Macionis

Social Problems 9th Edition

What’s New: Chapter by Chapter

Chapter 1 Sociology: Studying Social Problems

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Interactives: Revel’s Updated Global Map 1-1 allows students to explore average number of children born to women around the world, and a companion map invites them to assess the link between child bearing and nations’ level of economic development. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included. All Revel interactive maps encourage discovery learning and now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: New discussion of Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade; new discussion of critical race theory; critical assessment provided of Philip Zimbardo’s prison research; new discussion of guaranteed minimum income programs operating in U.S. cities; new discussion of recent national elections and public assessment of the Biden administration between 2020 and 2023; new and expanded discussion of political polarization in the United States.

Updates: 2023 data showing 69 percent of U.S. adults think the country is on the “wrong track”; the latest assessment of the ten most serious social problems in the United States; 2023 update on the increasing number of states banning cell phone use by drivers; new coverage of debate over emissions by gas stoves; the latest data on the extent of gun violence, including recent instances of school shootings; the latest data show the distribution of U.S. adults on the political spectrum and also results of the 2022 national elections; the most politically liberal and conservative states are identified.

Quotations from the Chapter:

“Social media has become a powerful tool in the process of claims making… greatly accelerating the speed at which some issues become defined as serious social problems.”

“The advantages enjoyed by some and the disadvantages endured by others is not a matter of attitudes held by people who are intolerant of social diversity. In the same way, the solution to this problem is not for people to become ‘color-blind’. On the contrary, critical race theory claims, the misguided goal of individual color blindness only serves to mask the fact that inequality is built into the operation of society’s legal system, economy, and other institutions. Put in a different way, our society would remain systemically racist even if most of the people were not.”

New Research: 32 new research references; 80 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 2 Economic Inequality

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Discussion of income, wealth, and poverty includes analysis by age, race, and gender. New data on the feminization of poverty. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Revel’s updated National Map 2-1 allows students to zoom in on their local community to see median the poverty rate and median income and to identify regional patterns in economic inequality. All Revel interactive maps now include assignable writing response.

New Material: Major new discussion of the policy of guaranteed minimum income in fifty cities; expanded discussion of race-conflict theory; The latest data document the extent of economic inequality in the United States, including analysis of the distributions of income and wealth. New analysis explores how perceptions of economic inequality differ among people who identify with the Democratic and Republican parties; new discussion of recent changes in criminal justice to address the overcriminalization of low-income people; new discussion on the effects of mail-in ballots on voting by people with low incomes; new discussion of the increasing gap in life expectancy paralleling the trend of increasing economic inequality.

Updates: The latest data tracks the public assessment of the extent of economic opportunity in the United States; numerous measures confirm the increasing extent of economic inequality in U.S. society; new data show changes in the median income for families in five quintiles from 1980 to 2021; new data show the share of income earned by the richest 1 percent, which is more than twice the share in 1975; the richest individuals in the United States are identified with estimates of their wealth; the latest data supports analysis of poverty in the United States; new data on health by income level.

Quotations from Chapter:

“Palo Alto has a median income of about $195,000, making it one of the richest cities in the United States. Many of the local people drive BMWs, Audis, or Teslas. The average home sells for more than $2.5 million. This affluence is rooted in the computer revolution, a global business that transformed the whole Silicon Valley region into an economic growth machine. The region has a gross domestic product (GDP) of some $400 billion annually, which equals the GDP of Austria or the United Arab Emirates. This remarkable affluence is not equally shared, however. Far from it: More than 90 percent of this region’s wealth is owned by just 25 percent of its people.”

“The super-rich, in the top 1 percent, control about 35 percent of all privately held assets. This 1 percent of families owns as much wealth as the country’s entire middle class.”

“An estimate for 2022 placed the wealth of the ten richest individuals in the United States at more than $1.1 trillion, which is as much as the wealth of 10 million average people at $100,000 each. Put another way, the nation’s ten richest people have more assets than the combined wealth of all the people living in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut.”

“Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that, between 2019 and 2021, life expectancy decreased for the U.S. population as a whole, but the decrease was twice as large (about five years) for more socially vulnerable categories of the population, including the Native American, Black, and Hispanic populations, than among the more affluent non-Hispanic White and Asian American populations (two years). Analysts suggest this widening gap in life expectancy results not from individual choices, but from the increasing level of economic inequality in the United States.”

New Research: 59 new research references; 82 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 3 Racial and Ethnic Inequality

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The entire chapter advances the importance of race and ethnicity to an understanding of U.S. society. Analysis of institutional prejudice and institutional discrimination explore the systemic character of bias in U.S. society. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Revel’s interactive National Map 3-1 shows the share of the population that speaks a language other than English at home for residents of each county in the country allowing students to zoom in to explore their local community. A companion map shows the share of the population of each county that is Hispanic/Latino/a inviting students to compare the patterns and appreciate the size of the Spanish-speaking population of the United States. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response. National Map 3-2 is a mosaic of five maps that shows the distribution of Native American, Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Arab people throughout the United States.

New Material: There is a new analysis of the concept of equality as it was understood by the nation’s founders. New discussion analyzes the systemic character of bias in U.S. society. A new discussion presents critical race theory. There is new and expanded discussion of U.S. immigration and immigration policy as well as expanded discussion of the increasing share of multiracial people in the U.S. population. New and expanded discussion of White privilege and racism. A new Diversity box explores the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis in 2021 to develop the importance of institutional discrimination.

Updates: New data link race and ethnicity to type of work; the population size of all racial and ethnic categories is provided using the latest available data;

Quotations from Chapter:

“Most people know that the United States is a nation of immigrants. In fact, of all the world’s countries, the United States has the largest number of foreign-born people—more than 45 million, or about 85 million if we add in their children who were born in this country. But most people do not have a good grasp of the relative size of the immigrant population. For example, when researchers ask what share of the U.S. population was born in another country, the typical person responds with a figure almost twice the actual share, which is 13.6 percent.”

“The fact that race is a socially constructed category means that members of a society may attach importance to any distinctive physical trait to assign people (including themselves) to a racial category. In the early decades of the twentieth century, public opinion in the United States turned against European immigrants as their numbers grew. For a time, many southern Europeans—such as Italians—were “racialized” and defined as people of color, a view that changed over several generations.”

“Robin DiAngelo believes that U.S. society tends to define racism in personal terms—the attitudes and actions of individuals—and this understanding draws attention away from the many ways in which racial bias runs deep in the operation of society itself. The title of her book, White Fragility, refers to the tendency of White people—especially those who are more politically liberal—to feel defensive and angry at the idea that they benefit from a system that they are trying hard to change. She suggests that, for many White people, holding beliefs that oppose racism is a conscious or unconscious strategy to avoid actually dealing with the problem of racism at a deeper level.”

New Research: 57 new research references; 71 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 4 Gender Inequality

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The effects of gender are presented with attention to age, race, and ethnicity. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Revel’s Global Map 4-1 shows the relative social standing of women and men for all countries in the world. The companion map presents nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to assess the link between these two variables. Revel’s interactive National Map 4-1 shows the share of state legislators who are women; the companion map shows which party carried the state in the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to experience discovery learning as they assess the link between these two variables. National Map 4-2 shows the gender pay gap for all the states, inviting students to recognize and explain patterns. Revel’s interactive Global Map 4-2 assesses the presence of female genital mutilation for countries around the world; a companion map invites students to assess the link between this practice and nations’ level of economic development. Finally, National Map 4-3 is new, showing access to legal abortion for all states; Revel’s companion map invites students to assess the link between access and states’ political leaning. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: There is a major, new discussion of Reproduction and Abortion responding to the Dobbs decision; a new National Map shows the extent of access to legal abortion by state. There is new discussion on the extent of sexual assault in the U.S. military. Newly expanded discussion presents the various waves of feminism in U.S. history.

Updates: The latest data informs discussions of the share of political leaders who are women, the presentation of men and women in film, public attitudes concerning gender inequality, the gender pay gap in the United States and other nations, the educational and occupational achievement of women and men, the gender composition of Congress in 2023, the labor force participation rates of women and men over time, gender segregation in the labor force, and explores rates of physical and sexual assault in the United States and on college campuses.

Quotations from Chapter:

“Analysts who have applied the Bechdel test report that, fifty years ago, half of all new feature films failed this test. Since then, the trend is for a larger share of new films to pass—almost 70 percent of films released in 2022 passed the test. Even so, a considerable number of recent popular movies—from Avatar and The Revenant to American Sniper and all of The Lord of the Rings films, to 1917, The Irishman, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Elvis, and Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe—fail this simple test.”

“The gender pay gap is considerably larger (women earning about 75 percent as much as men) among women with children compared to women without children (close to 90 percent).”

“The 2022 Dobbs decision has resulted in a nation divided in terms of reproductive rights. In 2023, sixteen states (green in the new national map) were protective of abortion access. Twenty states (yellow) placed some restriction on access to legal abortion. Fourteen states (red) banned abortion in most cases or highly restricted access. Of these fourteen states, twelve supported the Republican candidate in the 2020 presidential election. Of the sixteen states shown in green, all but Alaska supported the Democratic candidate.”

New Research: 66 new research references; 84 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 5 Sexuality and Inequality

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Special attention has been directed toward making this rapidly-changing area up to date. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: A new National Map 5-1 identifies states that have and have not given legal recognition to non-binary gender on official documents; the Revel companion map shows how each state voted in the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to discover the political basis for this variation in policy. A new National Map 5-2 shows the share of the population of each state that is LGBT; the Revel companion map shows how each state voted in the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to discover the political basis for this variation in policy. A new National Map 5-3 identifiers states that have and have not enacted bans on the participation of transgender women in women’s sports; again, the Revel companion map shows the state-by-state results of the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to link policy and politics. Finally, National Map 5-4 shows teenage pregnancy rates for all the states; Revel’s companion map shows state poverty rates inviting students to assess the link between these two variables. Global Map 5-1 shows the HIV infection rate for nations around the world; the Revel companion map shows nations’ level of economic development inviting students to assess the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: Full coverage is given to the 2022 Dobbs decision regarding abortion. Discussion of state actions since then is included. There are three new National Maps dealing with transgender issues. The chapter has been reorganized , moving transgender to the beginning and the content has been extensively rewritten to reflect the most recent research and policy. A new National Map shows acceptance of transgender identity policy for all states; the companion map shows how each state voted in the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to discover the political basis for this variation in policy. There is a new discussion of the size and character of the LGBTQ+ community. There is new discussion of pansexuality. The latest research linking sexual orientation and the human genome is included. There is entirely new coverage of the controversy surrounding transgender athletics.

Updates: The most recent data have been used to inform discussion of the size of various categories of people, with current estimates of transgender people. New research explains the effects of heavy use of pornography. The latest on a few states that have adopted a Sweden-like approach to prostitution. The most recent data inform discussion of teenage pregnancy, sexually-transmitted diseases,

Quotations from Chapter:

“Overall, a larger share of LGBT people were assigned a female identity at birth (58 percent) than a male identity (42 percent). LGBT people, on average, are younger (37.3 years old) compared to straight and cisgender people (47.9 years old). About 29 percent of LGBT people report that they are raising children; 71 percent report not raising children. LGBT people represent major racial and ethnic categories at about that category’s share of the U.S. population. At the same time, this population, as a whole, is vulnerable. They are almost twice as likely as non-LGBT people to be unemployed (9 percent versus 5 percent) and food insecure (27 percent versus 15 percent) and more likely to have an annual income below $24,000 (25 percent versus 18 percent) (Williams, 2019).”

New Research: 50 new research references; 68 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 6 Aging and Inequality

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The entire chapter has been carefully reviewed and edited to address all categories of people and all points of view respectfully. Discussions of topics such as life expectancy include analysis by gender, race, and ethnicity. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: National Map 6-1 shows the share of elder adults for all counties across the United States; Revel’s interactive companion map shows the share of people living in the same house since 1989, inviting students to assess the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: New discussion highlights the reversal, over the last three years, of a historic trend toward greater life expectancy. New discussion of the disproportionately large effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults. Newly expanded discussion of global patterns involving euthanasia. New discussion of policy towards older adults enacted by the Biden administration.

Updates: The latest data are provided in discussions of the share of people over the age of sixty-five in the U.S. population, retirement, the poverty rate among older adults, life expectancy, social isolation, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on retirement, elder abuse, the 2021 Elder Protection Act, poverty among older people, housing for older people, median income and poverty rate presented by age category, euthanasia and other social patterns involving death.

Quotations from Chapter:

“Among older people, about half of single people and 20 percent of married couples rely on Social Security to provide 90 percent or more of their income. Yet the rapid increase in the elderly population of the United States, as well as the long-term trend toward living longer—are placing ever-greater demands on Social Security. In 1950, there were six workers for every retired person. By 2050, projections indicate that there will be just two workers for every retiree, and most analysts believe that the current system will be able to pay only 80 percent of scheduled benefits a decade from now (Eyerman, 2022). The strength of Social Security is especially important to Black and Hispanic/Latino people, who depend on the system for a larger share of their income in old age than non-Hispanic White people.”

New Research: 43 new research references; 90 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 7 Crime, Violence, and Criminal Justice

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Rates of crime and victimization are analyzed by age, gender, class, and race. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: National Map 7-1 shows concealed carry gun laws enacted in all fifty states; Revel’s companion map shows state voting results in the 2020 presidential election inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. Global Map 7-1 presents the status of the death penalty for all of the world’s countries; Revel’s interactive companion map invites students to discover how these two variables are related. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: New discussion of deadly gun violence in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The recent surge in murder and aggravated assault, which was documented in every state, is discussed with data and analysis. New discussion of mass incarceration—how race figures in to rates of incarceration for serious crime. Examples and illustrations of all issues discussed in the chapter have all been updated to be within the last year and a half.

Updates: The latest available data are provided for death toll and rates of gun violence, number of mass shootings, rates of incarceration for various categories of the U.S. population, the number of hate crimes, membership in criminal youth gangs, new gun laws in the United States and Canada, rates of incarceration for selected countries around the world, and the status of the death penalty in nations around the world. The number of reported crimes and crime rates for all major property and person crimes are tracked over a sixty-year period. Updated discussion of the link between drugs and violence and also the link between guns and violence.

Quotations from Chapter:

“By the end of 2020, the U.S. murder rate had increased by 30 percent, which is the largest increase on record in more than a century. Preliminary data suggest that the murder rate continued to increase in 2021, but at a slower rate than in 2020, and the rate leveled off in 2022.”

“Men make up about half of the general population, but in 2021, they accounted for 70 percent of arrests for property crimes. For violent crimes, this gender pattern is even more pronounced: Men represent 81 percent of all arrests, almost five times the women’s share.”

“With regard to property crime, White people represent 64 percent of all arrests, and Black people account for 30 percent. In the case of violent crime, White people represent 61 percent of arrests and Black people represent 33 percent.”

“In 2016, there were 383 mass shootings in the United States (gun violence that may or may not have been deadly). In 2017, the number was 348; in 2018, it was 336; in 2019, it was 417; in 2020, it was 610; in 2021, 690; in 2022, 647; and, in the first three months of 2023, there were 130 more.”

“A recent national survey found that 72 percent of U.S. adults consider gun violence to be “a very big problem” (48 percent) or “a moderately big problem” (24 percent). The population is divided politically on the need for stricter gun control laws, a position supported by 81 percent of Democrats but only 20 percent of Republicans (Schaeffer, 2021).”

New Research: 62 new research references; 70 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 8 Alcohol and Other Drugs

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. There is analysis of how race and ethnicity is linked patterns of drug use and public perceptions of drug use. Political analysis from various points of view ensures a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: National Map 8-1 shows the status of marijuana laws for all the states. Revel’s interactive companion map shows how states vote in the last presidential election, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables and appreciate how politics drives policy. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: Considerable new material and data have been added addressing the increase in overdose deaths from opioids and the different policy approaches favored by Democrats and Republicans. There is newly expanded discussion of the movement in the United States toward decriminalizing marijuana.

Updates: The chapter provides the latest data on the status of legal marijuana for medical and recreational purposes across the United States, public opinion on legal marijuana, the loss of life due to drug poisoning, the extent of use for all categories of drugs, smoking cigarettes and other tobacco products, and the number of people incarcerated after conviction on drug-related charges. There is newly updated discussion of the pandemic and drug use. The chapter now provides executive summaries of illegal drug control policies adopted by the last ten presidential administrations.

Quotations from Chapter:

“How people view any particular drug is a matter of culture, which means typical attitudes vary from one society to the next. Europeans, for example, have enjoyed drinking alcohol for thousands of years. But Native Americans, whose first experience with wine or hard liquor came five centuries ago with the arrival of European colonists, had no customs to guide the consumption of alcohol. As a result, many Native Americans began to overuse these drugs. For this reason, tribal community leaders soon defined alcohol as a serious problem (Mancall, 1995; Unrau, 1996).”

“On the other hand, for centuries many Native Americans have used peyote in their religious rituals. Europeans learned about peyote from them, and some Europeans began to use this drug. But having no experience with it, many became terrified by the hallucinations peyote produces and soon declared peyote to be a dangerous drug.”

“Race and ethnicity also shaped the public’s opinion of other drugs. In other parts of the country, as ever-increasing numbers of immigrants came to the United States, they brought with them their culture from the past, their dreams for the future, and also current preferences involving drugs. Since the 1850s, for example, many Chinese immigrants in California smoked opium (a practice they learned back in China from British colonists). Prejudice against Chinese people prompted public officials in eleven western states to ban opium. At the same time, in the East, where there were few Chinese people, no state enacted such a law. There, getting your hands on opium was as easy as going to the corner store or picking up a mail-order catalogue from Sears, Roebuck and Company (the Amazon of its day) and having the drug delivered by the post office right to your door.”

“After the onset of the pandemic, about 13 percent of U.S. adults claim to have made greater use of some drug as a means of coping with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. During the first twelve months of the pandemic, overdose deaths increased by 30 percent (to 100,000) compared to the previous twelve months (77,000)… There is also evidence that greater use of drugs increased people’s risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus. Drug use raised the odds of experiencing severe symptoms that required hospitalization (Abrahamson, 2021; New York University, 2022; Senate Republican Policy Committee, 2022).”

New Research: 57 new research references; 73 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 9 Physical and Mental Health

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Patterns of physical and mental health are analyzed with regard to race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Political analysis from various points of view ensures a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Global Map 9-1 shows the rate of infant mortality for the world’s nations; Revel’s interactive companion map, showing level of economic development, invites students to discover the link between these two variables. Revel’s interactive National Map 9-1shows the range of life expectancy among people living in counties across the United States allowing students to explore their local area; Revel’s interactive companion map of median family income invites students to compare the two maps and assess the link between the two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: There is new discussion of the relatively low ranking of the United States in terms of population health among all high-income nations; this deficiency is described using the concept of “excess deaths”; new discussion of the higher cost of health care in the United States compared to other high-income nations; new discussion the power of labels to define the reality of mental health; There is new discussion of the mental health of multiracial people. Mental health on the campus during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is also newly expanded.

Updates: The latest data inform the discussion of the alarming rate of obesity in the United States, the recent decline in life expectancy for the U.S. population, the global patterns of HIV infection, the distribution of HIV in the United States by race and ethnicity, the share of medical costs paid through the government in selected nations, the escalating cost of health care in the United States, the ways people in the United States pay the costs of health care and the share of the population without any healthcare coverage, the nursing shortage, the extent of mental illness in the United States. The latest categories of mental disorders as devised by the American Psychiatric Association are the basis for discussion throughout the second half of this chapter.

Quotations from the Chapter:

“An especially high level of obesity and a health care system that leaves tens of millions without insurance helps explain why life expectancy in the United States, while high in global terms, is seven years lower than the overall average for people living in ten other high-income countries.”

“One consequence of inequality in health is relatively low life expectancy for the population as a whole. Although well-off people in the United States compare favorably with people in other high-income nations, longevity for the population as a whole lags behind. Global comparisons show that the nation ranks only sixty-first in terms of life expectancy, placing the United States below Canada and almost every country in Western Europe and also behind a number of less-well-off nations, from Costa Rica in Latin America to Singapore in Asia. Despite our country’s unmatched wealth, the United States doesn’t even make the top fifty nations (with a ranking of fifty-third) in terms of low levels of infant mortality (Ireland, 2021; Abramson, 2023; Central Intelligence Agency, 2023; World Bank, 2023).”

New Research: New Research: 49 new research references; 67 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 10 Social Media

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Social media use is analyzed in terms of age, race, gender, education, and income. Sexual orientation is also included in the analysis of use of dating sites. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Revel’s interactive Global Map 10-1 shows the share of nations’ populations using the internet around the world; the Revel interactive companion map presents nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response. Revel’s interactive National Map 10-1 shows the share of households using the internet for every county in the United States inviting students to zoom in to explore their local area.

New Material: A new discussion assess the extent of “truth” in the media. Major new discussion of the link between heavy use of social media and anxiety, loneliness, and depression. There is newly expanded discussion of the effects of social media on political polarization and for the overall strength of political democracy. The political analysis of social media and its effects has been greatly updated and expanded.

Updates: The latest data show gender preferences for various social media apps, the relative popularity of various mass media and social media apps in the United States, the political bias of numerous popular media outlets, the extent of online bullying, the increasing use of online dating sites, the increasing consolidation of media outlets.

Quotations from Chapter:

“A remarkable change has taken place in a single generation: The typical person in the United States now spends more time looking at screens than doing anything else, including sleeping (Hubbard, 2021; Bankmycell, 2023; Howarth, 2023).”

“What does matter is level of education: 97 percent of college graduates are online, compared to just 65 percent of people without a high school diploma. Income is also important. Among people with annual income of at least $75,000, 97 percent use the internet; among people with income below $20,000, the share is just 74 percent. Age matters, too. For the U.S. population as a whole, 100 percent of young adults use the internet, compared with about 75 percent of people who are sixty-five or older (Pew Research Center, 2021b; U.S. Census Bureau, 2023).”

“The iPhone debuted in 2007. By 2012, a smartphone was owned by a majority of U.S. adults. Since then, our society has seen a dramatic increase in the share of people using social media. Of all age categories, use of social media is greatest among young people. Over the last decade, another trend became evident: Rates of anxiety, loneliness, depression, and self-harm, including suicide, have increased significantly among young adults.”

“The new digital economy is still largely owned by the very rich. The five richest people in the United States (Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett) all control giant, high-tech corporations (Statista, 2023a).”

New Research: 68 new research references; 80 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 11 Economy and Politics

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Analysis of voting is presented with attention to age, class, race, ethnicity, and gender. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Global Map 11-1 presents an assessment of the level of economic freedom in all of the world’s nations; a Revel companion map shows nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. National Map 11-1 presents a measure of voter turnout for all states in the 2020 presidential election; the Revel interactive companion map shows how each state voted in 2020, inviting students to discover how these two variables are related. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: There is a new discussion of the extent of political polarization in U.S. politics, a new measure of its increasing intensity, and its causes. A new discussion explains the origin and current patterns of political gerrymandering.

Updates: The latest data are provided for discussions of public trust in the federal government, the low productivity of the recent Congress, the relative share of economic production in the public and private sectors for selected countries, government legal action against Google for allegedly monopoly control of the search engine market, the steady increase in campaign spending, the extent of political apathy in recent presidential elections, the strong correlation between income and voting, and the trend toward restoring voting rights to people convicted of a serious crime.

Quotations from Chapter:

“In 2021 and 2022, the 117th Congress passed just 362 laws, well below the number typical during past decades. In 1947 and 1948, President Harry Truman famously expressed frustration at what he called the “Do Nothing Congress.” Back then, the 80th Congress passed 906 laws—two and a half times as many as the 117th Congress managed to do. There are, no doubt, many reasons for this relatively low level of activity. Near the top of the list, certainly, is the fact that our political process has become dangerously polarized so the Democrats and Republicans are unlikely to reach agreement (GovTrack, 2023).”

“Events such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic can alter the degree to which government regulates the economy. In 2020, after the onset of the pandemic, governments in almost all of the world’s nations mandated that people engage in social distancing, wear masks, and avoid public gatherings. Some nations required people to remain at home. Many businesses were forced to scale back or close down entirely. Such policies were enacted with the intention of reducing COVID transmission, but they had the additional effect of reducing economic output. In the United States, the Biden administration also responded to the economic effects of the pandemic with a policy of pandemic relief to stimulate economic recovery (Heritage Foundation, 2023).”

New Research: 43 new research references; 84 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 12 Work and the Workplace

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Representation based on race, ethnicity, and gender is considered throughout the chapter. The links between race, ethnicity and type of work is highlighted throughout the chapter. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: GM 12-1 shows share of the labor force in service work for nations around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map shows nations’ level of development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response. National Map 12-1 identified which states have, and do not have, right to work laws; Revel’s interactive companion map shows state results in the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to discover the link between politics and policy.

New Material: A new section is titled “Factors Affecting Employment Rates.” There is newly expanded discussion of the underrepresentation of women and people of color in higher-level positions within the labor force. A new, major section on telework highlights the rapid increase of our-of-office work since the onset of the pandemic. Another new section titled “Automation and Artificial Intelligence” explains how technology is affecting workers.

Updates: The latest data are used to guide discussions of the U.S. unemployment rate, the underrepresentation of women in the high-tech workforce, economic-sector distribution of the U.S. labor force, average hourly wages for workers in manufacturing in selected nations, the most dangerous sectors for workers in the U.S. economy, and the importance of race and ethnicity to type of jobs people hold.

Quotations from Chapter:

“Clearly, artificial intelligence in the information economy differs from automation in the industrial economy. Automation involves machines that carry out specific, repetitive tasks. Automation is highly efficient, but everything it is capable of doing is guided by its design at the outset. Artificial intelligence, by contrast, is able to carry out tasks that are far more complex. AI is also capable of work that is creative and is able to learn as it operates. In short, AI behaves less like a machine and more like a person.”

“AI may pose an additional, and far greater, threat. The most serious problem arising from the emergence of artificial intelligence might be the human ability to control what we have created. Already AI surpasses human beings in processing speed and in comprehension capacity. As one analyst put it, “If we are unable to comprehend the intelligence of . . . AI, we may never be able to control it” (Sharma, 2022).”

New Research: 33 new research references; 87 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 13 Family Life

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The chapter explores family patterns with regard to race, class, and gender. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: National Map 13-1 provides the divorce rate for every state. Global Map 13-1 shows the legal status of same sex marriage for nations around the world; the Revel interactive companion map provides nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: There is new discussion of the decline of family living over recent generations.

Updates: The latest available data are used to support discussions of changes in all family patterns, including the share of people engaging in cohabitation, the age at first marriage, the share of single parents, child care, divorce, child support, gay and lesbian families, and DNA testing to establish family ties.

Quotations from Chapter:

“Even so, the rate of remarriage has been declining for both women and men, dropping by half in the last thirty years. This change reflects the more general trend of a declining rate of marriage in the United States. Regionally, people in the Midwest and West are more likely to remarry; people in the Northeast are least likely to do so (Reynolds, 2021).”

“Public opinion has been relatively supportive of same-sex couples raising children. In a 2014 survey just before same-sex marriage became the law of the land, a majority of U.S. adults said they approved of gays and lesbians raising children; just one-third disapproved. Since then, this support has steadily increased as the public has embraced the fact—well supported by research—that children fare just as well in families with same-sex parents as they do in families with other-sex parents (Manning et al., 2014).”

“More evidence of this trend away from marriage is the fact that, in 2020, just half of U.S. adults between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-four were married—down from two-thirds in 1990. During the same time period, the share of adults who have never married doubled from 17 percent to 33 percent (Fry & Parker, 2021).”

New Research: 26 new research references; 63 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 14 Education

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Race, ethnicity, gender, and class are considered in all discussions of educational achievement. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Global Map 14-1 shows rates of illiteracy for countries around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map shows nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. National Map 14-1 presents average teacher pay in public schools for all the states; the Revel interactive companion map shows how each state voted in the 2020 presidential election, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: New discussion explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on schooling in the United States. There is new discussion of the challenge of find enough high-quality teachers to fill U.S. classrooms. The discussion of school violence has been updated and substantially expanded. There is new discussion of the issue of student loans.

Updates: The latest available data have been applied to discussions of gender balance on the college campus, the global ranking of the United States in terms of literacy and other measures of schooling, public assessment of the performance of public schools, rates of dropping out of school for categories of the population, the level of racial and ethnic segregation in public schools, school funding policy, and the English immersion versus bilingualism debate.

Quotations from Chapter:

“In 1947, college was largely for men, with males representing 71 percent of postsecondary enrollment in the United States. But women’s share was on the rise and, in 1979, for the first time in U.S. history, women made up half of all people attending college. During the 1980s and 1990s, that share continued to increase, leveling off in recent years as colleges struggle to maintain a gender balance. In 2022, 59 percent of students enrolled in college were women and 41 percent were men.”

“Not surprisingly, students from families with higher incomes end up performing better on achievement tests. On average, high school students from families earning more than $110,000 per year score about 120 points higher on the combined SAT than those from families with incomes below $51,000 per year (College Board, 2023).”

“In 2022, a total of 303 shootings took place on school property in the United States, the largest number since tracking this type of violence began in 1970. These criminal acts during 2022 left 332 people killed or injured. The events include mass shootings, gang shootings, and suicides, as well as accidental gunfire. The number of school shootings has increased dramatically since 2010, a year when just 15 such shootings took place. Recently, gun violence at a U.S. school has been almost a weekly event.”

New Research: 49 new research references; 89 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 15 Urban Life

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: National Map 15-1 shows population change (2010-2020) for all counties across the United States; Revel’s interactive map allows students to zoom in on their local areas and offers an assignable writing exercise. Global Map 15-1 shows the level of urbanization for countries around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map presents nations’ level of development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

New Material: A new chapter-opening story focuses on the current struggles of San Francisco.

Updates: The latest data guide chapter discussion, including the share of the U.S. population living in urban areas, ridership on the New York subway, the effects of the pandemic on large cities, the increasing social diversity of U.S. suburbs, homelessness in U.S. cities, and pattern of change in the ten largest cities in the country (more in the sunbelt) and also the ten largest cities in the world (more in lower-income nations).

Quotations from Chapter:

“World population was 8.0 billion in 2022 and is increasing by about 80 million people each year. The urban population of the world is increasing even faster than overall population. This is because, in economically developing regions of the world, including Latin America, Africa, and Asia, people are migrating from rural areas to cities in search of economic opportunity, more schooling, and a better quality of life. As Table 15–2 shows, seven of the ten largest cities in the world are now in economically developing nations. None of these large cities is in the United States.”

“You may recognize that gesellschaft embodies the spirit of capitalism as described by economist Adam Smith. Also, what sociologist Max Weber described as the rationalization of society is essentially the same process as the transition from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft.”

New Research: 30 new research references; 83 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 16 Population and Global Inequality

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Global Map 16-1 shows the annual rate of population increase for countries around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map presents nations’ level of development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. Global Map 16-2 shows the level of economic development for countries around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map presents the share of each country’s people who live to the age of sixty-five, inviting students to see for themselves the link between these two variables. All Revel interactive maps now include an assignable writing response.

Updates: The latest data inform all discussions, including global infant mortality, global population increase, rates of fertility and mortality, world hunger, the extent of slavery around the world, the declining rate of extreme poverty in the world, and the increasing absolute prosperity of the world at the same time as the world is experiencing increasing relative economic inequality.

Quotations from Chapter:

“With its far lower rate of natural increase, the population of the United States would take more than a thousand years to double. But another factor plays a far larger part in this country’s rate of population increase—immigration. As explained in Chapter 3 (“Racial and Ethnic Inequality”), more than 1 million people enter the United States each year, including both people who are documented and undocumented. That means that immigration is currently increasing the U.S. population ten times faster than natural increase. With more than 50 million immigrants, the United States has the highest number of immigrants of any nation. (Countries with the lowest number of immigrants include North Korea, Cuba, Myanmar, Vietnam, and China.)”

“Dr. Nafis Sadik, a Pakistani woman who headed the United Nations’ efforts at population control, summed up the approach this way: Women who are expected to center their lives around caring for a husband and children will have many children. However, give women more choices about how to live and they will have fewer children. Women with access to schooling and jobs will marry and bear children as a matter of choice, not because it is the only option. Under these conditions, evidence shows that fertility declines, slowing population increase.”

“Each one of the world’s three richest people—Bernard Arnault ($211 billion), Elon Musk ($180 billion), and Jeff Bezos ($114 billion)—has greater wealth than the combined wealth of all the people living in 108 of the world’s 195 countries (Forbes, 2023).”

“In rich countries such as the United States, there are relatively few infant deaths, and people typically live to about the age of seventy-five to eighty. Among people living near absolute poverty, however, death comes early. For example, in the low-income nation of Lesotho, just 36 percent of people can expect to live to the age of sixty-five.”

New Research: 23 new research references; 70 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 17 Technology and the Environment

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Environmental racism theory is included in analysis of environmental issues. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Global Map 17-1 presents per capita energy consumption for the nations of the world; Revel’s interactive companion map shows nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover the link between the two variables. National Map 17-1 shows the quality of the air in all of the countries across the United States; Revel’s interactive map invites students to zoom in to explore various regions as well as their local community. All Revel maps include an assignable writing exercises.

New Material: The latest survey shows young adults are considerably more concerned about climate change than older adults; still, majorities in all age categories express concern. Discussion includes the latest policies advanced by the Biden administration.

Updates: Reflecting the latest data, discussions address global carbon emissions, increasing global population, global consumption of oil (4.2 billion gallons per day), the composition of household trash, the intensifying shortage of fresh water, and declining biodiversity.

Quotations from Chapter:

“The figure shows the increasing annual output of carbon emissions from 1960 to 2022. As you can see, the output level doubled from 1960 to 2002 and peaked in 2015, followed by a decline due to lower CO2 levels after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. By 2022, the carbon output had climbed once again.”

“The typical adult in the United States uses about four times as much energy as the average person in the world and more than fifty times as much as a person living in a low-income nation such as Eritrea (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2023).”

“One recent analysis concluded that more than 300 toxic substances can be detected in tap water in the United States, which pose a threat to the health of about one-fifth of the people in the United States (Philip et al., 2017; Zhang, 2021).”

“Scientists note that the five warmest years on record—that is, years with the highest average temperature—were 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2022 (NASA, 2022).”

New Research: 23 new research references; 92 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.

Chapter 18 War and Terrorism

DEI: Chapter reflects all best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Political analysis from various points of view ensures that a diversity of perspectives is included.

Interactives: Global Map 18-1 shows the level of peacefulness in nations around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map presents nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover the link between these two variables. All Revel “discovery” maps include an assignable writing exercise. Global Map 18-2 shows the status of nuclear weapons in nations around the world; Revel’s interactive companion map presents nations’ level of economic development, inviting students to discover how these two variables are related.

New Material: There is new discussion of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, military spending by the Biden administration, the suicide rate among military veterans, and hypersonic missiles. There is a new discussion of the stability-instability paradox involving nuclear weapons and the risk of war. There is newly expanded discussion of strategies for dealing with terrorism. New contrast between terrorism, hate crimes, and mass shootings.

Updates: The most recent data have been used to update discussions of the “doomsday clock,” ongoing conflicts in the world, the U.S. death toll in military conflicts, the level of military spending for the world as a whole, the most recent convictions for war crimes, the decreasing share of the U.S. population that has served in the military, the number of nuclear weapons in the world, the extent and location of terrorism in the world,

Quotations from Chapter:

“But after decades of research on the causes of armed conflict, most social scientists reject the idea that the roots of war lie in our human nature. Rather, the causes of military conflict are found in the operation of society itself. War, like many other social problems, is not just something that happens; it is often an action set in motion intentionally by leaders. At the same time, understanding more about the social causes of war should lead to more effective strategies to promote peace.”

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is, today, an unusual case of militarism. Most commonly, armed conflict has taken the form of civil war within a nation, as in Afghanistan and Syria, although such conflicts typically involve military participation by other nations.”

“The U.S. defense budget was about $780 billion in 2023, which calculates to more than $2,400 for each citizen. Overall, military spending accounted for about 11 percent of the federal budget. Militarily, the United States is by far the most powerful nation in the world, spending almost three times more on its armed forces than China, which has the next largest military budget. In fact, the United States spends as much on the military as the next ten countries in the ranking combined (Congressional Budget Office, 2023a; Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2023).”

New Research: 30 new research references; 71 percent of all chapter references are dated 2020 to 2023.