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 Fathers – Sociology & 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.