Irwin Deutscher - Böcker

This renamed and revised paperback edition of Irwin Deutscher's Accommodating Diversity shares most of the book's original content but reframes the work with teachers and students in mind. Part social policy analysis and part intellectual autobiography, Preventing Ethnic Conflict mines the world's most troubling incidences of racial and ethnic conflict in order to find national policies that defuse the strains of cohabitation and encourage true reconciliation. Debunking the notion that conflict is inevitable when dominant and minority communities cohabit, Deutscher looks at five successful policies, from Swedish legislation dealing with immigrant education to the Chieftaincy act in Ghana, as he examines the possibilities for successful and harmonious intergroup relations. Deutscher concludes that the pursuit of a benign pluralist policy leads ultimately to assimilation, providing a political solution, which satisfies the champions of both diversity and unity. With introductory essays to each section written by Linda Lindsey that place the material within sociological theory, its problem solving focus, and provocative study questions, Preventing Ethnic Conflict is an ideal supplement for courses in race, ethnicity, and social problems.

Emphasis on measurement techniques can interfere with understanding how well particular social programs in their field work. In Making a Difference: The Practice of Sociology, Irwin Deutscher links traditional sociological concerns with applied sociology in an effort to overcome this problem. He contributes to the debate over the extent to which health, educational, and social pro­grams initiated by the Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations have been successful in intimate, hu­man terms.The work is divided into five parts: "Toward a Useful Sociology" is a collec­tion of essays concerning the causes of social problems and the uses of evalu­ation research. "On Doing Applied Re­search" explores research tools and ste­reotypes. 'The Raised Eyebrow" points out obstructions to useful program evaluation. "Vignettes" deals with spe­cific areas of social programs: public housing, aging, family, disaster relief, small town petty crime, the integration of public facilities, delinquency, nurs­ing, and the education of tribal people.Deutscher believes that the introduc­tion of a sociological perspective can provide a positive element to interdisci­plinary pursuits. This belief, as well as his fresh perspectives on both the strengths and limitations inherent in applied sociology, offer the field a revi­talizing lift. As such, this highly infor­mative, thought-provoking volume will be of interest to sociologists and policymakers in health, education, crime, welfare, housing.