Sociology 240E – Section 572

Survey of Sociological Theory

Tuesdays 3-6 (3:30-6 Winter Term) – DL012

King’s College, 2004-2005 – Dr. Doug Mann

Offices: SSC 5320 (UWO) & DL300 (King’s)

 

Sociology is an attempt to understand and explain social life. In the first term this course will deal with the foundations of social theory, starting with the French and Scottish Enlightenments, moving on to Durkheim’s organic view of society, then to Marx’s dialectic materialism, finishing with Weber and Simmel’s multi-faceted views of society. In the second term we’ll move on to modern social theory, covering functionalism, C. Wright Mills, the Frankfurt School, symbolic interactionism, labelling and neo-Marxist interpretations of deviance and subcultures, feminism, and postmodernism. We’ll try to understand their theories not just as historical relics, but as living sets of ideas relevant to contemporary social issues.

 

Texts

Craib, Ian (1997). Classical Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Karl Marx & Frederick Engels (1978). The Marx-Engels Reader. 2nd ed. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. NY: Norton.

Erving Goffman (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.

Mann, Doug ed. (2004). Classical Social Theory Reader and Modern Social Theory Reader (separate courseware booklets for each term).

 

Workload

Quizzes: 5% each, 20% total (best 4 out of 5, no rewrites for any reason - see Policies for details)

Essays (due December 7 and April 5, 7-8 pages each): 20% each

Christmas Exam (2 hours, covers Fall term): 20%

Final Exam (2 hours, covers Winter term): 20%

 

Schedule

Each unit of the course represents approximately one week of lectures, though there will be considerable overlap. The months listed are approximate.

 

FALL TERM - Part I: The Origins of Social Theory (September)

1. The Basic Concepts of Social Theory and the Enlightenment Origins of Sociology

Reading: q Craib, Classical Social Theory, Chapter 1, pp. 1-10. q Map of Social Theory, Enlightenment notes.

 

2. Historical Progress in Early French Social Theory: Condorcet and Comte

Readings: q Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind, trans. Jane Barraclough (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1979), Introduction: pp. 3-13; Sixth Stage, pp. 77-88.

q Notes on Condorcet’s Ten Stages of History in courseware.        q Craib pp. 23-26.

q Comte Cartoons in Richard Osborne, Philosophy for Beginners (NY: Writers & Reader, 1992), pp. 134-135.

 

3. The Scottish Enlightenment on Property and Social Structure

Readings: q Anand Chitnis, The Scottish Enlightenment: A Social History (London: Croom Helm, 1976), Chapters 1 and 5, pp. 4-10, 91-123.    

q Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, 1767, selections on rude nations & property, subordination, and the division of labour: Part 2 Sections II & III, 3.II, 4.I, 4.II.

q Alan Swingewood, “Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment,” British Journal of Sociology 21 (1970): 164-180.

q Notes on the Scottish Enlightenment in courseware.

 

Part II: Durkheim (late September/early October)

4. Durkheim on Social Facts and Suicide

Reading: q Craib Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 11-34.

 

5. Durkheim on Solidarity, Religion and Politics

Reading: q Craib Chapter 7, pp. 63-85 and Chapter 11, pp. 187-203.

 

Part III: Marx (October)

6. Marx’s Historical Materialism

Readings: q Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, Tucker pp. 143-145.

q Karl Marx, Preface to a Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy, Tucker pp. 3-6.

q Karl Marx, Capital Volume I: Prefaces etc., Tucker pp. 294-302.

q Frederick Engels, Letters on Historical Materialism, Tucker pp. 760-768.

q Craib Chapter 4, pp. 35-42.

 

7. Marx on Alienation and the Economics of Capitalism (heavy readings!)

Readings: q Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 on alienation: Tucker pp. 70-81.

q Karl Marx, Capital Volume I in Tucker: commodities, pp. 302-313; the fetishism of commodities, pp. 319-329; the buying and selling of labour power, pp. 336-343; the labour process and surplus value, pp. 344-361; the industrial reserve army, pp. 422-431.

q Craib Chapter 8, pp. 86-104.

 

8. Marx on Ideology and the Family

Readings: q Marx and Engels, The German Ideology, Tucker pp. 146-63, 172-175. Browse Part II of The Communist Manifesto (see unit 9). q Craib Chapter Chapter 8, pp. 105-118.

 

9. Marx on the Stages of History

Readings: q Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Tucker pp. 469-500.

q Karl Marx, Capital Volume III in Tucker: Necessity and freedom, pp. 439-441; classes, pp. 441-442.

q Craib Chapter 12, pp. 201-231.

 

Part IV: Weber and Simmel (November & December)

10. Weber’s Verstehen Methodology (short lecture)

Reading: q Craib Chapter 5, pp. 43-52.

 

11. Weber on Classes, Groups, Legitimacy and Authority

Reading: q Craib Chapter 9, pp. 119-145.

 

12. Weber on Religion

Readings: q Max Weber, “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism,” Chapter 5 of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WEBER/WeberCH5.html

q Craib Chapter 13, pp. 232-260 (concentrate on 232-238, 248-260).

 

13. Simmel on Money, Relationships, Social Types and Groups (may be cut if we’re behind)

Reading q Craib Chapters 6 and 10, pp. 53-57, 146-181.

 

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WINTER TERM – Part V: Functionalism and its Critics (January)

1. The Sociological Imagination

Reading: q C. Wright Mills, “The Promise,” The Sociological Imagination (NY: Oxford UP, 1959), pp. 3-24.

 

2. Functionalism

Reading: q Ruth A. Wallace and Alison Wolf, Contemporary Sociological Theory: Expanding the Classical Tradition, 5th edition (Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 1999), pp. 16-19, 26-45.

 

3. Mills and the Power Elite

Reading: q C. Wright Mills, “The Higher Circles,” The Power Elite (New York: Oxford UP, 1956), pp. 3-29.

 

Part VI: Critical Theory (January and early February)

4. The Frankfurt School

Readings: q Herbert Marcuse, “Chapter 1. The New Forms of Social Control,” One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Societies (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), pp. 1-18.

q Theodor Adorno, "The Culture Industry Reconsidered," The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. J. M. Bernstein (London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 85-92.

 

5. The Culture of Narcissism

Reading: q Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, NY: Norton, 1978, xiii‑xviii, 38‑41, 71-75, 90‑96, 151‑3, 187‑201, 235‑6.

 

Part VII: Interactionism and Deviance (February to early March)

6. Symbolic Interactionism

Readings: q Randall Collins & Michael Makowsky, “Mead,” The Discovery of Society 6th edition (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998), pp. 170-178.

q Herbert Blumer, “The Methodological Position of Symbolic Interactionism”, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), pp. 1-23, 47-60.

 

7. Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory (this will take a couple of weeks)

Reading: q Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 6, 7.

 

8. Subcultures and Deviance (may be cut if we’re behind)

Readings: q Howard S. Becker, “Outsiders” and “Moral Entrepreneurs”, Chapters 1 & 8 of Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance (New York: The Free Press, 1973), pp. 1-18, 147-153, 155-163.

q John Clarke, Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson, and Brian Roberts, “Subcultures, Cultures and Class: A Theoretical Overview”, Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain (London: Hutchinson, 1976), pp. 9-17, 30-33, 35, 38-41, 44-45, 47-57.

q Dick Hebdige, Chapter 1, “From Culture to Hegemony ”; Chapter 7, “Style as...”, Subcultures: The Meaning of Style (London: Methuen, 1979), pp. 11-19, 100-112, 161-163.

 

Part VIII: Current Ideological Battles (late March and April)

9. Feminism

Readings: q Shulamith Firestone, Chapters 6 & 7, "Love” and “The Culture of Romance,” The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (New York: Bantam Books, 1970), 126-155.

q Naomi Wolf, “Inflexibility of Thought,” “Consensus Thinking,” “Ideological Purity,” “Literalized Theory,” “Two Traditions,” “Sex: Are Men Naughty by Nature?”, “Do Only Men Objectify the Opposite Sex?”, “Integrating the Bad Girl,” in Fire with Fire: The New Female Power and How it Will Change the 21st Century (Toronto: Random House of Canada, 1993), pp. 107-112, 120-123, 135-142, 180-90, 225-232.

 

10. Postmodernism [may be shortened if we’re behind]

Readings: q Pauline Marie Rosenau, Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), selections on truth and methodology, pp. 77-91, 109-124.

q Doug Mann, “Jean Baudrillard, A Very Short Introduction.”

q Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of the Simulacra,” Simulacra and Simulation, trans. Sheila Faria Glaser (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995), pp. 1-14, 19-23, 26-32. [BFB instead?]

 

11. The Critique of Corporatism

Reading: q John Ralston Saul, "The Great Leap Backwards," The Unconscious Civilization. Concord: Anansi, 1995, 1-9, 15-19, 26-37.

 

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Essays

 

For both terms, choose one of the major theories or theorists we’ve studied that term, and apply it to a contemporary social field. Each paper is worth 20%, and will be graded for clarity of presentation and argument, structure, and literacy (grammar, spelling, etc.). When applying your theory to the social field you’ve chosen, make sure that you’re arguing for some sort of position e.g. “the Conservative Party are the political representatives of the Canadian bourgeoisie,” or “the consumer economy generates anomie,” or “the presentation of the self in shopping malls reflects the actor’s consciousness of personal style and generation.”  Don’t just write summaries of the theory or theorist you’ve chosen: be creative. If you have an idea for a paper and aren’t sure it’s suitable, run it by me. Late penalty: 2% per day. Hand it in directly or put it in an envelope addressed to me and place it in the green drop box on the second floor of Dante Lenardon Building (the box is emptied at 4PM). 7-8 typed pages (11-12 point, 1-inch margins, double-spaced).

 

Possible theorists/theories:

           Fall Term: Condorcet, Ferguson, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel

           Winter Term: Parsons, Mills, the Frankfurt School, Lasch, Blumer, Goffman, Becker, the Birmingham School, Firestone and/or Wolf, Baudrillard and postmodernism, Saul

 

Possible fields of study:

           Political Life: specific party policies (e.g. the Liberals, NDP, or Conservatives), media perceptions of politicians, modern bureaucracy, protests against the WTO or a provincial government

           Economic Life: Canadian class structure, consumerism, corporate culture, globalization

           Grand History: the 20th century in the West, Europe since the 18th century, postwar Canada

           Media: newspapers, television news, the Internet (e.g. email, chat groups, web dating)

           Popular Culture: one or more films, television, music, style, subcultures

           Fields of Everyday Life: the office, the shopping mall, the club, the university (including forms of talk and interaction in each): note that this topic would require some empirical investigation

 

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Policies

 

Quizzes

There will be 5 quizzes, of which only 4 will count. The main purpose of the extra quiz is to cover ALL reasons for missing a class, including a brief illness, travel, work in other courses, sleeping in, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc. IF you do write all 5 quizzes, I’ll count your top 4 marks.

 

Each quiz will consist of a mixture of up to a dozen multi-choice and/or short answer questions – I’ll probably poll the class throughout the term to see which format the majority prefers. There are no rewrites for any reason: don’t intentionally miss a quiz early on the assumption you can make it up later. In the exceptional case of someone who is sick (with a doctor’s note as proof) for a month or more, I may offer them an alternative assignment – probably a short paper, but not a quiz – to make up one or two quizzes. But only in exceptional cases! I’ll announce the exact date of each quiz one or two classes in advance.

 

Participation Bonus

At the end of the term I’ll give out a bonus of 1-3% to the five or six students who most regularly attend class and participate in class discussions. Naturally, I’ll have to know who you are to give you this bonus! If you miss more than two or three classes, you’re off the bonus list.

 

Class Attendance and Behaviour

All announcements having to do with quiz and exam content and any changes in the course materials will be given during class. You’ll be tested in part on the lecture materials and class discussions. It’s up to you to make sure you keep up to date on such things by attending class - there won’t be any notes posted on the web or extensive end-of-class review to help out systematic truants. Please don’t ask me for copies of class notes for missed classes - find a friend to partner up with to cover these classes. If not having access to web-posted notes or attending class regularly is a problem for you, please drop this course. Also, please keep the background chatter down during lectures and presentations out of respect for both me and for those of your classmates who wish to listen to the lecture or participate in class discussions.

 

E-Mails

I would like to conduct as much of class business as possible in person to avoid misunderstandings and to reduce the ever-worsening problem of e-mail congestion. Please don’t email me complex questions about the content of the course, including details of missed lectures – it’s far more effective and pleasant if you come to speak to me in person about this sort of thing (you can e-mail me to make an appointment of course!). Also, I reserve the right to not reply to e-mail questions or complaints concerning grades or requests for extensions on assignments - once again, present these in person! The same standards of civility apply to electronic communication as apply to personal conversations or letters. If I receive a rude or impolite e-mail I will ignore it blacklist your e-mail address. In short, please don’t rely on e-mail for any communication you think is important - e-mails are often a poor replacement for direct verbal communication and can lead to serious miscommunication and bad feelings.

 

Plagiarism

The official word: “Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as, footnotes or citations.  Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offences in the 2004 Western Academic Calendar, pg.38).”

 

Pre- and Anti-requisites

Pre-requisites: Sociology 020 or 021E. Anti-requisite: Sociology 230.

 

The official word: “Students are responsible for ensuring that their selection of courses is appropriate and accurately recorded, that all course prerequisites have been successfully completed, and that they are aware of any antirequisite course(s) that they have taken.  If the student does not have the requisites for a course, and does not have written special permission from his or her Dean to enroll in the course, the University reserves the right to cancel the student’s registration in the course. This decision may not be appealed. The normal financial and academic penalties will apply to a student who is dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.”