See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/271142912

Social Problems: Globalization in the Twenty-First Century

Article  in  Teaching Sociology · October 1999

DOI: 10.2307/1319049

CITATIONS READS

12 510

4 authors, including:

Brian Klocke
Washington College
15 PUBLICATIONS   143 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Public Sociology Project View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Brian Klocke on 18 July 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Brian Klocke
Reviewed work(s):
Social Problems: Globalization in the Twenty-First Century by R. Dean Peterson ; Delores
F. Wunder ; Harlan L. Mueller
Source: Teaching Sociology, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), pp. 419-422
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1319049
Accessed: 14/05/2010 11:51

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://dv1litvip.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=asa.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Teaching Sociology.

http://dv1litvip.jstor.org
BOOKREVIEWS 419
majorstepin the rightdirection. and the UniversalDeclarationof HumanRights.
After Chapter1, the textbookcontainsthree
REFERENCE parts:Part 1, "Negotiating the New GlobalCul-
ture,"Part2, "Globalization andChangingInsti-
Antonio,RobertJ. 1995."Nietzsche's Antisociology: tutions,"and Part3, "Globalization, Victimiza-
SubjectifiedCultureandtheEndof History." Ameri- tion and In addition,it includes
canJournalof Sociology101:1-43. Empowerment."
an epilogue on "Reimagingthe Future."The
Jay R. Howard chapterscover a broadrangeof topics, ranging
IndianaUniversity--Columbus from environmental destruction,violence, and
crime,to politics,economics,andhealth.
Social Problems: Globalization in the There are many social issues and theoretical
Twenty-FirstCentury.R. Dean Peterson,De- concernspackedinto 12 chapters,perhapstoo
loresF. Wunder,andHarlanL. Mueller.Saddle manyfor a beginningstudentto fullygraspin one
River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1999. 466 pages. course.Eachchapterhas a similarformat-each
$54.67. beginswitha personalstory,oftenfromanother
country,thatrelatesto the themeof the chapter.
"Globalization" may be the latest buzz word Then,the text addressesthe globalsocial issues.
amongmacro-sociologists andthe socialsciences Next, U.S. socialproblemsare discussedin this
in general. A quick Internetsearch delivered context,followedby an assessmentof the situa-
more than 23,000 hits, a search of a social tion and how differentstakeholders addressthe
sciencedatabasebroughtover 1300journalarti- problems.Finally,the text providesa summary,
cles, and a perusalof an online bookstorere- followedby critical-thinking questions,suggested
vealed385 booktitles. As we approachthe new readings,and suggestedWeb sites. Some chap-
millennium,therateandexpanseof globalhuman ters also have a subsectionon largertheoretical
interactionis increasingdramatically,often en- concerns.The end of the book includesa glos-
acting rapid changesof whole societies. This sary, an index, and a copy of the Universal
raisesnew challengesfor scholarsand teachers Declarationof HumanRights.Some interesting
who are tryingto understandsocial issues and additionalfeaturesexist in each chapteras well,
engagestudents,oftenwith a shortenedsense of which appearin separatetext boxes and share
history, in intellectualinquiry and discourse specific"reallife" scenariosrelatingto issuesof
aboutsocialproblems.The impactsof globaliza- eachchapter.
tionare so extensivethatit even altersthe social The mostsignificantcontribution this textbook
construction of oneself. makesfor teachingsociologyis thatit discusses
The authorsof Social Problems: Globalization contemporary social issueswithinthe contextof
in the Twenty-FirstCenturyexplain: globalization.This offersmoreto understanding
theworldthansimplyaddinga few cross-cultural
As a result,it is imperative thatwe helpstudents comparisons.
achievea fundamental understanding of globaliza- A secondstrengthof this textbookis its focus
tion.Suchanunderstanding is notonlyessential to on historicalcontext.Oneof thehallmarks of our
assessingandaddressing worldwide problems; it is postmodernage is the collapseof history into
alsothekeyto eliminating detrimentalsituationsin simulacra.The studentswe teach
ourownsociety.Ourmaingoalin writing thisbook world that has grew up in a
always had personalcomputers,
hasbeento createa textthatwouldnotsimplytack
connections
on international to U.S. socialproblems cable television,and compactdiscs. Theirsense
butwouldbeconstructed fromthepremise thatmost, of history,andlife in general,hasbeenmediated
if not all, of the socialproblemswe face are by a society that has more "publicrelations"
immersed ina globalcontext. (P.xvii) agentsthanjournalists.It is importantfor stu-
dents to see that globalizationand other social
This is an innovativeand very welcomedap- issueshavedevelopedhistoricallyout of specific
proach for understanding contemporarysocial andcomplexsocialandpoliticalprocesses.
issuesin a historicalandholisticframework.It is Anotherstrengthof thistextbookis theecolog-
uniquefor a socialproblemstextbookto put the ical consciousnessthatshinesthroughthe discus-
currentglobalization processin the centerof the sion of globalsocial issues. A clearexplanation
analysis. of the differenttypes of radicalecology move-
The beginningchaptergives a standardintro- ments is provided,based upon CarolynMer-
duction to the sociological perspective, the chant'simportant work.The introduction to Part
themesandtheoretical underpinnings of thebook, H containsa representative sampleof theecologi-
420
cal consciousness in the textbook:
The powerfultechnologyof the modemindustrial
worldis rapidlydestroyingour environment....Not
only do more people consumemore, but people
worldwideare adoptingthe aspirationsof Western
society. This meansthey are increas-
materialistic
inglydefiningthe 'goodlife' in termsof acquisition
of more and more materialpossessions.The in-
creasedadoptionof these aspirationshas dramati-
cally increasedglobalconsumption and waste."(P.
140)
The authorsalso use the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR) effectively as a tool
for discussing issues of globalization. While not a
perfect or uncontesteddocument, it can stimulate
deeper conversationswith studentswithout falling
into moral relativism.
An additionaladvantageof this textbook is the
number of Web sites provided for computer
savvy studentsof the global era. For example, the
text lists the World Watch Institute
(www.worldwatch.org), Amnesty International
(www. amnesty.org), U.S. Census Bureau
(www. census. gov), the United Nations
(www.un.org), and many other useful links for
further exploration of issues presented in the
book.
Finally, the authors have used resources and
insights from a variety of disciplines to enhance
the discussion of contemporarysocial issues. One
of their best implementationsof this is their use
of chaos theory to help understandcomplex sys-
tems. Many complex systems, including social
systems, exhibit "overall patternsof stability and
change while maintaining fluctuations at the
lower levels" (p. 182). However, equilibria of
complex systems are "capable of rapid, unpre-
dictable alterationswhen certain limits of thresh-
olds are exceeded" (p.182). Chaos theory offers
insightful implications for global, social, and
environmentalchange.
One of the main weaknesses of the book is its
limited and unclear use of social theory. I believe
that a social problems textbook dealing with
issues of globalization is incomplete without a
thorough discussion of World Systems Theory
(WST), Marxist theory, and conflict theory. The
chapteron minoritygroup tensions only mentions
conflict theory, while Marxist theory and WST
are conspicuously absent. Although the authors
make good use of dependency theory, I believe
WST would be much more useful in explaining
the complexities of globalization. Marx's con-
cepts of ideology, exploitation, alienation, and
species being, for example, are particularly im-
TEACHINGSOCIOLOGY
portantin understandingthe historical context of
modernization and the contemporarycontext of
globalization processes and resulting social in-
equality. Postmodern theory is mentioned in a
"piecemeal" fashion in three chapters, but not
sufficiently in any single chapterto give students
an accurate understanding of its usefulness in
explaining the implications of globalization for
culture and identity.
A second disappointmentis the book's inade-
quate discussion of two key social institutions-
mass media and multinational corporations-as
well as general economies and their impact on
current globalization processes. The title of
Chapter 8, "Global Economic Systems," seems
to suggest coverage of different types of eco-
nomic systems. While several chapterspresent a
fair critique of the negative aspects of capitalism,
they do not provide a comparative theoretical
discussion of alternative types of economic sys-
tems, such as mixed economies, socialist
economies (there are many types of socialism),
and communist economies. Although Chapter 7
uses the term "centrallyplannedeconomies," it is
mentionedonly briefly to explain Russia's transi-
tion to a "market-driveneconomy" and the de-
creasing political tensions with the United States.
Chapter8 includes many of the global finance
and trade organizations and laws, such as the
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), the GeneralAgreementon Tariffs and
Trade (GATT), the InternationalMonetary Fund
(IMF), and the World Bank. However, this chap-
ter leaves out any mentionof the Organizationfor
Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD). The OECD is the organization that
draftedthe ominousproposal, MultilateralAgree-
ment on Investments (MAI), which surpasses
NAFTA and GATT in delivering corporations
the power to destroy nationalregulationsprotect-
ing communities, workers, and the environment.
The increasingdominationof nationaland global
cultures by corporationsdeserves more attention.
Perhaps future editions of this textbook will
discuss this issue for an entire chapter. Another
importantsocial problem that warrantsa chapter
is the impact of the global media on the develop-
ment of consumer ideology and social and per-
sonal identityconstruction.
My next concern with the textbook involves
coverage of population issues in the context of
global environmental destruction. Chapter 5,
"Populationand Urbanization:Too Many People,
Too Few Resources," and to a lesser extent,
Chapter 6, "EnvironmentalDestruction: Deplet-
ing the Global Commons," focus on populationat
BOOKREVIEWS
the expenseof peopleand focus on consumption
over production.Many solutions providedby
thesegroupstargetchangingthe behaviorsof the
"under-developed" societiesof the world. Thus,
programsreportedly aimedat decreasingenviron-
mentaldestruction,suchas birthcontroldissemi-
nationprogramsto restrictthe fertilityof women
in poorcommunitiesaroundthe globe, are used
ratherthan programsdesigned to reduce the
industrialoverproduction of "developed"coun-
tries. The extentof the overproduction by devel-
oped countries is partiallyreflectedin the follow-
ingstatement fromthetextbook:"the'developed'
world has less than 25 percentof the world's
people, but consumes75 percentof the earth's
raw materialsand energyand produces75 per-
centof theearth'ssolidwastes"(p. 138).'
Anotherweaknessof the textbookis its failure
to revealthe socialconstruction of certainsocial
issues in sufficientdepth.This is perhapsmost
notablein Chapter11, "MinorityGroupTen-
sions:Issuesof RaceandEthnicity."Theauthors
do notproblematize theconceptof raceenough.I
believemostcollege studentsneeda deeperdis-
cussionof the social constructionof race. The
conceptof racesdoesnotexistoutsideourminds.
Races are arbitraryand historicallychanging
categoriesassignedby thosein powerforpolitical
and social gain. Most physicalscientistsagree
thatthereis no set of physicalcharacteristics that
can accuratelyassignall peopleto distinctracial
classifications(Ferrante andBrown1998).Often,
a person of one "race"can be more similar
geneticallyto someoneof a different"race"than
someoneof the same "race." Also, the term
"minoritygroup" is problematicas well. In
contrast,this chaptersuccessfullydistinguishes
betweenthe use of "minoritygroup"to definea
socialrelationship to the dominantgroupandthe
use of "minoritygroup"to indicatea numerical
relationship.A group, which is a numerical
minority,may oppressa numericalmajority,as
theApartheid Regimedid in SouthAfrica.
'A moredetailed I am
of theargument
explanation
forthherecanbefoundin "Peopleor Popula-
putting
tion:Towardsa New Ecologyof Reproduction,"
Chapter (MiesandShiva1993).
19 of Ecofeminism
Maria Mies and VandanaShiva explain that the indus-
trial system of the North (developed nations), "does
not want to abandon its growth therefore it lays the
blame for the damage it causes on its victims: the
South's poor, particularlythe women who produce too
many children." Another author providing this
counter-perspectiveis Emanuel Sfeiros. His article,
"Population,Immigrationand the Environment," pub-
lished in Z Magazine (1998), further explains:
421
Finally, this chaptermentions"reversedis-
crimination"withouta critiqueor discussionof
its formulation.Reversediscrimination syntacti-
callymeansto enddiscrimination (theoppositeof
discrimination).Actual cases of discrimination
against whites are very rare because
"non-whites" do not havethe institutional
power
(Feagin and Feagin 1996) to inflict recurring
discriminationagainst whites. Institutionalized
racismseems absentfrom the discussionin this
chapteras it definesracismas "abelief"(p. 337).
Not surprisinglythen, a conservativepictureof
affirmativeactionis portrayedas beinga system
of preferentialtreatmentbasedon race and that
thequestionof qualifications of thosehiredunder
affirmativeactionis legitimate.Affirmativeac-
tion programsas definedby law cannotuse race
as the sole factor,butonly as an additionalfactor
amongmanyotherswhenall theremaining candi-
dateshavemet the qualifications of employment.
Ironically,we do not notice that we have a
preferencesystem for whites, especiallywhite
males,forjobs withhighsocialstatusandpower
and ask whetheror not they are qualified.For
example, 97 percentof U.S. senatorsand 94
percentof U.S. lawyersare white, whenwhites
representonly 72 percentof the U.S. population
(Hartmann1998). In addition, 97 percent of
schoolsuperintendents and95 percentof Fortune
500 CEOs are white males, when white males
representonly 33 percentof the U.S. population
(Lusane1997).
This social problemstextbookseems geared
towardsbeginningstudents,althoughit could
proveusefulfor moreseasonedstudentsas well.
However, I would suggest supplementingthe
book with other readingsto providea deeper
understanding of some of the manyissues cov-
ered. The textbookattemptsto surveytoo many
issues while coveringfew in sufficientdepthfor
studentswho arenewto thinkingaboutglobaliza-
tion.Moreover,inconsistent standpoints on issues
throughout the bookmayleavestudentsconfused
"Despite the fact that the wealthy consume far greater
resources than the poor, it is not the consumers, but
producers-and the social institutions in which they
operate-which account for the vast majority of envi-
ronmental degradation. Most consumers have little
control over industrial production and consumption
decisions, and most industrial production and con-
sumption decisions are made with little regard for
population levels." None of these authors deny that
population is a serious issue that needs to be ad-
dressed, but they are concerned that proposed solu-
tions are focusing on symptoms of environmental
imbalanceand social injusticeratherthan the causes.
 422 TEACHINGSOCIOLOGY
or frustrated. Mies, Maria and VandanaShiva. 1993. Ecofemi-
The saving grace of this textbook is its ability nism. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books.
to open up intellectualinquiry and discussion into Sfeiros, Emanuel. 1998. "Population, Immigra-
globalizationprocesses and their impacts on con- tion and the Environment:Eco-Fascism and the
temporarysocial issues. The textbook is particu- Environmental Movement." Z Magazine
larly strong on providing a historical context and June:24-29.
an ecological vision to globalization. I look for-
ward to future editions of this textbook or other BrianKlocke
textbooks with similar approaches that will im- Universityof Colorado
prove upon the weaknesses mentionedabove.
While the epilogue of the textbook is a call to ThinkTwice!SociologyLooksat CurrentSocial
reimaging our future, it does not call us to Issues. Lorne TeppermanandJennyBlain. Upper
recreateour future. While I believe it is intended Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 1999. 319
to be hopeful, the epilogue's writing left me pages. $28.67.
somewhatdepressed and uninspired. More offer-
The authors of Think Twice! have written the
ings of solutions to globalization problems and
book "with the aim of encouraging second
specific examples of organizations and social
movements making a difference by countering thoughts, sociological debate, and informed rea-
global hegemony would have left me with a spark soning" (p. xi). The book is intendedas a supple-
of agency and empowerment.As sociologists, we ment to an introductory sociology text or as a
have a tendency to focus on problem definitions supplementary text in social problems, social
issues, or applied sociology courses. The authors
through a lens of "objective" moral relativism,
clearly state that their intentionis to supplement,
leaving our students either hopeless or apathetic not replace, a basic textbook.
to confronting social injustices and making the
world a better place. Such a spark is provided in ThinkTwice! contains 15 chapters, correspond-
the words of David Korten (1998), noted author ing to the topics covered in standardintroductory
texts, namely culture, socialization, deviance and
on globalization:
control, class and stratification, race and ethnic
work and the
It is time for we the peopleof the worldto work relations, gender relations, family,
economy, education, politics and the state,
togetheras self-empowered citizensof a smalland
sufferingplanetto createjust and sustainablesoci- health, population, religion, global inequality,
eties dedicatedto bringingour speciesinto balance and social change. Each of the 15 chapters fol-
withitselfandthe planet.To do so we will needto lows the same format.The authorsbriefly (in two
reclaimthepowerwe haveyieldedto institutions that or three paragraphs)introduce the concepts re-
no longerservethehumaninterestandto createnew lated to the chapter's topic. They then present
institutionsdedicatedto the premisethatall power three debates related to each topic. For each
flows fromthe will andaspirations of the sovereign debate,
Tepperman and Blain present two sides
people...thechallengeis ours andthe time is now. and their own summary and conclusions. The
(P. 74) discussion of each debate is followed by "Review
Exercises" that include four questions or state-
REFERENCES ments for discussion, four writing prompts, and
four research activities. Finally, each section
Feagin, Joe R. and Clairece Booher Feagin. concludes with 20 to 25 references on topics
1996. Racial and Ethnic Relation. 5th ed. relatedto the debate.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. The aims of the book-to get studentsto "think
Ferrante,Joan and Prince Brown, Jr., eds. 1998. twice" (or more)-is a common objective at the
The Social Constructionof Race and Ethnicity
introductorylevel. First-time sociology students
in the United States. New York: Longman often assume that sociology is just common
Hartmann,Roy. 1998. "Blinded by White: Why sense, and they lack the more general kinds of
CaucasiansWould Prefer to Ignore Our Prefer- thinking and analytical skills necessary to think
ences." RiverfrontTimes. St. Louis, MO. sociologically. I would agree with the authors
Korten, David. 1998. Globalizing Civil Society:. that facilitating critical thinking is essential in
Reclaiming Our Right to Power. New York: introductory-levelcourses. As noted above, the
Seven Stories Press. authors' aims are carefully circumscribed:
Lusane, Clarence. 1997. Race in the Global Era:
African Americans at the Millenium. Boston, It is not the goal of this book to replacethe basic
MA: South End Press. textbook....Nordoes it try to providea comprehen-

View publication stats