The Blackwell Companion to Sociology

``Judith Blau's Companion is an impressive collection by a sociologist/editor who clearly knows her field and has done her homework. The volume is comprehensive enough to serve as a lifetime sociological companion,and will be useful not only to researchers,teachers,and students,but to sociologically curious general

readers.''

Herbert J. Gans,Columbia University

``Judith Blau has assembled an impressive group of international scholars who

have written essays on the cutting edge of sociology today. Not only are the

chapters first rate,but the range of topics is creative and new. The book reflects some of the changes in sociology over the last decade,and it presents new

agendas for sociology in the next decade,and beyond. This exciting book is àmust read' for all sociologists.''

Jonathan H. Turner, University of California-Riverside

BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO SOCIOLOGY

The Blackwell Companions to Sociology provide introductions to emerging

topics and theoretical orientations in sociology as well as presenting the scope and quality of the discipline as it is currently configured. Essays in the Companions tackle broad themes or central puzzles within the field and are authored by key scholars who have spent considerable time in research and reflection on the

questions and controversies that have activated interest in their area. This

authoritative series will interest those studying sociology at advanced under-

graduate or graduate level as well as scholars in the social sciences and informed readers in applied disciplines.

The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory,Second Edition

Edited by Bryan S. Turner

The Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists

Edited by George Ritzer

The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology

Edited by Kate Nash and Alan Scott

The Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology

Edited by William C. Cockerham

The Blackwell Companion to Sociology

Edited by Judith R. Blau

The Blackwell Companion to Major Classical Social Theorists

Edited by George Ritzer

The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists

Edited by George Ritzer

The Blackwell Companion to Criminology

Edited by Colin Sumner

The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Families

Edited by Jacqueline Scott,Judith Treas,and Martin Richards

The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements

Edited by David A. Snow,Sarah A. Soule,and Hanspeter Kriesi

The Blackwell Companion to Law and Society

Edited by Austin Sarat

Forthcoming

The Blackwell Companion to Social Inequalities

Edited by Mary Romero and Eric Margolis

The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture

Edited by Mark Jacobs and Nancy Hanrahan

The Blackwell Companion to

Sociology

Edited by

Judith R. Blau

© 2001, 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

except for editorial material and organization © 2001, 2004 by Judith R. Blau

BLACKWELL PUBLISHING

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First published 2001

First published in paperback 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Reprinted 2004

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The Blackwell companion to sociology / edited by Judith R. Blau.

p. cm.—(Blackwell companions to sociology)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0‒631‒21318‒X (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 1‒4051‒2267‒6 (pbk : alk. paper)

1. Sociology. I. Series.

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For

Amartya Sen,

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Contents

Preface

x

List of Contributors

xvii

Part I Referencing Globalization

1

1 The Sociology of Space and Place

3

John Urry

Contents

2 Media and Communications

16

John Durham Peters

3 Modernity: One or Many?

30

Peter Wagner

4 Emerging Trends in Environmental Sociology

43

Frederick H. Buttel and August Gijswijt

5 Bringing in Codependence

58

Judith R. Blau

Part II Relationships and Meaning

71

6 Civil Society: a Signifier of Plurality and Sense of Wholeness

73

Barbara A. Misztal

7 Human Rights

86

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naìm

viii

Contents

8 Sociology of Religion

100

Christian Smith and Robert D. Woodberry

9 Intimate Relationships

114

Raine Dozier and Pepper Schwartz

10 Immigrant Families and Their Children: Adaptation and Identity

Formation

128

Carola SuaÂrez-Orozco

Part III Economic Inequalities

141

11 On Inequality

143

Siddiqur Rahman Osmani

12 The Persistence of Poverty in a Changing World

161

Melvin L. Oliver and David M. Grant

13 Racial Economic Inequality in the USA

178

William A. Darity, Jr and Samuel L. Myers, Jr

14 Rediscovering Rural America

196

Bonnie Thornton Dill

Part IV Science, Knowledge, and Ideas

211

15 The Sociology of Science and the Revolution in Molecular Biology

213

Troy Duster

16 Structures of Knowledge

227

Richard E. Lee and Immanuel Wallerstein

17 The New Sociology of Ideas

236

Charles Camic and Neil Gross

Part V Politics and Political Movements

251

18 Political Sociology

253

Mike Savage

19 Why Social Movements Come into Being and Why People Join

Them

268

Bert Klandermans

20 Social Movement Politics and Organization

282

Debra C. Minkoff

Contents

ix

Part VI Structures: Stratification, Networks, and Firms

295

21 Occupations, Stratification, and Mobility

297

Donald J. Treiman

22 Social Networks

314

Bonnie Erickson

23 Networks and Organizations

327

David Knoke

Part VII Individuals and Their Well-Being

343

24 Social Inequality, Stress, and Health

345

Joseph E. Schwartz

25 Two Research Traditions in the Sociology of Education

361

Maureen T. Hallinan

26 Aging and Aging Policy in the USA

375

Madonna Harrington Meyer and Pamela Herd

27 Immigration and Ethnicity: the United States at the

Dawn of the Twenty-first Century

389

RubeÂn G. Rumbaut

28 Social Psychology

407

Lynn Smith-Lovin

Part VIII Social Action

421

29 Immigrant Women and Paid Domestic Work: Research, Theory,

and Activism

423

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo

30 The Subject and Societal Movements

437

Alain Touraine

31 The Myth of the Labor Movement

450

Rick Fantasia

Appendix: Data Resources on the World Wide Web

464

Compiled by Kathryn Harker

Bibliography

524

Index

588

Preface

Sociology, like other fields, is undergoing rapid transformation owing to

enhanced global interdependencies and changes in the underpinnings of social

and economic life. The intensification of the global economy, the rapid develop-

ment of new communications technology, and the declining robustness of mod-

ernity's structures and institutions pose new puzzles for inquiry. As Agnes Heller describes modern social arrangements, ``nothing here fits perfectly with anything else. There are relatively separate spheres, many major discrepancies, several

discourses, panels, fragments, and niches.'' Building on this premise, I want to suggest that modern social arrangements exhibit few solidities, as well as little specificity about accountability, organization, structure, and norms. Yet, paradoxically, there is more basis for solidarities as emergent global formations

reveal important communalities.

Preface

Although sociology maintains a distinctive focus on groups, populations, and

societies, the field is increasingly receptive to theories, concepts, and methodologies from other academic and applied fields. In addition to this growing

acceptance of other approaches, sociology reveals several other trends. First,

many of the classic analytical distinctions ± such as macro versus micro and

interpretive versus explanatory ± no longer have the vigor they formerly did. An indication of this is that neither the macro±micro divide nor the interpretive±

explanatory contrast applies to such current concepts as embeddedness, social

construction, social capital, engagement, and contextualism. Second, although

the quantitative±qualitative division does distinguish between current methodo-

logical approaches, it is often ignored because of an interest in advancing

descriptive understanding and in achieving more synthetic accounts.

A third significant change is the more rapid pace of restructuring of subspe-

cialties in sociology. An indication of this, at least in the USA, is that more than one-third (14 out of 39) of the sections in the American Sociological Association Preface

xi

were founded in the 1990s, while the other two-thirds were formed at a rela-

tively slow pace beginning in the early 1960s. Fourth, most significantly, soci-

ology is increasingly international, which will have far-reaching consequences

for knowledge and understanding in ways that cannot now be predicted. Cur-

rently, this internationalist focus is reflected in an interest in essentialist and universalistic categories, namely those of race, ethnicity, gender, and class. These are central in understanding how people construct their own and others' identities; they also underlie and shape persisting inequalities.

In selecting topics for this volume, I wanted to include areas that are well

defined and highly robust, in which research and inquiry will long continue, as

well as newly emerging specialties now taking shape, often around interdiscip-

linary concerns. In general, the chapters collectively achieve three major objectives. First, as globalization processes accelerate, as they no doubt will,

knowledge about and understanding of aspects of globalization are especially

important. A second objective was to provide readers with a perspective on

established fields in which researchers are asking new and exciting questions.

Areas in sociology that have such a rich and complex framework include

political sociology, sociology of education and of health, and the study of

inequality and poverty.

A third objective was to include various diagnostic approaches that provoke

critique. What are the most pressing problems of human rights, and what are the

conceptions and debates dealing with social and economic justice? There are

clear indications that sociologists have veered from a value-free science ± which was a myth at best ± and are interested in questions of justice and rights. We