Schedule of assignments and readings
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INTRODUCTION: THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
January 21
C. Wright Mills, "The Promise." Pp. 3-24 in The Sociological Imagination (Oxford University Press, 1959).
Harriford & Thompson, When the Center is on Fire: "Introduction.
Questions to guide reading:
1. In the framework of C. Wright Mills, how has your "inner life" and "external career" been shaped by the "larger historical scene"?
2. How can a sociological imagination advance the cause of social justice?
Recommended readings:
Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society: Introduction.
January 28
CLASS CANCELLED.
DISCOVERING MODERNITY: THE CITY AND THE FACTORY
February 2
Georg Simmel, "The Stranger." Pp. 140-148 in The Sociology of Georg Simmel, edited by Kurt H. Wolff (Free Press, 1950).
Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations (read "The Invisible Hand" through "The Division of Labor").
Questions to guide reading:
1. How does the concentration and gathering of strangers characterize modern life?
2. How does the "naural liberty" that Adam Smith endorses give rise to the industrial division of labor?
3. What social relations within the industrial division of labor does Marx illuminate?
Recommended readings:
Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society: chap. 2, 9 (pp. 160-3).
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chap. 1.
CLASS CONFLICT AND SOCIAL CHANGE
February 4
Karl Marx, pp. 57-68 in Marx and Modernity, edited by R.J. Antonio (Blackwell, 2003).
Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How is it that "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas"? How do the relations of production shape the prevailing values and ideas of a society?
2. By pursuing its economic interests under capitalism, how does the bourgeoisie set in motion the conditions for its eventual decline? How is this a more general pattern throughout history?
Recommended readings:
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chaps. 2-3.
February 9
First pair of take-home essays due.
THE IRON CAGE: RATIONALIZATION
February 11
Max Weber: chaps. 4-5, 12-13.
Spike Lee Air Jordans commercial.
"New York Says Health Chief Abused Power" (New York Times, January 26, 2009).
William Safire, "On Language: Crony Capitalism" (New York Times, February 1, 1998).
Allen H. Barton, "Another Take on 'Why Paulson is Wrong." The Economists' Voice 5 (2008).
Questions to guide reading:
1. How do market economies promote a formal economic rationality? How does that shape social relations under capitalism?
2. Why does Marx's emphasis on capitalist exploitation not adequately explain the 'alienation' of factory life for Weber?
3. How is bureaucracy "technically superior" to other forms of social organization in carrying out collective goals? Why does this make it so difficult to reform?
Recommended readings:
Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society: chap. 7.
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chap. 12.
February 16
Jacob Hacker, chaps. 2-3 in The Great Risk Shift (Oxford University Press, 2006).
David Frum, "The Vanishing Republican Voter" (New York Times Magazine, September 7, 2008).
Questions to guide reading:
1. Following Karl Marx, how does the conservative emphasis on "personal responsibility" illustrate a belief that serves the dominant class's interest?
2. Following Max Weber, how do the new risks workers face on the job market reflect the on-going rationalization of the economy?
February 18
Max Weber: chaps. 2, 22.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How did Protestantism's worldly asceticism promote attitudes and behavior that are particularly conducive to capitalism?
2. How is the modern world "disenchanted"? Is that a good thing?
Recommended readings:
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chaps. 9-10.
WHY WE OBEY: STRATIFICATION AND LEGITIMACY
February 23
Max Weber: chaps. 8, 11-14.
"Say 'Hybrid' and Many People Will Hear 'Prius' (New York Times, July 4, 2007).
Questions to guide reading:
1. Why is class not a basis for collective action for Weber as it is for Marx?
2. How does the status order hinder genuinely "free market" behavior?
3. How are social relations affected when domination is understood to be legitimate?
4. How are the properties of bureaucracy more efficient for collective administration than democracy?
5. How is charismatic authority unsuited for the reproduction of social order?
Recommended readings:
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chap. 11.
February 25
Harriford & Thompson, When the Center is on Fire: chaps. 3-4.
Questions to guide reading:
1. What do 9/11 and its aftermath suggest for Weber's thesis of the disenchantment of the modern world (cf. #2 on February 18)?
2. Do the irrationalities of grief, altruism, religion and hatred break the iron cage of rationalization? Is that a good thing?
In-class midterm.
THE INVISIBLE WORLD: SELF, SITUATIONS, AND THE NEGOTIATION OF SOCIAL ORDER
March 4
Charles Horton Cooley, "The Social Self—the Meaning of 'I'." Pp. 155-175 in On Self and Social Organization (University of Chicago Press, 1998).
Erving Goffman, "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life." Pp. 1-16 in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Double Day, 1959).
Howard Becker, "Becoming a Marijuana Smoker." American Journal of Sociology 59 (1953): 235-242.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How are social interactions internalized into our sense of self?
2. How is the "definition of the situation" negotiated through social interaction? What can happen if this is not negotiated successfully?
3. Why is the physical intake of marijuana not enough to feel an enjoyable high?
Recommended readings:
Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society: chap. 9 (pp. 164-78), 14.
SPRING BREAK: March 7-22
March 23
Fine, Kitchens: pp. 15-16, chaps. 1-3, 5-6.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How are cooks' occupational activities and identity negotiated daily within the kitchen?
2. How does a successful restaurant illustrate the tenuous balance between the competing demands of cooks, servers, customers, and other actors?
3. How do culinary aesthetics not really exist until they are accomplished through interactions?
March 25
Fine, Kitchens: prefaces, Introduction.
Questions to guide reading:
1. Has the new popular interest in dining and cuisine made Fine's research (conducted in the early 1980s) obsolete?
2. What are the implications of viewing organizations and industries as bottom-up entities, as Fine's "negotiated order perspective" does?
RACE AND CONSCIOUSNESS
March 30
Max Weber: chap. 21.
W.E.B. DuBois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." Pp. 7-14 in The Souls of Black Folk (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Questions to guide reading:
1. Has are race and ethnicity socially constructed through the dynamics of status and power?
2. How does "double consciousness" give African Americans special insight into the white world?
Recommended readings:
Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society: chap. 11.
Harriford & Thompson, When the Center is on Fire: chaps. 1-2.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How does the advocacy of "color blindiness" reveal a lack of sociological imagination?
2. Does double consciousness obligate African Americans (or any subordinate group) to recognize and advance the history of their collective struggle?
April 6
Second pair of take-home essays due.
SOCIAL SOLIDARITY
April 8
Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society: Introduction, Book I - chaps. 1-2.
Questions to guide reading:
1. What does it mean to distinguish the "moral" function of a social phenomenon from its cause or its history?
2. How do crime and deviance harm the collective consciousness? How do they also serve a vital function under mechanical solidarity?
Recommended readings:
Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society: chap. 6.
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chap. 5.
April 13
Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society: Book I - chaps. 3, 5 and 7.
"Video of Taliban Flogging Rattles Pakistan" (New York Times, April 3, 2009).
1. How does the evolution from repressive law to restitutive law reveal the development of organic solidarity?
2. How does social solidarity support market exchange (cf. #1 on February 11)?
ANOMIE
April 15
Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society: Book II - chap. 1; Book III - chap. 1.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"Tech Recruiting Clashes With Immigration Rules" (New York Times, April 11, 2009).
Questions to guide reading:
1. What does it mean that, according to Durkheim, the levels of happiness and suicide are relative to each society?
2. What makes the industrial division of labor anomic (cf. #3 on January 28, #2 on February 11), and how could it be reformed?
Recommended readings:
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chap. 7.
Durkheim, "Anomic Suicide." Pp. 241-276 in Suicide: A Study in Sociology (Free Press, 1966).
Questions to guide reading:
1. How is suicide a social phenomenon?
2. What is Durkheim's view on the "normality" of social change?
Recommended readings:
Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: chap. 6.
April 22
Harriford & Thompson, When the Center is on Fire: chap. 7.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How do the Columbine shootings illustrate Durkheim's theories of suicide?
2. How does America's "fear of difference" fuel anomie?
THE REPRODUCTION OF SOCIETY: SOCIALIZATION
April 27
Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: chaps. 1-5.
Questions to guide reading:
1. What are the costs and benefits of both the "concerted cultivation" and the "accomplishment of natural growth" child-rearing strategies?
2. How do the resources and constraints from parents' socioeconomic backgrounds influence their child-rearing strategy?
April 29
Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: chaps. 6-7, 12.
Questions to guide reading:
1. How are parents unaware of the ways they teach children the use and value of language?
2. How have middle-class parents come to concertedly cultivate their children if they were not raised this way themselves?
In-class final exam.
May 13
Third pair of take-home essays due.
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