SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology

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.


SOC 203 History of Sociological Thought

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.


SOC 211 The Family

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.


SOC 212 Urban Sociology

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.


SOC 218 Sociology of Religion: From Disenchantment to Reenchantment

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.


SOC 226 Melting Pot/Salad/Mosaic/Symphony: Immigration, Race, Assimilation and Multiculturalism in 20th Century America

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.


SOC 230 Power and Powerlessness

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.


SOC 333 Education and Society

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.