This edition draws upon recent findings of sociological research about a rapidly changing society, upon both classical and contemporary theoretical debates and upon public controversies over social policy in fields ranging from the health service to the future of industry. The book begins with an assessment of sociology as a discipline, which is then set against the background of the history of global development and of contemporary divisions in the world, especially the Third World. Successive chapters introduce the reader to the special problems involved in researching society: the issues of sex, gender and the family, especially those raised by the women's movement; changing patterns of health and illness and of medical therapy; the explosive growth of the world's cities and changes in community life; the transformations of industry and of the nature of work in an epoch of mass unemployment; ethnic and racial conflicts both at world level and within our own society; the persistence of social order despite deep inequalities; and the many ways in which people deviate from respectable models of behaviour. The book ends with an overview of the main varieties of sociological theory.