SOC 301 Sociological Theory - Fall 2016

Anspach 256: T-TH 12:30 and 2:00Pm

Prof. Alan P. Rudy - rudy1a@cmich.edu
Office: 132 Anspach
Office Hours: T-Th 11:00am-12:00pm and by prior appt. on other days

INTRODUCTION:
1. We are social all the way down, from start to finish,
period.
a. Anthropologists have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that
our bodies, minds, tool use and language coevolved with our
social development a process also inextricable from the
intentional modification of landscapes and, possibly, the
domestication of plants and animals.

2. There is nothing that defines human nature.

a. We are not inherently loving, competitive, xenophobic,
violent, gendered, sexed or sexual.
b. Generalizations about marriage, religion, incest,
propensities to barter and truck, instincts for fight or
flight, or even prohibitions against menstruating women
hunting big game with men have all crashed on the shores
of comparative historical evidence.
c. Sociopaths arent even naturally sociopathic, as some are wildly
successful business-people, professionals, etc., while others are
perpetrators of coercion, violence and murder.

3. Why does this matter?

a. Paraphrasing C. Wright Mills; our personal troubles and
triumphs cannot be understood outside of our social
relationships, including the social institutions within and
through which we are raised, socialized, educated, and work.
You actively participate in how society makes you, but society
makes you, period.
i. Did any of you born in the US opt to speak English, live in
states under fiscal crisis, be born under the Patriot Acts,

Googles, Facebooks and Amazons surveillance, grow up

in a secularizing but religiously resurgent country, have
DDT in your body fat, learn science in a society where
many doubt evolution, climate change and vaccines, or a
hundred other parts of your life?
b. Our bodies, our minds, our values, our language, our
learning, our feelings, our sexual interests and practices,
our families, the very idea of periods of youth,
adolescence and young adult development, our health and
illnesses, our eating patterns, our clothing, our
transportation, our races, our genders ALL are social facts
and are not in any way primarily tied to our genes, bodies,
capacities, moralities, desires, characteristics, or innate
feelings.

4. Social institutions are way more powerful than

individual agency.
a. If what it is to be human is to be social, then the
character of social institutions and the dynamics of social
relationships define the parameters for and flavors of our
individual development and pursuit of fulfillment.
b. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT: Each of us while actively
engaged in accommodating, negotiating and resisting the
institutional norms and structural forces of everyday life
are produced much more by our social and material
environments than we are by our inner drives, inherent
desires, personal morals, individual goals and genetic
capacities.

5. Personal agency still matters.

a. We have agency, we do act in variously self-aware ways to
wrangle differing degrees of control over our many
relationships, goals and prospect.
b. Whats most important, sociologically, is that the more we stay
within the range of socially-defined normal, everyday
and commonsensical activity, the more it appears that

we are in charge when, in fact, we are not. The less we

play according to social rules, however, the more it
becomes clear how much less powerful we are than social
forces, institutions, and norms.
c. In fact, because the institutions through which we move
demand different and contradictory was of being from us,
this class will show that we each have multiple, different
and often contradictory, social selves.
d. Questioning agency and individualism means questioning
self-determination, freedom, autonomy, choice, and power
in all their manifestations. Lots of people dont like to do
this.

6. These are not just opinions.

a. These points are not just opinions or simply one
perspective among many of equal value. These statements
are backed by arguments and facts that have been rigorously
and repeatedly tested and confirmed by means of contemporary
and comparative historical analysis. Again and again, careful
research has shown that, while we have personal agency, selfawareness and individual personalities, these aspects of our
selves are generated far more by the social relationships within
which we grow and live than by our biology or a pre-social free
will.

7. The social sciences and social theory are intensely

critical, inescapably political and sometimes
uncomfortable.
a. The social sciences cannot help but question traditions
and thus destabilizing normality and challenge
established hierarchies.
b. Simply by comparing, contrasting and exploring the
tensions and contradictions within particular societies in
different places and at different times, the social sciences
cause problems for religious, political and scientific
traditions that insist on there being one, invariant, trans3

historical, universal and True (with a capital T) way to be

a Good or Bad, Normal or Deviant person.
c. Social theory should make people uncomfortable. Not

because it is hard, uses technical language, refers to

events, places and times most people dont already know
about, or is concerned with weird stuff like sexology, but
because it cannot help but challenge conventional norms
and values, received knowledges, and everyday
expectations.

8. Last, all sciences have their own (quite) necessary

technical jargon.
a. The complex words found throughout writings in social
theory represent the technical terms you have to learn in
order to become proficient in the field. Students generally
expect to have to learn difficult new terms and categories
in the natural and physical sciences but often resist that
same necessity in the social sciences. This is not a flaw in
the literature, or disciplines, it is a flawed expectation of
ease.
b. If at any point in the class words are used that you do not
understand, it is incumbent on you to ask or look up what they
mean. HOWEVER, DO NO USE CONVENTIONAL
DICTIONARIES, THEY GIVE CONVENTIONAL NOT
SOCIOLOGICAL DEFINITIONS.
c. SIMILARLY, DO NOT START YOUR PAPERS WITH
REFERENCES TO CONVENTIONAL DICTIONARIES,
WIKIPEDIA, OR OTHER NON-SOCIOLOGICAL SOURCES

TEACHING SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY IS CHALLENGING:

First, Americans tend to be pragmatic, reactive, and anti-intellectual

people who want to get things done, now, rather than going about
overthinking stuff.
Second, the United States is the most individualistic country in the
world, committed to commonsensical, but empirically unsupportable,
beliefs in meritocracy the idea that a persons success comes from
their excellence and that other peoples failures are almost always a
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sign of their moral failings, physical limits or intellectual

shortcomings.
Third, understanding society is based on understanding the past but
Americans know less about their own history, and even less about the
history of other peoples and other places, than citizens in any other
advanced industrial society. As a result, we struggle to put not only
our own lives but those of others in honest, comparative and historical
perspective.
Fourth, as a result of Bushs No Child Left Behind and Obamas Race
to the Top, students over the last decade and a half have been
discouraged from intellectual inquisitiveness and creativity and
coerced into training to take and excel on tests for reasons having
nothing to do with learning and everything to do with denigrating
teachers and shifting school monies to private firms.
o More than that, most students have been told that college is
about learning marketable job skills and nothing more
certainly not gaining the breadth of critical perspectives
necessary to understand the global economy, national politics,
local communities, cultural difference, technoscientific change
or environmental problems.
Fifth, the vast majority of social science students at the vast majority
of colleges and universities only take theory classes because they
have to and therefore are resistant to the material from the get go.
Sixth, learning takes work and I am not going to infantilize you
by treating you like passive receptacles for information (not
knowledge) that you then puke back onto the pages of a
multiple wild stab in the dark exam. Knowledge means
understanding, sociological knowledge means understanding
relationships between theory and data, people and institutions,
norms and practices, the present and the past. My goal is to
show you that the pursuit of this kind of understanding might
just be worth it and might help you in your individual career
and lifetime citizenship.

This is my motto:
DONT TEACH THE CONTROVERSY,
TEACH CONTROVERSIALLY
I push arguments to their limits, I strategically use provocative terms and
language, I use irony a great deal, I teach theatrically, I ask pointed
questions and I say things and mention body parts most students dont often
hear referred to in classrooms. I want students to actively resist, I want

students to ask hard questions, I want students to connect coursework to

everyday life, and I want us to laugh.
We are going to read, talk and write about selves, identities,
oppressions, class, race and racisms, sex/gender and sexisms,
sexuality and phobias, power and powerlessness, and science and
anti-scientism. This and the previous paragraph is the closest thing
youre going to get thats anything like a trigger warning here. If you
feel the need to be excused from a discussion contact me ahead of
time or immediately afterward and well address whatever needs to
be addressed in a mutual and respectful manner.
Youre not likely to enjoy the class if you dont work at it. Easy
achievements are rarely rewarding or worth the time. Most of us
arent proud of anything we did that didnt demand more from us
than we thought we had. I hope you leave this class proud of
yourself.
DISABILITIES
CMU provides students with disabilities reasonable accommodation to
participate in educational programs, activities, or services. Students with
disabilities requiring accommodation to participate in class activities or
meet course requirements should first register with the Office of Student
Disability Services (120 Park Library; telephone 774-3018; TDD 774-2568),
and then contact me as soon as possible.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
My expectation is that students have been taught about, understand and
will follow the universitys Academic Integrity Policy. Depending on its
severity, a first violation generates a zero for that assignment only. Second
violations of the Policy lead to the student being reported to the Office of
Student Conduct and failing the class.
Because academic integrity is a cornerstone of the Universitys
commitment to the principles of free inquiry, students are responsible
for learning and upholding professional standards of research,
writing, assessment, and ethics in their areas of study. In the
academic community, the high value placed on truth implies a
corresponding intolerance of scholastic dishonesty. Written or other
work which students submit must be the product of their own efforts
and must be consistent with appropriate standards of professional
ethics. Academic dishonesty, which includes cheating, plagiarism and
other forms of dishonest or unethical behavior, is prohibited.
A breakdown of behaviors that constitute academic dishonesty is
presented below. The definitions and clarifications are meant to
provide additional information and examples of these behaviors. They
are not intended to be all-inclusive. Questions regarding this policy or
requests for additional clarification can be directed to the Office of
Student Conduct.

The full statement and expectations can be found at:

https://www.cmich.edu/ess/ombuds/Documents/ACADEMIC_INTEGRITY_PO
LICY.pdf
MANDATORY REPORTING CMU Sexual Misconduct Policy:
I am legally bound to report to the university any and all disclosures of
sexual misconduct presented to me during class discussions, within written
work, during office hours, via emails or in an impromptu off-campus
conversation. Like many among the faculty, I am uncomfortable with this
policy were concerned that it overly constrains what can be spoken and
learned about and the union and administration are working to clarify it
though little progress appears in the offing, and its been more than a year
since this issue presented itself. (Myself, I have spoken with a nationally
renowned scholar of gender and sexual violence in the military, in the
workplace, in the home and in public and her informed decision is that the
administration has notably misinterpreted the meaning and intent of the
legislation behind this policy. This does not change my official
responsibilities given university policy, however.)
DESIGN AND EXPECTATIONS
This class, as a mandatory upper division core course in the major, is a good
bit of work, difficult work. We will start with a general discussion of the
issues associated with
the individual (socialization, institutions and stratification lie
here).
After this, we will address the theories about the pillars of the modern
world and why they are in crisis. The pillars weve all been taught about
are:
free thought (basically science & sociopolitical norms tied to
Durkheim),
free ballots (political democracy & rational administration
tied to Weber), and
free markets (capitalist production & social power tied to
Marx).
Across the semester, as we look at this material, an argument will be made
that we live in a post-modern world. To understand what that means,
however, we will have to define what made the world modern, what
modernism and modernity are, and how the modern and post-modern are
related.

I am going to take attendance and use it as a proxy for participation.

When I did not take attendance, too many students were too disappointed in
the indifference and lack of preparation of other students and I was too
disappointed by the writing generated by those not doing the reading or
coming to class to not feel the need to take attendance. You can miss three
classes without explanation before there is a penalty, after that it is three
points per class missed. Missing four or five total generally guarantees a
minimum drop of a half grade and missing six generally equates to a drop of
a full grade.
Making the class work necessitates that everyone do the whole of the
reading for each class before the class meets. I can say with easy
conviction that those who do the reading and participate in class seem to
invariably pass the class (if they do all the assigned work) and do fairly well,
grade-wise.
NOTES, TECHNOLOGY, ETC.
About a year ago I reached the point where I decided to ban phones,
laptops and tablets from class: this is as good an explanation as I
can give - http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/09/why-clay-shirky-bannedlaptops-tablets-and-phones-from-his-classroom/
Similarly - http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/toremember-a-lecture-better-take-notes-by-hand/361478/
A very few students have accessed readings, checked on the syllabus or
taken notes on phones, tablets or laptops over the years. Almost all other
engagements with cellular and computer technologies has not been related
to the class. At the most basic, vulgar, materialist level, you (or your
parents, or the military, or) are paying to take this course so that learn
something, an environment focused on the material needs to be the
minimum we can all expect from each other.
The best research on classroom learning shows that the use of cell phones,
laptops, tablets and other electronic devices unless directly integrated
into and as part of daily work reduce learning outcomes for the individual
using the device and students nearby. (as well as the individual using the
device).
If we are checking out from class and checking in to social media,
friends texts, Twitter, Snapchat and the like, we are impeding the
generation of a real, connected classroom and reducing the likelihood of
genuine discussions. So, keep your phones OFF or in SILENT (not even
VIBRATE) operation and most importantly keep them put away. If you
need to make an emergency call, please leave the room to do so. If you have

children or are on-call at work or as part of something like SAPA, tell me

ahead of time and, again, take the call or respond in the hall.
ALSO DO NOT BRING AND DO HOMEWORK OR PROJECTS FOR
OTHER CLASSES, DURING OUR 75 MINUTES TOGETHER. A basic
respect for the work I put into the class, and for the learning your fellow
students, is expected.
Last, KEEP UP, when students dont keep up, the burden of carrying the
course falls on the professor and, at this stage in your education, it is the
rare student who wants the professor to walk in and start holding forth out
thoughts on material the student has not read... before going off on
tangents intended to enrich the material but which make things worse, and
seem useless, because students are unprepared in the first place.
I know most students are trained to be passive recipients of whats going to
be on the test, but I consider that just short of abuse and I wont do it. I do
not use Powerpoint or Prezi as these kinds of presentation software either
contain way too much information, way too little, or serve as a way for
students to avoid doing the reading.
http://theconversation.com/lets-ban-powerpoint-in-lectures-it-makesstudents-more-stupid-and-professors-more-boring-36183
I do provide a number of readings that already have important passages
highlighted but most that have highlights have enough that just reading
them still takes significant time and effort. I am told these help, particularly
with the more difficult of the readings.
WRITING
While not designated a W class, this is a writing intensive course. The
Assessment Guidelines the Department has put in place demand that in
order to pass this class you must show the ability to read and synthesize
knowledge and express it in clear written form. This means, for most of
you, that your writing on blogs and on exams needs to be written,
edited and checked for spelling and grammar something that will
take time and for which you will have to make time.
Too large a number of students lose points every semester because
they hand in first drafts that reflected a limited engagement with the
material or were difficult for me to understand because the writing
hadnt been reviewed to make sure it was coherent. You have spell
and grammar checkers embedded in every variety of word processing
software available to you; I expect that they will be used. Students
may lose points for sloppy spelling.

My expectation is that you know what paragraphs are, how to use

them and that you will use them. Also, as I noted earlier, while I
dont know how many of you have been taught to start essays with
definitions from dictionaries or from Wikipedia or some other
generalist source but it is not how to start an essay in this class. If
you need a definition of a key or technical term, my expectation is
that you will distill that meaning from the readings rather than fill
space with a non-sociological definition from a dictionary, etc.
BLOGGING
To foster discussions, we are going to develop a schedule where a few
students will write 2-3 page focused summaries of the readings and
publish them to the course blog two nights before the class meets. This
assignment entails breaking down the reading into segments and
then summarizing each segment in three to five sentences, no more.
The idea is to distill and make the argument, not recount it. This
assignment came about because I was told by my students in the fall
of 2015 that just about none of them had ever read a journal article
or book chapter and, therefore, didnt really know how to read and
understand them. Each student will do this three times across the
semester for readings they choose (more on that later). Each post is worth 7
points.
After the class session, each student who blogged will have two days to
prepare a 2-or-more page "Why was this assigned?" essay. This is a variation
on a theme by What was meaningful to, important about, interesting in or
clarified by the reading and discussion? essay. The quality of the final
product will determine how many of the additional 5 points are earned.
This second essay should be pasted onto the end of your first
distillation post.
The address of the blog for your class is
12:30AM https://f2016cmu1230theory.wordpress.com
or
2:00PM https://f2016cmu200theory.wordpress.com
The process will work like this:
SUNDAY by midnite blog posts for Tuesdays readings are due to be
published/posted.
TUESDAY class is held everyone is to have read both the article and
the blog.
TUESDAY by midnite blog posts on Thursdays readings are due.
THURSDAY class is held everyone is to have read both the article
and the blog.

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THURSDAY by midnight the WWTHBA essays from TUESDAY will

have been posted.
SATURDAY by midnight the WWTHBA essays from THURSDAY will
have been posted.

Also, it is really really important to write your blog posts

and essays in a word processor or text editing software on
your computer or in the cloud someplace where you have
the ability to save those files for at least the next six
months. More than one student has retrieved a good number of
points when it appeared work hadnt been completed on time but
they could prove it had with files they had stored that were created
on the appropriate date.
I have selected theory-rich readings that connect to real events pertinent to
real peoples lives though, at times, you may have to push yourself a little
to make those connections. While many are a bit difficult, all are applicable
to issues in your lives and issues that will appear in your future
professions, and relationships, and families, and communities, and
environments. When in doubt KEEP READING; TRUST YOURSELF,
youll pick up more than you think just getting through it and then
going back over it to find what to write about.
SIGNING UP FOR WORDPRESS
1. go to http://wordpress.com and click on the blue Create a
Website button.
a. If you go through the regular sign up process you will both
establish a wordpress ID and generate a blog of your very own.
i. If you do not want a blog of your own there is a sign up
for just a username option in the box to the right of the
fourth text box.
b. The wordpress ID is what I need to know in order to invite you
to become an Author on our blog.
i. Please select a username that I can identify as you your
cmich email name is most straightforward but anything I
can clearly identify will work. Names like 4the1Ilove or
bananabreaker make life hard on me when grading.
c. When you are asked to submit an email address your cmich
email will make things easiest for me when I am grading as well
but thats less important
2. Be sure to click on the Sign Up button.
a. You will be sent an email by Wordpress with a link you will
need to click on to confirm your registration for
Wordpress.
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3. All of the course work will be done on the course blog.

None on your personal blog. A student failed the class
last spring because s/he used his/her own blog but
messed up the posting (and didnt save the work to a
safe drive)
There is more to do
4. Once you have signed up, please go to this Google Doc
https://goo.gl/0N2SBb and add your name, your Wordpress ID and
the email you gave Wordpress.
a. The document will automatically save after a short while. To
close out all you need to do is kill the tab the document opened
in.
But, wait, theres still more!
5. Ill use that information you submit to the Google Doc to add you as
an Author for the course blog.
a. When I do that Wordpress will send you another email asking
you to click on a link to accept being invited to be an Author.
b. If you do not click on the link, you wont be able to access or
write to the blog.
For an excellent tutorial on how to go about many of these steps, and to
post to the blog, click through the pages here: http://learn.wordpress.com/
On that page there are 12 links, all are pertinent to you if you chose to have
your own blog, at a minimum 3. Get Started and 7. Get Published should
be reviewed.
I have prepared a spreadsheet on which youll select the readings you want
to blog and comment on. As soon as you can, go to this Google Doc
https://goo.gl/OAcDX2 (for 12:30pm), or this Google Doc
https://goo.gl/aVHnVH (for 2:00pm) and type your name in the three cells
beside three readings IN 3 OF THE 4 COURSE SECTIONS you will
write distillation posts/why essays on AND THE 4 SMALL GROUP
READINGS YOU DESIRE.
GRADES
Attendance
Sun-Tues Blog
Distillation
Wed-Fri Blog
Revisions
Small Group
Discussions
Take-home Exams

3 unexcused absences -3 points

per miss after
3*7

16

3*5

15

3*4

12

4*9 (drop the lowest [but not the

36

21

12

final] and
insert the average of the other
three)
TOTAL

100

It is important to understand that more people have failed Soc301 because

they did not complete all the work than for any other reason. Missing just
one blog drops your starting score a lot, missing a blog is at least a half
letter grade. You cant get an A if you have 6 unexcused absences.
I have been known to translate numerical scores into curved letter grades
when generating final grades this only happens when there are not only a
large number of low totals but also a very small number of higher totals. In
any event, I dont know what the scale will be until all grades are in.
BOOKS AND READINGS
There are no books to buy. All of the readings will be made available
electronically, some through links on this syllabus, most through
Blackboard, one or two by other means.

DAILY WORK (the red text = reading prompts/foci)

PART I:
Introduction: Globalization, Postmodernism,
Neoliberalism
WEEK ONE Introduction
Tues., August 30th: You, Me and Higher Education (and the syllabus)
WATCH BEFORE CLASS TUESDAY Changing Education Paradigms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Thurs., September 1st: Everything Modern is in Crisis No Reading
Discussion: Are a) science, technology and medicine, b) elections,
legislation and bureaucracy, and/or c) jobs, markets, and capitalism
unambiguously making the world a better place? Is the relationship
between them healthy? If not, what do you believe in?

13

Remember the three columns associated with the premodern world, the
Venn Diagram associated with the modern world, and the question of what
we do if we no longer embrace each circle/pillar and their relationship to
each other going forward.

WEEK TWO The Self

Tues., September 6th: Symbolic Interaction
Blogging
Elliot 2007 The Self, Society and Everyday Life from Concepts of
the Self

Think about whether seeing socialization as a process that individuals

negotiate within different institutions (each with different norms, values
and expectations) generates a single social self or whether there are likely
to be different social selves that we possess, embody and practice from
context to context, institution to institution, relationship to relationship. As
per Goffman, if you think about it how often do you playing a role one
expected by others without ever thinking about it?

Thurs., September 8th: Self-Discipline

Blogging
Gutting 2005 Crime and Punishment from Foucault: A Very Short
Introduction

Focus less on the crime and punishment material (which only serves as an
initial presentation) and more on the ways in which the spread of selfsurveillance and social self-discipline permeates our lives. Note also the
way that self-surveillance shifts most responsibility for social control from
the state having to control otherwise unregulated individuals to highly selfregulated individuals living under conditions of increasing state
surveillance.

WEEK THREE Gender: Roles not Biology

Tues., September 13th: Family
Blogging
Coontz 1992 Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet

Traditional wasnt ever traditional, what unique things made it newly

possible once but no longer exist?... thus making it much rarer. It is

extremely important to understand the extent to which very unique

social conditions social conditions which have been intentionally
undermined made the growth of the white middle class, suburban,
nuclear family possible.
Thurs., September 15th: Engenderings: Small Group-to-Class
Discussions

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1. Miller 1998 Making Love in Supermarkets

2. Messner 2000 Barbie Dolls and Sea Monsters
3. Epstein 1994 Anti-Communism, Homophobia, and the
Construction of Masculinity in the Postwar U.S.
4. Malatino 2011 The Becoming-Woman of the Young-Girls
WEEK FOUR The Social Production of Gender and Sex
Tues., September 20th: Biology and Gender
Blogging
Martin 1991 The Egg and The Sperm

How much of the deeply gendered reading/analysis of reproductive biology

were you taught, even though it is now at least 40 years out of date? Do not
only focus on the intense sexism of early reproductive biology, it is very
important to get to and pay attention to the end where Martin makes
important points about the natural sciences and social metaphors. She is
not anti-science any more than she is anti-man.

Thurs., September 22nd: Sexology

Blogging
Weeks 1985 Nature Had Nothing to Do With It

The take-away relates to the history of the social and medical efforts that
produced our contemporary ideas about sexuality as part of the
naturalization of sexuality based on Victorian, masculine, heteronormative
and problematic ideas about society, medicine, nature and sex.

WEEK FIVE The Social Production of Race

Tues., September 27th: Race is the product, not predicate, of
inequality
Blogging
Fields 1990 Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States

Be sure to understand what Fields means by ideology AND her argument

about the relationship between slavery, race, biology, nature and the
Constitution. Do NOT get caught up in the material on the first two pages
the introduces her discussion.

Thurs., September 29th: Post-racial America?

Blogging
Brown et al. 2005 Preface & Intro. to Whitewashing Race

A key, here, is to see how very different personal prejudice and structural
racism are understand the institutional constraints, as opposed to the
personal, intellectual, physical or moral failings, to upward mobility for
historically oppressed minority communities.

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EXAM ONE - EXAM ONE - EXAM ONE - EXAM ONE - EXAM ONE
DUE WEDNESDAY 10/05/16 AT 11:59pm VIA BLACKBOARD

PART II:
Modernity, Science and Meaning
WEEK SIX Scientific Norms, Institutions and Politics
Tues., October 4th: Classical Sociology of Science
Blogging
Turner 2007 Mertonian Norms in Context

You were taught that Science works according to the norms of universality,
objectivity and disinterestedness that Merton laid out in the 1930s. The
article These ideas were not drawn from studying the actions of scientists
or scientific institutions but came from a very political struggle over the
meaning, regulation and funding of science. It is very important to
understand the politics behind Mertons work to understand contemporary
science and anti-science.

Thurs., October 6h: Post-structural Sociology of Knowing, pt. 1

Blogging
Hacking 2006 Making Up People

Hacking saying something very important about the relationship between

the changing structure and needs of individuals and institutions in
society, the reality and constructedness of diseases, the form and content
and unexpected but very real outcomes of treatments.

WEEK SEVEN Progressive Technical & Managerial

Efficiency
Tues., October 11th: Emile Durkheim - The Why Cant We All Get
Along? Sociologist
Durkheim - Notes on and about The Rules of Sociological Method
Lecture on the Science of Norm-based Social Equilibrium
Thurs., October 13th: Sociology in whos equilibrium? Subcultures...
Blogging
Hebdige 1989 Hiding in the Light

The idea of youth was invented to address problems of social control

that emerged during industrial urbanization. Categories of youth
developed and varieties of people were made up, studied, characterized and

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institutionalized. Then, as society changed the categories of youth and the

ways people categorized as different kinds of youth resisted in different
ways also changed. All the while, of course, social scientific and
documentary means were used to define each variety and kind.

WEEK EIGHT Cultural Class Struggle

Tues., October 18th: Culture and Consumption: Small Group-to-Class
Discussions
1. Reynolds 2006 The Fall, Joy Division and the Manchester Scene
2. Azerrad 2001 Sonic Youth
3. Chang 2005 How DJ Kool Herc Lost His Accent & Started HipHop
4. Chang 2005 The Culture Assassins
Thurs., October 20th: Solidarity and/vs. Class
Blogging
OConnor 1980 Review of Durkheims Division of Labor in Society

Look at how much praise OConnor gives Durkheim and even how his
critique represents more than an attack (in a way, it represents a direction
Durkheim might have been going when he passed). By focusing on the
social division of labor largely questions of difference and identity a
great deal of sociology misunderstands how the economy undermines social
and political policy. This is a dense article but well worth the effort.

EXAM TWO - EXAM TWO - EXAM TWO - EXAM TWO

DUE WEDNESDAY 10/26/16 AT 11:59pm VIA BLACKBOARD

PART III:
Individual Freedom, Democracy vs. Bureaucracy
WEEK NINE Anomie/Individualism
Tues., October 25th: Individualism
Blogging
Turner 2008 American Individualism and Structural Injustice

Pay attention to how individualism and independence are dependent on

the work and lives of people denied independence. Think back to Coontz
about the other kinds of settings and relationships necessary for
independence. American individualism is grounded on racist and sexist

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and pre-sociological assumptions, some of which explain why gender and

racial equality is quite hard for many white male individualists to accept.
Why is it that so much of the resistance to change is expressed in racial and
gender terms, but not class terms?

Thurs., October 27th: Ideologies of Freedom

Blogging
Harvey 2005 Freedoms Just Another Word

Think about the kinds of freedoms I have argued are supposed to lie at the
heart of modernity and how they are supposed to relate to one another in
a healthy way whats Harvey showing in that context? If the modern
world requires balancing free thought, free ballots and free markets
(meaning that none are ever free of the others), then neoliberals who see
free markets as the predicate of free thought and democracy are in fact not
espousing freedom but are far more about power.

WEEK TEN Rationalization, Hegemony, and

Legitimation
Tues., November 1st: Max Weber - The Were All Doomed Sociologist
Notes on Weber selections
Lecture on how Rationalization, Meaninglessness and Bureaucracy
are going to get you and your mama. Also, some notes on why we
hate the government but not democracy.
Thurs., November 3rd: Progressive Rationalization
Blogging
Hays 1964 The Politics of Reform in Municipal Government

Progressivism, traditionally, is said to represent and stand for the efforts of

educated professional classes to rationalize public policy, commodity
production and social consumption by means of scientific management is
that what went on in Pittsburgh? How might this inform your understanding
of reform when politicians promote it? Is progress a socially neutral term?
How should we balance democracy and expertise?

WEEK ELEVEN Rationalization On and By Us

Tues., November 8th: Meaninglessness, Technology and Commercial
Culture
Blogging
Horkheimer and Adorno 1944 The Culture Industry

H&A make a really convincing case but its depressing. Be sure to

understand the role of technology and the role of capital. Since this was
written before the 60s many countercultures, the 80s post-punk and hip-

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hop forms, and 00s where the dominant culture is both wholly in crisis and
fighting like hell to hold on to its market power, is there something theyre
too depressed to see?

Thurs., November 10th: Envtalism as Rationalization: Small Groupto-Class Discussions

EVERYONE READS SZASZS INTRODUCTION
1. Szasz 2007 Suburbanization as Inverted Quarantine
2. Szasz 2007 Drinking
3. Szasz 2007 Imaginary Refuge
4. Szasz 2007 Political Anesthesia
WEEK TWELVE Critiques of Science-based Policy
Tues., November 15th: How Do We Approach Population?
Blogging
Harvey 1974 Population, Resources and Ideology

The argument that Harvey makes here is less important relative to what it
has to say about Malthusian forms of population science and policy and
more important for our purposes in terms of what it has to say about the
politics of social research methods. Importantly, Harvey is not saying
quantitative methods are politically bad. What he is saying is that such
methods approach the world in ways that very often tend to support the
status quo rather than critique it.

Thurs., November 17th: How Do We Approach Climate Change?

Blogging
Taylor 1997 How Do We Know We Have Global Environmental
Problems?

In environmental sociological circles, this article is generally thought to be

anti-science. People taking that position are wrong. Much like Harveys
article, the argument here is that a great deal of science takes conventional
definitions of social, environmental, technical and cultural problems
definitions derived from the perspective of the mainstream and powerful
and then applies scientific methods with those assumptions built in. Good
science, in this way, is still good science but it is executed in a manner that
misses or cant conceive of asking questions important to those outside the
mainstream or those who are made powerless by the status quo.

EXAM THREE - EXAM THREE - EXAM THREE - EXAM THREE

DUE WEDNESDAY 11/23/16 AT 11:59pm VIA BLACKBOARD

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PART IV:
Capitalism vs. Socialism and Anarchism
WEEK THIRTEEN Alienation/Private Property
Tues., November 22nd: Marx, Capitalism and Society
Notes on Marx, Labor and Alienation from 1844 Manuscripts
Lecture on Exploitation and Capitalist Crisis
Thurs., November 24th:

THANKSGIVING
WEEK FOURTEEN Modernity and Culture
Tues., November 29th: The Modern Era and Aesthetics
Blogging
Harvey 1989 Modernity and Modernism

Baudelaires quote at the start is the key what does Harvey say is the
difference between modernity the era and modernism the
aesthetic/artistic practice? Do not get caught up in the individuals or
traditions Harvey writes about, pay attention to the struggle Harvey
suggests artists found themselves with as the world became less and less
stable.

Thurs., December 1st: The Modern Experience

Blogging
Berman, 1982 All That Is Solid Melts into Air

See if you can wrap your mind around the insight about capitalism and all
that is solid melting into air. If scientific capitalist democracy is primarily
about new knowledge, new products and markets and new forms of selfexpression, what does this mean for any and all traditions, be they
religious, cultural, interpersonal, community-based, political, etc? Id like
you to genuinely ask yourself whether or not people have to effectively fall
to the level of King Lear at the end of the play before they can discover and
embrace our own full humanity and that of others.

WEEK FIFTEEN Political Economic and Ecological

Struggle

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Tues., December 6th: Anarchist Critique

Blogging
Graeber 2011 The Moral Grounds of Economic Relations

Wait, what, were all communistic? Huh. ;-) What would happen if far more
of you life and everyone elses was actually led according to the maxim
From each according to their abilities and to each according to their
needs?

Thurs., December 8th: Critical Environmentalism Small Group-toClass Discussions

1. Lappe and Schurman 1990 Taking Population Seriously: Power and
Fertility
2. Hurley 1995 The Perlis of Pollution in the Steel City, 1945-1950
3. White, Rudy and Gareau 2015 Introduction
4. Ciplet, Roberts and Khan 2015 Trading a Livable World

FINAL EXAM DUE 5PM THURSDAY,

DEC. 14TH

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