Framing 21st Century Social Issues
About the Book Series
The goal of this new, unique Series is to offer readable, teachable "thinking frames" on today’s social problems and social issues by leading scholars, all in short 60 page or shorter formats, and available for view on http://routledge.customgateway.com/routledge-social-issues.html
For instructors teaching a wide range of courses in the social sciences, the Routledge Social Issues Collection now offers the best of both worlds: originally written short texts that provide "overviews" to important social issues as well as teachable excerpts from larger works previously published by Routledge and other presses.
The Pains of Mass Imprisonment
2nd Edition
By Benjamin Fleury-Steiner, Jamie Longazel
July 30, 2025
This engaging book presents a critical approach to understanding prison conditions in the United States in the era of mass incarceration. Fleury-Steiner and Longazel do this by weaving together empirical research on prisons with stories that rely on the voices and lived experiences of people who ...
Debating the Drug War: Race, Politics, and the Media
1st Edition
By Michael Rosino
March 17, 2021
Since President Nixon coined the phrase, the "War on Drugs" has presented an important change in how people view and discuss criminal justice practices and drug laws. The term evokes images of militarization, punishment, and violence, as well as combat and the potential for victory. It is no ...
Social Problems: A Human Rights Perspective
2nd Edition
By Eric Bonds
March 15, 2021
Social Problems: A Human Rights Perspective, Second Edition evaluates U.S. society through an international human rights framework. The book provides a critical discussion about what rights mean, along with a sociological exploration of power and inequality to explain why human rights are...
Myth and Reality in the U.S. Immigration Debate
1st Edition
By Greg Prieto
September 18, 2020
"What part of illegal don’t you understand?" This oft-repeated slogan from immigration restrictionists illustrates the contentious quality of the immigration reform debate in the United States: a debate that has raged on unresolved since at least 1986 when our immigration system was last reformed. ...
Body Problems: Running and Living Long in a Fast-Food Society
2nd Edition
By Ben Agger
August 14, 2019
Body Problems addresses the relationship between the body and society in a fast-food culture. Agger focuses on issues of food, exercise, work, dieting and eating disorders, fashion, bariatric and cosmetic surgery, and health. He addresses a growing, fundamental dilemma that we have ample access to ...
Trans* Lives in the United States: Challenges of Transition and Beyond
1st Edition
By Andrew Cutler Seeber
October 02, 2017
Being and becoming trans* is a complex and varied experience whether an individual is living openly as trans* or not. Few published studies in either the academic or popular press illuminate the challenges of living as a trans* person after medical and social transition are complete. Trans* Lives ...
Entrepreneurs and the Search for the American Dream
1st Edition
By Zulema Valdez
December 03, 2015
The book's central focus explores several "myths" associated with American entrepreneurship: the idea that small business owners are "job creators"; that entrepreneurs are the "backbone" or "engine" of the economy; that entrepreneurship provides a path of economic mobility for immigrants, ethnic ...
The Global Beauty Industry: Colorism, Racism, and the National Body
1st Edition
By Meeta Jha
September 17, 2015
The Global Beauty Industry is an interdisciplinary text that uses beauty to explore topics of gender, race, class, colorism, nation, bodies, multiculturalism, transnationalism, and intersectionality. Integrating materials from a wide range of cultural and geo-political contexts, it coalesces with ...
Hate Crime: A Global Perspective
1st Edition
By Paul Iganski, Jack Levin
April 09, 2015
This short, accessible text takes on the global and pervasive phenomenon of hate crimes and hypothesizes potential fixes. Iganski and Levin detail evidence of hate violence in the 21st century, particularly religious hatred, ethnic, racial and xenophobic hatred, violence on the basis of sexual ...
Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market
2nd Edition
By France Winddance Twine
April 01, 2015
Through case studies, Outsourcing the Womb, Second Edition provides a critical analysis and global tour of the international surrogacy landscape in Egypt, India, China, Japan, Israel, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States. By providing a comparative analysis of countries that have very ...
Oversharing: Presentations of Self in the Internet Age
2nd Edition
By Ben Agger
February 10, 2015
People ‘overshare’ when they interact with others through the screens of computers and smartphones. Oversharing means to divulge more of their inner feelings, opinions and sexuality than they would in person, or even over the phone. Text messaging, Facebooking, tweeting, camming, blogging, online ...
The Enduring Color Line in U.S. Athletics
1st Edition
By Krystal Beamon, Chris M. Messer
November 14, 2013
Sports are an integral part of American society. Millions of dollars are spent every year on professional, collegiate, and youth athletics, and participation in and viewing of these sports both alter and reflect how one perceives the world. Beamon and Messer deftly explore sports as a social ...