Currents of Thought in African Sociology and the Global Community

Abstract

Currents of Thought in African Sociology and the Global Community focuses on research findings further enriched in the realm of the emergent, indigenous African sociology within a global context. An authentic guide, it has potential to expose readers to the intricacy of research in its various ramifications. Its uniqueness consists in casting, in an explanatory framework, what each of the subdisciplines of sociology is all about, while simultaneously discussing the theoretical and methodological orientations in which the accompanying research findings are situated.

The transition of sociology in Africa, inextricably tied in with global dimension, is its major theme. And discussion questions/exercises and essays at the end of each chapter constitute a stimulating teaching tool. Its theoretical coverage straddles a wide variety of paradigms - from structural-functional theory and conflict theory to symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, dramaturgy, exchange theory, etc.

The book will be of use in courses in sociology, anthropology, research methods, global human issues, African and African-American studies, Third World societies, and criminal justice. Besides, it constitutes an experiential celebration of deivory-towerism, emphasizing the involvement of the academic citadel with the community.

About the Author

Professor Joshua Adekunle Awosan has had a checkered career in and outside the academic environment. He was Personal Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor (President) of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, where he subsequently taught for ten years, and has taught at a number of universities in the U.S. A distinguished, prolific author, he has authored or co-authored scholarly works, including The Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts, Incorporated Paul Robeson Institute for Positive Self-Development: A Dream Come True and an Inspiring Model (1992); G.U.T.S., Drugs, Alcohol, and Crime: Evaluation of Massachusetts Governor’s Alliance Against Drugs (1995); and Understanding Sociology (2008, Horizon Textbook Publishing). He has undertaken research studies under the auspices of the World Health Organization and the Ford Foundation. Professor Awosan has been teaching at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth for quite a number of years.