Sociology 2111: Tentative Class schedule and assignments--Spring 2009
(Subject to change)
| Week One: |
WEBSITES AND LINKS IN THIS COLUMN ARE OPTIONAL | ASSIGNMENT |
| Jan 21 | Introductions. Science, Theory, Explanation. Groups. The beginnings of sociological thought. | Lemert, "Social Theory: Its Uses and Pleasures |
| Week
Two: Jan 26 |
The Emergence of the Social Sciences. . (If you have time, read about the French Revolution in Wikipedia) |
Democracy in America Home Page . Look over the page as a whole, but read Tocqueville's essay: "How Religion in the United States Avails Itself of Democratic Tendencies." Click on "American Religion in 1831;" click on "Tocqueville and Religion;" click on "How Religion..." |
| Jan 28 | Groups: Bowling Alone. Sociological pioneers: Comte, Tocqueville. The Saguaro Seminar (our president is a member) | Putnam:"The Strange Disappearance of Civic America".This is an application of Tocqueville's theory about the importance of intermediary groups in the maintenance of self-government in America. |
| Week
Three: Feb 2 |
Karl Marx.
|
Marx the Person(DSS Marx: A Summary of Ideas(DSS) |
| Feb 4 | Video : "Roger
and Me". Groups. Karl Marx II. (If you have time, read about the Russian Revolution in the Wikipedia) |
The Communist Manifesto: Bourgeois and Proletarians: |
| Week
Four: Feb 9 |
Max Weber |
|
| Feb 11 | Video:
"The American Dream at Groton" T he Groton School |
Elwell on Weber |
| Week
Five: Feb 16 |
Weber III |
Why Work? |
| Feb 18 | Video: "Gandhi" (Read about Mohandas Gandhi in Wikipedia. Pay special attention to the meaning of "satyagraha.") |
Weber: "Politics as a Vocation" |
| Week
Six: Feb 243 |
Exam One | |
| Feb 25 | Video: "Ain't Scared of Your Jails." |
Freeman: "The Origins of the Women's Liberation Movement" |
| Week
Seven: Mar 2 |
C. Wright Mills and the Power Elite. Excerpts from the Power Elite
|
|
| Mar 4 | Video: "Father Roy: Inside
the School for Assassins." Media Reform movement |
Domhoff: Distribution of Wealth and Income |
| Week
Eight: Mar 9 |
Wallerstein: The Capitalist World System. (Read about colonialism in Wikipedia). Video: "China Blue." |
Anthony Giddens, Runaway World , Globalization (read, watch or listen) |
| Mar 11 | Video: "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" | Anthon Giddens, Runaway World, Democracy (read, watch or listen) |
| Week
Nine: Mar 23 |
Bourdieu. Social reproduction theory. | Bourdieu |
| Mar 25 | Video: "Taking Back the Schools". Durkheim. | |
| Week Ten:
Mar 30 |
Kai Erikson on Crime Waves | |
| April 1 |
Video: "Making Sense of the Sixties: In a Dark Time" (Read about the Vietnam War in Wikipedia) The Chicago School: Social Disorganization Theory.
|
Martin Luther King, Jr.Beyond
Vietnam (King was a sociology major as an undergraduate at Morehouse
College.)
|
| Week
Eleven: April 6 |
Exam Two |
|
| April 8 | The road not taken: DuBois. Video: "W.E.B.
DuBois: a Biography in Four Voices." "Strivings of the Negro People" Park and the Chicago School |
DuBois:
the Philadelphia Negro: ch 18 Robert Park |
| Week Twelve: April 143 |
Micro Sociology: Symbolic interactionism |
|
| April 15 | Video: "Inside
the Jury Room." Goffman |
O'Brien/Kollock |
| Week
Thirteen: April 20 |
Micro sociology: Dramaturgy. Talcott Parsons and American Functionalism |
Parsons |
| April 22 | Institutional change and adaptation. Video: "Who Will Teach for America?" | Teach for America Website |
| Week
Fourteen: April 27 |
Functionalism subverted? Middle range theories. |
Merton Merton Obituary |
| April 29 | Micro sociology: Rational choice theory and exchange. The road not taken: Jane Addams and Feminism. Emily Green Balch. Feminist sociology. |
Jane Addams: "Immigrants and their Children"(from Twenty Years at Hull House) |
|
Week Fifteen: |
Video: "Tough Guise" |
Lorber and Martin |
| May 6 | The U.S. role in the world: Four Theoretical Perspectives |
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