Social Problems

For courses on Social Problems.

Macionis's Social Problems is the only social problems text that explains how society frames social problems and solutions through politics. The text analyzes social issues and policies, using the concepts of sociological theory and the everyday language of politics.

This text helps students understand the attitudes and values that define the political spectrum in the United States. Once students know how social problems are defined by our society through politics, and how the policies to solve these problems are developed, students are able to  become involved in solving social problems through activism and political involvement.

His publications are wide-ranging, focusing on community life in the United States, interpersonal intimacy in families, effective teaching, humor, new information technology, and the importance of global education.  He collaborates on international editions of the texts: Sociology: Canadian Edition; Society: The Basics, Canadian Edition; and Sociology: A Global Introduction. Sociology is also available for high school students and in various foreign-language editions.

In addition, Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis have edited the best-selling anthology Seeing Ourselves: Classic, Contemporary, and Cross-Cultural Readings in Sociology, also available in a Canadian edition. Macionis and Vincent Parrillo have written the leading urban studies text, Cities and Urban Life (Prentice Hall). Macionis’s most recent textbook is Social Problems (Prentice Hall), now in its third edition and the leading book in this field. The latest on all the Macionis textbooks, as well as information and dozens of Internet links of interest to students and faculty in sociology, are found at the author’s personal Web site: http://www.macionis.com or http://www.TheSociologyPage.com. Additional information, instructor resources, and online student study guides for the texts are found at the Prentice Hall site: http://www.prenhall.com/macionis.

John Macionis is Professor and Distinguished Scholar of Sociology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he has taught for almost thirty years. During that time, he has chaired the Sociology Department, directed the college’s multidisciplinary program in humane studies, presided over the campus senate and the college’s faculty, and taught sociology to thousands of students.

In 2002, the American Sociological Association presented Macionis with the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, citing his innovative use of global material as well as the introduction of new teaching technology in his textbooks.

Professor Macionis has been active in academic programs in other countries, having traveled to some fifty nations. He writes, “I am an ambitious traveler, eager to learn and, through the texts, to share much of what I discover with students, many of whom know little about the rest of the world. For me, traveling and writing are all dimensions of teaching. First, and foremost, I am a teacher–a passion for teaching animates everything I do.”

The Macionis family–John, Amy, and children McLean and Whitney–live on a farm in rural Ohio. In his free time, Macionis enjoys tennis, swimming, hiking, and playing oldies rock-and-roll (he recently released his first CD). Macionis is as an environmental activist in the Lake George region of New York’s Adirondack Mountains, working with a number of organizations, including the Lake George Land Conservancy, where he serves as president of the board of trustees.