Introducing Sociology has established itself as the major sociology textbook in universities, colleges and schools in Britain, and is widely used in other countries. This edition has been rewritten to take account of the latest research and new theoretical approaches which attempt to grapple with changes in society. An entirely new chapter on development and under-development reflects our need to understand the relationship between the industrialized parts of the world and the rest.

          The authors look closely at key areas of social life common to everyone – the family, education, work, leisure activities – and relate these personal experiences to the growing importance of organizations in our lives and the changing nature of community and of life in cities. They go on to analyse how some societies persist, despite social divisions, and others break down.

          There are new sections on ethnicity, nationality and gender, and the discussion of social class has been extended to take account of differences between agrarian and industrial, communist and capitalist countries. Finally, the main contemporary models of sociological theory – functionalism, symbolic inter-actionism, Marxism and ethnomethodology – are lucidly explained.