The new sociology for Australians, 3rd ed.

Book Review

Margaret Longman Sargent

ISBN: 978-0582809635 1994 462 pages Pearson Education Australia

Julianne Cheek
Institute of Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Oslo, Norway; Centre for Research into Sustainable Health Care, University of South Australia, SA

Margaret Sargent maintains her commitment to producing a book that provides a broad overview of sociology and which 'represents the experience of all Australian social groups,' in the third edition of this text. She cites three specific objectives arising from such aims:

To show how sociology is relevant to Australian society today
To describe what sociology is about with clarity and without stuffiness and condescension, and
To show that sociology can provide a critical approach to society, and can help in discerning needs and directions for social change. Such aims and associated objectives paradoxically reflect both the strengths and the weaknesses of the resultant revised text. There is no doubt, as reviewers of earlier editions of this book have noted, that she does achieve a writing style that is accessible and for the most part free of jargon.

However, in so doing there is the risk of oversimplification and overgeneralization, particularly given the scope of the text as portrayed in the aims and objectives. Thus concepts such as poststructuralism and 'establishment sociology' to name but two, are treated somewhat simply, indeed naively, in the book. Accessibility and simplicity must be tempered by the maintenance of rigour-a tall order for any author. Further, it is evident that the book still 'rings' with the 'political rhetoric' that Ronald Wild (1983) so strongly objected to in his review of the first edition. To be fair, Sargent does acknowledge her political and theoretical orientation and bias up front, but if this is a text aimed at introducing readers to the field of sociology then it cannot be assumed that readers are in a position to appreciate the effect of such bias on the material presented.

Despite these criticisms the book does have a part to play as an introductory text for those in nursing and other applied professional areas wishing to explore the impact of the social on their practice. Indeed, for the first time this edition gives health the status of a chapter in its own right-a long overdue correction. Visually the book is well set out with good use of headings and extensive reading lists. It is helpful to have the suggested readings 'graded' from difficult to easy to understand. The index proved satisfactory when tested on a number of concepts and terms. The Table of Contents is quite extensive and helpful in enabling the reader to orientate themself to the content and structure of the text.

In summary, this is a useful book as an introduction to some of the sociological concepts that may prove useful to Australian health professionals in analysing their practice in the 1990s. However it should be read with some caution as representing one theoretical viewpoint and necessarily being somewhat superficial in places given its scope.

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