Class Syllabus

Readings marked by an * are in the packet.

9/5. Week 1: Introduction

 

9/10, 12. Week 2: Sociology and Modernity

  • *Robert Nisbet, "The Two Revolutions"
  • *Charles Dickens, excerpt from Hard Times

 

9/17, 19. Week 3. Durkheim: Society, Sociology and Solidarity

  • *Emile Durkheim, excerpt from Suicide
  • *Excerpt from The Division of Labor in Society

 

9/24, 26. Week 4. Durkheim: Culture and Ritual

  • Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, pp. 1-18, 33-39, 99-126, 207- 241, 418-448 [Pages for the Swain-translated edition: 1-33, 51-57, 121-182, 235-272, 462-495]
  • Erving Goffman, "Embarrassment and Social Organization" in Interaction Ritual

 

9/26. First paper due.

 

10/1, 3. Week 5. Durkheim: Functionalism.

  • *Durkheim, "The Normal and the Pathological"
  • *Kai Erikson, excerpt from Wayward Puritans
  • *Dorothy Rabinowitz, "From the Mouths of Babes to a Jail Cell"

 

10/8, 10. Week 6 Marx: Historical Materialism

  • Karl Marx, in Tucker (ed), Marx-Engels Reader, "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts," pp. 70-81
  • Marx, "Alienation and Social Classes," pp. 133-135.
  • Marx, "The German Ideology," pp. 149-165; 172-174; 186-193; 197.
  • Marx, "Wage Labour and Capital," pp. 203-217
  • Marx, "The Coming Upheaval," pp. 218-219

 

FILM: ROGER AND ME. Wednesday, October 10, 7-9 pm., 386 Engineering Terrace.

 

10/15, 17. Week 7. Marx: Capitalism

  • Marx, Capital, vol. 1, 319-329 (ch. i:4); 367-373 (x:3)
  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, pp. 473-491
  • *"Muting the Lotteries' Perfect Pitch"

 

10/22, 24. Week 8. Marx: Exploitation, Consent and Collective Action

  • Michael Burawoy, Manufacturing Consent, Preface, Chs. 2, 4, 5, 11, 12.

 

FILM: AMERICAN DREAM. Wednesday, October 24 in 417 Mathematics

 

10/29, 31. Week 9. Marx: Class

  • Judith Rollins, Between Women, Introduction, chs. 4, 5, 6
  • *Max Weber, "Class, Status, Party"
  • *"For Blacks in Peru, There’s No Room at the Top"

 

11/ 7. Week 10. Max Weber: Social Change

  • Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, pp. 13-128; 155- 185

 

11/7. Second paper due.

 

11/12, 14. Week 11. Weber: Organization, and Rationality

  • *Max Weber, "Bureaucracy" and "The Types of Legitimate Domination"
  • *Mark Dowie, "Pinto Madness"

 

11/19, 21. Week 12. The Iron Cage

  • Robert Jackall, Moral Mazes, Introduction, Chs. 1-4, 6, 8.

 

11/26, 28. Week 13. Weber: Science

  • *Max Weber, "Science as a Vocation"
  • *Ann Oakley, "Interviewing Women: A contradiction in terms"

 

12/3, 5. Week 14. Interaction

  • *G.H. Mead, excerpt from Mind, Self and Society
  • Erving Goffman, Interaction Ritual, "On Face-Work"

 

12/5. Third paper due.

 

12/10. Conclusion