Inside Toyland : Working, Shopping, and Social Inequality by Christine L. Williams (January 1, 2006)
From Publishers Weekly
Williams, the editor of the journal Gender & Society and author of Still a Man's World, takes the Nickle and Dimed approach to toy retailing by working as a cashier in a high-end and a big box toy store for six weeks each, turning the scrutinizing eye of a sociologist onto the sandbox. Other than the fact- and statistic-filled chapter on the history of shopping in America, Williams's presentation is a mix of anecdotes and the sort of observations only a sociologist could make: a male co-worker acting flamboyant while selling Barbies is making "his temporary assignment seem more palatable and less inconsistent with his masculinity"; male Asian-American clerks prefer to work in the electronics section, because "Asian masculinity is often defined through technical expertise." However, because her field work provided her with such a small sampling of material, it's a tough sell that the conditions she observed in two stores can prognosticate industry- or culture-wide conditions, but her sympathy for the low-wage retail clerk's plight, rendered in oddly touching clinical prose, is reason enough to pick this up.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Williams, a sociology professor at the University of Texas who specializes in gender and sexuality studies, spent part of her sabbatical working as a clerk at two toy stores. Her goal was to discover if and how toy shopping is implicated in reproducing gender, race, and class inequalities. She delves into the "McJobs" phenomenon, whereby those holding retail jobs have experienced loss of job security and benefits, their unions have lost power, and the value of the minimum wage has decreased. In both stores where she worked, the hierarchy of jobs was obviously affected by race and gender. In addition, white employees were treated with more respect by customers than minorities, and white customers were more often seen by management as potential spenders, minorities as potential shoplifters. Williams' scholarly essay concludes with a call for legislation mandating living wages, health care, and equal opportunity for workers, brought about by "citizen consumers" who would decide where to shop based on employee working conditions--what she calls "consumer-worker alliances," in which each of us could take part. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association.

The Shape of Social Inequality : Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative Perspective (Research in Social Stratification and Mobility) (Hardcover) (August 29, 2005)
David Bills
This volume brings together former students, colleagues, and others influenced by the sociological scholarship of Archibald O. Haller to celebrate Haller's many contributions to theory and research on social stratification and mobility. All of the chapters respond to Haller's programmatic agenda for stratification research: "A full program aimed at understanding stratification requires: first, that we know what stratification structures consist of and how they may vary; second, that we identify the individual and collective consequences of the different states and rates of change of such structures; and third, seeing that some degree of stratification seems to be present everywhere, that we identify the factors that make stratification structures change." The contributors to this Festschrift address such topics as the changing nature of stratification regimes, the enduring significance of class analysis, the stratifying dimensions of race, ethnicity, and gender, and the interplay between educational systems and labor market outcomes. Many of the chapters adopt an explicitly cross-societal comparative perspective on processes and consequences of social stratification. The volume offers both conceptually and empirically important new analyses of the shape of social stratification.

Social Problems : Community, Policy and Social Action (February 1, 2005)
Anna Leon-Guerrero
"The book promises to be a very stimulating and empowering book for students on social problems...The strengths of this book are that students are not left with a menu of problems and all the depression and frustration that can carry. Just what we need to stimulate students into thought and action as opposed to memorization and regurgitation at test time."
-Dr. Julia Glover Hall, Drexel University
"I really like the community based approach. It offers students examples they can actually get their minds around better than some of the more large scale or abstract discussions; and shows them practical applications that many are likely to see in their own careers… I think it offers a fresh perspective…, includes direct references to data resources not offered by other texts."
-Heather Feldhaus-Smith, Bloomsburg University
Terrorism. Poverty. Unemployment. AIDS. Crime. Drug abuse. Do any or all of these social problems exist in your community? What exactly is a social problem, and what policies and activities have been implemented to try and resolve them?
Anna Leon-Guerrero has written an accessible and insightful text which encourages students to play an active part in their own communities. By encouraging critical thinking and Internet research, students will come to recognize that social problems don't just exist "somewhere else," but that they exist on their own campuses and in their own neighborhoods and communities.
Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action offers a sociological perspective on the social problems discussed. It also provides an awareness that our personal experiences with problems that may arise in families, the workplace, health and medicine, the media, cities and suburbs, or with drug abuse, poverty, crime, the environment, and war and terrorism are caused by structural or social forces. Unlike other texts, the book offers a balanced view through examining both the problems and attempts to resolve these pervasive social issues.
Key Features:
Chapters address consequences and responses to social problems with a particular focus on social policy, advocacy, and community innovation
"Voices in the Community" sections provide testimony from individuals that express personal experiences of social problems both as victims and help-givers
Themes of race, class, and gender are integrated throughout the book to provide a multicultural perspective on social problems
"Putting It Together" exercises within chapters encourage students to do further analysis in their own communities, on their own campuses, or on the Web
Discussions on social policies and solutions offered by federal and state law makers, community based agencies, and advocacy groups are included
"Taking a World View" boxes in chapters provide a comparative perspective on related social problems in other countries
Timely and relevant data is thoroughly interspersed in tables and maps throughout the book
Visual essays have been developed for each chapter to highlight a particular social problem or solution. In some essays, real families and individuals facing the problems under study in the chapter are introduced.
Companion student study site: http://www.pineforge.com/leonguerrero offers unique learning tools such as electronic flash cards, interactive quizzes, Web site resources, a community policy guide and projects, along with service learning activities to encourage student awareness of effective community responses to social problems.
Social Problems is a timely text that ties into recent discussions within the discipline on the commitment to "public sociology." This book takes students out of the classroom, away from their texts, and into their communities. It will serve as a vital and invaluable text for students in social problems courses in sociology or social work.

Occupational Ghettos: The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men (Studies in Social Inequality) (August 1, 2004)
Maria Charles, David B. Grusky
The last half-century has witnessed dramatic declines in gender inequality, evidenced by the rise of egalitarian views on gender roles and the narrowing of long-standing gender gaps in university attendance and labor force participation. This development, while spectacular, has been coupled with similarly impressive forms of resistance to equalization, most notably the continuing tendency for women to crowd into female "occupational ghettos." This book answers the important questions: Why has such extreme segregation persisted even as other types of gender inequality have lessened? Why is segregation especially extreme in precisely those countries that appear most committed to egalitarian reform and family-friendly policies?
Maria Charles is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. David B. Grusky is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University.

Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes (Paperback) (June 18, 2004) Martin Marger
This text provides an introduction to key concepts, current research findings, and theories in social inequality. While focusing on social class and theories, it also deals broadly with other forms of social inequality, including racial/ethnic, gender, and political. In dealing with the various dimensions of inequality, the book explains how they overlap and interrelate.

Social Inequality and Social Injustice : A Human Rights Perspective (March 4, 2004) Evelyn Kallen
This book uses a human rights framework to analyze how group-level social inequalities and injustices are socially constructed and maintained through violations of human rights on grounds of race, gender, sexuality, etc., and how human rights legislation can help such violations to effectively be redressed. Although it focuses primarily on democratic nations, it uses international case material to highlight key global issues.

Social Inequalities in Comparative Perspective (Hardcover) (March 1, 2004) Fiona Devine (Editor), Mary C. Waters (Editor)
This unique collection of original essays brings a comparative perspective to issues of social inequality. First-rate sociologists from around the world have contributed to this exciting and rigorous volume, drawing upon their own research in the fields of race and ethnicity, class and inequality, and gender and sexuality.
Qualitative research on social inequalities is enjoying increasing prominence in the sub-discipline of social stratification because it addresses issues of culture, identity, experience, meaning and process. This collection is at the cutting edge of the study of social inequalities and identifies new directions of thinking about and doing research on race, class and gender in a stimulating and innovative way.
Examples of race, class or gender inequalities are considered from the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Portugal, Finland, and Japan. Each essay reflects on methodological issues and the strengths of qualitative research, and examines how new areas of research contribute to new ways of thinking. As a whole, these essays encourage students to see the study of social inequalities as central to a sociological understanding of contemporary societies in the twenty-first century.

Worlds Apart: Social Inequalities In A Global Economy (Paperback) (June 30, 2005) Scott Sernau
This book focuses primarily on social inequalities in the American context. However, a trend in this course is how the global inequalities are effecting, and affected by social stratification and inequality in America. The second edition of Sernau's "Worlds Apart" reflects that trend.
Provides a sociological framework for analyzing inequality within U.S. society as well as analyzing the relationship between global stratification systems and internal systems of inequality.
Places each issue and dimension of inequality in the context of a changing global economy.
Engages undergraduates in the subject matter with lively writing and fascinating cases, but also interprets these lived experiences by introducing classical and contemporary theories of stratification.
The intersection of race, class, and gender is not just stated but illustrated throughout the book as a pervasive institutionalized system of privilege and oppression.
Key data are presented in clear, graphical formats and measures are explained early in the text. Numeric data are tied to examples illustrating their importance and many sources are current, from the year 2000.
This book is intended as the primary text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in Social Stratification and Inequality courses, primarily taught in Sociology departments.
Three new Visual Essays which provide powerful illustrations of inequality in Global (Honduras), Rural (Navaholand), and Urban (Deindustrialized) Contexts.
Two new chapters: Chapter 3: The Gordian Knot, of Race, Class, and Gender and Chapter 12: Challenging the System: Social Movements.
Updated figures include information from the 2004 election.
This edition’s theme has been how the current regime of market-driven solutions actually contribute to rather than reduce social inequality.
This edition continues to highlight inequality in America, with the addition of how Social Inequalities in America are effected by global inequalities.
Scott Sernau is Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, South Bend where he regularly teaches Social Inequality, International Inequalities, Sociology of the Family, Race and Ethnic Relations, Social Problems, Mexican Culture and Society, and Urban Society.

Injury : The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the United States (Paperback) (March 6, 2006)
by Sarah S. Lochlann Jain
A landmark work in the cultural study of American law and social inequality -- creatively conceived, richly researched, and provocatively written - Elizabeth Povinelli, Columbia University.
Personal injury lawsuits and the complex body of legal doctrines that shape them are rarely discussed outside of courts and law schools, except in the narrow polemical framework of campaigns to limit 'frivolous lawsuits.' This is unfortunate, because as Sarah Jain documents in this haunting and accessible study, injury law is not only a back door to regulating the economy, it is also a kind of cultural unconscious; a place guarded by legal fictions, where American society goes to imagine the nature of injury, draw the boundaries of the self, and assign the burdens of our risky ambitions - Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley.
This is anthropology at its best, intervening in social problems that are hotly debated at various levels in society. It shows how the dynamics of injury law unfold at much deeper discursive and structural levels than cultural critics normally allow - Michael M. J. Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Injury offers the first sustained anthropological analysis and critique of American injury law. The book approaches injury law as a symptom of a larger American injury culture, rather than as a tool of social justice or as a form of regulation. In doing so, it offers a new understanding of the problematic role that law plays in constructing Americans' relations with the objects they consume.
Through lively historical analyses of consumer products and workplace objects ranging from cigarettes to cheeseburgers and computer keyboards to airbags, Jain lucidly illustrates the real limits of the product safety laws that seek to redress consumer and worker injury. The book draws from a wide range of materials to demonstrate that American law sets out injury as an exceptional state, one that can be redressed through imperfect systems of monetary compensation. Injury demonstrates how laws are unable to accommodate the ways in which physical differences among citizens are imposed by the physical objects of culture that distribute risk differently among populations. The book moves between detailed accounts of individual legal cases; historical analyses of advertising, product design, regulation, and legal history; and a wide reading of cultural theory.
Drawing on an extensive knowledge of law and social theory, this innovative book will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in design, consumption, and the politics of injury.

A Sociology of Work in Japan (Contemporary Japanese Society) Cambridge University Press (May 11, 2005) Language: English
by Ross Mouer, Hirosuke Kawanishi, Yoshio Sugimoto (Series Editor), Harumi Befu (Series Editor), Roger Goodman (Series Editor), Michio Muramatsu (Series Editor), Wolfgang Seifert (Series Editor), Chizuko Ueno (Series Editor)
This comprehensive, introductory overview of the "world of work" in Japan recalls post-war Japan to analyze the development of industrial relations and the Japanese style of management. It considers the changes that took place in the early nineties when disillusionment set in and unemployment and economic insecurity became facts of life. The authors challenge the preeminence of Japanese management practices which have dominated the literature over the last three decades.
What shapes the decisions of employees in Japan? The authors of this comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the relationship between work and society in Japan argue that individual decisions about work can only be understood through the broader social context. Many factors combine to affect such choices including the structuring of labour markets, social policy and, of course, global influences which have come increasingly to impinge on the organisation of work and life generally. By considering labour markets, social policy and relationships between labour and management, the book offers penetrating insights into contemporary Japanese society and glimpses of what might come in the future. Underlying the discussion is a challenge to the celebration of Japanese management practices which has dominated the literature for the last three decades. This is an important and groundbreaking book for students of sociology and economics.

Home Ownership and Social Inequality: In Comparative Perspective (Studies in Social Inequality) (August 15, 2004)
by Karin Kurz (Editor), Hans-Peter Blossfeld (Editor)
Although a strong indicator of social status, home ownership has rarely emerged as a topic in social inequality research. This book compares twelve countries—the United States, Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Israel—to determine the interdependence of social inequality and homeownership attainment over the life course. Examining countries that are similar with respect to socioeconomic development, but different in regard to their housing policies, the authors show that housing policies matter and are largely consistent with a country’s general approach in the provision of welfare.
This book presents a valuable contribution to the social stratification literature, which traditionally has neglected the dimension of home ownership. It goes beyond most housing studies by adopting a life-course framework and longitudinal approach. The empirical findings provide evidence that in all countries under study—even those of the social democratic welfare regime type—labor market position matters in one’s chances to become a homeowner.
Karin Kurz is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Hans-Peter Blossfeld is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the Otto-Friedrich University, Bamberg.

Social Inequality (July 1, 2004)
Kathryn M. Neckerman (Editor)
Inequality in income, earnings, and wealth has risen dramatically in the United States over the past three decades. Most research into this issue has focused on the causes—global trade, new technology, and economic policy—rather than the consequences of inequality. In "Social Inequality," a group of the nation’s leading social scientists opens a wide-ranging inquiry into the social implications of rising economic inequality. Beginning with a critical evaluation of the existing research, they assess whether the recent run-up in economic inequality has been accompanied by rising inequality in social domains such as the quality of family and neighborhood life, equal access to education and health care, job satisfaction, and political participation.
Marcia Meyers and colleagues find that many low-income mothers cannot afford market-based child care, which contributes to inequality both at the present time—by reducing maternal employment and family income—and through the long-term consequences of informal or low-quality care on children’s educational achievement. At the other end of the educational spectrum, Thomas Kane links the growing inequality in college attendance to rising tuition and cuts in financial aid. Neil Fligstein and Taek-Jin Shin show how both job security and job satisfaction have decreased for low-wage workers compared with their higher-paid counterparts. Those who fall behind economically may also suffer diminished access to essential social resources like health care. John Mullahy, Stephanie Robert, and Barbara Wolfe discuss why higher inequality may lead to poorer health: wider inequality might mean increased stress-related ailments for the poor, and it might also be associated with public health care policies that favor the privileged. On the political front, Richard Freeman concludes that political participation has become more stratified as incomes have become more unequal. Workers at the bottom of the income scale may simply be too hard-pressed or too demoralized to care about political participation. "Social Inequality" concludes with a comprehensive section on the methodological problems involved in disentangling the effects of inequality from other economic factors, which will be of great benefit to future investigators.
While today’s widening inequality may be a temporary episode, the danger is that the current economic divisions may set in motion a self-perpetuating cycle of social disadvantage. The most comprehensive review of this quandary to date, "Social Inequality" maps out a new agenda for research on inequality in America with important implications for public policy.

Great Divides : Readings in Social Inequality in the United States (May 13, 2004) Thomas Shapiro
Drawing from classic and contemporary scholarship, the 47 readings in this anthology illustrate basic theories, concepts, and findings associated with social inequality in the United States. Many selections feature cutting-edge sociological research, providing students with new concepts and theories that inspire thought-provoking class discussion.

Respect in a World of Inequality (January, 2004) Richard Sennett
The author, a noted sociologist, grew up in Cabrini Green, a Chicago housing project. In this mixture of memoir and analysis, which began as a rather more limited study of the welfare system, Sennett explores the notion of respect--specifically, mutual respect. He begins by identifying several elements of respect (status, prestige, recognition) and moves smoothly into a discussion of three fundamental factors that weaken mutual respect: unequal talent (Do we give too much weight to someone's ability to do something special?), dependence on others (we somehow construe dependency as shameful), and hurtful compassion (some forms seem morally self-serving). His analysis leads him to propose a new kind of society, one that accepts that people are unequal, that some of us are more talented, or more compassionate, or more dependent on others--a society that, through mutual respect, encourages everyone to become the best person he or she can be. Not a manifesto, not a diatribe, and--thankfully--not a mind-numbing self-help book, this is a carefully reasoned, insightful look at a subject that is too little understood. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association.

Understanding Social Inequality: Intersections of Class, Age, Gender, Ethnicity, and Race in Canada (March 1, 2004) Julie McMullin