Introducing Sociology: A Critical Perspective by Murray KnuttilaReview by: Metta SpencerThe Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Summer,2004), pp. 480-481Published by: Canadian Journal of SociologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654683 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 05:41

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Canadian Journal of Sociology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to TheCanadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.25 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 05:41:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

480 Canadian Journal of Sociology

Murray Knuttila, Introducing Sociology: A Critical Perspective. (Second edition) Don Mills: Oxford University Press, Canada, 2002, 340 pp.

This rather short paperbound introductory textbook is predominantly Marxist in orientation. In addition to the critical perspective, Knuttila devotes quite a lot of space to biological considerations and a fair proportion to structural func- tionalists, but may disappoint instructors who emphasize culture, symbolic inter- actionism, or social construction.

Given the book's Marxist orientation, it devotes a surprisingly large amount of attention - over one-third of the pages - to the individual level of analysis, especially the nature/nurture controversy. Insofar as culture is discussed, it is

mostly based on the early fieldwork of Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. However, there are two substantial chapters on socialization, which cover feral children, Piaget, Freud, and twin studies, addressing the question of genetic versus cultural determinism.

The second, theoretical section of the book consists of three chapters, dealing respectively with the historical development of sociology; contemporary ap- proaches (within the conventional tri-partite classification); and sex and gender. (This third chapter supposedly compensates for classical sociology's lack of feminist analyses.)

The third, "applied," section of the book provides six substantive chapters plus a postscript. The strongest chapter, on social inequality, brings us up through the work of Warner, the Lynds, Parsons, Davis, and Moore, to an excellent section on Marxist theories of class, including neo-Marxist writers such as C. H. Anderson, Nicos Poulantzas, Erik Olin Wright, plus John Porter, Wallace Clement, and Dennis Forcese, though the final few pages fall short of the earlier passages. Also, there is no discussion of Weber in this chapter and

very little elsewhere. The chapter on "the polity and political power" develops and goes beyond

neo-Marxist views of the state (Miliband, Poulantzas, and contemporary ap- proaches such as regulation theory) then inserts a section on classical elite

theory (Pareto and Michels) without relating it to any contemporary discourse. There is a box on Robert Dahl's theories of democracy and polyarchy (in which the distinction between the two remains ambiguous), and a section on feminism. In this chapter, again, the strong sections are the Marxist ones; other passages are vague, imprecise, and substantively disappointing.

The chapter on race and ethnicity is apparently new in this edition. There are

long discussions of the history of race as a concept, and the genetic interpreta- tion of race (including the work of Rushton, Herrnstein, and Murray and current work on the human genome), but little emphasis on the social creation of ethnic

identity, apart from a curiously misplaced passage on structural functionalism' s focus on norms and values. Instead of the topics most commonly stressed in

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.25 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 05:41:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Book Reviews/Comptes rendus 481

race-and-ethnicity courses, we find a discussion of Canada as a colonial society and a history of Quebec. There is little mention of aboriginal rights, and the only discussion of multiculturalism pivots around John Porter's work.

The chapter on deviance and control again offers a substantial discussion of

biological explanations, before turning to Durkheim, Parsons, Merton, and then Neo-Marxist theories of power and conflict, where again Knuttila seems to be in his element, if somewhat too abstract to appeal to the numerous students who are especially attracted to the study of aberrant behavior. Symbolic interaction- ism and labeling theory are addressed under one heading, followed by a section on feminism, despite an acknowledgment that "no distinctive feminist theory on the etiology of crime has yet been formulated."

The chapter on the family was placed late in the book instead of near the

chapters on socialization or gender. This makes sense, however, since the content is again heavily Marxist, dealing with such topics as commodity consumption and the reproduction of labor power - notions linked to the just- preceding chapters and drawing upon feminist analyses of capitalism and

patriarchy. Some of the boxes are well-written - notably Mandell and Duffy's discussion of girls' dreams of romance.

There is a new chapter on globalization - a topic that conflates so many disparate processes that considerable attention needs to be paid to the proper introduction of terminology. This was not done. I would expect most introduc-

tory students to finish reading the chapter confused about the connections

among free trade, democracy, transnational corporations, and global governance - but then, they may not differ from the average sociologist in that regard, given the polemical nature of most writing on the subject. Still, Knuttila does introduce the reader to David Held's provocative ideas about global governance; I wish he had devoted even more attention to Held and less to the obsolete and

inadequately fleshed-out theories of W.W. Rostow and dependency theorists. An introductory textbook is one of the most important tools that we provide

students, and no one should under-estimate the difficulty of writing one that does its job properly. It is essential to make sure that every complex term is

explained when it is first introduced, or else flagged in bold-face type and

glossed carefully. Every student should be reminded never to read beyond a sentence she fails to comprehend. Stop immediately! Look up the confusing term, for failing to do so will only compound the confusion later. But the textbook writer must avoid the use of undefined, unfamiliar terms. Unfortu-

nately, Knuttila has not always provided the clarity that is needed. However, there is considerable variation within the book. Some sections (especially Marxist passages) are clear, interesting, and likely to attract students to the further pursuit of study in our discipline.

University of Toronto Metta Spencer

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.25 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 05:41:29 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions