This is a collection of openly licensed or free textbooks and materials that can be used to enhance teaching and learning. This page highlights some of the Open Educational Resources (OER) available, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. If you would like to learn more about OER please visit the Open Educational Resources and Textbook Affordability Library Guide.
Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Human Social Life is a text for introductory courses on cultural sociology. The book is an open educational resource (OER) that provides sociological terms, concepts, theories, and research in the study of culture. The book contains five modules with sociological applications on: 1) Culture and Meaning, 2) Culture as a Social Construct, 3) Cultural Power, 4) Cultural Identity, and 5) The Multicultural World.
Introduction to Sociology 2e adheres to the scope and sequence of a typical, one-semester introductory sociology course. It offers comprehensive coverage of core concepts, foundational scholars, and emerging theories, which are supported by a wealth of engaging learning materials. The textbook presents detailed section reviews with rich questions, discussions that help students apply their knowledge, and features that draw learners into the discipline in meaningful ways.
Principles of Sociological Inquiry: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods emphasizes the relevance of research methods for the everyday lives of its readers, undergraduate students. Each chapter describes how research methodology is useful for students in the multiple roles they fill:
-As consumers of popular and public information
-As citizens
-As current and future employees. Connections to these roles are made throughout and directly within the main text of the book
It is easy for students to read a social problems textbook and come away feeling frustrated by the enormity of the many social problems facing us today. Social Problems: Continuity and Change certainly does not minimize the persistence of social problems, but neither does it overlook the possibilities for change offered by social research and by the activities of everyday citizens working to make a difference. Readers of Steve Barkan’s book will find many examples of how social problems have been improved and of strategies that hold great potential for solving them today and in the future.
The founders of sociology in the United States wanted to make a difference. A central aim of the sociologists of the Chicago school was to use sociological knowledge to achieve social reform. A related aim of sociologists like Jane Addams, W.E.B. DuBois, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett and others since was to use sociological knowledge to understand and alleviate gender, racial, and class inequality.
Use the course finder to browse the 2 sociology specialties: community development, and social justice. Use the limiters to select the types of OER you would like to use including: lecture notes, interactive simulations, online textbooks, and assessments.
The OER Commons is a single search source that pulls materials from multiple OER collections. Use the left-side menu to refine your sociology resources search by education level, material type, media format, and conditions of use.
Browse podcasts, articles, and blogs, and user generated community content related to crime, culture, gender, health, inequality, politics, and race.
"The Society Pages (TSP) is an open-access social science project headquartered in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota and supported by individual donors and publishing partner W.W. Norton & Company, Inc."
The Sociological Cinema is an online resource to help sociology instructors incorporate videos into their classes. The centerpiece of the site is a searchable database of video clips. Each clip is tagged with sociological themes, year, and includes a summary of the clip with suggestions of how to use it in the classroom. The focus of the site is on short video clips (<10 minutes), but videos may be up to one hour in length. The site also includes comment sections for all videos, a blog, assignments, video-related scholarship on teaching and learning, and a form to submit new video clips to the site. -Merlot
Over 50 podcasts created by University of Oxford faculty, visiting lecturers, and conference addresses available on various topics.
Canadian Journal of Communications
Cultural Logic: An Electronic Journal of Marxist Theory
Directory of Open Access Journals-Sociology Journals
Electronic Journal of Radical Organization Theory
Electronic Journal of Sociology
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Journal of World Systems Research
Project Muse (Johns Hopkins Listing of Affordable Scholarly Journals)
