Sociological
Theory
Prof.
Stephen Adair
Spring
2003
Once
during the semester, you will be asked to initiate class discussion by
identifying the central idea or thesis of an article that we will be discussing
that day. You will not be expected
to make a formal presentation, but merely get us started by identifying the
central idea, the author’s intent, or central question from the reading.
You will also need to submit an outline, a one-page summary, or a set of
notes on the reading. This summary or outline should be no more than a single page.
1/30
Marx and social class
_______________________
The Manifesto of the
Communist Party
2/4
Marx on alienation and religion
_______________________
Excerpts from The
Philosophic and Economic Manuscripts of 1844
2/6
Marx – Life and Times
______________________
Pampel
– Marx chapter
2/11
Marx: Accumulating
Surplus Value
_______________________
Walsh
and Zacharis-Walsh, “Working Longer, Living Less” Kivisto, pp. 7-43
2/13
Durkheim – His life and Times
______________________
Pampel – Durkheim chapter
2/15
Durkheim on Anomie
_________________
Excerpt from Suicide
2/20
Durkheim on Religion
_________________________
Excerpt from The Elementary Forms
2/25
A New Form of Integration, Regulation
and Solidarity?
____________________
Hornsby, “Surfing the
Net for Community, pp. 84-116 in Kivisto
2/27
Weber – His Life and Times
_______________________
Pampel – Weber chapter
3/4
Weber: On Protestant asceticism
________________________
Excerpts
from the Protestant Ethic especially material from chapter 4
Weber: The relation between the
Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism ___________________
Excerpts from the Protestant Ethic especially material from last chapter
3/11
Weber, Bureaucracy, legitimacy, Rationalization_____________________
Ritzer, “Weberian theory
and McDonalidization” pp. 47-71
in Kivisto
3/13
Simmel Life and Times
______________________
Pampel – Simmel chapter
3/18
Simmel’s Perspective
_______________________
Staudenmeier,
Alcohol-Related Windows on Simmel’s Social World” in Kivisto
3/20
Issues at the Origins of American Sociology
____________________
Coser’s article “American Traditions”
3/20
Issues at the Origins of American Sociology
____________________
Coser’s article “American Traditions”
4/1
Mead - Life and Times
___________________
Pampel chapter on Mead
4/3
Mead on Play, Game and the Generalized Other
___________________
Excerpts from Mind Self and Society, “Play, the Game and the
Generalized Other”
Mead on the “I” and the “me”
___________________
Excerpts from Mind, Self and Society, “The I and the Me”
4/8 Goffman On Dramaturgy __________________
Kivisto and Pittman, “Goffman’s Dramaturgical Sociology”
4/10
Goffman On Deference and Demeanor
__________________
Excerpts from
“The Nature of Deference and Demeanor”
4/15
The social construction of meaning, identity and situation
Lorber and Martin, “The Socially Constructed Body” _______________
Davidson,
“Interpretavism and the Study of Prostitution”
______________
4/22
Manifest and Latent Functions
_____________________
Merton, "Manifest and
Latent Functions"
4/24
Characteristics of Neo-functionalism
____________________
Colomy and Greiner,
Criminalizing Transgressing Youth,” pp. 155-195 in
Kivisto
5/1
Critical Theory: Habermas on Legitimation Crisis ______________________
Dandaneau, “Critical Theory, Legitimation Crisis, and the
Deinsustrialization
of Flint, Micchigan,”
pp, 227-258 in Kivisto
5/6 Critical Theory: Mass Culture as Mass Deception_______________________
"Enlightenment as Mass Deception" by Adorno and Horkheimer