Sociology 2016 Newslette

SOCIOLOGY NEWSLETTER | Issue #1 14 Hot Off the Press: OSU Environmental Sociology: The Ecology of Late Modernity By Thomas J. Burns and Beth Schaefer Caniglia (Mercury Aca- demic, April 2016) Environmental Sociology: The Ecology of Late Modernity’s pri- mary focus is on environmental problems associ- ated with moder- nity. Increases in the size and con- centration of pop- ulations, economies of scale, ad- vanced technological capabilities, and related issues have contributed to large ecological imbalances. In turn, air and water pollution, deforestation, global climate change, and rises in environment-based dis- eases in plant, animal and human life have resulted. The book addresses these issues in a style that is ideal for advanced under- graduate and graduate level classes in a number of disciplines, including sociology, environmental studies, political science, political economy, geog- raphy and international relations. Burns and Caniglia take a decidedly optimistic approach, examining in de- tail solutions stemming from major institutions and local com- munities, as well as individ- ual lifestyle changes that can bring us closer in line with the natural environ- ment. *Dr. Burns and Caniglia’s Environmental Sociology was awarded the Gerald L. Young Book Award by the International Conference of the Society for Human Ecology for work “Exemplifying the highest standards of scholarly work in the field of Human Ecol- ogy.” Ordered Regression Models: Parallel, Partial, and Non- Parallel Alternatives By Andrew S. Fullerton, Jun Xu (CRC Press, April 2016) Dr. Andrew Fuller- ton and Dr. Jun Xu present in Ordered Regression Mod- els: Parallel, Par- tial, and Non- Parallel Alterna- tives comprehen- sive coverage of the three major classes of ordered regression models (cumulative, stage, and adjacent) as well as variations based on the appli- cation of the parallel regression as- sumption. The book usefully highlights several ways to interpret and present results by using empirical examples from the social and behavioral scienc- es to illustrate different ordered re- gression models. The Death Penalty in China: Policy, Practice, and Reform Edited by Bin Liang and Hong Lu (Columbia University Press, December 2015) This volume features experts from around the world and focuses on changes in the theory and policy of China's death penalty from the Mao era (1949–1979) through the Deng era (1980–1997) up to the present. Con- tributors examine the character of