Sociology - A Down to Earth Approach Australian Edition Book

Sociology: a Down to Earth Approach: Australian Edition: Paperback with MySocLab.

TO THE STUDENT

To the Student from the Authors

WELCOME TO SOCIOLOGY! As academics and authors we have all been introduced to sociology at different periods in our lives. We all love it for many reasons, so much so that we have become sociologists. We feel quite privileged to have a profession that comes from our passion. Although you are not required to become sociologists, we hope that you not only enjoy this discipline but gain from the experience of 'seeing' sociologically. This book is aimed at anyone in their first year of study at university who is taking sociology as part of var. ious courses such as Social Sciences, Arts, Social Work or Education. You may not necessarily major in sociology, but we hope that you will see that this discipline is a fascinating look into human behaviour. Many of us find that it holds the key to understanding social life, even our

own lives

If you like to watch people and try to figure out why they do what they do, you will like sociology. Sociology pries open the doors of society so you can see what goes on behind them.

Sociology: A Down-to Earth Approach stresses how profoundly our society and the groups to which we belong influence us. Social class, for example, sets us on a particular path in life. For some, the path leads to more education, more interesting jobs, higher income, and better health, but for others it leads to dropping out of school, dead-end jobs, poverty, and even a higher risk of illness and disease. These paths are so significant that they affect our chances of making it to our first birthday, or getting in trouble with the police. They even influence our satisfaction in marriage, the number of children we will have, and whether or not we will read this book in the first place.

Although we, as authors, have our own unique history with sociology, we agree that when each of us took our first subjects in sociology in Australia, Belgium and the United States, we were hooked'. Seeing how marvelously our lives have been affected by these larger social influences has opened our eyes to a new world, one that has been fascinating to explore and study; it is our hope that you will have this experience in Australia, too.

From how people become homeless to how they become Prime Ministers, from why people go to a beach to start a racist riot to why women are discriminated against in every society around the world - al are part of sociology. This breadth, in fact, is what makes sociology so intriguing. We can place the sociological lens on broad features of society, such as social class, gender, religion, and race-ethnicity, and then immediately turn our focus on the small-scale level. If we look at two people interacting - whether quarrelling or kissing - we see how these broad features of society are being played out in their lives.

We aren't born with instincts. Nor do we come into this world with preconceived notions of what life should be like. At birth we have no concepts of race-ethnicity, gender, age, or social class.

We have no idea, for example, that people ought to act in certain ways because they are male or female. Yet we all learn such things as we grow up in our society. Uncovering the 'hows' and the

'whys' of this process is also part of what makes sociology so fascinating.

One of sociology's many pleasures is that as we study life in groups (which can be taken as a definition of sociology), whether those groups are in some far-off part of the world or in some nearby corner of our own society, we gain new insights into who we are and how we sees at.

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