Shifts in the Social Contract : Understanding Change in American Society

An ideal short text for social problems, social change, or a sociology of work course, this book provides a sociological understanding of the transition from industrial capitalism to post-industrial, flexible, global capitalism in American society in a way that is meaningful and insightful to undergraduates.

Examining the changes in society in the United States, Beth Rubin explains how the current era differs fundamentally from the post-World War Two period; how and why that change has occurred; and what its meaning is to everyday life. She traces the changes from a domestic to a global economy, the transformation of the workplace, and the impact that these changes have had on how other people are experiencing social aspects of their lives: their families and interpersonal relations, their communities and their experience of the culture of mass society.