Now fully revised and updated for this third edition, The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology is an invaluable and comprehensive reference work designed to appeal to students from school to university level.

Compiled by three widely published professors of sociology, this book provides not only simple, one-line definitions but also entries that discuss the issues involved in, and alternative approaches to, the central concepts, theories and writings of sociology. For this edition many new definitions have been added and existing ones updated where necessary. The range of entries is wide, from advertising to critical theory, from epistemology to flexible specialization and from Saussure to working-class conservatism. There are also useful cross-references and an extensively updated bibliography to enhance the clarity and balance of this indispensable and scholarly reference book.

"Were I to be pressed to recommend just one, single-volume, brief but complete guide to sociological terminology for the lost and the puzzled, this would probably be it' Network

'Eclipses previous and larger dictionaries in its selection of entries... that are central to modern sociological debate' - Peter Worsley in The New Introducing Sociology

THIRD EDITION