Daily Schedule and Announcements

Daily Schedule and Announcements Page

Assignments

Further Information

Wed., Sept. 6 : Introduction to the course

If you check this schedule page ahead of time, please get going on the list of tasks for Sept. 8th.

Fri. Sept. 8 : The Discovery of Society: Early Visions of Sociology
Read Collins and Makowsky (C&M), Introduction and Chapter 1.

Complete all bulleted tasks to the right by Monday.

for Part One readings. Please use it and come prepared to respond to the questions.

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Complete the following tasks before next Monday's class at the latest:
Access the online syllabus. Read it carefully and explore its links. Remember that your print copy may soon be outdated.
Sign into the WebCT course website and post a response to my question on the Theory bulletin board no later than Sunday night. Read your classmates' responses for class discussion on Monday.
Update your email address if necessary at https://www.acs.rutgers.edu:8892/studentdir (this is important for receiving course and departmental emails). Be sure to keep your registered email address current in order to receive important course and departmental information.
Get a Student Photo ID (available from the Impact Booth in the Campus Center) right away if you don't have one.
Familiarize yourself with the department website, including the resources at its web-enhanced curriculum. Watching the 8 minute "screen movie" tour of the site is recommended (requires Windows Media Player 9, available on all computers in the labs, but bring your own headphones). Pay special attention to the plagiarism and citation webpages.
Declare your sociology major at the registrar's office if you have not already done so (this is important for getting departmental news and information)

The Dead Sociologists Index has useful supplementary material on Auguste Comte. Having read about Comte's obsession with Clotilde, you may want to check out Project Clotilde, which includes a portrait of her.

Read Salzman, Ch. 1

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

For an interesting and offbeat analysis of the emic-etic distinction in relationship to UFOs, see Emic and Etic Histories of the UFO Movement by J. B. Card.

Wed. Sept. 13: How Theory Develops
Read An Introduction to Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

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For a superb reflective piece on Kuhn's significance, see Clifford Geertz, "The Legacy of Thomas Kuhn: The Right Text at the Right Time," Common Knowledge 6,1 (1977), pp. 1-5. [You may order this online through IRIS.]

Fri. Sept. 15: Marx and Class Analysis
Read: Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 2: Sociology in the Underground: Karl Marx, pp. 30-47 (omit last section on Engels).
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Section l: Bourgeois and Proletarians (1848)" (online)
Lewis Coser, A Summary of Ideas:"Class Theory " and "Dynamics of Social Change" at Dead Sociologists Index (online; click on appropriate links to access texts)

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Please prepare by using the
for Marx readings.

Recommended: Marx & Engels Internet Archive

Use the reading guide on the left.

Mon. Sept. 18: Marxism as Structural Political Economy
Read: Marx, "Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)" (online) and
Lewis Coser, A Summary of Ideas:"The Sociology of Knowledge" at Dead Sociologists Index (online)

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Wed. Sept. 20: Continue discussion of Marx
Discussion of Marx & MicroCase Exercise
No new PowerPoint
Click here for a summary of what you need to know to complete the Marx and MicroCase Exercise.

Reminder: MicroCase CP can be accessed in three ways: 1) It can be accessed in the Statistics Folder in all the student computer labs. 2) The program and five data sets may be downloaded separately from the WebCT site (program under Tools, data sets under Assignments) and installed on your home computer. 3) You may borrow a program disk and install the full program and all its data sets (600 megabytes worth) on your computer.

Fri. Sept. 22: Marx and Anthropology
Read: Salzman, Ch. 4: Determining Factors: Cultural Materialism and Political Economy, pp. 49-66, and "Contra Materialism," pp. 130-131.

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Mon. Sept. 25:
Wrap-up of section on Marx in sociology and anthropology.

Recommended: Marx on the "opium of the people" (useful discussion for Marx and MicroCase question)

No class Wed. Sept. 27 & and Fr. Sept. 29

[I will be in Spain, sitting on a Ph.D. "defense tribunal"]. You should be working on your Marx and MicroCase assignment.

Mon. Oct. 2: Alexis de Tocqueville on Democratic Barbarism and Liberty
Read C&M Ch. 3 on Alexis de Tocqueville

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout
Marx and MicroCase Exercise due

Explore: Democracy in America website
Strongly Recommended for WebCT bulletin board: Robert Putnam, "The Strange Disappearance of Civic America." An interesting "deTocquevillian" analysis of contemporary American society. See also "The Tocqueville Files" for critiques of Putnam.

Wed. Oct 4: Nietzsche and the Irrational
Read" C&M, Ch. 4 and "The Madman" (online)

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Fri. Oct 6: Liberalism and Social Darwinism
C&M, Ch. 5

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Study guide for first exam available

Mon. Oct. 9: Evolutionary Theories
Read:Salzman, Ch. 6, Transformation Through Time: History and Evolution, pp. 87-111, and "Contra Evolutionism," pp. 133-134.

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Wed. Oct 11: Exam Review

Fri. Oct. 13: In-Class Multiple-Choice Exam

Mon. Oct. 16: Emile Durkheim: Social Solidarity
C&M Ch. 6, "Dreyfus's Empire: Emile Durkhiem"
Excerpts from Durkheim, Simpson and Giddens on "Crime" (online)

for the section on Durkheim (available now)

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Recommended: The Emile Durkheim Archive. Note: Depending on your browswer and printer, you may find that the links on the left to readings from this website may not print out properly. What I did was to highlight and copy the text, paste it into a Word document, and print it out from there.

Wed. Oct. 18: Durkheim's Suicide: A Study in Sociology
Read: Lewis Coser, "Individual and Society," at Dead Sociologists Index (online) and Kenneth Thompson, "Suicide" (online)
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Updated Durkheim and MicroCase assignment is now available as both a webpage and a Word document. (Click on link on left toolbar)

Fri. Oct. 20: Religion and Society
Read:Excerpts from Durkheim, Coser and Thompson, "Religion" (online)

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Durkheim and MicroCase Exercise discussed

Mon. Oct. 23: Durkheim and Functionalism in Anthropology
Read: Salzman, Ch. 2, Interdependence in Human Life: Social Structure and Function, pp. 13-30, and "Contra Functionalism," pp. 128-129.
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Wed. Oct. 25: Max Weber
Read: Ch. 7: Max Weber: The Disenchantment of the World, pp. 117-139
Excerpts from The Methodology of the Social Sciences (online)

for section on Weber

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Explore: Vershehen: Max Weber's HomePage
Please use the reading guide to prepare for class discussion in this section on Weber. Bring the reading material to class each day.

Fri. Oct. 27: Stratification and Charisma
Read: Excerpts from Max Weber on stratification and charisma (online)

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout
Durkheim and MicroCase Exercise due

Mon. Oct. 30: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
Read: Excerpts from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (online)
No new PowerPoint

Wed. Nov 1: Grand Comparison: Marx, Durkheim and Weber

Fri. Nov. 3 Film: Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed (excerpts)

Recommended: American Museum of Natural History site on Margaret Mead (includes several QuickTime clips) Also: Library of Congress webpage on Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture (includes correspondence between Mead and Derek Freeman)

Mon. Nov. 6: Cultural Meaning and Ethos
Read: Salzman, Ch. 5, Coherence in Culture: Dominant Patterns and Underlying Structures, pp. 67-86, and "Contra Culture Patterns," pp. 131-132 and article on Clifford Geertz by David Berreby:

page 1

page 2

page 3

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Discuss section III of Grand Comparison grid

Study Guide and Essay Exams for Exam 2 available

Freud section postponed and will not be included on Exam 2. Continue discussion of Monday's material.

Fri. Nov. 10: Exam Review

Mon. Nov. 13: Exam #2. Bring typed essay and take multiple-choice part of exam.

Wed. Nov. 15: Postponed from before:

Note changes in schedule for rest of semester

Fri. Nov. 17: Symbolic Interactionism
Read: C&M, Ch. 9: The Discovery of the Invisible World: Simmel, Cooley, and Mead, pp. 148-165

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Mon. Nov. 20: Erving Goffman and SI
Read: C&M Ch. 14: Erving Goffman and the Theater of Social Encounters, pp. 229-241 and skim
Saltzman, Ch. 3, Agency in Human Action: Social Processes and Transactions, pp. 31-48.

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Wed. Nov. 22 : W.E.B. DuBois
Read: C&M Ch. 11: The Emergence of African-American Sociology: DuBois..." pp. 175-190.
Film Excerpt from W.E.B.DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices
No PowerPoint today

Mon. Nov. 27: Talcott Parsons and Functionalism
Read C&M Ch. 12, "The Construction of the Social System: Pareto and Parsons," pp. 191-205 (you can skip the section on Pareto)

PowerPoint Presentation- PDF Handout

Wed. Nov. 29: The Sociological Imagination
Read C&M, Ch. 13 (Michels, Mannheim, Mills), pp. 206-228 and excerpts from Mills, The Sociological Imagination
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Fri. Dec. 1: Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault
Read: Collins and Makowsky, Ch. 15: Section on Bourdieu " pp. 242-250 only; and
Michel Foucault, "Panopticism" (note: the original link was down, so I've substituted my own).

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

When it re-opens in the spring, consider an excursion to Eastern State Penitentiary, an example of the "panopticism" Foucault discusses. In the meantime, you may check it out online.
An off-beat but interesting exploration is also found at Panopticism (a student project)
Recommended: Craig Calhoun and Loïc Wacquant, "Everything is Social": In Memoriam, Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)

Mon. Dec. 4: Postmodernism
Saltzman, Ch. 7, "Critical Advocacy: Feminism and Postmodernism, pp. 113-125 and "Contra Feminism" and "Contra Postmodernism," pp. 134-138.

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Wed. Dec. 6: Immanuel Wallerstein and Globalization Theories
Read: C&M, Ch. 15, Section on Immanuel Wallerstein and the World System (pp. 256-261), and
David Held et al., pp. 1-10 of "Introduction" to Global Transformations (Polity Press, 1999). (pdf file)

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Fri. Dec. 8: Sociological Theory & Science
Read: WebCT Library: Stephen Cole, "Why Sociology Doesn't Make Progress Like the Natural Sciences." Sociological Forum 8,1 (1994) part one and part two
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Study Guide for final exam available

Mon. Dec 11: Sociological Theory and Values
Read: WebCT Library: Steven Seidman, "The End of Sociological Theory: The Postmodern Hope," Sociological Theory (1991)
No new PowerPoint

Course evaluation: Please make a special effort to attend this class.

Wed. Dec 13: Exam Review.

Mon. Dec. 18 : FINAL EXAM AT 9:00 AM

Please be on time and bring a #2 pencil