Download Sociology 314: 03/04 Contemporary Sociological Theory Fall 2014

Sociology 314: 03/04
Contemporary Sociological Theory
Fall 2014
Professor: Richard Williams
[email protected]
M/W 3:55-5:15
CDL 109 (DC)
Office: Davison 111 (DC)
Office Hrs. M (1:00-3:00) and by
appointment
TA: Ben Foley
[email protected]
Section: (03) M6: 5:50-6:45
Hickman 205
Section: (04) W6: 5:50-6:45
Hickman 210
Office: Davison 012 (DC)
Office Hrs. W (10-12)
Course Description and Objectives
The purpose of this course is to give you an overview of the theories used by
contemporary sociologists as conceptual tools for the study social life. By thinking of
theories as tools we move away from treating them as competitors for arriving at a
singular truth. Rather, the tools approach allows us to treat theories as dense analytical
concepts that are more or less appropriate for studying social life from a specific point of
view. In other words, we will be operating with the assumption that there is no single
theoretical perspective that could give us the ability to competently study the complexity
of social life.
By the end of this course you will be able to analyze social life from a variety of
theoretical perspectives. In accomplishing that end we will focus on how different
theories take distinct approaches to studying society. One of our major concerns then will
be with identifying the social sources of the points of view upon which the theories we
study are built.
The lecture sessions will help you grasp the historical background,
presuppositions (working assumptions) and general sense of the specific theories. In the
recitation sections you will discuss the readings and lecture ideas while also having the
opportunity to relate them to everyday life.
All readings are on Sakai
Week I
Intro: Frames and Presuppositions
9-3
Orientation: Structural and conceptual
What color lens do you look through?
Before 1st class
(URL) “Take Away,” Russian version of Ukrainian shoot down (radio interview)
(URL)Tiger-Tyagarajan, “If you’re curious”
9-8:
Further conceptual orientations
Read: Miles, S. 2001. Social Theory in the Real World, “Introduction”
Rorty, R: “The Contingency of Language,” of his Contingency, irony, and solidarity
Week II
Sociological Theories (analytical tools) deconstructed
9-10:
Framework
Read:
Farganis, J. “Introduction” to Readings in Social Theory
Objects of attention (level of analysis/assumption about why motivation for behavior
9-15
Different departures/points of view: how opposing findings are arrived at
Read:
Farganis, J. Chapt. 7 “Functionalism”: Davis and Moore (161-171) in Readings in
Social Theory
Farganis, J. Chapt. 8 “Conflict Theory”: C. W. Mills (197-9 and 214-23),” in
Readings in Social Theory
Week III
9-17 (Short Assignment)
Different departures/points of view: how opposing findings are arrived at (Conti.)
Read:
Farganis, J. Chapt. 9 “Exchange Theory and Rational Choice: Homans” (241-52),” in
Readings in Social Theory
Farganis, J. Chapt. 10 “Symbolic Interaction: Goffman” (331-33 and 341-50),” in
Readings in Social Theory
Temporality as a basis for making convincing Sociological Theories
9-22
Bourdieu: the example of Art
Read:
Bourdieu, P. “Manet and the Institutionalization of Anomie,” in his The Field of Cultural
Production
Week IV
9-24
Focault: knowledge as structured seeing
Read:
Rajchman’s “Foucault’s Art of Seeing”
General Foci of Sociological Attention
9-29
1st Reader response due
Continuity: how do stratified social systems hold together?
Read:
Weber, M. “The Types of Legitimation Domination”
Geertz, C. “Commonsense as a Social System,” in his Local Knowledge: Further Essays
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in Interpretive Anthropology
Week V
10-01
Discontinuity: Social and Conceptual changes
Read:
Weber, M. “The Types of Legitimation Domination” focus on “Charisma”
Schweickart, “Reading Legitimation Crisis during the Meltdown”
Contemporary Issues in which we are embedded for Consideration
Are your experiences reflected here?
10-06
1st Essay due
Read:
Miles, Chapter 5, “A post-modern society?” in his Social Theory in the Real World
Week VI
10-08
Postmodern Society (multiple ruptures from the past)
Read:
Taylor, C. “Social Imaginaries,” in Kearney, R. Traversing the Imaginary
10-13
2nd Reader response due
Postmodernity theorized
Jameson, F. “Introduction,” Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism
Week VII
10-15
Postmodern Identity
Read:
Bauman, Z. Chapter 1: “Identity in Question,” in Elliott, A. and C. Lemert (eds.)
Identity in Question: The Global New Individualist Debate
Giddens, A. Chapter IV (only pages 112-124): “Abstract Systems and the
Transformation of Intimacy, in his The Consequences of Modernity
10-20
Postmodern Identity (conti.)
Read:
Butler, J. 1999. “Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire,” in Elliott, A. (ed.) The Blackwell
Reader in Contemporary Social Theory
Weeks, J. 1999. “Living with Uncertainty,” in Elliott, A. (ed.) The Blackwell Reader in
Contemporary Social Theory
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Week VIII
10-22
Postmodern Individualism
Elliott, A and C. Lemert (eds.), 2009. Chapter 3: “The Global New Individualist
Debate: Three Theories of Individualism and beyond,” in their Identity in
Question: The Global New Individualist Debate
10-27
2nd Essay due
Postmodern Society as Risk Society
Read:
Beck U. 1999. “From Industrial Society to Risk Society: Questions of Survival, Social
Structure and Ecological Enlightenment”
Week IX
10-29
2 General Risks in Contemporary Society
Read:
(URL):“Can the Market stave off Global Warming”
(URL):Apuzzo: “Malicious Web Viruses”
Cole, D. 2014. “Can Privacy be Saved?” NY Review of Books, March 6
11-03
3rd Reader response due
Globalization
Read:
Miles, S. 2001. Chapter 8, “A Global Society?” in his Social Theory in the Real World
Week X
11-05
Globalization
Read: Robinson, W. I. “Theories of Globalization”
Hsu, E. 2010. “Social Theory and Globalization,” in Elliot (ed.) Routledge Companion
to Social Theory
11-10
Globalization and Terrorism
Read:
Borradori: Habermas & Derrida on Terror (Dialogue)
Week XI
11-12
3rd Essay Due
Globalization: rise of the Cosmopolitan
Read:
Kendall, et al. 2009 “Problems in the field of Cosmopolitanism”
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Beck, U. 2004. “The Cosmopolitan Turn,” in Gane, N. The Future of Social Theory
11-17
Professionalization and Postmodernity
Read:
Abbott, A. 2005. “Linked Ecologies,” Sociological Theory, 23:3
Saks (2012). Neo-Weberian Take on Professions
Burnett & Bonnici. 2006. “Contested Terrain,” Library Quarterly, 76:2
Week XII
11-19
The Digital Revolution (poses the same issue as the postmodern label, how fundamental
is it?)
Read:
Besnier, J-M 2014. “Is the digital revolution a fraud?”
(URL)http://www.cuberevue.com/en/is-the-digital-revolution-a-fraud/1097
Face‐to‐Facebook:
(URL)www.Face-to-Facebook.net/theory.php
11-24
4th Reader response due
Living in the Digital World
Read:
Hart, W. E. 2011, “Mind, Self and Facebook: Towards a Postmodern Sociology”
Wed. Nov 26: Friday Classes
Week XIII
12-01
Theorizing the digital world
Read:
Stevenson, N. 2010. “New Media, Popular Culture and Social Theory,” in Elliot (ed.)
Routledge Companion to Social Theory
12-03
Contemporary Society: Concrete and Abstract engagements
Aneesh, A. 2009. “Global Labor,” Sociological Theory, (27:4).
Urry, J. “Complex Mobilities”
Week XIV
12-8 (Group presentations)
12-10 (Group presentations)
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Grading
(Details for all assignments will be posted at least 1 week before they are due)
(All assignments MUST be handed in by the due date: There will not be make-ups)
Short assignment (5 pts.)
Due (Week III): 9-17
3 Essays (17 pts. each: 51 pts. total)
 #1: Due (Week V): 10-06
 #2: Due (Week VIII): 10-27
 #3: Due (Week XI): 11-12
Class participation: (8 pts.)
Recitation participation: (14 pts.)
4 Reader responses (3 pts. each: 12 pts. total)
 #1 (Week IV): 9-29
 #2 (Week VI): 10-13)
 #3 (Week IX): 11-03
 #4 (Week XII): 11-24
1 Group project: (10 points)
 Based on one of the central themes
 Making use of topics in the mass media
Short assignment (5 pts)
Essays (51 pts)
Course participation (22 pts)
Reader response (12 pts)
Group Project (10 pts)
Total of 100 pts
Consult the following before beginning your assignments
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/douglass/sal/plagiarism/intro.html
Attendance
 You have permission to miss 2 lectures and 2 recitations without impact; you
would be wise not to use them too early in the semester.
Be mindful of the fact that the Self-Reporting Absence Application is not permission
for missing classes beyond what is designated above.
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