Contemporary Social Problems (Fourth Edition)

Author: (American) Pariro et al. (Auth.), translated by Zhou Bing et al.
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Features: Contemporary Social Problems takes the United States as an example, employing sociological methods—functionalism, conflict theory, interactionism, feminism, and postmodernism—to conduct a comprehensive and systematic analysis of contemporary social problems, their interrelationships, and the reasons behind their existence. The book is divided into five parts. The first part focuses on introducing different sociological theories and perspectives related to social problems, while the remaining parts discuss the widespread issues in contemporary society in terms of individual well-being, social equality, social mechanisms, and social quality. It covers an exceptionally broad range of topics, including alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual behavior, crime, violence, healthcare, flaws in the education system, the environment, homelessness, population growth, poverty, racial discrimination, single-parent families, urban infrastructure and violence, large-scale mergers, and layoffs, among others. Each chapter discusses a specific issue, first providing background information and relevant statistics, then introducing the research and perspectives of different sociological theories on the issue, thereby encouraging students to think sociologically about contemporary social problems. Although the book uses the United States as a case study, the social problems discussed are in countries worldwide. The style is concise, coherent, vivid, and easy to read, always maintaining the reader's interest.