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Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 10:36:50 -0400
To: MedSoc@csf.colorado.edu
From: Tim Gallagher <tgallagh@kent.edu>
Subject: Re: Editorial Board Opportunity
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Hello Ed:

The following is what I promised to get to you today.  I would greatly
appreciate your response to the following by this Friday (5/29) if
possible.  I need to know ASAP what members of the editorial board think
about the overall plan for the reader and make any adjustments to that that
within the next week.  Thanks in advance.

Tim

Timothy J. Gallagher, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
U.S.A.
Email: tgallagh@kent.edu
Ph: 330 672-2709
FAX: 330 672-4724
http://www.kent.edu/sociology/tgallagher/

________________________________________________________________
Editorial Board Members:

Thanks again for giving consideration to being a part of the editorial
board for this reader for introduction to sociology.  The following should
give you an idea of what I would like to accomplish.  But as I said in my
last message to you I am open for changes large and small.  I would greatly
appreciate your critical eye and insight, suggestions, etc.

Below are three things that I would like you to respond to.  The first is
the Academic Editor Introduction to the Reader.  The series of readers that
the publishing company coursewise is producing begin with a 1 page
introduction by the Academic Editor.  I am serving that function for the
reader for Intro Soc.  The introduction serves as a kind of "mission
statement" and is aimed primarily at the student.  You will notice that
this reader departs from the standard reader in a fundamental way: it will
rely mostly if not exclusively on articles written for newspapers and
magazines.  

The second item is a table of contents and is designed to parallel the
typical intro soc textbook.  It is certainly not complete.  It would be
helpful for you to indicate additions, deletion, etc and areas that you
feel you could be the most helpful in either critiquing articles that I
select or offering articles for the section.  Our editorial board has
representation from the United States, Canada, England and Australia.  I
would like our articles to reflect that international representation and more.

The third thing is an example of an article that can be used in this reader
under the section Economy and Work. My assessment of the article regarding
Theme 1 is that it largely focuses on the institutional level as the source
of explanation but does not  clearly or forcefully state the connection
between the business practices of IBP and the lax federal oversite of the
meat industry with increased crime and poverty and to me has some racist
overtones to it.  So with regards to Theme 2 I would place the article left
of center and then offer a website at the Workers World Party that is
clearly to the left US News article on issues of immigration, work, etc. 

___________________________________________________________

Academic Editor Introduction

You are reading this most likely because your instructor selected this
Reader to supplement your Textbook in introductory sociology.  In serving
as an introduction to the field of sociology, your Textbook provides
overviews of major sociological theories and their founders, methods of
research design and execution, basic concepts and principles such as
socialization and deviance, issues in the inequalities in the distribution
of wealth and power, social institutions such as religion, and collective
social behavior.  This Reader is designed to make readily available to you
current events and issues for your sociological evaluation.  What better
way to enhance the relevance of basic sociology?

The task of sociology is to develop an image of society in which social
institutions and the individuals that make those institutions possible are
interwoven but not necessarily of equal influence.  One of the features of
the modern consumer society is its obsession with individualism – a "cult
of individuality."  This obsession with seeing the individual as the
ultimate cause or consequence of social phenomena comes with a hefty price:
a diminishment of the importance of community and institutions in the life
chances of individuals and groups.  Theme 1 of this Reader is to exercise
your sociological imagination by examining readings in terms of their
emphasis on either the individual or institutional focus of explanation.
We call this the individual-institution continuum theme. 

Often, the way we come to know society is not through direct participation
but through others' accounts of  their participation and observation which
often has the following ingredients: the presentation and interpretation of
information.  The source of the greatest amount of this kind of social
knowledge regarding current events and issues are newspapers and magazines.
  Theme 2 of this reader is to challenge each article's content with regard
to the verifiability of the facts presented and the biases directing the
authors' interpretation of those facts.  We call this the critical thinking
theme. 

To increase the power of your sociological evaluation, this Reader provides
internet web addresses, or URLs, for each article that you can use to
address both Themes 1 and 2 described above.  The URLs will generally be of
two types: (1) an information source that allows for confirmation or
disconfirmation of the facts presented in the article; and (2) a source of
interpretation of the facts that is different from the author's.   
 
This Reader for introductory sociology presents 40 articles originally
published in newspaper and magazines.  These articles have been chosen
specifically to meet three criteria: 1) well-written pieces relevant to the
lives and concerns of students today; 2) clear demonstration of some point
of focus along the individual-institution continuum; and 3) the
availability of internet resources that allows you, the student, to
increase the power of your sociological evaluation.

_____________________________________________________________									
												
Table Of Contents

1.	Culture and Society
	a.
	b
	c.
2.	Socialization, Deviance and Crime
	a.
 	b.
	c.	
	d 
3.	Social Inequalities
	1.	Class, race, and gender
	2.	Age
	3.	Global
4.	Social Institutions I
	1.	Marriage and the Family
	2.	Education
	3.	Religion
5.	Social Institutions II
	1.	The Economy and Work***
	2.	The Political Order
	3.	Health, Illness and Health Care
6.	Social Change
	1.	Mass Media and Electronic Communication Technology
	2.	Population and Urbanization
	3.	The Environment
	4.	Social Movements

_______________________________________________________________
	
		
Economy and Work:

US News Article: "The New Jungle" is about the impact of the business
practices of IBP (International Beef Producers) on the lives of the
undocumented workers from Mexico and the citizens of the Iowa town of Storm
Lake.  You can view this article at the following:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/23immi.htm.  

An article that is politically to the left of the US News article can be
found at the following Workers World Party website
http://www.workers.org/immigrants/immig.html.