Elements of Sociology

Prep

• ‘Sociology and the Sociological Perspective’, Sections 1.1 (‘The Sociological Perspective’), 1.2 (‘Understanding Society’), and 1.3 (‘Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology’)
• Karl Marx, Thesis XI of ‘Theses on Feuerbach’
• Max Weber, ‘The Case for Value-Free Sociology’, excerpted from ‘Politik als Beruf’(1920)
• Joel Best, ‘Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics’, The Chronicle of Higher Education(4 May 2001). Note: You can just skim this one.

In Class

1. ‘Activity: Find Top Authorities for a Subject’ (cont’d)
2. BREAK
3. Discussion:
   1. The Sociological Imagination
   2. Macro vs. Micro
   3. Social Facts
   4. Objectivity
   5. Public Sociology
4. Manifesto: ‘Facts are not given. They must be taken’.
5. Low-Stakes Writing Assignment: What Are Your Goals for the Course?
6. For Next Time

For Next Time

• Adam Smith, ‘The Invisible Hand’ (1876)
• Svenonius, Ian. 2015. ‘Against Tipping’. Jacobin. 

Prep

• Michael A. Caulfield, Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers (2017), Part I (‘Four Strategies and a Habit’); Part II (‘Look for Previous Work’), Sections 1 (‘How to Use Previous Work’), 2 (‘Fact-Checking Sites’), 3 (‘Wikipedia’); Part III, Section 1 (‘Going Upstream to Find the Source’); Part IV (‘Reading Laterally’), Sections 1 (‘What Reading Laterally Means’), 18 (‘Basic Techniques: Web Domains, WHOIS’); 20 (‘Stupid Journal Tricks’); 21 (‘Finding a Journal’s Impact Factor’); 22 (‘Using Google Scholar to Evaluate Author Expertise’), 23 (‘How to Think About Research’), 25 (‘Choosing Your Experts First’), 26 (‘Evaluating News Sources’), 27 (‘National Newspapers of Record’)
• Joel Best, ‘Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics’, The Chronicle of Higher Education(4 May 2001). Note: You can just skim this one.

In Class

1. Introduction to Hypothes.is
2. Q&A: Four Strategies and a Habit
3. ‘Activity: Find Top Authorities for a Subject’
4. BREAK (12:45)
5. ‘Facts are not given. They have to be taken’: Best (2001) Q&A
6. Low-Stakes Writing Assignment: What Are Your Goals for the Course?
7. On Reading [Time Permitting]
8. For Next Time

For Next Time

• ‘Sociology and the Sociological Perspective’, Sections 1.1 (‘The Sociological Perspective’), 1.2 (‘Understanding Society’), and 1.3 (‘Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology’)
• Karl Marx, Thesis XI of ‘Theses on Feuerbach’
• Max Weber, ‘The Case for Value-Free Sociology’, excerpted from ‘Politik als Beruf’(1920)
• Joel Best, ‘Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics’, The Chronicle of Higher Education(4 May 2001). Note: You can just skim this one.

Welcome to SOC 1101! I’m Professor George Murray, and this space will tell you everything you need to know in order to walk into each day of class fully prepared. So here’s our agenda for the first day of class:

Prep

• Ground Rules for the Classroom
• Caroline Hodges Persell, Kathryn M. Pfeiffer, and Ali Syed, ‘What Should Students Learn After Taking Intro Sociology?’, Teaching Sociology 35 (October 2007)

In Class

• Attendance and Introductions
• Prologue: What Is Sociology?
• Ten  Things You Should Understand (Better) After This Course
• Low-Stakes Writing Assignment: What Are Your Goals for the Course?
• For Next Time

For Next Time

• Michael A. Caulfield, Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers (2017), Part I (‘Four Strategies and a Habit’); Part II (‘Look for Previous Work’), Sections 1 (‘How to Use Previous Work’), 2 (‘Fact-Checking Sites’), 3 (‘Wikipedia’); Part III, Section 1 (‘Going Upstream to Find the Source’); Part IV (‘Reading Laterally’), Sections 1 (‘What Reading Laterally Means’), 18 (‘Basic Techniques: Web Domains, WHOIS’); 20 (‘Stupid Journal Tricks’); 21 (‘Finding a Journal’s Impact Factor’); 22 (‘Using Google Scholar to Evaluate Author Expertise’), 23 (‘How to Think About Research’), 25 (‘Choosing Your Experts First’), 26 (‘Evaluating News Sources’), 27 (‘National Newspapers of Record’), [Part VI (‘Field Guide: Unfinished Articles’)