Social Problems

Taking a conflict approach, Eitzen and Baca Zinn focus on the underlying features of the social world in an effort to help students to understand today's social problems.

Booknews

The new edition of a textbook for use in introductory sociology courses. Mostly focusing on sociological phenomena in the US, chapters cover such issues as urban decay; racial, ethnic, and gender inequality; health care; the structure of the economy; the politics of drugs; and the nature of the justice system. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

D. Stanley Eitzen is professor emeritus in sociology from Colorado State University, where previously he was the John N. Stern Distinguished Professor. He recieved his Ph.D. from the Unitsity of Kansas. Among his books are: Social Problems, which was awarded the McGuffey Longevity Award for excellence over multiple editions in 2000 by the Text and Academic Authors Association, and Diversity in Families (both co-authored with Maxine Baca Zinn), Solutions to Social Problems: Lessons from Other Societies (with Graig S. Leeham) , Paths to Homelessness: Extreme Poverty and the Urban Housing Crisis (with Doug A. Timmer and Kathryn Talley), Sociology of North American Sport (with George H. Sage,) and Fair and Foul: Rethinking the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport. He has served as the president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport and as editor of The Social Science Journal.

Kelly Eitzen Smith received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 1999. She is currently the director of the Center for Applied Sociology and a lecturer at the University of Arizona. At the Center for Applied Sociology she has conducted research in the areas of day labor, homelessness, poverty, urban housing and neighborhood development. Her sociological interests include gender, family, sexuality, stratification, and social problems. She is the co-author of Experiencing Poverty, 1/e, Social Problems 11/e, and In Conflict and Order 12/e (forthcoming).