The Sociological Imagination - Reading List

 

Part I: What is sociology?

 

Session 1 – Sociology as a critical stance

 

- Plato. 2004. The Republic. Translated by C.D.C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett. Pp. 208-211 (The Allegory of the Cave, book VII).

- Mills, C. Wright. 1992. “From The Sociological Imagination”. In Seeing Ourselves, edited by John J. Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. 1-5.

- Berger, Peter. 1992. “Invitation to Sociology”. In Seeing Ourselves, edited by John J. Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. 6-9.

- Becker, Howard S. 1992. “Whose Side Are We On”. In Seeing Ourselves, edited by John J. Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. 23-26.

- Dumont, Louis. 1990. Homo Hierarchicus. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 1-20 (Introduction).

 

 

Session 2 – The collective and the individual >> lots of readings

 

1.- Sociology and the study of social facts

 

- Durkheim, Émile. 1982. The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Free Press. Pp. 50-59 (Chapter 1). [Also found in Readings for Sociology, edited by Garth Massey. New York: Norton. Pp. 19-26].

- Mauss, Marcel. 2005. The nature of sociology: two essays. New York: Durkheim Press. Pp. 1-20 (First essay, first part: “The Subject-matter of Sociology”).

 

2.- Case study:  the individual as a sociocultural construction

 

- Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien, 1966. The ‘Soul’ of the Primitive. New York: Praeger. Introduction, §1; chapters I, §2; II, §5; III; V, §1; VI, §4-5; VII, §1-2.

 

 

Part II: Founding FathersSociology & Modernity

 

Session 3 – Durkheim & Marx >> lots of readings

 

1.- Durkheim

 

- Durkheim, Émile. 1997. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press. Pp. 11-87, 329-342 (book 1, chapters 1-3, conclusion).

- Durkheim, Émile. 1972. “A Review of Ferdinand Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft”. Published as “An Exchange Between Durkheim and Tonnies on the Nature of Social Relations”. American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 77, n. 6 (May, 1972), p. 1191-1200.

 

2.- Marx

 

- Marx, Karl. 1978. The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: Norton. Pp. 473-491.

 

 

 

Session 4 – Weber, capitalism & modernity >> lots of readings

 

- Weber, Max. 2001. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Routledge Classics. Pp. xxviii-xlii, 3-50, 102-125.

 

- Polanyi, Karl. 1944 (2001). The Great Transformation. Boston: Beacon Press. Pp. 171-174.

- Goody, Jack. 2004. Capitalism and Modernity, The Great Debate. Cambridge: Polity Press. Pp. 1-18 (introduction).

 

 

Part III – Qualitative & Quantitative Methods

 

Session 5 – methods

 

- Bearman, Peter S, & James Moody. 2004. “Suicide and Friendships among American Adolescents”. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 94, n. 1. 2004. Pp. 89-96.

 

AND (read them all - hopefully - and pick two for your memo):

 

- Anderson, Elijah. 1978. A Place on the Corner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 235-267.

- Ehrenreich, Barbara. 1996 (2006). “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America”. In Readings for Sociology, edited by Garth Massey. New York: Norton. Pp. 228-247.

- Coleman, John R. 1992. “Homeless on the Streets of New York”. In Seeing Ourselves, edited by John J. Macionis and Nijole V. Benokraitis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Pp. 81-91.

- MacLeod, Jay. 2004.  Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations of Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Pp. 270-302.

 

 

Part IV – Key issues

 

Session 6 – citizenship

 

- Putnam, Robert D. 1996. “The Strange Disappearance of Civic America”. The American Prospect. Vol. 7, n° 24.

 

Reactions:

- Schudson, Michael. 1996. “What If Civic Life Didn't Die?”. The American Prospect. Vol. 7, n° 25.

- Skocpol, Theda. 1996. “Unravelling From Above”. The American Prospect. Vol. 7, n° 25.

- Valelly, Rick. 1996. “Couch-Potato Democracy?”. The American Prospect. Vol. 7, n° 25.

 

Response:

- Putnam, Robert D. 1996. “Robert Putnam Responds”. The American Prospect. Vol. 7, n° 25.

 

Recommended:

- Skocpol, Theda. 1999. “Associations Without Members”. The American Prospect. Vol. 10, n°45.

- Putnam, Robert D. 2002. “Bowling Together”. The American Prospect. vol. 13, n° 3.

- Skocpol, Theda. 2004. “The Narrowing of Civic Life”. The American Prospect. Vol. 15, n° 6.

 

 

Session 7 – cultures & globalization

 

- Carroll, Raymonde. 1988 (1990). Cultural misunderstandings: the French-American experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 15-30, 183-214.

- Said, Edward W. 1981 (1997). Covering Islam, How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World. New York: Vintage Books. Pp. 3-68.

- McKibben, Bill. 1996 (2006). “An Alternative to Globalization”. In Readings for Sociology, edited by Garth Massey. New York: Norton. Pp. 500-507.

 

 

Session 9 – Race

 

- Omi, Michael, & Winant, Howard. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge. Pp. 53-55.

- Fields, Barbara Jeanne. 1990. “Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America”. New Left Review. 181. May-June 1990.

- Pryce, Delina D. 2001. “Black Latina”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 361-363.

 

 

 

Session 10 – Social class & gender

 

1.- Social class

 

- Mantsios, Gregory. 2001. “Class in America: Myths and Realities”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 168-182.

- Mantsios, Gregory. 2001. “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 563-571.

- Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1992. “The Functional Underclass”. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 136, n. 3. (September 1992). Pp. 411-415.

- Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1985. “How to Get the Poor off our Conscience”. In Harper’s, vol. 271, n. 1626 (November 1985). Pp. 17-20.

 

Recommended:

- New York Times. 2005. Class matters. New York: Times Books. Pp. 1-26, 244-268 (chapter 1 & appendix). See also: http://www.nytimes.com/class.

- Gans, Herbert J. 1996 (2006). “Uses of the Underclass in America”. In Readings for Sociology, edited by Garth Massey. New York: Norton. Pp. 248-260.

 

 

2.- Gender

 

- Lorber, Judith. 2001. “The Social Construction of Gender”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 47-57.

- Messner, Michael A. 2001. “Ah, Ya Throw Like a Girl”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 57-59.

- Hesse-Biber, Sharlene. 2001. “Am I thin Enough Yet”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 527-534.

- Lipsitz Bem, Sandra. 2001. “In a Male-Centered World, Female Differences Are Transformed into Female Disadvantages”. In Race, Class and Gender in the United States, An Integrated Study, edited by Paula Rothenberg. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 60-63.

 

Recommended:

- Messner, Michael A. 1996 (2006). “Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities”. In Readings for Sociology, edited by Garth Massey. New York: Norton. Pp. 88-103.