Elements of Sociology

Prep

• Due Monday, 8/5: Class Participation Self-Evaluation
• Audio: ‘Recycling Won’t Eradicate Plastic Pollution’. 2018. Midday on WNYC(26 July 2018). Ecologist Matt Wilkins and Environmental Sociologist Rebecca Altman, discuss the evolution of plastic in the environment, the problems it’s causing today and what we can do about it. 
  • And here’s a very timely piece that you might treat as a follow-up on the problems with ‘Big Plastic’ (note: not required!):
    • ‘Big Plastic vs. The World’, The Brian Lehrer Show(30 July 2019). Sharon Lerner, environment reporter atThe Intercept and reporting fellow at Type Investigations, talks about her investigation into the lobbying and organizing efforts by the plastic industry to keep growing, even as citizens worldwide begin to question the need for single-use plastic items given the environmental damage plastic causes.
• ‘Social Change and the Environment’

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: Thinking Sociologically About Plastic Pollution
3. BREAK
4. TBA
5. For Next Time

For Next Time

• Due 8/7/2019, 23:59:  Final Exam
• ‘Conclusion: Understanding and Changing the Social World’

Prep

• ‘Aging and the Elderly’
• Review Caroline Hodges Persell, Kathryn M. Pfeiffer, and Ali Syed, ‘What Should Students Learn After Taking Intro Sociology?’, Teaching Sociology35 (October 2007)*

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Announcements
   1. Dems Round 2
   2. Sex, Gender, and Athletic Competition
   3. Housing Law (and Aging Populations)
3. Immigration: Assimilation vs. Multiculturalism
4. On Passing the Torch
   1. Video: Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
      1. Which theoretical perspective (‘disengagement theory’, ‘activity theory’, or ‘conflict theory’) sheds the most light on the opening scene? Cf. Sociology (2016:438-40).
   2. Going Dutch (Sociology 2016:462)
      1. Ibid., p. 466, Question 2
5. BREAK
   • I will set up the Blackboard pages for the class participation essay as well as the final exam during this time.
6. Review: Kyle D. Stedman, ‘Annoying Ways People Use Sources’, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2 (2011):
   1. Armadillo Roadkill
   2. Uncle Buddy’s Encyclopedia of Useless Facts
   3. Am I in the Right Movie?
   4. I Can’t Find the Stupid Link
   5. I Swear I Did Some Research!
7. Review: Class Participation Self-Evaluation Essay
8. Review: FInal Exam
   1. Decoding Cryptic Grading Comments
   2. When Should I Use Dictionary Definitions? (Hint: Rarely)
9. For Next Time

For Next Time

• Audio: ‘Recycling Won’t Eradicate Plastic Pollution’. 2018. Midday on WNYC(26 July 2018). Ecologist Matt Wilkins and Environmental Sociologist Rebecca Altman, discuss the evolution of plastic in the environment, the problems it’s causing today and what we can do about it. 
• ‘Social Change and the Environment’

Prep

• Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993). Please read pp. 3-27 of the PDF attached above.
• ‘Cultural Diversity’ (Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World 3.3)
• ‘Immigration’, in Ch. 10.6  of Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World
• ‘War and Terrorism’, Ch. 14.5 of Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Race/Biology vs. Ethnicity/Culture
3. Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism
4. The Clash of Civilisations
5. For Next Time

For Next Time

• ‘Aging and the Elderly’

Prep

• ‘Race and Ethnicity’
• Shaila Dewal, ‘Has “Caucasian” Lost Its Meaning?’, New York Times (6 July 2013)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Review: Class Participation Self-Evaluation Essay
3. Discussion: Beyond Race
4. TBA
5. Review:  Kyle D. Stedman, ‘Annoying Ways People Use Sources’, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2 (2011)
6. For Next Time

For Next Time

• ‘Cultural Diversity’ (Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World 3.3)
• Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993)
• ‘War and Terrorism’, Ch. 14.5 of Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World

After class, Nixon mentioned that there are page numbers on the PDF version of the textbook, so that solves our pagination problem! Just download the PDF version in order to see the page numbers of the passages you want to cite. Meanwhile, to recap, here’s what I think the citation for the textbook should look like in your reference list, based on the information to be gleaned from the first few pages of the PDF:

Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World. 2016. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

And here’s the suggested citation for the documentary we watched today:

13th. 2017. Directed by Ava DuVernay.

Prep

• ‘Gender and Gender Inequality’
• Liza Featherstone, ‘Megan Rapinoe Deserves Equal Pay — And So Do All Women’, Jacobin (2019)
  • And here’s an optional dissenting opinion.

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Q&A: 13th (DuVernay, 2017)
3. Q&A: Sex/Gender
4. Gender As a Social Construction
5. BREAK
6. Q&A: Gender Inequality
   1. Megan Rapinoe & Alex Morgan on Equal Pay
   2. Excursus: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
      1. Day Care and Paid Parental Leave
7. Male Privilege
   1. Excursus on Intersectionality: Kimberlé Crenshaw at the Club
   2. Paying the Cost to Be the Boss: The Downside of Patriarchy for Men
   3. Section 11.5 ‘For Your Review’ Questions 1-2
   4. Discussion: Sociologists’ Proposals for Reducing Gender Inequality
8. For Next Time

For Next Time

• ‘Race and Ethnicity’
• Shaila Dewal, ‘Has “Caucasian” Lost Its Meaning?’, New York Times (6 July 2013)

If you’re still having trouble using Hypothes.is, here’s a video showing you yet a third way to annotate on the web with it. Cheers to Rebeka for unearthing this one.

Prep

• Rebecca Jones, ‘Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother With Logic?’, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2 (2011)
• Kyle D. Stedman, ‘Annoying Ways People Use Sources’, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2 (2011)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Film: Thirteenth (Ava DuVernay, 2016 [1:40:42])
   • For a dissenting viewpoint, check out this recent piece in City Journal. Again, this is optional reading.
3. Review: ASA Style
4. Final Questions: Midterm
5. For Next Time

For Next Time

• Midterm Take-Home Exam Due by 23:59 Wednesday!!!
• ‘Gender and Gender Inequality’
• Liza Featherstone, ‘Megan Rapinoe Deserves Equal Pay — And So Do All Women’, Jacobin (2019)

I mentioned a fascinating Op-Ed on leadership in the Black Lives Matter movement in class today; you can find it here.

Prep

• DUE: Annotate the Manifesto HW
• ‘Social Stratification’
• Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. BREAK
3. Semester Goals HW
4. Review of the Midterm
5. Review of the Annotation HW
6. For Next Time

For Next Time

• Rebecca Jones, ‘Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother With Logic?’, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2 (2011)
• Kyle D. Stedman, ‘Annoying Ways People Use Sources’, Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Vol. 2 (2011)

Prep

• ‘Groups and Organizations’
• George Ritzer, ‘The McDonaldization of Society’, Journal of American Culture (1983), pp. .100-107

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Bowling Alone
3. BREAK
4. Bureaucracy
   1. Calculability and Telling the Truth About Statistics (Joel Best)
5. For Next Time

For Next Time

• On Writing (TBA)
• ‘Social Stratification’
• Karl Marx and Frederick Engels,The Communist Manifesto, New York: Verso, 1998
  • HW: Annotate The Communist Manifesto.

Prep

• ‘Politics and Government’
• Robert Putnam, ‘Bowling Alone’ (1995)

In Class

1. Attendance
2. Review: Midterm Take-Home Exam
3. Keywords:
   1. Capitalism, cont’d
      1. Alienation, Job Satisfaction, and Workplace Friendships
      2. Tipping
   2. Power
   3. The Three Types of Legitimate Authority
      1. Traditional Authority
      2. Rational-Legal Authority
      3. Charismatic Authority
         1. routinisation of charisma, the
4. BREAK
5. Manifesto: ‘Facts are not given. They must be taken’.
6. Bowling Alone
7. Low-Stakes Writing Assignment: What Are Your Goals for the Course?
8. For Next Time

For Next Time

• ‘Groups and Organizations’
• George Ritzer, ‘The McDonaldization of Society’Journal of American Culture (1983), pp.100-107.
  • HW: Annotate a Scholarly Article. The Ritzer article is the one you must annotate.

Prep

• Adam Smith, ‘The Invisible Hand’ (1876) pdf-embedder url=”https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/elementsofsociology/files/2019/07/2019-07-12-12-38-copie-2.pdf” title=”2019-07-12 12-38 – copie 2″]
• ‘Work and the Economy’, esp. Sections 13.2 (‘Types of Economic Systems’) and 13.3 (‘Corporations’)
• Ian Svenonius, ‘Against Tipping’, Jacobin (2015)

In Class

1. Introduction to Hypothes.is
2. Keywords:
   1. The Sociological Imagination
   2. Macro vs. Micro
   3. Social Facts
   4. Objectivity
   5. Public Sociology
   6. Division of Labour, the
   7. Capitalism
      1. Alienation, Job Satisfaction, and Workplace Friendships
      2. Tipping
   8. Socialism
   9. Democratic Socialism
3. BREAK
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

• ‘Politics and Government’
• Robert Putnam, ‘Bowling Alone’ (1995)