Introduction to Sociology

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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 "Introduction" and "appendix" (including the introduction 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.

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Introduction to Sociological Thinking

One of the key ideas in this section, and throughout the course, is the idea of social structure, which concerns patterns of relationships between positions.

Check out this article by David Brooks, The Organization Kid. Look for aspects of the students' lives that are beyond their control. What about the patterns of relationships in their lives makes them who they are?

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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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. Pay attention to the conditions that lead people to behave one way rather than another. Why did the experiment come to an end? What does this work tell us about human nature?

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

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Continued

Culture

Where is culture and what does it do? A sociologist named Garfinkel 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

Douglas Hofstadter has some ideas about the connections between language and thinking that I want you to know. Read his article, Changes in Default Words and Images, Engendered by Rising Consciousness

Culture, continued

Today, we will revisit the question, Where does beauty come from and what does sociology have to say about that?

Review for Test 1

For this, you should go through your notes and readings BEFORE the review. Make a list of questions. Don't make questions like, "What is that Miner reading about?" You should try to grapple with the readings and ideas before the review.

Test 1

Bring pencils. If you are late to the test, I will not let you take it.

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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

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

Here, you can find the entire narrative in Mr. Hughes' voice.

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; the file is called "Moore and Manson.wmv.". 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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Special treat today. Rutgers Police Chief Rhonda Harris and officer Richard McGilvery will join our discussion. They will talk with us about how the Virginia Tech tragedy has affected higher education. They will also talk about survival strategies in crisis situations.

http://www.vtreviewpanel.org/report/index.html

As you read this material, think about what makes an effective communication system. Who do you believe, and why? What kinds of things does the Review NOT analyze as causes of this calamity? Why might that be so?

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Finish race and ethnicity

The Idea of Deviance

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

Frozen Grand Central

Trafalgar Square Freeze

In Wayward Puritans, Kai Erikson, tells us about how deviance is a social product. Look especially at how he uses Durkheim, and at how the reaction to behaviors shapes the meaning of those behaviors.

If you have the measles we can see evidence of it in a microscope. But how can you tell if someone is mentally ill? You can only look at their behavior, and not the underlying "cause." This leads to interesting ideas.

If experts say "you're crazy" can you be cured?, David Rosenhan finds out in his article "Being sane in insane places."

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Social change & suicide

Suicide is one of the most individual acts possible. Even when the members of a cult kill themselves it is the individual and not the group that does the action. Yet there are aspects of suicide that can only be understood by using a group perspective.

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. And here's a statement from an interpreter of that fellow.

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.

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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?

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Social stratification

How well off are we as a society? There are several ways to assess that.

The distribution of income is one way to measure the health of a nation.

Some visual representations of the distribution of income.

Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor, divines some data and comes to provocative conclusions

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More 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

Barbara Ehrenreich is a famous author, probably rich too, who went to work in some tough jobs. She gives her report in Nickled and Dimed, a selection of which we'll read.

If I can catch up, I'll show this on March 30.

Born Rich
Read the interview with Jamie Johnson, here

An old saying is that "it is just as easy to fall in love with a rich person as a poor person." This material will show you why that's not so. What I really want you to get out of this is the orientation of rich people to each other, and to the outside world. How are they different from you? How are they similar? Think about the facts of their social lives in relation to the facts I give you about poverty, median family income, and wealth.

Review for test 2. See rules for first review.

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No class today. Go to the library and study for the test.

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Test 2. Bring pencils. Don't be late.

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Authorities & rationalities

On bureaucracy, authority, and rationality.

On charisma, read an 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.

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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.

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

Formal organizations, continued

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. Look for where the authority is, why the students acted as they did, and why the experiment came to a stop.

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

Worst Cases

What is the worst thing that's ever happened to you? What's the worst thing that you can imagine? This lecture is from my book, Worst Cases. For this I want you to read a chapter from Barry Glassner's book, Culture of Fear. The selection is entitled, "Why Americans Fear the Wrong Things." Pay attention to the logic that he uses to conclude that our worries are "wrong." My argument is both critical of and a complement to Prof. Glassner's.

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Using Disaster to See Society

Here we will be concerned with why people fear what they fear, and with that Durkheimian question from long ago: what is the basis of social order?

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.

At the following URL, read the story of a guy who got out of the World Trade Center 2 alive. One remarkable thing about his story is that he was above where the plane entered. Very few in either building who were above where the planes hit survived. Look for clues about the idea of human nature, and about what a social analysis might have to say about what happened in those towers.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wtc/above.html

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Last Class

Review. See rules for first review.

Final exam, May 7, 12-3pm, regular classroom.