Document Type
Article
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publication Title
Archives européennes de sociologie = European Journal of Sociology
Volume
51
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
The conservative role of the textbook in reproducing the dominant ideas of a disciplinary field is well known. The factors driving that content have remained almost entirely unexamined. Reviewing the universe of textbooks aimed at the American market between 1998 and 2004, we explore the persistence of the identification in American sociology textbooks of a paradigm in which structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism are used to frame the theoretical core of the discipline. We examine how over time the textbook market produces both supply and demand pressures to reproduce content that is at odds with the mainstream of the profession. We draw upon in-depth interviews with recent textbook authors and their editors.
Publisher's Statement
© 2010 by Cambridge University Press. Available on publisher's site at http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0003975610000135.
Citation
Manza, Jeff, Michael Sauder and Nathan Wright. "Producing Textbook Sociology." Archives européennes de sociologie 51, no. 2 (2010): 271-304.
DOI
10.1017/S0003975610000135