- 6.3 Globalization -- 6.4 Cultural globalization: a sporting diversion -- 6.5 Movement of people: migration -- 6.6 Equality, inequality, risk and danger -- 6.7 Different views: weighing up the arguments -- 6.8 Conclusion -- Chapter 7 Conclusion -- 7.1 How far have we come? -- 7.2 Making sense of the issues: ideas that matter -- 7.3 How do the social sciences address the big issues? -- 7.4 The social sciences -- 7.5 Knowledge and the social sciences -- Bibliography.

Introduction -- Identity matters : us and them -- Citizenship and social order -- Buying and selling -- We live in a material world -- Mobilities : place and race -- Globalisation : opportunities and inequalities -- Conclusion