1st Edition
Introduction to Global Social Problems Understanding Inequalities of Power and Social Justice
Introduction to Global Social Problems introduces undergraduate students to national and international social problems from a critical sociological perspective. Isaac Zvi Christiansen presents clear descriptions of each social problem, explains key concepts, and provides students with the relevant theoretical tools needed to grasp the interconnected nature of these phenomena.
This volume covers significant and interconnected issues. The book begins with an explanation of how corporate interests distort the depiction of social problems. Chapters two and three provide empirical explorations of poverty and inequality on national and global scales, together with clear and accessible expositions of relevant sociological theories. Chapter four examines health and educational inequalities exacerbated by the economic inequalities discussed in chapters two and three. Chapter five introduces students to issues of racial inequalities in the United States and abroad, while chapter six takes a comparative approach to examining crime and criminal justice. Chapter seven examines modern day imperialism and war, with special attention given to the military industrial complex, and a brief review of U.S. interventions around the world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Chapter eight examines politics and human rights, including a critical, historical and sociological analysis of Israeli settler-colonialism and successive US/Israeli assaults on Gaza. The book closes with an examination of population and the environment, with special attention given to climate change, and the pressing contradictions between capitalism and the environment.
This textbook will be a vital resource for introductory students across the social sciences, especially in sociology, political science, and global studies. It provides critical wraparound coverage of the momentous, embedded social problems that interconnect across social, national, and regional boundaries.
I. A Sociological Introduction to the Study of Global Social Problems: Power, Interests and Ideology
II. Capitalism, Poverty, and Inequality
III. Global Inequality
IV. Health and Educational Inequalities
V. Racial and Ethnic Inequalities
VI. An International Comparative Examination of Crime and Criminal Jus-tice
VII. Imperialism and War
VIII. Politics, Democracy, and Human Rights
IX. Capitalism, Population, and the Environment
Biography
Isaac Zvi Christiansen is an associate professor in Midwestern State University's Department of Sociology, in Wichita Falls, Texas. He conducts research on health inequalities, sociology of development, and other issues related to Marxist political economy and sociology. As a Marxist sociologist, he is very interested in studying socialist development models, the generation of economic crises under capitalism, and imperialism. His work has been published in World Review of Political Economy, International Critical Thought, The International Journal of Cuban Studies, and The Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis.
This book a useful overview of topical questions in world politics from a social and political point of view. It is appropriate for undergraduate courses and particularly for introduction to politics, sociology, and area studies. this is an outstanding and very timely book with the promise of a long shelf-life.
David Lane, Professor of Sociology, Cambridge University
