Bibliography of sociology

This bibliography of sociology is a list of works, organized by subdiscipline, on the subject of sociology. Some of the works are selected from general anthologies of sociology; other works are selected because they are notable enough to be mentioned in a general history of sociology or one of its subdisciplines.

Sociology studies society using various methods of empirical investigation to understand human social activity, from the micro level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems and social structure.

Foundations

Cover of the French edition of the Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim.

See also: History of sociology

• (Available online)

Puts forward a thesis that Puritan ethic and ideas had influenced the development of capitalism. However religious devotion usually was accompanied by rejection of mundane affairs including economic pursuit. Why was that not the case with Protestantism? Weber addresses that paradox in that work.

A case study of suicide rates amongst Catholic, Protestant and Jewish populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy. Also a major contribution to structural functionalism.

Demography

Demography is the statistical study of human population. It encompasses the study of the size, structure and distribution of these populations, and spatial and/or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging and death.

• Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798 1st edition) with A Summary View (1830), and Introduction by Professor Antony Flew. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-043206-X.
• Gunnar Myrdal and Alva Myrdal (1934). Crisis in the Population Question

Economy

Economic sociology attempts to explain economic phenomena. It overlaps with economics but concentrates on the roles of social relations and institutions.

• White, Harrison C. 2002. Markets from Networks: Socioeconomic Models of Production. Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Smelser, Neil and Richard Swedberg (eds.). 2005 (2nd ed.). The Handbook of Economic Sociology.

Industry

Industrial sociology is the sociology of technological change, globalization, labor markets, work organization, managerial practices and employment relations.

• Daniel Bell The Coming of Post-Industrial Society
• Harry Braverman Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century
• Michael Burawoy Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism
• Ronald P. Dore British factory, Japanese factory; the origins of national diversity in industrial relations
• John Goldthorpe, David Lockwood, Frank Bechhofer and Jennifer Platt The Affluent Worker: Industrial Attitudes and Behaviour

Environment

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Environmental sociology studies the relationship between society and environment, particularly the social factors that cause environmental problems, the societal impacts of those problems, and efforts to solve the problems.

Argues that a society's willingness to recognize and solve environmental problems depends more upon the way these claims are presented by a limited number of interest groups than upon the severity of the threat they pose.

Demonstrates how our global economy requires increasing levels of economic expansion, which in turn requires increasing withdrawals for the natural environment.

Provides an overview of the field of environmental sociology and its various research emphases.

Gender

Main article: Sociology of gender

• Bem, Sandra Lipsitz. 1994. Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality. Yale University Press.
• Chodorow, Nancy. 1978 [1999]. The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Collins, Patricia Hill. 2006. From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism
• Collins, Patricia Hill. 2005. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism
• Connell, R. W. 1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Connell, R. W. 2002. Gender: Short Introductions. Blackwell.
• Harding, S. (1991) Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women's Lives

Knowledge

See also: Sociology of scientific knowledge

Sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies.

Gave rise to the field known as Science and Technology Studies.

Ethnography of microbiologists working at the Salk Institute. Explains the elevation of observations to the level of fact through a system of credibility. Started the ethnographic laboratory studies movement in the sociology of knowledge.

Politics

Political sociology was traditionally concerned with how social trends, dynamics, and structures of domination affect formal political processes, as well as exploring how various social forces work together to change political policies. Now it is also concerned with the formation of identity through social interaction, the politics of knowledge and other aspects of social relations.

Race and ethnicity

The sociology of race and ethnic relations is the study of social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. It encompasses racism and residential segregation.

• Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy

Religion

The sociology of religion concerns the role of religion in society: practices, historical backgrounds, developments and universal themes. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history.

Theory

Sociological theories are complex theoretical and methodological frameworks used to analyze and explain objects of social study. They facilitate organizing sociological knowledge.

Conflict theory

Conflict theory emphasizes social conflict and related issues such as economic inequality, social inequality, oppression and crime.

• The Communist Manifesto
• A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

Rational choice theory

Rational choice theory models social behavior as the interaction of utility-maximizing individuals.

• Coleman, James S. (1990) Foundations of Social Theory
• Olson, Mancur (1971) The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-53751-3

Social network analysis

Social network analysis is structural approach to sociology that views norms and behaviors as embedded in chains of social relations. Makes use of network theory.

These three books present a good basic introduction to social network analysis. Scott is the most general and most recent. Wasserman and Faust presents thorough methodological coverage. Wellman and Berkowitz is the most readable, theoretical and provides many case studies.

Sociocybernetics

See also: Sociology and Sociocybernetics

Sociocybernetics is the application of systems theory and cybernetics to sociology.

Structural functionalism

Structural functionalism is a broad perspective that interprets society as a structure with interrelated parts.

Urban

Urban sociology is the sociological study of social life and human interaction in metropolitan areas.

• Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life

Foundational text in American sociology, Chicago school, Urban sociology, and Human ecology .

"... became perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning, and simultaneously helped to kill off the modern movement in architecture."

Turned mainstream sociological opinion against the Human Ecology school by foregrounding the influence of institutions and political settings in the growth of cities.

See also

• List of scientific journals in sociology

External links

• Major Sociological Studies And Publications (About.com)
• Top 978 sociological books of the 20th century up to 1997 as voted by the World Congress of the International Sociological Association. The list.