Michael P Young, PhD

This seminar was created after much feedback from previous Honors students and faculty supervisors. The idea is to provide structure, instruction and assistance throughout your double semester thesis project, as well as to enable you to interact and support one another.  Seminar participation should not increase your overall workload, but it will help you become more efficient in your research and writing.

Goals for the seminar:

• Teaching research skills relevant to writing an Honors Thesis
• Providing resources, information, and assistance to Honors students
• Creating a venue for discussion of Honors-related topics and concerns
• Facilitating regular communication between students, advisors, and faculty
• Creating a sense of community among Sociology Honors students

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Peter Elbow, Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing

Eviatar Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse

Grading Policy

Requirements are active class participation and completion of writing projects.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: 

Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: 

Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

This seminar was created after much feedback from previous Honors students and faculty supervisors. The idea is to provide structure, instruction and assistance throughout your double semester thesis project, as well as to enable you to interact and support one another.  Seminar participation should not increase your overall workload, but it will help you become more efficient in your research and writing.

Goals for the seminar:

• Teaching research skills relevant to writing an Honors Thesis
• Providing resources, information, and assistance to Honors students
• Creating a venue for discussion of Honors-related topics and concerns
• Facilitating regular communication between students, advisors, and faculty
• Creating a sense of community among Sociology Honors students

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Peter Elbow, Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing

Eviatar Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse

Grading Policy

Requirements are active class participation and completion of writing projects.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

Course description: The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides a glimpse at important works in social theory on the periphery of the discipline. The third and final part presents central works from two leading social theorists of the late twentieth century. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural production. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same—At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Requirements: Course evaluations will be based on three exams. The first exam is worth 40% of your grade. The second exam is worth 30% of your grade. The third exam is worth 30% of your grade.

Required readings: All of the readings and lecture power points can be found on CANVAS. You may want to purchase your own copy of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (any edition will do) and Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (any edition will do). We will read these two books in their entirety.

This course is an introduction into the sociology of religion. The first half of the course takes a broad, theoretical approach to religion and society. We begin with an exploration of the role the study of religion played in the emergence of sociology as a discipline. We discuss the axial importance of religion to the “classical” social theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, and the philosophy and psychology of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. We conclude this survey of classical approaches by asking if these modern social theories sell religion short? We round out the first half of the course looking at more recent sociological and anthropological theories of religion.

The second half of the course looks at more substantive issues in the sociological study of religion. We discuss the intersection of religion with race, gender, migration, politics, and social movements. We also look at the historical trend of religious participation in the United States. We will discuss if something new is underfoot in the current US religious landscape. We end the course with speculations about future trends in religion and society.

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Ludwig Feuerbach, selections from The Essence of Christianity.

Karl Marx, selections on the opiate of the masses and the emancipation of the Jews

Emile Durkheim, selections from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Max Weber, “Social Psychology of Religion”

Friedrich Nietzsche, selections from The Genealogy of Morals

Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion.

Rudolph Otto, selections from The Idea of the Holy

Mircea Eliade, selection from The Sacred and the Profane.

Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a cultural system”

William James on conversion, selections from The Varieties of Religious Experience

WEB Du Bois, Souls of Black Folks

Lynn Davidman, Tradition in a Rootless World

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem

Jose Casanova, selections from Public Religions in the Modern World

Michael Walzer, selections from Revolution of the Saints

Michael Young, selections from Bearing Witness Against Sin

Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, selections from The Churching of America, 1776-2005.

Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones.

Grading Policy

There will be two examinations of equal weight (each 40% of grade). You will also be required to conduct an interview with a person exploring religious experiences. The interview should be at least thirty minutes long. You will be asked to turn in a transcription of the interview along with an analysis. I will discuss expectations for this requirement in the first few classes of the semester (20% of grade). The two exams will cover material from lectures and the readings.  Although there is some overlap between the lectures and readings, a familiarity with both will be key to the doing well on the two examinations.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

This seminar was created after much feedback from previous Honors students and faculty supervisors. The idea is to provide structure, instruction and assistance throughout your double semester thesis project, as well as to enable you to interact and support one another.  Seminar participation should not increase your overall workload, but it will help you become more efficient in your research and writing.

Goals for the seminar:

• Teaching research skills relevant to writing an Honors Thesis
• Providing resources, information, and assistance to Honors students
• Creating a venue for discussion of Honors-related topics and concerns
• Facilitating regular communication between students, advisors, and faculty
• Creating a sense of community among Sociology Honors students

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Peter Elbow, Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing

Eviatar Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse

Grading Policy

Requirements are active class participation and completion of writing projects.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

This seminar was created after much feedback from previous Honors students and faculty supervisors. The idea is to provide structure, instruction and assistance throughout your double semester thesis project, as well as to enable you to interact and support one another.  Seminar participation should not increase your overall workload, but it will help you become more efficient in your research and writing.

Goals for the seminar:

• Teaching research skills relevant to writing an Honors Thesis
• Providing resources, information, and assistance to Honors students
• Creating a venue for discussion of Honors-related topics and concerns
• Facilitating regular communication between students, advisors, and faculty
• Creating a sense of community among Sociology Honors students

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Peter Elbow, Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing

Eviatar Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse

Grading Policy

Requirements are active class participation and completion of writing projects.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

Course description: The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides a glimpse at important works in social theory on the periphery of the discipline. The third and final part presents central works from two leading social theorists of the late twentieth century. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural production. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same—At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Requirements: Course evaluations will be based on three exams. The first exam is worth 40% of your grade. The second exam is worth 30% of your grade. The third exam is worth 30% of your grade.

Required readings: All of the readings and lecture power points can be found on CANVAS. You may want to purchase your own copy of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (any edition will do) and Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (any edition will do). We will read these two books in their entirety.

This course is an introduction into the sociology of religion. The first half of the course takes a broad, theoretical approach to religion and society. We begin with an exploration of the role the study of religion played in the emergence of sociology as a discipline. We discuss the axial importance of religion to the “classical” social theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, and the philosophy and psychology of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. We conclude this survey of classical approaches by asking if these modern social theories sell religion short? We round out the first half of the course looking at more recent sociological and anthropological theories of religion.

The second half of the course looks at more substantive issues in the sociological study of religion. We discuss the intersection of religion with race, gender, migration, politics, and social movements. We also look at the historical trend of religious participation in the United States. We will discuss if something new is underfoot in the current US religious landscape. We end the course with speculations about future trends in religion and society.

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Ludwig Feuerbach, selections from The Essence of Christianity.

Karl Marx, selections on the opiate of the masses and the emancipation of the Jews

Emile Durkheim, selections from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Max Weber, “Social Psychology of Religion”

Friedrich Nietzsche, selections from The Genealogy of Morals

Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion.

Rudolph Otto, selections from The Idea of the Holy

Mircea Eliade, selection from The Sacred and the Profane.

Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a cultural system”

William James on conversion, selections from The Varieties of Religious Experience

WEB Du Bois, Souls of Black Folks

Lynn Davidman, Tradition in a Rootless World

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem

Jose Casanova, selections from Public Religions in the Modern World

Michael Walzer, selections from Revolution of the Saints

Michael Young, selections from Bearing Witness Against Sin

Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, selections from The Churching of America, 1776-2005.

Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones.

Grading Policy

There will be two examinations of equal weight (each 40% of grade). You will also be required to conduct an interview with a person exploring religious experiences. The interview should be at least thirty minutes long. You will be asked to turn in a transcription of the interview along with an analysis. I will discuss expectations for this requirement in the first few classes of the semester (20% of grade). The two exams will cover material from lectures and the readings.  Although there is some overlap between the lectures and readings, a familiarity with both will be key to the doing well on the two examinations.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally? We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

The bulk of course will be asynchronous with lectures (audio and slides) posted online, but we will have one synchronous section on Zoom on Fridays. There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (40%), and a (20%) written report on a movement or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures and readings.  Although there is some overlap among these two components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to doing well on the two examinations.

This course is an introduction into the sociology of religion. The first half of the course takes a broad, theoretical approach to religion and society. We begin with an exploration of the role the study of religion played in the emergence of sociology as a discipline. We discuss the axial importance of religion to the “classical” social theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber, and the philosophy and psychology of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. We conclude this survey of classical approaches by asking if these modern social theories sell religion short? We round out the first half of the course looking at more recent sociological and anthropological theories of religion.

The second half of the course looks at more substantive issues in the sociological study of religion. We discuss the intersection of religion with race, gender, migration, politics, and social movements. We also look at the historical trend of religious participation in the United States. We will discuss if something new is underfoot in the current US religious landscape. We end the course with speculations about future trends in religion and society.

Required Texts (the Dean’s Office will not accept “Course Packet” or “TBA”)

Ludwig Feuerbach, selections from The Essence of Christianity.

Karl Marx, selections on the opiate of the masses and the emancipation of the Jews

Emile Durkheim, selections from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Max Weber, “Social Psychology of Religion”

Friedrich Nietzsche, selections from The Genealogy of Morals

Sigmund Freud, Future of an Illusion.

Rudolph Otto, selections from The Idea of the Holy

Mircea Eliade, selection from The Sacred and the Profane.

Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a cultural system”

William James on conversion, selections from The Varieties of Religious Experience

WEB Du Bois, Souls of Black Folks

Lynn Davidman, Tradition in a Rootless World

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem

Jose Casanova, selections from Public Religions in the Modern World

Michael Walzer, selections from Revolution of the Saints

Michael Young, selections from Bearing Witness Against Sin

Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, selections from The Churching of America, 1776-2005.

Elizabeth Drescher, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones.

Grading Policy

There will be two examinations of equal weight (each 40% of grade). You will also be required to conduct an interview with a person exploring religious experiences. The interview should be at least thirty minutes long. You will be asked to turn in a transcription of the interview along with an analysis. I will discuss expectations for this requirement in the first few classes of the semester (20% of grade). The two exams will cover material from lectures and the readings.  Although there is some overlap between the lectures and readings, a familiarity with both will be key to the doing well on the two examinations.

I do not use the +/- grading system. Grades are A, B, C, D, or F.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

 We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

Requirements

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

Texts

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: 

Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: 

Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

 We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

Requirements

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

Texts

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: 

Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: 

Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

 We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

Requirements

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

Texts

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: 

Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: 

Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: 

Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: 

Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

 We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

Requirements

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

Texts

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: 

Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: 

Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

 We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms(Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%

Three one to two page memos on reading 15%

Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton

Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury

Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton

Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon

Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

DESCRIPTION. 

Protests and social movements are vital to public life.  They are important sources of social change.  They may even be prophetic.  This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, occupy public spaces, riot, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, save baby seals, block abortion clinics, and burn draft notices.  In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements?  Why do people start them and join them?  What are protesters motivated by?  Are they after personal or group rewards?  Do protesters act rationally or emotionally?

We will also ask what triggers protests or movements? What structures or shapes them?  Do they follow regular patterns of development?  What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society?  Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits?  Might they foreshadow the future?

We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18th century to the present.  In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact.

REQUIREMENTS. 

There will be a midterm examination (40% of grade), a final examination (50%), and a field report on an event of activism or protest.  The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester.  Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well in the two examinations.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

Description:

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship. The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct? The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives. 

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton)

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Emile Durkheim, Moral Education

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms (Chicago)

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego

Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent

George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago)

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Grading and Requirements:

Written Requirements: Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading. Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed. 

Class Participation: Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Class schedule:

Week 1. Introduction to course.  No readings.

Week 2. Karl Marx in The Marx Engels Reader: “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right” pp. 16-25;   “On the Jewish Question” pp. 26-52;  “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction” pp. 53-65; “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” pp. 66-125. 

Week 3. Marx and Engels in The Marx Engels Reader: “Thesis on Feuerbach” pp. 143-145; “German Ideology” pp. 146-202; Wage Labour and Capital pp. 203-219; The Manifesto of the Communist Party pp. 469-500.  “The Grundrisse” pp. 221-293.

Week 4. Karl Marx in The Marx Engels Reader: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte pp. 594-617; Capital, Volume One pp. 294-438; “Critique of the Gotha Program” pp. 525-541.

Week 5.Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (entire).

Week 6.  Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (entire).

Week 7. Selections from and on Durkheim (readings TBA).

Week 8.  Max Weber,  Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (entire);  and in From Max Weber: “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism” pp. 302-322.

Week 9. Max Weber in From Max Weber: Part I and II pp. 77-264.

Week 10. Max Weber in From Max Weber: “The Social Psychology of the World Religions” pp. 267-301, and “Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions” pp. 323-359.

Week 11. Georg Simmel,  On Individuality and Social Forms, Part II, “Forms of Social Interaction”, pp. 43-140; and Part III, “Social Types”, pp. 143-213;  

Week 12.  Georg Simmel, chapter 18 “Group Expansion and the Development of Individuality”, pp. 251-293; chapter 19, “Fashion”, pp. 294-323, and chapter 20, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, pp. 324-339Sigmund Freud,  Totem and Taboo.

Week 13.  Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego and Civilization and Its Discontents.

Week 14.  George Herbert Mead in On Social Psychology, Part V, VI, VII, pp. 115-282.

Description

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to some of the more important theoretical foundations of the discipline of sociology and to current debates in modern social theory. The first part of the course covers select classical theorists. The second part provides an introduction to twentieth-century social theory and critical perspectives on the classical foundations of sociology. The third and final part presents a highly influential response to these challenges by a leading sociological theorist of our day. Throughout the course, the main topics of interest are the rise and transformation of modern society, the changing relationship between the individual and social institutions, the role of social structures and agency in social theory, the role of moral and instrumental action in agency theory, the challenge of critical theory to the social sciences, and contemporary attempts at a critical and multidimensional theory of society.

This course challenges students to think theoretically and critically about society and its material and cultural construction. The readings for the course are difficult but not inaccessible. This course will be fruitful if, and only if, students make a serious commitment to do the reading and to attend class. If this commitment is made, the social world might never look and feel quite the same. At least this is my goal and I aim to deliver.

Grading Policy

Three short papers 75%?Three one to two page memos on reading 15%?Class participation 10%

Short papers: Students must write three papers, each approximately five pages in length. One paper is due for each of the three parts of the course.

Memos: For the first part of the course, I will ask you to write three memos, each approximately one page in length. One memo will be on Karl Marx. The second memo will be on Emile Durkeim. And the final memo is on Max Weber.

Texts

All texts have been ordered through MonkeyWrench Books (110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; tel. (512) 407-6925)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, Norton?Emile Durkheim, On Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah, Chicago?Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Roxbury?Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms, ed. Donald Levine, Chicago?Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Norton?Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, Pantheon?Jurgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader, ed. Seidman, Beacon

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

Prerequisite: Upper-division standing, and six semester hours of coursework in sociology or consent of instructor.

In this course we review classic works in sociological theory. Focusing on the work of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century theorists, we take a critical look at the historical and theoretical context of sociology’s founding ideas.  Sociological theory and the modern era are, for better or worse, wedded.  Sociology is a historical product.  It emerged as part of the massive transformations of the nineteenth century.  It sought to explain that which shaped it.  This course explores the promises and problems of this relationship.

The first part of this course is apportioned to an overview of the theories of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber.  Over these 10 weeks, we will discuss theories of capitalism, modernization, rationalization, and institutional and value-sphere differentiation.  We will debate the centrality of these social processes to sociological thinking and to the modern world.  Have Marx, Durkheim and Weber accurately seized upon the life-character of the modern world?  Have they identified the central structures and developments? Do their accounts of these structures and processes pass the test of time?  Is modernity a salient and defensible periodization?  Does it hang together as a historical epoch?  Is it a sound sociological construct?

The last part of the course introduces perspectives that depart and dissent from the concerns of Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.  In the works of Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, and George Herbert Mead we open lines of critical inquiry that can be followed into the present: lines of theory that complement but also undermine classical theories with relational, psychological, and interactionist perspectives.

Written Requirements: Over the 14 weeks of the semester, students must write five papers.  Each paper must tackle a key theoretical argument present in a given week of reading.  In four to five pages, the paper should present a concise but thorough development and critical review of the selected argument. The first three papers must be written by week 10.  One must be on Marx, one on Durkheim, and one on Weber.  For the remaining two memos, students may choose any two of the remaining weeks of reading.

Papers must be handed in at the beginning of the class dealing with the particular reading reviewed.
 


Class Participation: Each student will be responsible for leading the discussion of one class meeting.  For the first half of the meeting or so, the assigned student will introduce a number of issues of interest, difficult or important concepts, and critical questions to guide class discussion. These discussions only work if the leader divides some of the tasks among his or her classmates. An email assigning each member of the class a particular task—e.g., “explain this particular concept and/or argument”—will ensure that all are involved in the discussion. This requires the leader to have surveyed all the major points in the reading and to delegate authority early enough so that everyone can do a little preparation. An email sent out by Tuesday should be fine.

After this student-led discussion, we will then take a short break. For the remainder of the meeting, I will provide an overview of major themes in the week’s readings not covered in our discussion and field questions.

Required Books:

The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker, (Norton).
Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society.
Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.
Emile Durkheim, Moral Education.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
From Max Weber, eds. Gerth and Mills (Oxford).
Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms (Chicago).
Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontent.
George Herbert Mead, On Social Psychology, ed. Anselm Strauss (Chicago).

The books have been ordered through Monkey Wrench Books: 110 E. North Loop, Austin, TX 78751; http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/

Week 1.

Introduction to course.  No readings.

Week 2.

Karl Marx in The Marx Engels Reader: “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right” pp. 16-25;   “On the Jewish Question” pp. 26-52;  “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction” pp. 53-65; “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” pp. 66-125.

 
Week 3.

Marx and Engels in The Marx Engels Reader: “Thesis on Feuerbach” pp. 143-145; “German Ideology” pp. 146-202; Wage Labour and Capital pp. 203-219; The Manifesto of the Communist Party pp. 469-500.  “The Grundrisse” pp. 221-293.

Week 4.

Karl Marx in The Marx Engels Reader: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte pp. 594-617; Capital, Volume One pp. 294-438; “Critique of the Gotha Program” pp. 525-541.

Week 5.

Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (entire).

Week 6. 

Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (entire).


Week 7.

Selections from and on Durkheim (readings TBA).

Week 8. 

Max Weber,  Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (entire);  and in From Max Weber: “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism” pp. 302-322.

Week 9.

Max Weber in From Max Weber: Part I and II pp. 77-264.

Week 10.

Max Weber in From Max Weber: “The Social Psychology of the World Religions” pp. 267-301, and “Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions” pp. 323-359.


Week 11.

Georg Simmel,  On Individuality and Social Forms, Part II, “Forms of Social Interaction”, pp. 43-140; and Part III, “Social Types”, pp. 143-213;
 

Week 12. 

Georg Simmel, chapter 18 “Group Expansion and the Development of Individuality”, pp. 251-293; chapter 19, “Fashion”, pp. 294-323, and chapter 20, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, pp. 324-339
Sigmund Freud,  Totem and Taboo.

Week 13. 

Sigmund Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego and Civilization and Its Discontents.

Week 14. 

George Herbert Mead in On Social Psychology, Part V, VI, VII, pp. 115-282.

Social Movements

Spring 2010

Michael Young

Thursday 12-3PM

Burdine 214

This class provides a general introduction to social movement theory. We begin with conceptual and theoretical issues: What are social movements? How are movements related to other forms of collective behavior or collective action. Must they be anti-institutional or political? How long have they been around? Are they a modern phenomenon?

We then look at three major theoretical approaches to explaining movement emergence, persistence, demise, and impact: 1) collective behaviorism; 2) resource mobilization and political process theory, and 3) new social movement theory. This review of social movement theory ends with the current state of the American sociology of social movements and social protest. We will discuss the collapse of the political process or contentious politics paradigm and new trends in theorizing

The course will also provide a closer look at the sociological analysis of particular social movements. For the last third of the semester, we will try to put to the test the theories we discuss in the first part of the course. The empirical focus of the second half of the course is something we can tinker with to fit our collective interests. This syllabus includes movements that I know something about but we can add and subtract from these: religious movements, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the New Left, and feminism. Other topics we might consider: Latin American movements, LGBT movements, labor movements, transnational movements, the Chicano/a movement, black power movement, Populism, &ct.

Students are required to do the reading (no small task), be prepared for class discussions and participate. They must also lead the discussion for one week of reading, and write a term paper due at the end of the semester. For those of you who took my theory class, you know what is expected for leading the discussion. Before class, a list of questions should be circulated to everyone in the seminar. For each question, assign someone to be responsible for getting the discussion of that question started. The questions should range over the entire scope of the readings with an eye to covering the most important issues raised. We will begin each class with this discussion of questions. Depending on how thorough our discussion is, I may or may not close-out the class meeting in a more lecture format to cover topics not touched upon.

At some point during the first half of the course, I will ask people to briefly talk about the topic they plan to write a term paper on. If we have time, toward the end of the course I will ask people to briefly discuss the main argument/focus of their term paper.

All readings will be either on Blackboard or available online through the library. Depending on the topics for the last third of the course, students may need to buy a book or two.

¨Week 1. (Jan. 21)

Introduction

SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY

¨Week 2. (Jan 28)

What are social movements? How are they related to other forms of collective action? How should we go about studying movements?

Smelser, Neil. 1961. Theory of Collective Behavior, chapter 1, pp. 1-23

Traugott, Mark. 1978. “Reconceiving Social Movements.” Social Problems 26: 38-49.

Touraine, Alain. 1985. “Introduction to the Study of Social Movements.” Social Research 52: 749-787. (especially pp. 749-760).

Tarrow, Sidney. 1994. Power in Movement, introduction and chapter 1, pp. 1-27.

Melucci, Alberto. 1996. Challenging Codes, introduction and chapter 1, pp. 1-41

Della Porta, Donatella and Mario Diani. 1999, Social Movements, chapter 1., pp. 1-23.

Gitlin, Todd. 1987. The Sixties. Part II, chapters 4 and 5. This book is half memoire and half history. Pay attention to the way Gitlin speaks about “the movement.” Look for sentences like “the Movement had already grown sick of repitition”. What is the movement for Gitlin?

¨Week 3. (Feb. 4) ADRIAN

Before the Sixties (1960s, that is): spontaneous, emergent, and emotional collective behavior

LeBon, The Crowd. (selections on Bb) 

Freud, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. (selections on Bb)

Blumer, 1939. “Collective Behavior.” In R. E. Park (ed.), An Outline of the Principles of Sociology. New York: Barnes and Noble, pp. 221-280. (on Bb)

Turner, Ralph H. and Surace, Samuel J. 1956. “Zoot-Suiters and Mexicans: Symbols in Crowd Behavior” American Journal of Sociology 62: 14-20

Gusfield, Joseph R. 1963. Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press (selections on Bb).

Hortencia Jimenez et al. 2010. “It Just Happened: Anxiety, Defiance, and Spontaneity in the 2006 Walkouts”. Unpublished paper (on Bb).

¨Week 4. (Feb. 11)

After the Sixties: rational and organized collective action and the mobilization of resources

Oberschall, Anthony. 1973. Social Conflict and Social Movements. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. (Selections)

McCarthy, John D. and Mayer Zald. 1973. The Trend of Social Movements in America: Professionalization and Resource Mobilization.  (Republished in 1987 in the Appendix of  Social Movements in the Organizational Society. New Brunswick, NY: Transaction Books.)

Tilly, Charles. 1975. “Revolutions and Collective Violence.” Chapter 5 in Handbook of  Political Science vol. 3 (eds. Greenstein and Polsby). Reading, MA: Addison and Wesley.

Tilly, From Mobilizationt to Revolution, selections

McCarthy, John D. and Mayer Zald. 1977. “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory.” American Journal of Sociology 82: 1212-1241.

Morris, Aldon.  1981. “Black Southern Student Sit-In Movement: An Analysis of Internal Organization.” American Sociological Review. 46 744-767.  1981.

McPhail, Clark. 1991. Myth of the madding crowd. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. (selections on Bb)

¨Week 5. (Feb. 18) MARCOS

Political Process Models: rational, organized, and political collective action

McAdam, Doug. 2000. Political Process and The Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapters 1-4)

Kitschelt, Herbert P. 1986. “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies.” British Journal of Political Science 16: 57-85.

Tarrow, Sidney. 1994. Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.  (Chapters 2-4)

Tilly, Charles. 1995. Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Chapter 1)

¨Week 6. (Feb 24) ESTHER

New Social Movements: a different view from across the Atlantic

Touraine, Alain. The Voice and the Eye (selections on Bb).

Castells, Manuel. 1983. The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Chapters 12-15).

Cohen, Jean. 1985. “Strategy or Identity: New Theoretical Paradigms and Contemporary Social Movements.” Social Research 52: 663-716.

Touraine, Alain. 1985. “Introduction to the Study of Social Movements.” Social Research 52: 749-787. (Especially pp. 760-787).

Melucci, Alberto. Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. New York: Cambridge University Press. (Chapters 2-5)

¨Week 7. (Feb. 27) AMINA

The Cultural Turn in America: frame analysis, cultural idioms, and biography.

Goffman, Erving. “Frame Analysis.” Chapter 12 in Goffman Reader (eds.) Lemert and Branaman. Oxford: Blackwell.

Snow, David A., E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford. 1986.  “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.”.American Sociological Review, Vol. 51, No. 4. pp. 464-481.

Benford, Robert D.  1993. “Frame Disputes within the Nuclear Disarmament Movement” Social Forces, Vol. 71: 677-701.

Hunt, Scott A., Robert D. Benford, and David A. Snow. 1994. “Identity Fields: Framing Processes and the Social Construction of Movement Identities.” Chapter 8 in New Social Movements.

William H. Sewell, Jr., "Ideologies and social revolutions: Reflections on the French Case," in Social Revolutions in the Modern World, ed. Theda Skocpol (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Theda Skocpol, "Cultural idioms and political ideologies in the revolutionary reconstruction of state power: A rejoinder to Sewell," in Social Revolutions in the Modern World, ed. Theda Skocpol (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 200.

Jasper, James. 1996. Art of Moral Protest. Chicago. (selection on Bb)

Polletta, Francesca. 1998. “‘It Was like a Fever ...’: Narrative and identity in social protest. Social Problems 45 (2):137-159.

Isaac, Larry. 2008. “Movement of Movements: Culture Moves in the Long Civil Rights Struggle.” Social Forces vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 33-63.

¨Week 8. (March 11.) BOB

Trouble in Paradigm: return of the repressed (Bob)

Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. 1992. “Normalizing Collective Protest.” Pp. 301-325 in Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller (eds.), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press

Goodwin, Jeff. 1997. “The Libidinal Constitution of a High-Risk Social Movement: Affectual Ties and Solidarity in the Huk Rebellion, 1946 to 1954.” American Sociological Review 62:53-69

McAdam, Doug, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly. 1997. “Toward and Integrated Perspective on Social Movements and Revolution.” Chapter 6 in Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure (eds.) Lichbach and Zuckerman. New York: Cambridge University Press.

McTeam. 2000. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge. (selection on Bb).

Goodwin, Jeff and James Jasper. 1999. “Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of Political Process Theory.” Sociological Forum 14: 27-54

¨Week 9. (March 25) LINDSAY

Emotions and Social Movements

Goodwin, Jeff, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta. 2000. The return of the repressed: The fall and rise of emotions in social movement theory. Mobilization 5 (1):65-84

Flam, Helena. 1990. “Emotional ‘Man’: I. The Emotional ‘Man’ and the Problem of Collective Action. International Sociolgy 5(1): pp. 39-56.

Aminzade, Ron and Doug McAdam. 2001. “Emotions and Contentious Politics.” Pp. 14-50 in Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics. Eds. Ronald R. Aminzande et al.  Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Gould, Deborah. 2009. Moving Politics: Emotions and ACT-UP’s Fight Against AIDS. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (selections on Bb)

Reger, Jo. 2004. “Organizational ‘Emotion Work’  throough Consciousness Raising. Qualitative Sociology. 27 no. 2: 205-22.

¨Week 10. (April 1) DANIEL

Do movements matter? Do they make an impact?

Amenta, Edwin.  When Movement Matters. (selections on Bb)

Andrews, Kenneth T. 2004. Freedom is a Constant Struggle (selections on Bb)

McAdam, Doug.  Freedom Summer. (selections on Bb)

¨Week 11. (April 8) PAM

Religious Origins of Social Movements : Liberation Theology

Michael Walzer, Revolution of the Saints

Christian Smith, 1996. Disruptive Religion Routledge

Moaddel, Mansoor. 1992. Ideology and Episodic Discourse: The Case of the Iranian Revolution. American Sociological Review 57(3): 353-379.

Kurzman, Charles. 1996. Structural Opportunity and Perceived Opportunity in Social Movement Theory: The Iranian Revolution of 1979. American Sociological Review 61(1): 153-170.

Young, Michael. 2007. Bearing Witness Against Sin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

¨Week 12. (April 15) DEAN

Civil Rights Movement

McAdam, Political Process and The Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapters 4-7)

Morris, Aldon. 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Free Press. (Chapters 1-3).

Arsenault, Raymond, 2006. Freedom Riders. New York: Oxford. 

¨Week 13. (April 22) MATT, JORGE

The New Left

Breinis, Wini. Community and Organization in the New Left: The Great Refusal

Gitlin, Tod. The Sixties

Rossinow, Doug. Politics of Authenticity

¨Week 14. (April 29) LINDSEY AND EMILY

Latin American activism

.

Auyero and Swistun, Flammable

Others?

¨Week. 15. (May 6)

Feminism

Whittier, Nancy. 1995. Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women's Movement. Philadelphia: Temple

Taylor, Verta. 1996. Rock-a-by Baby: Feminism, Self-Help, and Postpartum Depression. New York: Routledge, (Introduction, chapter 2, chapters 4-6).

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