General sociological weblinks

Below you will find a list of some particularly useful websites to supplement your reading of the textbook. These range from journals and blogs to online dictionaries and databases.

Although it is no longer updated, Intute is a very useful large database of resources. Each resource listed on this site has been reviewed by a specialist in the subject and classified according to which topic it relates to, what type of resource it is, who created it and when, what geographical area it deals with, and who it will be useful for. A search for ‘General sociology’ brings up 152 different resources, and these are divided up into sections including:

• Applied sociology
• Culture and identity
• Economic sociology
• Individual and society
• Sociological theory

Another good aggregate site (of sociological data sets, reports, videos, research, and so on) is Understanding the World Today, as well as Sociosite maintained by the University of Amsterdam at which focuses more on sociology courses, departments and associations, but also includes links to relevant journals, libraries and data archives.

Some insightful sociology blogs include:

• Citings and Sightings
• Contexts Discoveries (published by the American Sociological Association)
• Crooked Timber
• Everyday Sociology

The following journals offer selected articles which are free to download:

• American Journal of Sociology
• American Sociological Review (free articles on offer include those dealing with race, religion, gender, and migration)

Some interesting multimedia is available at:

• Listen to the British Academy Lectures online.
• Listen to episodes of ‘Thinking Allowed’, a discussion programme from Radio 4 focusing on the latest social science research.

To read a good selection of recent news stories related to contemporary society, visit the Society section of The Guardian online.

For a handy online dictionary of sociological terms which supplements the searchable glossary on this site, see the Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences.

And finally, for links to sociological data see the website of British Social Attitudes. This shows the annual results of the primary social research survey in Britain along with analysis. The survey focuses on the British public’s changing attitudes towards social, economic, political and moral issues. See also the ESDS International’s guide to the European Social Survey (ESS), a biennial multi-country survey covering over 30 nations which aims to measure and explain trends in attitudes, beliefs and values across countries in Europe and its close neighbours