Deviance, Morality, and Power: Making Sense of a Fractured America

Deviance, Morality, and Power: Making Sense of a Fractured America explores how, reconceived and retooled, sociological approaches and concepts developed to understand deviance and normality can help us address the political, social, and cultural issues that have led to a deeply divided and conflict-ridden country. The text examines how social cohesion and stability is achieved and maintained through conflict in which groups with competing and conflicting material interests and moral visions struggle for power. It underscores how the United States embraces the seemingly contradictory ideals of individualism and popular rule, and how these conflicting ideals create an environment of competition and conflict. Readers are challenged to view deviance as a moral category connected to a moral vision of what kind of nation we believe we ought to strive to become and what kind of institutional order could embody that vision. The book proposes the reconsideration of key concepts and approaches in sociology to envision fresh applications for contemporary times and modern challenges. Featuring a fresh perspective of deviance as a fundamentally political process, Deviance, Morality, and Power is an ideal textbook for courses in sociology, especially those that examine deviance and modern applications of sociological theory.