Introduction SECTION A: SOCIAL DIVISIONS 1 The Idea of Class: a measure of value Beverley Skeggs 2 Sex, Gender and Sexuality: the case for critical analysis Kath Woodward 3 Race, Ethnicity and Nationality: the future of multiculturalism in a global age Andrew Pilkington 4 Age and the Life Course: continuity, change and the modern mirage of infinite choice Lorraine Green SECTION B: OPPORTUNITIES AND INEQUALITIES 5 Work: experience, identities and meanings Tim Strangleman 6 Health, Illness and the Body: what lies beneath Graham Scambler and Sasha Scambler 7 Education: beyond meritocracy and reproduction Rob Moore 8 Poverty and the Welfare State: economic, social and political intersections Mary Daly SECTION C: GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE 9 Globalization: experiencing social change on a global scale Darren O'Byrne 10 The Environment: sociology at its (natural) limits Philip W. Sutton 11 Science, Technology and Social Change: knowledge, expertise and practices Mark Erickson 12 Development and Underdevelopment: rethinking the shape of a globalizing world Paul Hopper SECTION D: CULTURE AND PERSONAL LIFE 13 Leisure and Consumption: a critical analysis of 'free time' Sheila Scraton & Beccy Watson 14 Religion and Sources of Significance: the dawning of a secular age? Paul Heelas 15 The Sociology of the Mass Media: circuits of communication and structures of power Greg Philo, David Miller and Catherine Happer 16 Families and Personal Life: all change? Vanessa May SECTION E: THE STATE, VIOLENCE, CRIME AND CONTROL 17 Power and the State: flourishing union, divorce or metamorphosis? Michael S. Drake 18 Violence, Coercion and Human Rights: understanding organized brutality Sinisa Malesevic 19 Crime: concepts, causes, control Robert Reiner SECTION F: THEORY AND METHODS 20 Sociological Theory: formal and informal William Outhwaite 21 Methodology: the essence of sociology? Martyn Hammersley References.