About ‘More Resources’
Here you can find external resources related to, or expanding on, the material presented in this chapter. Currently included are links to websites, links to online video clips, and suggested readings that you can find in your school or local library. If you would like access to the password-protected video library that accompanies the text, your professor can give you the username, password, and URL needed (and if your professor is not sure how to access the video library, he or she can contact an Oxford University Press sales representative for details).
Website links
Pew Research Centre (Social Networking Fact Sheet)
Society for Study of Symbolic Interaction (sssi)
Sociology Guide : A Student’s Guide to Sociology (status and role)
What, When, How. In-depth Tutorials and Information (Identity)
Multimedia links
A CBC DocZone episode about the role of gossip in society:
Film by Arinze Eze at the National Film Board of Canada on immigrating to Canada, searching for belonging, and the tension between his actual life in Canada and his parents’ expectations:
Readings: Social Structures
Freeman, L.C. (2004). The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science. Vancouver, BC: Empirical Press.
Humans have an inherent need to be social. Therefore, social networks and social structure have existed for centuries. This book considers the development of sociological research on these topics over the course of the twentieth century. It also discusses the characteristics of social network composition as vast webs of connections between nodes.
Goffman E. (1986). Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Greenwich, CT: Touchstone Publishing.
In Stigma, Goffman outlines the history of stigmas as things used to mark those who are seen as different or in some way abnormal. He examines issues of alienation, identity, and inter-personal relations to make clear distinctions between so-called “normal people” and those who are stigmatized. Goffman brings the reader through a five-phase process of coming to terms with being stigmatized, along with all that means in contemporary society.
Tapscott, D. (2008). Growing up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Based on a $4 million private research study, Tapscott surveyed more than 11,000 young people and found that, contrary to popular belief, youth are developing revolutionary new ways of engaging with their social and work worlds. Net Geners are transforming culture, politics, and employment. This book helps understand the far-reaching implications of this.
Travers, M. (2007). The New Bureaucracy: Quality Assurance and Its Critics. Bristol, UK: The Policy Press.
This analysis of British bureaucratic organizations is written from a symbolic interactionist viewpoint. It also overviews the classic works on this topic, including material by Weber, Merton, Durkheim, Marx, Parsons, Goffman, and others.
Tyler, T.R. (2010). Why People Cooperate: The Role of Social Motivations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Based on sound research, Tyler turns on its head the idea that humans are motivated by self-interest. He examines what causes people in organizations to cooperate to achieve success and argues that people are influenced by shared cultural attitudes, values, and identities, by social connections rather than by material interests. He demonstrates that social motivations and mutual trust trump other types of motivations in facilitating cooperation from people working in groups and organizations.
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