We will mark this new century with a review not of the past, but of the possible future. In the January issue of Contemporary Sociology, you will find a series of essays on the possibilities, constraints, and institutional designs that may lead to a better world. All the essays use sociological wisdom, research, theories, and imagination to envision a more utopian world. Collectively, they demonstrate the breadth of contribution we can expect from the engaged sociology of the next century. The writers describe mid - range utopias in their vision of a better world, given our knowledge of the sociologically possible.
Authors vary in the degree to which they restrict themselves to the historically probable.
In the middle section, the essays focus on Reducing Inequalities. Finally, the last section, perhaps the most utopian, pushes us to think beyond survival and justice to how we must Expand Democratic Choices to create more freedom, pleasure, and power in individual lives. Following the essays are reviews of recent books, arranged under these three broad conceptual headings. Sociology is probably known best for its ability to identify and critique social inequities. With this volume we ask you to take a leap of faith, to use your sociological imagination to envision a more perfect world rather than to criticize the one we live in.