Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families
By:
Susan J Ferguson
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Lowest New Price: $47.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5
Description:
This anthology explores the issues and diversity of contemporary families, presenting balanced coverage of racial and ethnic variation and discussing a wide variety of family arrangements and processes. 32 out of the 50 selections included are new to this edition.
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Customer Review: 3 out of 5
For class - I entered the ISBN for the third edition and ended up with this book. While I do recommend this book for those interested in the sociology of families and kinship, make sure if it is assigned for a class that you have the correct edition.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
good book - compilation of readings - This isn't a bad book. It's a compilation of readings regarding contemporary families. A lot of focus is on feminism and gay and lesbian families. If you can read it with an open mind (not necessarily have to change your mind) then it can be interesting and educational. Some readings are better than others and I think this depends on you interest. I personally liked the readings on working families and grandparents.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Excellent book, Includes Diverse Topics Not Found in Most Other Readers - I chose this book for my 200-level family sociology class instead of a text book. Most of my students were not sociology majors, but most enjoyed the readings from this book. It is not a textbook! I suggest either covering more introductory and general material in lectures or pairing with a textbook and using the readings in this anthology to flesh out specific issues and topics in the study of family sociology. I found that it included topics, such as gay and lesbian parenting or absentee parenting, that were difficult to find in other readers. As another reviewer already touched on, I also appreciated the integration of race, gender, class and sexuality throughout the book, rather than a special chapter at the end of a general section on each topic. A few drawbacks: (1) I found that I had to supplement with outside readings for my section on abuse - the readings included were too specialized/not what I was looking for in this topic; (2) there were no readings with a more international or transnational focus; and (3) unlike, for example, Andrew Cherlin's reader, this one did not include samples of what conservative perspectives on family diversity and trends look like. Otherwise, I found this to be an excellent reader.
Customer Review: 1 out of 5
Probably the most confusing "textbook" ever - I bought this book for my sociology in family studies class and it is perhaps the most useless textbook I have ever read. The contents are jumbled together and resemble different clippings from different articles (I realize this is an anthology, but I would atleast like it to be well structured and meaningful). I didn't learn anything significant from this book and I dread opening it. Save your money and don't buy the book. And if you are a professor, please don't choose this book for your students. I'm an undergrad student at a top 30 University, and lot of my peers agree that this book is confusing and not helpful to learning.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Good book, can be hard for undergrads... - I have used this book in my 200 level Sociology of Families courses. The students enjoy most of the readings but there are a few that are overly technical and/or assume the student has a background in the topic. Despite these issues, overall I feel it is one of the better families readers on the market now. Chapters are diverse and do not "tokenized" issues like race, class, sexuality, and gender in "special" sections. My students really enjoyed the different perspectives and qualitative studies she chose to include.
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