Course description
| The social forces and contexts of modern society (structures of inequality, economic shifts, technological advances, population movements, etc.) are "out there" but can also be found right here, in everyday life. This course practices sociology by focusing on institutions and activities that comprise everyday life: family, education, romance, sports and entertainment, mobile phones and the Internet, and immigration to the U.S. Since this is an extraordinary election year, we'll also examine the nature and stakes of the 2016 election through a sociological lens. |
| Along the way, this course introduces you to the discipline of sociology in three ways. |
| First, we examine classical tradition in sociology: texts, theories and debates produced by the founding sociologists of the 19th and early 20th century. This connects the historical formation of sociology to ideas you encounter elsewhere in the liberal arts college. |
| Second, we examine contemporary social issues and questions that expand, synthesize, and challenge the ideas and debates established by the classical tradition. In this way, we will explore how current sociologists engage and contest the classic tradition, rather than just read how they respond to it. |
| Finally, through discussion and writing we develop a more general "sociological imagination" to understand how sociology as a way of thinking can illuminate our lives and the world around us. |