Taking It Big

For use as a primary or supplemental text for Introductory Sociology, Social Theory, and senior "e;capstone"e; courses. An unabashedly "e;critical"e; text for those who want to connect their students' personal experiences with what is happening at the societal, global level today. The emphasis is on teaching "e;the sociological imagination"e; (i.e., to instill in students a unique and radical form of consciousness that will allow them to conceptualize today's chief global and individual problems and the relations between them). Dandaneau adopts a perspective like that of C. Wright Mills and argues that the sociological imagination is the "e;most needed"e; type of consciousness in the world today. The author encourages students to think through a wide variety of topics - from ecological crises to panic disorder, from hyperreality to the sociology of disability, from Generation X to Generation Next. As Dandaneau says, "e;The point ... is not so much to learn the truth, but to learn how to think about essential issues and troubles as sociologists themselves try to do, to become a participant with others in facing down the challenges of our present epoch."e; "e;It is an elegant and profound meditation on thinking sociologically. Written with a rare panache one seldom finds in sociology... it's the product of a view of contemporary social life that is profoundly troubling... What this adds up to is a distinctive sociological and moral voice."e; - Peter Kivisto, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois