"Colleges and universities tend to reflect many of the same social structures, culturally based expectations of social conduct and patterns of interaction that we see in the larger society," says Sweet. "This book allows college students to learn about how society operates by studying what transpires in colleges and universities. By focusing on familiar experiences, readily accessible observations and issues relevant to students' lives, this book teaches students to understand the profound ways in which social forces shape the human experience."
The 150-page paperback book (Allyn and Bacon, 2001), which is fully referenced and includes an index, is intended for introductory college sociology courses but also will be of interest to those interested in learning more about college life and the college experience.
Sweet examines a wide range of concepts and theoretical perspectives central to understanding social experiences. For example, using the case of a recent hazing death at Clarkson University, Sweet illustrates how fraternities and sororities create rites of passage, redefine the self and reshape values in ways that shape individual behavior.
In another chapter, Sweet looks at social stratification in the university and assesses gender inequality on campuses. Showing that female professors tend to be paid considerably less than male professors and are evaluated more critically than men performing similar jobs, he examines the mechanisms by which these disparities emerge. Social processes include overt discrimination and more subtle forms of discrimination, as well as institutionalized practices that devalue women's work and penalize women for their roles as mothers. Placing contemporary college life in a historical perspective, Sweet also shows the implications of the modern bureaucratic order of life. Impersonal encounters, assemblyline practices and the "McDonaldization" of university life highlight some of the "irrational" consequences of designing colleges to work like businesses. Similarly, college athletics are used to illustrate how cohesion, group boundaries, social conflict and acceptance of social inequality are created through competition on college campuses. The book is intended to show students both about the ways sociologists think as well as how they engage in sociological research.
Reviewing Sweet's book in the January 2002 issue of Teaching Sociology , David K. Brown, of Illinois State University, noted: "The book generates an initial sensibility to sociological thinking that could be carried to student analysis of other books and social issues. In sociology, a large part of our pedagogical task is to enable students to create deep analogies across disparate social phenomena. College and Society is a powerful addition to aid us in accomplishing this goal."
Sweet, who earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of New Hampshire (1994), was an assistant professor at SUNY Potsdam for five years before coming to Cornell in 1999. He is the author of various articles on teaching sociology and of a textbook on applied statistics,Data Analysis with SPSS (Allyn & Bacon 1998). He also serves on the editorial board ofTeaching Sociology .
Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide additional information on this news release. Some might not be part of the Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over their content or availability.
o Allyn & Bacon: http://www.ablongman.com
o Cornell Employment and Family Careers Institute:
http://www.blcc.cornell.edu/cci/default.html
o Stephen Sweet: http://www.blcc.cornell.edu/cci/steve.html