ABSTRACT
This is a book about big issues. Big issues about world politics, environmental degradation, social and economic inequalities and cultural change inform debates in the social sciences and our everyday lives. Recent developments range from concerns about global terrorism, which has, in some instances, replaced conflicts between nation states as a major cause of anxiety across the entire world, to the growth of transnational corporations, economic crises and the threat of climate change. Change is taking place with a new intensity through the progress of technological developments and the increased mobility of people. Changes are specific as well as sometimes unpredictable and some of the transformations of recent years have led to increasing anxieties (for example, about jobs, pensions, physical safety and health). The second edition of Social Sciences: The Big Issues takes on board both the direction of some of the changes that have taken place since the first edition was published and the particular nature of some of these changes, in order to accommodate the development of debates within the social sciences in recent years. Increasingly, social scientists are arguing that there is no single explanation of change, but many different stories that can explain the different forms change takes, the extent of change and consistencies and continuities in social life.
