Professor: A. Ansell
CRN: 92402
Distribution: A/C
Time: M W 10:30 am - 12:00 pm OLIN 203
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the sociological perspective. Its goal is to illuminate the way in which social forces impinge on our individual lives and affect human society. The course is organized into four main parts. In the first, key sociological concepts and methods will be introduced via the study of the fathers of sociology: Durkheim, Weber, and Marx. In the second part, we will examine the significance of various forms of social inequality, particularly those based on class, race, and gender. We will then survey several important social institutions: the family, the economic order, the political order, education, and religion. The fourth and final part of the course will focus on the inter-related issues of ideology, social movements, and social change.
Professor: S. Vromen
CRN: 92404
Distribution: A/C
Time: Tu Th 10:30 am - 12:00 pm OLIN 308
In this course we study how eminent thinkers have attempted to come to terms with the fundamental problems of the relationship between the modern individual and Western society in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789 and the development of capitalism. These problems include social atomization, alienation, and loneliness (Marx, Durkheim); social disorganization (Comte, Durkheim); secularization and the decline of traditional religious beliefs (Weber, Comte, Durkheim); a growing pessimism about the individuals capacity for rational control (Freud, Pareto); class conflict (Marx, Veblen); and other forms of conflict within society (Simmel, Pareto, and others). In analyzing how classical sociologists attempt to make sense of the complex and changing modern world, we will also consider how they search for a fair and just society and what they consider to be the promise of sociology in terms of both its potential as a humanistic discipline and its claims to be a science.
Professor: S. Vromen
CRN: 92405
Distribution: C
Time: Tu 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm OLIN 204
Cross-listed: American Studies, Gender
Studies
The
course analyzes the family as a social institution and as an intimate group. Topics include the
impact of industrialization on the family, marriage and divorce, sex roles, parenthood, the
influence of social class on the family, and variations in lifestyle. The emphasis is on contemporary
U.S. Society with some cross-cultural comparative material.
Professor: W. Goldstein
CRN: 92689
Distribution: C
Time: W 4:00 pm - 5:20 pm OLIN
205
F 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 205
of related interest: American Studies
In the 20th century, life in modern society is associated with urbanism. This course provides
students both with a foundation in the classics of urban sociology and with exposure to the issues
raised by contemporary scholars. The founding statements in urban sociology are made by
representatives of the neo-Kantian German sociological tradition, Max Weber and Georg Simmel,
and the Chicago School of urban sociology, Robert Park and Louis Wirth. A wide variety of other
writers considered are: Lewis Mumford, Walter Benjamin, Jane Jacobs, Herbert Gans, Marshall
Berman, Elijah Anderson, Philip Kasinitz, Sharon Zukin, and Mike Davis. The class will focus on
major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. Particular
attention will be paid to New York City. Questions that will be raised include: Where, how, and
why have cities developed? How have cities passed from an industrial to a post-industrial
economy? How is the city divided into neighborhoods by race, class and ethnicity? What is the
relationship between the city and the suburbs? What is life like in the Ghetto? What are the effects
of gentrification? What are the cultures that exist in cities? Prerequisite: one course in sociology
or permission of the instructor.
Professor: W. Goldstein
CRN: 92690
Distribution: C
Time: F 10:45 am - 12:45 pm OLIN 204
Cross-listed: Religion
of related interest:
American Studies, MES
One of the major assumptions of the sociology of religion has
been that individuals in modern society are becoming less religious. The thesis of secularization
has been systematically formulated in the works of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. This
argument continues in the works of Bryan Wilson, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in the
1960s. With the rise of religious fundamentalism in the 1980s, the theory of secularization has
been placed into question, and needs to be reformulated to take into account not only the
movement from sacred to profane but from profane to sacred. One must not only think in terms of
"disenchantment" but "reenchantment". Contemporary case studies on religious movements that
place the theory of secularization into question will be read. Particular attention will be paid to
Christian, Moslem, and Jewish fundamentalism, new age movements, and religious cults.
Prerequisite: one course in sociology or permission of the instructor.
Professor: J. Perlmann
CRN: 92403
Distribution: C
Time: Th 3:40 pm - 5:40 pm OLIN 304
Cross-listed: American Studies, History, Jewish
Studies, MES
What metaphor for American ethnic dynamics? Do groups "melt" into
one, get tossed but preserve their singularity, fit neatly into patterns, or produce different sounds
which together produce harmony? This course examines processes of American immigration and
ethnicity since the great immigration waves ca. 1900 through the 1990s. The course is arranged
around three large issues: 1) Assimilation vs. multiculturalism in connection with the immigrants
of the early twentieth century and their descendants ("white ethnics"); 2) the nature of
contemporary immigration (largely Hispanic and Asian), and its similarities and differences from
immigration ca. 1900; 3) what does this comparison of immigration past and present lead us to
expect with regard to assimilation vs. multiculturalism today? In connection with all three of
these large organizing themes, we will be concerned with matters such as the social class and
educational background of immigrants, their national and racial origins, loyalty to ancestral
language and culture, patterns of intermarriage. And at the same time we will be concerned with
the attitudes of American society and government towards new immigrants and their cultural
diversity.
Professor: A. Ansell
CRN: 92406
Distribution: C
Time: M 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm OLIN 205
Core Course: PIE
This course examines
dynamics of power and powerlessness and how the two serve to maintain inaction in the fact of
injustice. We will ask not why rebellion occurs in democratic societies, but why, in the face
opression and inequalities, it does not. Readings are organized to present a sociological and
rather than personalized explanation of how power works to develop and maintain the quiescence
and sometimes the complicity of the powerless. We will investigate how patterns of power and
powerlessness may limit action upon inequalities by preventing issues from arising, grievances
from being voiced and interest from being recognized. We will question the extent to which
power may serve to shape conceptions of the powerless about the nature and extent of the
inequalities themselves. Finally, we will examine moments when power relations alter and
rebellion emerges to understand the ways in which resistance itself may feed back into patterns of
power and powerlessness. Case materials will be drawn from North America, eastern Europe, and
southern Africa. Prerequisites: Introduction to Sociology, Confronting Inequality, or permission
of instructor.
Professor: S. Vromen
CRN: 92407
Distribution: C
Time: W 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm OLIN 306
Cross-listed: American Studies
An
analysis of the nature of schools and their connections with other social institutions such as the
family and the economy. After a historical overview of the development of educational
institutions, the course examines topics such as education as a socialization, selection, and
certification process; the classroom as a social system; teaching as a profession; schools as
bureaucratic organizations; and the relationship of schools to their community environment. The
course seeks answers to questions such as: what are schools for? Who owns and controls the
schools? Can an educational system be anything but conservative? Is the school supposed to
foster social mobility? Prerequisite: Sociology 101 or permission of the instructor.