The OESD is written primarily by Kenton Bell, who teaches both sociology and education subjects at the University of Wollongong and the University of Sydney.
If you have any questions or comments about the dictionary, please contact Kenton Bell using the Contact Page.
The project began at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, under the tutelage of the Sociology and Anthropology department, with special thanks to Dr. Heidi Kelly and Dr. Volker Frank.
The dictionary is primarily composed of original research but also cited work from other authors (e.g., McDonaldization). These works are used in the dictionary under scholarly fair use. For more information, refer to the copyright page.
The Open Education Sociology Dictionary (OESD) is part of the open access and open education movement and seeks to create an entry level resource for sociology students, educators, and the curious.
Originally, the dictionary was largely composed of definitions from open resources such as OpenStax, Wikitionary, and WordNet. These have been replaced over time with original definitions to harmonize word usage and to codify the content under one license.
The original set of “core terms” was based on meta-analysis of the following introductory sociology texts:
- Brinkerhoff, David. 2008. Essentials of Sociology. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- Giddens, Anthony. 2009. Introduction to Sociology. 7th ed. New York: Norton.
- Henslin, James M. 2007. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 8th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
- Hughes, Michael and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2008. Sociology: The Core. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
- Kendall, Diana. 2006. Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- Kivisto, Peter. 2004. Key Ideas in Sociology. 2nd ed.Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.
- Macionis, John. 2007. Sociology. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
- Newman, David. 2006. Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
- Schaefer, Richard T. 2008. Sociology. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Thio, Alex. 2003. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 5th ed. Boston: Allyn And Bacon.
Comparison of definitions based on the following traditional and well respected Sociology dictionaries:
- Abercrombie, N. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin.
- Calhoun, Craig J., ed. 2002. Dictionary of the Social Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Jary, D., & Jary, J. 2000. Collins Dictionary, Sociology. 3rd ed. Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins.
- Johnson, A. G. 2002. The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
- Scott, J., & Marshall, G. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Turner, B. S. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Comparison of definitions based on the following general dictionaries:
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
- Collins English Dictionary. 2009. London: Collins.
Citing the OESD: Please see the front page for general citation information or any definition for specific citation information.