Essential Concepts in Sociology. Anthony Giddens

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Essential Concepts in Sociology

      Third Edition

      ANTHONY GIDDENS & PHILIP W. SUTTON

      polity

      Copyright © Anthony Giddens & Philip W. Sutton 2021

      The right of Anthony Giddens & Philip W. Sutton to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      First edition published in 2014 by Polity Press

      This third edition first published in 2021 by Polity Press

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      All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

      ISBN-13: 13: 978-1-5095-4809-5

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Giddens, Anthony, author. | Sutton, Philip W., author.

      Title: Essential concepts in sociology / Anthony Giddens & Philip W. Sutton.

      Description: Third Edition. | Medford : Polity Press, 2021. | Revised edition of the author’s Essential concepts in sociology, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Succinct guide to the core ideas that shape our understanding of the social world”-- Provided by publisher.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2021000856 (print) | LCCN 2021000857 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509548088 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509548095 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509548101 (epub)

      Subjects: LCSH: Sociology.

      Classification: LCC HM585 .G51973 2021(print) | LCC HM585(ebook) | DDC 301--dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000856 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000857

      The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

      Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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Introduction

      Sociology has its origin in the nineteenth century, but it is a discipline that must move and change with the times or risk becoming irrelevant. This is because our object of study, the social life we all live and make together, is itself in a continuous process of change. Conflicts and wars, new patterns of migration, multiculturalism, increasingly fluid gender relations, a digital revolution in communications, financial crises, global health pandemics and terrorism are just some of the phenomena that sociologists investigate and seek to understand. Given this diverse range of subjects, it is not surprising that sociology is theoretically diverse and uses a broad array of research methods to help us make sense of the human world. This is the inevitable outcome of attempts to understand and explain our globalizing world, but it also follows that our familiar and comfortable concepts always need to be reassessed and new ones created where necessary. This book includes what we think is a productive mixture of both long-established and more recent concepts.