Syllabus for Introduction to Sociology

I expect you to be on time to all classes.

Everyone must log into sakai.rutgers.edu If you have a recitation section, there will be more information on that section in sakai.

Contact info Office hours

You need to attend all classes.

The cost of textbooks has gone through the roof. Besides, sociology textbooks are often wrong and boring. For this class you access readings on the web. One of the biggest benefits of my strategy is that students don't have to pay a lot of money. Students can also access the materials for the class from nearly any computer. But, as the economists say, there are no free lunches. One cost of making the readings web-based is that you are dependent on the Internet to get your readings. There are times, as we all know, that the Net isn't as reliable as we'd like. But we know this going in and so can plan to avoid disaster. Make sure that you get the readings well before the class in which they'll be discussed. And make sure you get the readings long before we have a test. Connectivity problems are not acceptable excuses for not being ready for the test. As Scar said, "be prepared!"

Exams: The exams are multiple choice, and are not cumulative. They will cover the readings and lectures. I do not give extra-credit assignments, nor will I allow make-ups on the exams without a superb, legitimate explanation (bring me medical records, phone numbers of surviving relatives, etc.). Weddings, personal holidays, oversleeping, the Rutgers bus system, etc. are not acceptable excuses for missing exams. Drop the course now if there is a conflict between the test days and your personal schedule. The makeups are essay tests, consisting of several questions. Since these tests must replace a huge percentage of your total grade, the answers for the makeups must be extremely thorough to warrant a high grade. It is not to your advantage to miss my scheduled tests.

You must complete all parts of the course to pass. This means you must complete the tests to avoid an F. To put this another way: not receiving a grade on each test means you will fail this course, even if you have perfect grades on the exams that you do take. If the course has a recitation section, you must go to it. If you blow off recitation, meaning if you do not attend it and do the work, I will fail you for the entire class, even if you earn As on all the tests.

Readings: Be sure to read the calendar of class meetings, readings, and exams. You should do the reading before the day on which it is listed. Some of the time I won’t cover the readings in class, but the lectures will make more sense if you’ve done the reading ahead of time.

Goals for each section:

Introduction To The Course & To Sociological Thinking

What is the sociological perspective? Why is it important? These lectures cover some of the key ideas in the course, focusing especially on the notion of social structure.

The Self & Social Context: Socialization

The great philosopher René Descartes once said, “I think, therefore I am.” Sociologists say, less elegantly, “I am socialized, therefore I am.” These lectures are concerned with central ideas and theories on formation of self, agents of socialization, and resocialization. A central point of the lectures is that individual identity comes from social processes.

How can suicide, an intensely personal act, be a collective phenomenon? After looking at recent data on who is most likely to kill themselves in America, I develop one notion of social structure with an illustration from Emile Durkheim’s classic study of suicide.

Language, Meaning, & Culture

What is culture and what does it do? Explains what sociological concept of culture is, and the crucial place of language in shaping social reality.

Deviance & Crime

What is social about deviance? How do you tell the difference between normal behavior and non-normal behavior? What does it mean to say someone is mentally "ill"?

Race & ethnicity

One of the most important set of problems in America today concerns race relations. Here, we’ll ask what it means to be in one race as opposed to others, what difference it makes in someone’s life chances that they belong to a particular race, and even how we recognize "race" in the first place.

Social Structure & Suicide

Social stratification

A widely believed ideology holds that with hard work and determination people can be anything they want to be. Sociologists, however, have discovered this is true only under certain conditions. The key condition has to do with a college degree, yet research shows most people don’t directly apply the knowledge they glean in college. So what are the connections between a college education and social sorting? Covers some key ideas, theories, and data on how and why people are stratified. Also covers some sociological ideas about discrimination.

Organizations & Rationalization

From cradle to grave organizations shape our lives, yet people are often unaware of the main forces behind organizational functioning. This is an introduction to the main ideas of organizational sociology. I then use these concepts to analyze how the Nazi Holocaust developed.

Using Disaster to See Society

Why are some things considered more dangerous than other things? One answer is that those things are, in fact, more dangerous. A more sociological answer has to do with power, resources, and social organization. We will also examine the idea of the "worst case," and have a brief look at the social significance of September 11.

Page updated: December 17, 2007