Everyone must log into sakai.rutgers.edu

If you have a recitation section, there will be more information on that section in Sakai.

Office hours

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Introduction to the course
things we'll cover
special permissions
and stuff like that

Introduction to Sociological Thinking

I contrast sociology with ideology. Read everything on this site between "preface" and "appendix" (including the preface and the appendix). You should be looking for the differences between scientific thinking and ideological thinking.

Much sociology seems obvious. It doesn't have to be that way. A master sociologist, Peter Berger, introduces you to some of the beauty of sociology. Look for what he says is distinctive about sociology.

Introduction to Sociological Thinking

One of the key ideas in this section, and throughout the course, is the idea of social structure.

It would be normal to think that greed is something that lives only in individuals. This article shows how social structure can induce greed. Look for explanations of executives' behavior that are not about their personalities, but are, instead, about the shape of their social environments.

John Cassidy, The Greed Cycle.

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Socialization & authority

Social order isn't possible if people don't follow rules. But there are surely limits to this observation. How do we know what those limits are?

Philip Zimbardo: Pathology of Imprisonment

Zimbardo slide show -- Go through the "slide show" of the Prison Experiment

Continuation of previous material

Socialization

How do you get a personality? What is the deal about nature and nurture anyway?

The main theory we'll talk about is called symbolic interaction theory. A key part of that theory is the idea of the looking glass self.

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Review for Quiz 1. Before this class go through your notes and readings to see what you want to review. I will NOT walk into class with a review outline. If you have no questions, there will be no need for a review!

Quiz 1. Bring pencils, be on time.

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Culture

Where is culture and what does it do? A sociologist named Garfinkle tells us interesting things about background understandings. Similar insights have been developed by Horace Miner, an anthropologist who observed a tribe that he found strange, and by Conrad Kottak, an anthropologist with astute observations about today's college classrooms.

You'll find Miner and Kottak on Sakai

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More culture

People's beliefs are shaped by all sorts of things. Here, I shall ask some questions about why people believe in disaster conspiracy theories. We are looking for answers in ideas about collective memory, relationships between groups, and our culture of control..

Reading: Steven E. Jones, Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse? Here's the link:

http://www.rinf.com/news/nov05/World-Trade-Center.html

Social structure & suicide

One of the main ideas here will be that of the "social fact." Here's a statement from the fellow who made up the term, Emile Durkheim.

Also read Kathleen Gerson's, Dilemmas of Involved Fatherhood. As you read her article, identify the social facts in her argument. Note: you probably won't be able to print this article.

Continuation of previous material

American culture prizes fame and money. Most of us think we would be happier with a lot of both. In fact whether they lead to happiness depends on the social situation that people find themselves in. Jeff Goodell, Who's a Hero Now?

Race & ethnicity

How do you tell people of different races apart? F. James Davis has some important insights in "Who is black? The one-drop rule examined." Where else might the one drop rule apply?

Society & Ethnic Notions

Note: THIS WILL NOT BE ON THE TEST. IT'S GOOD TO CHECK OUT, BUT I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO DO THIS. SO, NEVER MIND. LC, 10/17/08

The University of Virginia has a project on American Slave Narratives. Read (even listen to!) the narrative of Fountain Hughes.

One of the themes we'll talk about in this unit is the connection between images and behavior. Check out the clip of Marilyn Manson being interviewed by Michael Moore. Note that this file is in windows media video format. I don't know if other computers can play it. If you have something other than a Windows-driven computer, go to a lab to see the video.

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Deviance & crime

A central concept here is "context dependency." Howard Becker shows how important context is in "Becoming a marihuana user." Be alert to what is social in his explanation of how people get high.

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Class is cancelled for today. Your assignment is to go to the library and find an answer to the following question: What difference would it make if the legal drinking age were lowered to 18?

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Review for Quiz 2

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Quiz 2

We won't have class today, but you have a specific assignment. You must find out what the official poverty level is for a non-farm family of four. Then, make a realistic budget of living costs, using that number and assuming you must live on that much money in central New Jersey. You should upload this to Sakai--in the "dropbox"--no later than 5pm on December 1, Monday. It should be no longer than one page. If you do a good job, I'll give you up to 5 points of extra credit. I will not accept anything after the deadline. Be sure you know how to use the dropbox well befor the deadline. Thanks. .

Born Rich
Read the interview with Jamie Johnson, here

Social stratification

Schooling is the way forward for social mobility. We tell ourselves that merit is how a fair society should sort people out. Not always the case, though, is it?

On tracking see Maureen Hallinan, Tracking: from theory to practice, Sociology of Education, Vol. 67, No. 2. (Apr., 1994), pp. 79-91

Continued

Social networks matter, as you might expect. But they matter too in ways that are surprising. Read Miller, Shazia Rafiullah and James E. Rosenbaum. 1997. "Hiring in a Hobbesian World." Work and Occupations 24(4):498-523

Authorities & rationalities

On bureaucracy, authority, and rationality.

On charisma, read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. In case you haven't heard King's magnetic voice, here's a snippet from another speech.

Formal organizations

The History Place has an excellent timeline on the development of the Holocaust. You do not have to study this timeline for the test. But I encourage you to look through it carefully.

Think about how these people were able to separate their daily lives and what was going on inside the camp.

Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz's death camp--Birkenau--on making his camp more efficient than Treblinka.

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Rutgers says this is Thursday, which doesn't matter for us but might matter for some of your other classes

Society & formal organizations

People naturally ask the question of whether something like the Holocaust could happen "here." A high school teacher once ran a fascinating experiment, with just that issue in mind.

This is what the US government told Americans about "relocating" its Japanese citizens.

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Thanksgiving holiday, so be thankful for something, but not that you don't have class

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Using Disaster to See Society

Here we will be concerned with why people fear what they fear, and with how social organization can give rise to failure. Robert Stallings makes interesting arguments about the connections between organizations and how disasters are written about in the media.

I wrote an article on the "myth of panic" in disasters. The general problem is how people respond to failures of social organization. The article is on Sakai.

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Review for last quiz

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Last class:

30 minute quiz