Schedule of assignments and readings

 

INTRODUCTION: THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

August 30

 

September 1

Mills, C. Wright. 1959. "The Promise." Pp. 3-24 in The Sociological Imagination. New York: Grove Press.

Durkheim, Emile. 1982 [1895]. "What is a Social Fact?" Pp. 50-9 in The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Free Press.

Recommended reading:

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 86-89.

 

REPRODUCING SOCIAL INEQUALITY

September 6

Lareau, Unequal Childhoods, chaps. 1-3, 5-6.

 

September 8

Lareau, Unequal Childhoods, chaps. 7, 11-13.

 

CONCEPTUALIZING CLASS: MARX vs. WEBER

September 13

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 2010 [1848]. Pp. 14-27 in The Communist Manifesto. Marxists Internet Archive [blog].

Recommended reading:

Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society, chap. 2.

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 35-40.

 

September 15

Karl Marx, The German Ideology: A. Idealism and Materialism (1846). Read from "First Premises of Materialist Method" through "History: Fundamental Conditions."

Karl Marx, The German Ideology: B. The Illusion of the Epoch. Read "Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas."

Recommended reading:

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 18-24, 29-34, 40-45.

 

September 20

Weber, Max. 2005 [1925]. "Class, Status, Party." Pp. 151-162 in Max Weber: Readings and Commentary on Modernity, edited by Stephen Kalberg. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Recommended reading:

Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society, chap. 7.

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 163-168.

 

RACE & RACISM: THE PROBLEM OF THE 21st CENTURY?

September 22

First pair of take-home essays due. E-mail them to me by the beginning of class.

TO READ IN CLASS: DuBois, W.E.B. 2007 [1903]. "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." Pp. 1-7 in The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cooley, Charles Horton. 1998 [1909]. Pp. 162-165 of On Self and Social Organization, edited by Hans-Joachim Schubert. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Recommended reading:

Collins & Makowsky, The Discovery of Society, pp. 191-200, 164-170.

 

September 27

Bonilla-Silva, Racism Without Racists, chaps. 1-5.

 

September 29

Bonilla-Silva, Racism Without Racists, chaps. 6-8, 10.

 

THINKING INTERSECTIONALLY

October 4

Hunt, Darnell and Ana-Cristina Ramón. 2015. “2015 Hollywood Diversity Report: Flipping the Script.”  Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.   

 

October 6

Collins, Patricia Hill and Sirma Bilge. 2016. "What is Intersectionality?" and "Intersectionality and Identity." Pp. 1-30, 114-135 in Intersectionality. Malden, MA: Polity.

Blow, Charles. 2016. "Blood On Your Hands Too." New York Times, July 14, 2016.

 

October 11

Shulevitz, Judith. 2016. "How To Fix Feminism." New York Times, June 10, 2016.

Ray, Victor. 2016. "The Concerns of Student Protesters and What Sociology Has to Offer." ASA Footnotes 44(5).

 

October 13

First test.

 

FALL BREAK: October 16-22

 

CONNECTING IN THE MODERN WORLD

October 25

Ansari and Klinenberg, Modern Romance.

 

October 27

Luff, Tracy, Kristi Hoffman and Marit Berntson. 2016. "Hooking Up and Dating are Two Sides of a Coin." Contexts 15(1): 76-77.

Feliciano, Cynthia, Belinda Robnett and Golnaz Komaie. 2009. “Gendered Racial Exclusion Among White Internet Daters.” Social Science Research 38(1): 39-54.

 

RATIONALIZATION AND AUTHORITY

November 1

Weber, Max. 1999 [1922]. Selections from "Domination and Stratification." Pp. 28-46 in Max Weber: Sociological Writings, edited by Wolf Heydebrand. New York: Continuum.

Weber, Max. 2005 [1922]. "The Bureaucracy (I): External Form." Pp. 194-198 in Max Weber: Readings and Commentary on Modernity, edited by Stephen Kalberg. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

"Max Weber's Theory of Rationalization: What it can Tell us about Modernity." 2016. Thoughts on Existence [blog], August 13.

Recommended reading:

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 145-163, 232-238.

 

UNDERSTANDING THE 2016 ELECTION

November 3

Brooks, David. 2016. "The Dark Knight." New York Times, July 22.

Dreher, Rob. 2016. "Trump: Tribune of Poor White People." American Conservative, July 22.

Cherlin, Andrew J. 2016. "The Downwardly Mobile for Trump." New York Times, August 25.

Fischer, Claude. 2016. "A Woman President?" Made in America [blog], August 1.

 

November 8

2nd pair of take-home essays due. E-mail them to me by the beginning of class.

 

WHAT KEEPS US TOGETHER? DEVIANCE, RITUALS, ANOMIE

November 10

Durkheim, Emile. 1997 [1893]. Selections from The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.

Hubbard, Ben. 2016. "A Saudi Morals Enforcer Called for a More Liberal Islam. Then the Death Threats Began," New York Times, July 10.

Rubin, Alissa J. 2016. "French 'Burkini' Bans Provoke Backlash as Armed Police Confront Beachgoers," New York Times, August 24.

Recommended reading:

Collins & Makowsky,The Discovery of Society, chap. 6.

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 70-79.

 

November 15

Durkheim, Emile. 2003 [1912.] "From The Elementary Forms of Religious Life." Pp. 109-122 in Emile Durkheim: Sociologist of Modernity, edited by Mustafa Emirbayer. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Aptekar, Sofya. 2016. "Celebrating New Citizens, Defining the Nation." Contexts 15(2): 46-51.

Recommended reading:

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 105-112.

 

November 17

Durkheim, Emile. 1951 [1897]. "Anomic Suicide." Pp. 241-276 in Suicide. New York: Free Press.

Sternheimer, Karen. 2011. "Social Problems and Anomic Suicide." Everyday Sociology [blog], May 23.

Recommended reading:

Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory, pp. 82-85.

 

GLOBALIZATION AND IMMIGRATION

November 22

Dhingra, Life Behind the Lobby, Introduction, chap. 2.

 

November 24

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.

 

November 29

Dhingra, Life Behind the Lobby, chaps. 4-5.

 

November 31

 

December 6 (last regularly scheduled class)

Second test.

 

December 11 (last day of study period)

Third pair of take-home essays due. E-mail them to me by 5pm.

 

 

Main Page
Description
Requirements
Texts
Moodle