Synopses & Reviews
In the Fourth Edition of Cultures and Societies in a Changing World, author Wendy Griswold illuminates how culture shapes our social world and how society shapes culture. Through this book, students will gain an understanding of the sociology of culture and explore stories, beliefs, media, ideas, art, religious practices, fashions, and rituals from a sociological perspective. Cultural examples from multiple countries and time periods will broaden students' global understanding. Students will develop a deeper appreciation of culture and society from this text, gleaning insights that will help them overcome cultural misunderstandings, conflicts, and ignorance and that will help equip them to live their professional and personal lives as effective, wise citizens of the world.
Synopsis
Cultures and Societies in a Changing World provides students with the basic skills necessary to understand the importance of culture and interpret the world in cultural terms. Griswold encourages students to explore the concept of culture and the nature of its relationship to the social world; understand seemingly structural issues like poverty or ethnicity by applying cultural analysis to these issues; broaden their cultural and social horizons so that they may effectively operate in the global economy and international culture of the twenty-first century. The metaphor of a diamond is used to focus on the links between culture and society, and how they can be applied to a study of social problems, to business practice in the global marketplace, and to the media.