Publisher’s Notice Please note that this version of the ebook does not include access to any media or print supplements that are sold packaged with the printed book. W. W. NORTON & COMPANY has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today—with a staff of five hundred and hundreds of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees. Copyright © 2022 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved First Edition Editor: Sasha Levitt Assistant Editor: Erika Nakagawa Project Editor: Laura Dragonette Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi Associate Director of Production, College: Benjamin Reynolds Media Editor: Eileen Connell Associate Media Editor: Ariel Eaton Media Editorial Assistant: Alexandra Park Media Project Editor: Danielle Belfiore Marketing Research and Strategy Director: Julia Hall Design Director, College: Rubina Yeh Text Design: Marisa Nakasone Photo Editor: Catherine Abelman Photo Researcher: Dena Digilio Betz Director of College Permissions: Megan Schindel Permissions Manager: Bethany Salminen Text Permissions Specialist: Josh Garvin Composition: Graphic World, Inc. / Sunil Kumar, Project Manager Ebook Manager: Megan Crayne Permission to use copyrighted material is included in the credits section of this book, which begins on page C-1. ISBN: 978-0-393-26530-9 (paperback) ISBN: 978-0-393-87689-5 (epub) W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110 www.wwnorton.com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS Ebook version: 1.1-retailer ABOUT THE AUTHOR LISA WADE, PHD, is an Associate Professor at Tulane University with appointments in Sociology, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and the Newcomb Institute. An accomplished scholar, award-winning teacher, and public sociologist, she has become well known for delivering conversational yet compelling translations of sociological theory and research. She’s the author of American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus and, with Myra Marx Ferree, Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. BRIEF CONTENTS PREFACE xv INTRODUCTION The Science of Social Facts 2 1 The Self 12 2 Culture and Construction 34 3 Our Identities 60 4 People in Interaction 86 5 Deviance and Defiance 114 6 Organizations, Institutions, and Structures 144 7 Economic Inequality 170 8 Institutional Racism 200 9 Gendered Oppression 228 10 Elite Power 258 11 The Power of the People 286 12 Our Future on Earth 312 CONCLUSION The Sociological Imagination 342 APPENDIX A A Short History of Sociology A-1 APPENDIX B A Guide to Sociological Research A-11 CONTENTS PREFACE xv INTRODUCTION The Science of Social Facts 2 Social Facts 4 Studying Social Facts 6 The Science of Sociology 9 1 THE SELF 12 The Self 15 Reflecting on the Self 18 The Story of the Self 26 The Self as a Social Fact 31 The Science of Sociology: In-depth Interviews 20 The Science of Sociology: Experimental Research in the Laboratory 25 2 CULTURE & CONSTRUCTION 34 Social Construction 37 Culture 40 Socialization 42 Culture Wars 53 Culture during Covid-19 57 The Science of Sociology: Social Network Analysis 46 The Science of Sociology: Biosocial Research Methods 52 3 OUR IDENTITIES 60 The Lure of Identity 63 Step 1: Invent: The Origin of Sexual Identity 65 Step 2: Divide: Race, Ethnicity, and the Emergence of Subcategories 67 Step 3: Stereotype: Filling Gender Subcategories with Contents 71 Step 4: Perform: Act Your Age 75 Step 5: Rank: The Building of Body Hierarchies 77 Intersectionality and Disability 82 The Science of Sociology: Content Analyses 73 The Science of Sociology: Computational Sociology 81