Thinking About Sociology ─ A Critical Introduction

Thinking About Sociology: A Critical Introduction is intended for introductory sociology courses for first-year university students. The book helps students start to think like sociologists, to question their taken-for-granted assumptions about their place in society, and to evaluate critically how they interact with other individuals and social institutions. To this end, Anderson takes a critical perspective when discussing the core concepts, skills, theories, and applications used in the study of sociology, giving students the skills they need to understand and confront the challenges they will face in life. Anderson presents examples that are diverse, topical and relevant to Canadian students, covering such areas as education and training, immigration and integration and social networking and mediated interactions.

Karen Anderson received her BA and MA from the University of Regina, and she received her PhD in sociology from the University of Toronto in 1982. She taught at McMaster University in Hamilton and at King's College in London, Ontario, before coming to teach at York University in 1988, where she is currently an associate professor of sociology. Her research interests include nineteenth-century financial capital, gender relations in seventeenth-century Iroquoian societies, contemporary social theory, and theories and practices of post-secondary teaching. Most recently she has begun a research project on the flight of capital from manufacturing in a small Ontario town and its impact on people's lives. Between 2007 and 2010 she was a research fellow at York University's Centre for the Support of Teaching, where she conducted research on teaching large introductory university classes. She has authored two books, as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles.