What is a person? This fundamental question is a perennial concern of philosophers and theologians. But, Christian Smith here argues, it also lies at the center of the social scientist’s quest to interpret and explain social life. In this ambitious book, Smith presents a new model for social theory that does justice to the best of our humanistic visions of people, life, and society.

Adolescents, Families, and Social Development: How Teens Construct Their Worlds

This book provides an in-depth examination of adolescents’ social development in the context of the family.

Grounded in social domain theory, the book draws on the author’s research over the past 25 years

Draws from the results of in-depth interviews with more than 700 families

Explores adolescent-parent relationships among ethnic majority and minority youth in the United States, as well as research with adolescents in Hong Kong and China

Discusses extensive research on disclosure and secrecy during adolescence, parenting, autonomy, and moral development

 

Information Technology and Social Justice

The term digital divide is still used regularly to characterize the injustice associated with inequalities in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). As the debate continues and becomes more sophisticated, more and more aspects of the distribution of ICTs are singled out as relevant to characterizations of the digital divide and of its moral status. The best way to articulate the digital divide is to relate it to other aspects of social and distributive justice, using a mixture of pre-existing theories within moral and political philosophy.

Social Identity

This third edition builds on the international success of previous editions, offering an easy access critical introduction to social science theories of identity, for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates. All of the previous chapters have been updated and extra material has been added where relevant, for example, on globalization. Two new chapters have been added; one addresses the debate about whether identity matters, discussing, for example, Brubaker; the second reviews the postmodern approach to identity.

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is acclaimed as the most significant British dramatist of the modern era. Though he is best known as a playwright, Shaw was also a respected critic, journalist, novelist, and essayist. A famous social reformer, Shaw wrote plays which dramatized social commentaries, and in 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his achievements. Today, his works are studied in literature classes worldwide and are considered classics of modern drama.