The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology

RR 2007/121 The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology General editor Bryan S. Turner Cambridge University Press Cambridge 2006 xx + 668 pp. ISBN 978 0 521 83290 8 (hbck); ISBN 978 0 521 54046 9 (pbck) £55/$99 (hbck); £24.95/$ 34.99 (pbck)

Keywords Dictionaries, Sociology

Review DOI 10.1108/09504120710738058

Bryan Turner has drawn on the intellectual talents of over 60 leading academics in the field of sociology to assemble this impressive book. It provides over 600 entries written in an accessible and generally easily digestible format. Given the sheer breadtii of topics that can be regarded as part of the sociological canon, it is certainly a bold move to attempt to provide a comprehensive dictionary on the subject in a single volume.

This very breadth and the ever evolving nature of sociology- combined with some uncertainty from this reader's perspective as to whether what is being offered is a dictionary or an encyclopaedia - makes me hesitant to regard this as a truly definitive work likely...