Sociology 2111: Class schedule and assignments--Spring 2010
(Subject to change)

If you miss class, it is your responsibility to check the internet schedule so that you complete the appropriate readings before class. Links in the second column are optional, but in many cases, they provide historical background that helps you understand the context in which important sociological ideas emerged.
Week One:

WEBSITES AND LINKS IN THIS COLUMN ARE OPTIONAL  ASSIGNMENT
Jan 19  Introductions. Science, Theory, Explanation. Groups: Inequality and college attendance. Password to access readings  
Jan 21 Groups. The beginnings of sociological thought.

Lemert, "Social Theory: Its Uses and Pleasures

L&N, 1-21

 

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 The Women Founders: Martineau. L&N: 22-63 (Pick at least two of the readings by Martineau at the end of the chapter and reflect on them in your "journals"... we'll do the same with some of the other readings)
 Week Three:
Feb 2

Karl Marx.
(If you have time, read about the Industrial Revolution in Wikipedia)

Video : "Roger and Me".

Marx the Person(DSS
 
Marx: A Summary of Ideas(DSS)
 Feb 4 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)
Video: "The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Fighting Back" L&N, 149-176 (Journal: 2 readings from Cooper)
Feb 11 Video: "W.E.B. DuBois: a Biography in Four Voices."
DuBois: the Philadelphia Negro: ch 18
"Strivings of the Negro People"
Week Five:
Feb 16
Max Weber

Why Work?

Weber: the Person(DSS)

Weber: A Summary of Ideas

Feb 18 Video: "The American Dream at Groton"
T he Groton School
Weber: "The Spirit of Capitalism"
 Week Six:
Feb 23

Bureaucracy, Patrimonialism, and Charismatic leadership. Read about the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Wikipedia


Weber: "Bureaucracy."
Feb 25 Exam One Glossary and other course materials
Study Guide I
 Week Seven:
Mar 2

 The beginnings of feminist sociology. Video: "North Country"

 

 

L&N, 105-130 (Journal: 2 readings from Gilman)

 

 

 

Mar 4 Jane Addams L&N, 65-89 (Journal: 2 readings from Jane Addams)
Week Eight:
Mar 9
The Battle for the Sociological Canon: Robert Park vs. Jane Addam

Robert Park


Jane Addams: "Immigrants and their Children"(from Twenty Years at Hull House)
 

  The Chicago Women's School of Sociology
Video: "Women of Hull House"
L&N, 229-256(Journal: two readings from"The Chicago Women's School"
Week 9: March 23 Emile Durkheim
Kai Erikson

Durkheim, the Person,

Durkheim: the Ideas

March 25

. Video: "In a Dark time"
Social Disorganization theory

Wikipedia: 1960s
1960s Socio-cultural history
Book recommendation: Gitlin, Years of Hope, Days of Rage

Durkheim: the Normality of Crime

Week 10:
March 30

Social Reproduction Theory
Ain't No Makin' It
Martin Luther King, Jr.Beyond Vietnam (King was a sociology major as an undergraduate at Morehouse College.)
April 1 Video: "Taking Back the Schools" Bourdieu
Week 11
April 6
C. Wright Mills
Wallerstein. Video: "China Blue"

Mills on the Power Elite

 

April 8 Exam Two Study Guide 2
Week 12: April 13 Micro-sociology: symbolic interactionism

Cooley: the Person

Cooley: the Ideas

Thomas: Definition of Situation

April 15 Ethnomethodology. Harold Garfinkel Video: "Inside the Jury Room"
Erving Goffman: Total Institutions

George Herbert Mead: the life

Mead: Mind, Self, Society

 

Week 13:
April 20
Erving Goffman: Dramaturgy
Functionalism: Talcott Parsons

Goffman: Two Views

 

April 22 Video: "Who Will Teach for America? Talcott Parsons
Week 14:
April 26
Functionalism Subverted? Robert Merton. Homans: "Bringing Men Back In"(Rational choice theory).

Robert Merton obituary

Manifest and latent functions

April 28 Contemporary sociological theory and its classic roots W.I. Thomas: the Life
W.I. Thomas: the Work
Week 15:
May 4
Rational choice theory: The Rise of Christiantiy

 

Rodney Stark, "A Double Take on Early Christianity"

May 6 Political process theory: the American Civil Rights movement. Video: "No Easy Walk"

Study Guide 3

 


Final Exam: Thursday, May 13, 12 noon - 1.55 p.m.