Contact info

You can contact Moninder Lalli to request for assistance with doing library research.  In addition, help is also available through Ask a librarian.

Essay  

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words, how to find materials for your essay.

Selected reference works

Encyclopedias, handbooks or textbooks provide overviews, definitions and identify key authors and ideas.

• Cambridge handbook of social theory 
• Encyclopedia of Social Theory
• Fifty key sociologists: the contemporary theorists
• Handbook of contemporary European social theory 
• International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences
• Oxford handbook of Hobbes
• Oxford handbook of Max Weber
• Oxford handbook of sociology, social theory, and organization studies : contemporary currents
• Routledge companion to social theory
• Routledge guidebook to Hobbes' Leviathan
• Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists

Find journal articles using databases

Searching the "Databases for a discipline" is a great strategy to view articles that have been written within the scholarly journals of that discipline.  For help, refer to the How to find journal articles, What is a scholarly journal?, and Finding articles: Advanced search techniques [video 3:13 mins]

If full-text of article is not available from within the database, click on the "Get@SFU" to start a search.  If the Library does not provide access, then use the Citation Finder/ILL tab to request a copy from another library (free) through SFU Library's Inter-Library Loans (ILL) service.

• ProQuest Sociology Collection - International literature in sociology. Searches multiple databases including: Applied Social Science Index, ProQuest Sociology Database, Social Services Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts.
• Social Sciences Full Text -- for scholarly articles in social sciences. 
• Social Theory  contains the full text of works of selected social theorists such as Max Weber, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and more.
  • Use "Browse" tab
    • Browse by "Authors" or  "Theories" or"Subject"
  • Search 
    • Advanced Search
      • Search in texts
• Annual review of sociology Provides literature reviews of sociology topics.
  • Search example: "social theory" (search in the field, "title of article")
• Oxford Bibliographies Online 
• Search example, Advanced search: "social theory" (search in the field, "title of article")

Search for a specific journal article

Try one of the following methods to find a specific journal article.  
In case the library doesn't have the article, use the Citation finder / ILL  link to request a copy through Library's Inter-Library Loans service (free).

1. Use Citation finder / ILL tool

2. Search for journal's title to see if the library subscribes to the journal using the A-Z Journals link from Library's Home page.  

To find the article within a journal:
  1) search for the year, volume and issue number of article, or
  2) if the journal has a search engine, type in title of the article with quotation marks around the title ("title of article")

Find books using Library Catalogue

The Library Catalogue provides access to books, journal articles, videos, government documents and much more.  
To limit the search results to "books" by using the filter (left-hand column) of "resource type" to "books"

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue, either the Basic or the Advanced search

Use "browse" search to find books by author or title

Try one of the following methods to find a specific book.  In case the library doesn't have it, use the Citation finder / ILL  link to request a copy through Library's Inter-Library Loans service (free).

Use Browse by Author or title of a book (change the default "title" to "author")

Type: Last name, First name

• Durkheim, Emile
• Hobbes, Thomas
• Marx, Karl
• Locke, John
• Weber, Max

Search for books on a topic

Note: In the searches below, search results can be limited to "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"

• "free market" AND econom* AND (hobbs OR locke OR smith)
• "free market" AND econom* AND (states OR government OR self OR society) AND (hobbs OR locke OR smith)
• "free market" AND econom* AND Karl Polanyi
• (Durkheim OR Marx OR Weber OR "Du Bois") AND (critic* OR critiq* OR analysis OR debate*)
• (Durkheim OR Marx OR Weber OR "Du Bois") AND ("social change" OR inequality OR power)
• (Durkheim OR Marx OR Weber OR "Du Bois") AND "structural inequality"
• "critical race" AND (theor* OR critique* OR critic*)
• "sociological theory"
  • results limited to "books" and "online resources only"
• "social theor*" 
• "social theor*" AND [your topic words]
• Marx

Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words
Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

When you find a useful book, click on its "subject" to find more books on the same topic.

Course books and other selected titles

• Adam Smith's Equality and the Pursuit of Happiness
• Adam Smith : his life, thought, and legacy [print]
• A brief history of neoliberalism / David Harvey
• Capitalism in the web of life : ecology and the accumulation of capital / Jason W. Moore [print]
• Colonialism and modern social theory [print]
• Du Bois: a critical introduction
• Durkheim and Critique
• Free market fairness  / John Tomasi
• From Max Weber : essays in sociology / translated, edited and with an introduction by H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills.From Max Weber : essays in sociology / translated, edited and with an introduction by H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills.  [print,1958]
• Global rise of authoritarianism in the 21st century : crisis of neoliberal globalization and the nationalist response 
• Great transformation the political and economic origins of our time / Karl Polanyi 
• Karl Marx's Realist Critique of Capitalism: Freedom, Alienation, and Socialism
• The long twentieth century : money, power, and the origins of our times / Giovanni Arrighi. [print, 2010], [print, 1994]
• Political economy and the changing global order [1994 print], [2000 print], 2006 print]
• Power of market fundamentalism : Karl Polanyi's critique 
• Scholar denied : W.E.B. Du Bois and the birth of modern sociology 
• Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci  [print]
• Social Class and Stratification: Classic Statements and Theoretical Debates
• Social theory : continuity and confrontation : a reader
• Social Theory: Classical and Contemporary – A Critical Perspective
• Social theory : the multicultural, global, and classic readings [print]
• Socialist Register 2015: Transforming Classes 
• Souls of Black Folk 
• Theory of Moral Sentiments / Adam Smith
•   [print, 1957], [print,1964]
• Theory primer : a sociological guide 
• Two treatises of government in the former, the false principles and foundation...(John Locke) - 1690 edition
• Wealth of nations / by Adam Smith
• The wretched of the earth (2004) / Frantz Fanon [2001 reprint of 1965 edition], [French - 1970 reprint of 1968]

Use "browse" search for books by subject (person or topic)

Use Browse (change the default "title" to "subject")

Use "Browse by Subject" to find books about a person

• DuBois, W.E.B.
• Durkheim, Emile
• Marx, Karl
• Weber, Max

Use "Browse by Subject" to search by topics

• Social change
• Social theory
• Sociological Theory
• Sociologists

Library guides

• Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
• Annotated bibliographies
• Evaluating sources
• How to find journal articles
• Library Catalogue search guide
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
• What is plagiarism?  Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them

Presentation skills

• Resources on developing your participation skills
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills

Writing help

Books on academic writing

• Books on Academic writing
• Dissertations, Academic -- Handbooks, manuals, etc
• Thesis writing
• Sociology -- Authorship

Consultations and guides

Student Learning Commons provides assistance for undergraduates including numerous, helpful guides.

• Academic writing resources
• Library Catalogue search: Academic writing
  • E.g. Writing effective course assignments : a guide to non-degree and undergraduate students
• Book a consultation

Research Commons  provides support for academic writing and learning at the graduate level

• Writing services -- including the Read Ahead Service and options to book a consultation request.