Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology inspires students to develop their sociological imaginations, to see the world and personal events from a new perspective, and to confront sociological issues on a day-to-day basis. Organized around the "Social World" model, a conceptual framework that demonstrates the relationships among individuals (the micro level); organizations, institutions, and subcultures (the meso level); and societies and global structures (the macro level), Jeanne H. Ballantine, Keith A. Roberts, and Kathleen Odell Korgen use this framework to help students develop the practice of using three levels of analysis, and to view sociology as an integrated whole, rather than a set of discrete subjects.

The Seventh Edition includes new coverage of climate change, the influence of robots and artificial intelligence on workers, race relations in the Trump era, issues related to transgender identity and gender fluidity, sexual harassment in the workplace and the #MeToo movement, declining marriage rates, the impact of tracking for students at all academic achievement levels, smoking as an example of health and inequality in the US, gun violence and the student movement to control access to guns, social media, and Russian interference in the 2016 election.