Acknowledgements

Peter Weeks, a colleague and associate professor of sociology at St. Thomas University, contributed his special expertise in ethnomethodology to the text. He wrote the extensive review of ethnomethodology for chapter 4, “The Microsociology of Everyday Life,” and he cheerfully co-operated with me in three successive drafts to ensure that the completed chapter merged smoothly into the book as a whole. Peter’s extensive knowledge of feminist research and the social construction of reality approach contributed much to other chapters as well. Special thanks are also due to Peter for contributing his collection of cartoons and for taking some of the photographs that illustrate the text.
In the preparation of the text, I owe a considerable intellectual debt to Roberta Hamilton, professor of sociology at Queen’s University. She undertook a comprehensive review of the first draft and suggested multiple ways in which it might be strengthened. Her suggestions were especially valuable in introducing contemporary feminist research in many areas.
This book is based upon and owes a considerable debt to The Problem of Sociology by David Lee and Howard Newby. The Publisher and I gratefully acknowledge the contribution made by David Lee and Howard Newby and their British publishers (originally Hutchinson, subsequently Harper ColUns) in providing the inspiration for the text and
permission to work with the original.
Colleagues in sociology at St. Thomas University, Michael Clow, Abdul Lodhi, Marilee Reimer. John McKendy, and Peter MacDonald, and also William Dunn, a former colleague, offered valuable help in developing sections of the text concerned with the free trade debate, race and ethnic relations, Marxist feminism, functionalism and microsociology, critical perspectives on education, and Marxist research on rural communities. I am grateful for the support and encouragement that they have given me. Special thanks are also due to William Dunn for helping to research the illustrations for the text and for preliminary work on the glossary.
In closing, I would like to express my appreciation to Barbara Tessman of Copp Clark Pitman in Toronto. Her meticulous editing contributed greatly to the overall coherence and readability of the text. As editor and principal critic of successive drafts, she constantly drew attention to weak sections in the analysis or coverage of issues and drew on her extensive knowledge of current affairs and feminist issues to develop points raised in the text. Barbara Tessman and Brian Henderson, also of Copp Clark Pitman, gave me enthusiastic support and expert advice and help at all stages in the preparation of the text. They taught me much about the social construction of textbooks.

Sylvia Hale
St. Thomas University
Fredericton