Cinematic Sociology is a one-of-a-kind resource that helps students to view films sociologically while also providing much-needed pedagogy for teaching sociology through film. In this engaging text, the authors take readers beyond watching movies and help them "see" films sociologically while also developing critical thinking and analytical skills that will be useful in college coursework and beyond. The book's essays from expert scholars in sociology and cultural studies explore the ways social life is presented-distorted, magnified, or politicized-in popular film.
Contributor to the SAGE Teaching Innovations and Professional Development Award
Chapter 1: Introduction - Jean-Anne Sutherland and Kathryn Feltey
Chapter 2: Theory
Sitting in the Dark with Max: Classical Sociological Theory Through Film - Michael Kimmel
Decoding Modern Society: The Matrix Trilogy and the Realm of Alienation - Harry Dahms
Outtake: Lights, Camera, Theory: Picturing Hollywood through Multiple Sociological Lenses - Mark Rubinfeld
Chapter 3: Social Class
Understanding Social Mobility through the Movies - James J. Dowd
Class in the Classroom: Hollywood's Distorted View of Inequality - Robert Bulman
Outtake: Social Class in America and People Like Us - Kathy Feltey
Chapter 4: Race & Ethnicity
The Spectacle of Black Violence as Cinema - Ed Guerrero
Don't Worry, We are all Racists!: Crash and the Politics of Privatization - Henry A. Giroux and Susan Searls Giroux
Latinos/as Through the Lens - Carleen R. Basler
Outtake: Pocahontas and Intersectionality: A Sociologist Reflects - Teresa Martinez
Chapter 5: Gender & Sexuality
The Masculinity of the Governator: Muscle and Compassion in American Politics - Michael Messner
Constructing Empowered Women: Cinematic Images of Power, and Powerful Women - Jean-Anne Sutherland
Boundary Work: Bisexuality and Transgender on Film - Betsy Lucal and Andrea Miller
Outtake: Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media - Jean-Anne Sutherland
Chapter 6: Public & Private Social Worlds
Service, Smiles and Selves: Representations of Labor and the Sociology of Work - Karla Erickson
Reel Families: Family Life in Popular Film - Janet Cosbey
Outtake: Seeing the Emotional Dimensions of Work and Family Life - Rebecca Erickson
Chapter 7: Deviance, Crime & Law
The Caped Crusader: What Batman Films Tell Us About Crime & Deviance - Robert Wonser and David Boyns
Crime, Film and Criminology - Nicole Rafter
The Hero, the Law, and the People in Between: Models of the Legal System in Hollywood Films - Valerie Callanan
Outtake: Corporate Crime and The Informant! - Mike Maume
Chapter 8: Life Course: Childhood, Adulthood & Old Age
"Look Out New World, Here We Come"? Race, Racialization, and Sexuality in Four Children's Animated Films by Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks - Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo and Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo
First comes the Baby Carriage?: Non-Normative Transitions to Parenthood in Film - Jeanne Holcomb
Battles & Balloons: Old Manhood in Film - Neal King
Outtake: Growth of the Nonlinear Life Trajectory - Erica Orange
Chapter 9: Social Institutions - Religion, Sports, Medical and War
Seeing Religion Sociologically Through Film - Sue Monahan
Sport as Social Institution: Football Films and the American Dream - Jeff Montez de Oca
In Sickness and In Health: Medical Sociology through Celluloid Stories - Bernice Pescosolido and Kathleen Oberlin
The 1991 Iraq Invasion in Cinematic Perspective: Jarhead and Three Kings - Elizabeth E. Martinez
Outtake: Zombies Apocalypse: Understanding the Perceptions of Health vs. Non-Health - Andrew Hund
Chapter 10: Global Connections
Dirty Pretty Things: The State, Global Migration and Survival in Contemporary Cities - Roberto G. Gonzales
Slumdog or Millionaire-May I phone a Friend?: Neoliberalism and Globalizing the American Dream - Alison Moss and Jerome Hendricks
Outtakes: Arabs in Film - Jack Shaheen
Chapter 11: Social Change - Technology, Collective Behavior & Social Movements
From Earth to Cosmos: Environmental Sociology and Images of the Future in Science Fiction Film - Christopher Podeschi
The Only Possible Solution?: The Challenge of Nonviolence to the Hegemony of Violence in Film - Kathryn Feltey
'We Will No Longer Sit Quietly:' Social Movements through Film - Jeffrey A. Langstraat
Outtakes: Thoughts on Activist Movies (Excerpt) - John Farr
