International Relations Theory

This book is designed as a foundational entry point to International Relations theory – structured to condense the most important information into the smallest space and present that information in an accessible manner. The first half of the book covers the theories that are most commonly taught in undergraduate programmes. The book then expands to present emerging approaches and offer wider perspectives. Each chapter sets out the basics of a theory whilst also applying it to a real-world event or issue, creating a lively, readable and relevant guide that will help students to see not only what theories are – but why they matter.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Christian Scheinpflug, Rosie Walters, Stephen McGlinchey

Introduction to Sociology 2e

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. The second edition retains the book’s conceptual organization, aligning to most courses, and has been significantly updated to reflect the latest research and provide examples most relevant to today’s students. In order to help instructors transition to the revised version, the 2e changes are described within the preface.

Material Type: Full Course

Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World

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. Steve Barkan’s Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World makes sociology relevant for today’s students by balancing traditional coverage with a fresh approach that takes them back to sociology’s American roots in the use of sociological knowledge for social reform. Print on demand edition available here: https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469659282/sociology/

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Steve Barkan

Social Problems: Continuity and Change

Social Problems: Continuity and Change by Steve Barkan is a realistic but motivating look at the many issues that are facing our society today. As this book’s subtitle, Continuity and Change, implies, social problems are persistent, but they have also improved in the past and can be improved in the present and future, provided that our nation has the wisdom and will to address them. 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. You will find several pedagogical features help to convey the “continuity and change” theme of this text and the service sociology vision in which it is grounded: Each chapter begins with a “Social Problems in the News” story related to the social problem discussed in that chapter. These stories provide an interesting starting point for the chapter’s discussion and show its relevance for real-life issues. Three types of boxes in each chapter provide examples of how social problems have been changed and can be changed.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Steven Barkan

Psychology, Social Psychology

Material Type: Unit of Study

Psychology, Lifespan Development

Material Type: Unit of Study

Psychology

Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.Senior Contributing AuthorsRose M. Spielman, Formerly of Quinnipiac UniversityContributing AuthorsKathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State CollegeWilliam Jenkins, Mercer UniversityArlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph's UniversityMarilyn Lovett, Livingstone CollegeMarion Perlmutter, University of Michigan

Material Type: Full Course

Introduction to Human Geography - 2nd Edition

Geography is a diverse discipline that has some sort of connection to most every other academic discipline. This connection is the spatial perspective, which essentially means if a phenomenon can be mapped, it has some kind of relationship to geography. Studying the entire world is a fascinating subject, and geographical knowledge is fundamental to a competent understanding of our world. In this chapter, you will learn what geography is as well as some of the fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline. These fundamental terms and concepts will be interwoven throughout the text, so a sound understanding of these topics is critical as you delve deeper into the chapters that follow.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: David Dorrell, Joseph P. Henderson

Physical Environments and Natural Disasters

I. Introduction to Geographic Science II. Universe and Solar System III. Planet Earth IV. Tectonic Forces V. Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition VI. Fluvial Processes and Systems VII. Oceans and Coastal Environments VIII. Atmospheric Structure IX. Weather Processes and Systems X. Global Climates and Change XI. Biomes and Ecosystems XII. Environmental Disasters XIII. Wildfires

Material Type: Textbook

Author: R Adam Dastrup

Food Anxiety in Globalising Vietnam

This open access book approaches the anxieties inherent in food consumption and production in Vietnam. The country’s rapid and recent economic integration into global agro-food systems and consumer markets spurred a new quality of food safety concerns, health issues and distrust in food distribution networks that have become increasingly obscured. This edited volume further puts the eating body centre stage by following how gendered body norms, food taboos, power structures and social differentiation shape people’s ambivalent relations with food. It uncovers Vietnam’s trajectories of agricultural modernisation against which consumers and producers manoeuvre amongst food self-sufficiency, security and abundance. Food Anxiety in Globalising Vietnam is explicitly about ‘dangerous’ food – regarding its materiality and meaning. It provides social science perspectives on anxieties related to food and surrounding discourses that travel between the local and the global, the individual and society and into the body. Therefore, the book’s lens of food anxiety matters for social theory and for understanding the embeddedness and discontinuities of food globalizations in Vietnam and beyond. Due to its rich empirical base, methodological approaches and thematic foci, it will appeal to scholars, practitioners and students alike.

Material Type: Reading

Authors: Judith Ehlert, Nora Katharina Faltmann

Geographical Indications at the Crossroads of Trade, Development, and Culture

Historically, few topics have proven to be so controversial in international intellectual property as the protection of geographical indications (GIs). The adoption of TRIPS in 1994 did not resolve disagreements, and countries worldwide continue to quarrel today as to the nature, the scope, and the enforcement of GI protection nationally and internationally. Thus far, however, there is little literature addressing GI protection from the point of view of the Asia-Pacific region, even though countries in this region have actively discussed the topic and in several instances have promoted GIs as a mechanism to foster local development and safeguard local culture. This book, edited by renowned intellectual property scholars, fills the void in the current literature and offers a variety of contributions focusing on the framework and effects of GI protection in the Asia-Pacific region. The book is available as Open Access.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Irene Calboli

World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500

World History: Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500 offers a comprehensive introduction to the history of humankind from prehistory to 1500. Authored by six USG faculty members with advance degrees in History, this textbook offers up-to-date original scholarship. It covers such cultures, states, and societies as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Israel, Dynastic Egypt, India’s Classical Age, the Dynasties of China, Archaic Greece, the Roman Empire, Islam, Medieval Africa, the Americas, and the Khanates of Central Asia. It includes 350 high-quality images and maps, chronologies, and learning questions to help guide student learning. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding their educational experience beyond the textbook. It provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making World History an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Andrew Reeves, Brian Parkinson, Charlotte Miller, Eugene Berger, George Israel, Nadejda Williams

World History in the Early Modern and Modern Eras (1600-Present)

This course will present a comparative overview of world history from the 17th century to the present era. The student will examine the origins of major economic, political, social, cultural, and technological trends of the past 400 years and explore the impact of these trends on world societies. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Think critically about world history in the early modern and modern eras; Assess how global trade networks shaped the economic development of Asia, Europe, and the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries; Identify the origins of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe and assess the social and political consequences of these movements for the peoples of Europe; Identify the origins of the Enlightenment in Europe and assess how Enlightenment ideas led to political and social revolutions in Europe and the Americas; Identify the origins of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions in Europe and assess how these intellectual and economic movements altered social, political, and economic life across the globe in the 18th and 19th centuries; Compare and contrast how European imperialism affected the states and peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the 19th century; Identify the origins of World War I and analyze how the war's outcome altered economic and political balances of power throughout the world; Identify the origins of totalitarian political movements across the globe in the 1920s and 1930s and assess how these movements led to World War II; Analyze how World War II reshaped power balances throughout the world and led to the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as global superpowers; Assess how decolonization movements in the 1950s and 1960s altered political, economic, and social relationships between the United States, the nations of Europe, and developing countries throughout the world; Assess how the end of the Cold War led to political and economic realignments throughout the world and encouraged the growth of new global markets and systems of trade and information exchange; Analyze and interpret primary source documents from the 17th century through the present, using historical research methods. (History 103)

Material Type: Assessment, Full Course, Lecture, Lecture Notes, Reading, Syllabus, Textbook