Social Sciences Textbooks
Principles of Political Economy - Third Edition
Copyright Year: 2019
Contributor: Saros
Publisher: Valparaiso University
License: CC BY-NC-SA
This textbook is unique among economics textbooks. It contains many of the same topics as mainstream textbooks, but it includes and takes very seriously heterodox critiques and alternatives to the mainstream approach to economics. It includes a whole range of alternative theories, including Post-Keynesian, Austrian, Marxian, radical, feminist, institutionalist, and other approaches. The purpose is to teach students about alternative schools of economic thought but also to deepen their understanding of the dominant, neoclassical approach to economics. In this sense, it draws a great deal of inspiration from Richard Wolff and Stephen Resnick’s Contending Economic Theories. Following Wolff and Resnick, an even broader objective is to teach students that economics is a discourse and that no single voice can rightfully claim to have a monopoly on the truth about economics.
(2 reviews)
Introduction to Community Psychology
Copyright Year: 2019
Contributors: Jason, Glantsman, and O'Brien
Publisher: Rebus Community
License: CC BY
This textbook will show you how to comprehensively analyze, investigate, and address escalating problems of economic inequality, violence, substance abuse, homelessness, poverty, and racism. It will provide you with perspectives and tools to partner with community members and organizations to promote a fair and equitable allocation of resources and opportunities.
(2 reviews)
Speaking of Culture
Copyright Year: 2017
Contributor: Weil
Publisher: Rebus Community
License: CC BY-NC
“Speaking of Culture” is a collection of instructor-authored background readings intended to accompany other activities, discussions, experiences, projects, and readings for IELI 2470 – Cross-Cultural Perspectives, a course offered by faculty in the Intensive English Language Institute at Utah State University. Its main purpose is to define culture and other concepts often associated with it.
(1 review)
An Introduction to Psychological Statistics
Copyright Year: 2018
Contributors: Foster, Lane, Scott, Hebl, Guerra, Osherson, and Zimmer
Publisher: University of Missouri - St. Louis
License: CC BY-NC-SA
We are constantly bombarded by information, and finding a way to filter that information in an objective way is crucial to surviving this onslaught with your sanity intact. This is what statistics, and logic we use in it, enables us to do. Through the lens of statistics, we learn to find the signal hidden in the noise when it is there and to know when an apparent trend or pattern is really just randomness. The study of statistics involves math and relies upon calculations of numbers. But it also relies heavily on how the numbers are chosen and how the statistics are interpreted.
(4 reviews)
Principles of Microeconomics: Scarcity and Social Provisioning
Copyright Year: 2016
Contributors: Dean, Elardo, Green, Wilson, and Berger
Publisher: Open Oregon Educational Resources
License: CC BY
Principles of Microeconomics: Scarcity and Social Provisioning takes a pluralistic approach to the standard topics of an introductory microeconomics course. The text builds on the chiefly neoclassical material of the OpenStax Principles of Economics text, adding extensive content from heterodox economic thought. Emphasizing the importance of pluralism and critical thinking, the text presents the method and theory of neoclassical economics alongside critiques thereof and heterodox alternatives in both method and theory. This approach is taken from the outset of the text, where contrasting definitions of economics are discussed in the context of the various ways in which neoclassical and heterodox economists study the subject. The same approach–of theory and method, critique, and alternative theory theory and method–is taken in the study of consumption, production, and market exchange, as well as in the applied theory chapters. Historical and contemporary examples are given throughout, and both theory and application are presented with a balanced approach.
(2 reviews)
Introduction to Design Equity
Copyright Year: 2018
Contributor: Miller
Publisher: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing
License: CC BY
Why do affluent, liberal, and design-rich cities like Minneapolis have some of the biggest racial disparities in the country? How can designers help to create more equitable communities? Introduction to Design Equity, an open access book for students and professionals, maps design processes and products against equity research to highlight the pitfalls and potentials of design as a tool for building social justice.
(5 reviews)
Research Methods in Psychology - New Zealand Edition
Copyright Year: 2018
Contributors: Price and Jhangiani
Publisher: Saylor Foundation
License: CC BY-NC-SA
This textbook is an adaptation of the Research Methods in Psychology that is available on this site in US and Canadian editions. This New Zealand edition is an adaptation to the New Zealand context. The main changes are in Chapters 1 and 3 and the spelling, grammar, and terminology are changed throughout. This textbook is adopted at the University of Waikato in our 200-level research methods in psychology class.
(1 review)
The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology
Copyright Year: 2018
Contributor: Wesch
Publisher: New Prairie Press
License: CC BY-NC-SA
Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. “Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage,” Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. “Pierre Bourdieu called anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and rigorous discipline. … It teaches students not to be afraid of getting one’s hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself, body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a “heroic” profession.” What is the payoff for this heroic journey? You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world’s jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human.
(8 reviews)
General Psychology: An Introduction
Copyright Year: 2015
Contributors: Kearns and Lee
Publisher: University System of Georgia
License: CC BY-NC-SA
The NOBA Project is a growing collection of expert-authored, open-licensed modules in psychology, funded by the Diener Education Fund. From these open modules, Tori Kearns and Deborah Lee created an arranged open textbook for her introductory psychology class. This textbook was created under a Round One ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.
(4 reviews)
Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Human Social Life
Copyright Year: 2018
Contributor: Kennedy
Publisher: Vera Kennedy
License: CC BY-NC-SA
The book is supported by discussion of relevant theory and research in cultural sociology. Beyond Race: Cultural Influences on Human Social Life has stressed learner-centered teaching with the instructor taking on the role of a facilitator of learning. As such, it is expected the instructor will serve as the mediator between the content of this book and learners’ understanding of material on multiple and higher levels. This book does not offer a set of rules in teaching cultural sociology, but rather suggests content and applications to consider and modify as needed by the ever-changing dynamics of instructors and learners.
(10 reviews)