Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Wait...Why do We Do That?
Jayanti Roy and Marx Gomez-Liendo · De Anza College
Wait...Why Do We Do That? An Understanding of Sociology invites students to look at the everyday world through a sociological lens, asking why social patterns exist, who they affect, and how sociologists study them. Built around real case studies and contemporary examples, the book connects theory to lived experience in a way that feels relevant and accessible to today's students.
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Our Lives - An Ethnic Studies Primer
Guadalupe Capozzi, Silas Cha, & Daryl Johnson · CC ECHO
This book is an introduction or primer to ethnic studies and is not a complete or comprehensive review of the literature. We identified and included major concepts, theories, perspectives, and voices in ethnic studies with research from anthropology, history, political science, psychology, and sociology to offer an inclusive approach for critical inquiry.
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Critical Perspectives on Technology and the Family
Susan K. Walker · University of Minnesota
As Information and Communications Technology (ICT) evolve families and the professionals who work with them are best armed with tools that enable their intentional use. This comprehensive text offers a balanced perspective of family life, member development and relationships, and professional use through contemporary research, learning activities and more.
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Comparative Culture and Society 2e
Danshiro Velasco · LibreTexts
This textbook contains fifteen short units that give students opportunities to discuss, debate, present, and write about global topics and issues. Most units are paired with one country, so that each topic can be viewed from that cultural perspective, which can then be compared to students’ own cultural perspectives and experience. This textbook integrates such fields as intercultural communication, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, as well as elements from the field of English-as-a-Secon
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Contemporary Families in the US: An Equity Lens 2e
Elizabeth B. Pearce · Linn-Benton Community College
This text provides students with a foundational understanding of the changing experiences and needs of contemporary families in the United States. It emphasizes the multi-directional influence of social structure as well as the impacts of difference, power, and oppression. Using an intersectional lens and placing the diversity of families at its core, the text prepares students with a range of majors and career paths.
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International Relations
Stephen McGlinchey · E-International Relations
This book is designed to be a ‘Day 0' introduction to International Relations. As a beginner's guide, it has been structured to condense the most important information into the smallest space and present that information in the most accessible way. The chapters offer a broad sweep of the basic components of International Relations and the key contemporary issues that concern the discipline.
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Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Social Life
Vera Kennedy · West Hills College Lemoore
In the contents: 1.03: Cultural Sociology
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SOCIODEMICS: The UNSDG Open Pedagogy Fellowship Project - The Associations Between Gender and Risk of Infectious Disease
Flora Rudacille & Gracie McDonough · College of Southern Nevada
UN SDG 5. Sociology and Epidemiology. Student-created research.
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Precarious Creativity: Global Media, Local Labor
Michael Curtin and Kevin Sanson · LibreTexts
Precarious Creativity examines the seismic changes confronting media workers in an age of globalization and corporate conglomeration. This pathbreaking anthology peeks behind the hype and supposed glamor of screen media industries to reveal the intensifying pressures and challenges workers face. The authors take on crucial issues and provide insightful case studies of workplace dynamics regarding creativity, collaboration, exploitation, and cultural difference.
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Exploring Socio-Cultural Perspectives in Diversity
Deanna Cozart et al. · University of Georgia
The fundamental knowledge of understanding culture and teaching children from diverse backgrounds. Examination of the nature and function of culture, development of individual and group cultural identity, definitions and implications of diversity, and the influences of culture on learning, development, and pedagogy. This course has a required field experience component.
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The Environmental Politics and Policy of Western Public Lands
Erika Wolters; Brent Steel · Oregon State University · 2020
In this volume, Erika Allen Wolters and Brent Steel have brought together the experts who can explain the evolution of public lands policies and politics in all their complexities. While their subject is complex, their prose is clear, and while their subject is torn by some of the most viciously self-interested, deceitful arguments in politics today, their prose is calm, factual, and evenhanded. No one should underestimate what a rare and valuable gift this is.
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Foundations of Social Work Research
Rebecca Mauldin · Mavs Open Press · 2020
This textbook was created to provide an introduction to research methods for BSW and MSW students, with particular emphasis on research and practice relevant to students at the University of Texas at Arlington. It provides an introduction to social work students to help evaluate research for evidence-based practice and design social work research projects. It can be used with its companion, A Guidebook for Social Work Literature Reviews and Research Questions by Rebecca L. Mauldin and Matthew DeCarlo, or as a stand-alone textbook.
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A Quick Guide to Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences
Christine Davies · University of Wales Trinity Saint David · 2020
This resource is intended as an easy-to-use guide for anyone who needs some quick and simple advice on quantitative aspects of research in social sciences, covering subjects such as education, sociology, business, nursing. If you area qualitative researcher who needs to venture into the world of numbers, or a student instructed to undertake a quantitative research project despite a hatred for maths, then this booklet should be a real help. The booklet was amended in 2022 to take into account previous review comments.
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Speaking of Culture
Nolan Weil · Rebus Community · 2017
“Speaking of Culture” is a collection of instructor-authored background readings intended to accompany other activities, discussions, experiences, projects, and readings for IELI 2470 – Cross-Cultural Perspectives, a course offered by faculty in the Intensive English Language Institute at Utah State University. Its main purpose is to define culture and other concepts often associated with it.
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Introduction to Design Equity
Kristine Miller · University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing · 2018
Why do affluent, liberal, and design-rich cities like Minneapolis have some of the biggest racial disparities in the country? How can designers help to create more equitable communities? Introduction to Design Equity, an open access book for students and professionals, maps design processes and products against equity research to highlight the pitfalls and potentials of design as a tool for building social justice.
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Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Human Social Life
Vera Kennedy · Vera Kennedy · 2018
The book is supported by discussion of relevant theory and research in cultural sociology. Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Human Social Life has stressed learner-centered teaching with the instructor taking on the role of a facilitator of learning. As such, it is expected the instructor will serve as the mediator between the content of this book and learners’ understanding of material on multiple and higher levels. This book does not offer a set of rules in teaching cultural sociology, but rather suggests content and applications to consider and modify as needed by the ever-changing dynamics of instructors and learners.
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Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice
Dana Hellman; Vivek Shandas · Portland State University Library · 2020
This reader is an Open Educational Resource, meant to accompany a graduate or higher-level undergraduate university course in climate change resilience, adaptation, and/or planning. While the material is geared toward students in urban and regional planning, it may also be of interest to students of urban studies, public health, geography, political science, sociology, risk management, and others. Each section of this volume includes (1) an introductory summary, (2) a reading list with full text articles, (3) student exercises meant to enhance understanding and facilitate in-class discussion, and (4) additional discussion prompts or activities for instructors to use in class. The format of materials is intended to convey key concepts, while leaving ample space for student exploration, discourse, and creativity. Lessons may culminate in an applied, imaginative final project, a sample framework of which is provided at the end of Section VI.
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The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology
Michael Wesch · New Prairie Press · 2018
Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. “Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage,” Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. “Pierre Bourdieu called anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and rigorous discipline. … It teaches students not to be afraid of getting one’s hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself, body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a “heroic” profession.” What is the payoff for this heroic journey? You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world’s jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human.
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Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy
Meggie Mapes · University of Kansas Libraries · 2024
Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy (second edition) is a contemporary, interdisciplinary public speaking textbook that fuses rhetoric, critical/cultural studies, and performance to offer an up-to-date resource for students. With a focus on advocacy, this textbook invites students to consider public speaking as a political, purposeful form of information-sharing.
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Memory & Cognition
Priyanka Mehta · University of Wisconsin System · 2026
Memory & Cognition offers a fresh, engaging tour of how the mind works—spanning the brain, mental imagery, the different functions of memory, and decision‑making. Blending psychology with neuroscience, computer science, sociology, and philosophy, the book grounds concepts in real‑life examples and uses experimental evidence, diagrams, and hypothetical scenarios to introduce complex topics to readers. Memory & Cognition is a concise, interdisciplinary guide for anyone curious about how we think, remember, and make decisions.