ABSTRACT

Many people of all ages today continue to be attracted to sociology and other social sciences because of their promise to contribute to better political, social, and moral understandings of themselves and their social worlds-and often because they hope it will help them to build a better society. In a world of new movements and deepening economic inequality following the Great Recession, this new edition is vital. It features dozens of new examples from the latest research, with an emphasis on the next generation of liberation sociologists. The authors expand on the previous edition with the inclusion of sections on decolonisation paradigms in criminology, critical speciesism, and studies of environmental racism and environmental privilege. There is an expanded focus on participatory action research, and increased coverage of international liberation social scientists. Work by psychologists, anthropologists, theologians, historians, and others who have developed a liberation orientation for their disciplines is also updated and expanded.

chapter |20 pages

Improving Human Societies

Reassessing the Classical Theorists

chapter |37 pages

US Sociology from the 1890s to the 1970s

Instrumental Positivism and Its Challengers

chapter |38 pages

Sociology Today

chapter |29 pages

Sociology in Action

chapter |33 pages

Doing Liberation Social Science

Participatory Action Research Strategies

chapter |43 pages

Liberation Theory and Liberating Action

The Contemporary Scene

chapter |28 pages

Sociology, Present and Future

Two Sociologies

chapter |14 pages

Epilogue:

The Challenges of Teaching Liberation Sociology