Introduction to SociologySkills for a Socially Engaged Life

AP/SOCI 1010 E 6.0Fall/Winter 2013-2014

Department of SociologyFaculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies

York University

Lecture Schedule: Thursdays 10:30 – 12:20 Location: SLH FCourse Email Address: yorksociology1010@gmail.com

Fall Term:Course Director: Professor D.R. Brock ffice: 2108 Vari Hall, x60302Web Site: www.yorku.ca/dbrock Office Hours: Thursdays 13:00-14:00 or by appointment.

Winter Term:Course Director: Professor Hyun Ok Park Office: Vari 2086Office Hours: Mondays 13:00-14:00 or by appointment

Teaching Assistant ___________________ Seminar Date and Time _________ Seminar Location __________

TA Office Hours and Location ____________

Sociology 1010E has been designed by Professor Karen Anderson. The content of this syllabus has been produced and written by both Professor Anderson and Professor Brock.

Your Information:

An important message about the use of personal electronic devices during lectures and seminars:

In recent years the use of new technologies has become pervasive in the classroom. While some of these technologies can facilitate teaching and learning (such as the use of notebook computers for note-taking), these technologies now also present a risk of significant disruption to the classroom environment. As a result, the use of mobile phones (including text messaging) will not be tolerated. Turn your phones off at the beginning of lecture/seminar. You may check your messages during the break period, and at the end of the lecture/seminar. Laptop computers, ipads, and other personal electronic devices are for the use of note-taking only, unless requested otherwise by the Course Director or TA. Surfing the net, checking your email, looking at photos, etc., are distracting to students around you, as well as to the Course Director or TA. If you find these uses of technology more compelling than the lecture or seminar discussion, you are requested to immediately leave the classroom environment.

Making video or audio recordings of lectures or tutorials without prior permission violates the intellectual property rights governing the university, and is strictly prohibited. Students with documented disabilities can consult the Course Director for special instructions.

Should you find this policy unacceptable, you should immediately drop this course. Your continued enrolment in this course indicates your willingness to comply with this policy.

Thinking Sociologically (by Professor Deborah Brock)

“The first wisdom of sociology is this: Things are not what they seem.”Peter Berger Invitation to Sociology Doubleday, 1963: 34.

What does it take to become a sociologist? The sociologist embraces curiosity, imagination, and critical inquiry. Becoming a sociologist necessitates a willingness to be a lifelong student, making sense of the every day world, and connecting our every day world to global events that seem impossibly beyond our reach. Becoming a sociologist leads us to an exploration of both the intricacies and the grand sweeps of social organization and social change. Every one of us is a potential sociologist, when we have the right mindset, and the right tool kit.

Becoming a sociologist entails the investigation of the material world. Why do people live as they do? Why are there significant differences in prosperity among people living in the same community, within nations, and between nation states? Along the way to investigating such questions, you will also discover that every material human made object also has a history, and a social context for its production, exchange, and use.

Becoming a sociologist entails the willingness to explore the social construction of knowledge. How does what we think become thinkable? How does what we know become knowable? Addressing these kinds of questions requires an investigation of the

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social world, including how meaning is ‘made up’ or constituted. What is the broader meaning of a seemingly small and personal experience of happiness, such as strolling along a city street on a warm spring day, listening to music, or sharing a kiss? This is the purview of philosophers as much as sociologists, and indeed, philosophy may seem to be a more appealing starting point when the scale tips more toward romance than to reason. Similarly, the spiritual domain of religion may hold greater appeal in times of hardship or despair (Why me? Why her? Why now?). Sometimes the directions provided to us by other disciplines can provide us with answers that we need, and more quickly. But they may not provide the answers that are possible. One of the challenges of thinking sociologically is that we must refuse to take short cuts in order to account for social phenomenon (God will decide... Nature made us that way… It is beyond our control…). This can be hard work.

Becoming a sociologist can be unsettling. It often compels us to challenge our own taken for granted, and deeply held, beliefs. For the sociologist, all knowledge is partial, contingent, and subject to contestation. Simply put, we don’t and cannot know everything that there is to know. Innovations in thinking, exposure to new ideas, and making connections between seemingly dissimilar events continually open up new directions for analyses. We must relinquish our ego investment in our claims of certainty and our hard won research, and welcome the knowledge that our work will be challenged and reformulated. This is the inevitable course of sociological inquiry.

Becoming a sociologist entails a willingness to ‘travel’; to familiarize oneself with where we already are, and to go where we have not yet been. This travel may literally require a passport, as we cross borders to explore other cultures, social geographies, and political landscapes. It may also require no more than a library card and an internet connection. Whatever roads you take to be a sociologist (and during your life, you will likely travel many), you will require the guidance of theory and the toolkit of methodology.

How can theorists and theories inspire us? Often they appear to be abstract and far removed from the world that we know. Moreover, sociological theorists appear to disagree with one another often, on major and minor issues. If sociologists were required to form a community based not only on their commonality of interests but their commonality of beliefs, they might spend a lot of time alone in their rooms! But that said, theorists inspire, provoke, and challenge one another as an unavoidable component of their job descriptions, as they pursue their shared commitment to making the social world more visible, from the everyday activities that people engage in to analyses of historic events.

What is in our tool kit? Through this introduction to sociology, you will learn to interrogate your own practices of looking, listening, and thinking. You will learn more about different approaches to knowledge, how to be critical in your consumption of information and to familiarize yourself with some strategies for undertaking analytic work. You will find that your methodology is in some way linked to theory, because there are connections between what we choose to study, why we elect to study it, how we elect to study it, and the lens through which we study it.

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As sociologists, we want you the student to find something surprising and enlightening in seemingly mundane everyday activities, such as browsing the internet, getting dressed in the morning, or going shopping. Clearly, however, we don’t want you to dismiss, as unworthy of your attention, anything that does not impact upon your personal experience. Sociologists are not navel gazers; we are always looking beyond our own lives and own experiences for clues about the organization of the social world. In other words, we want you to connect your every day experiences to larger social, political and economic processes. We want you to gain an appreciation for the uses of sociology for making sense of your everyday world, while encouraging you to develop the skills of abstract and critical thinking to take you beyond the bounds of your actual everyday lives.

Course Description (by Professor Karen Anderson)

The primary goal of SOCIOLOGY 1010 is to start you thinking like a sociologist. Thinking like a sociologist includes the ability to identify and work through problems that are of interest to sociologists using the techniques of observation, and evidence gathering, discussion and reporting. It also includes the ability to understand and think critically about sociological concepts, principles, theoretical perspectives and methods of research and their applications.

The role of a sociologist is to understand complex human social organization and social interactions. Course materials have been chosen to provide a sense of the rich variety of experiences available to human beings and to underscore the ways in which those experiences are shaped by the wide variety of social worlds in which we all live. To become a sociologist you must learn to ask good sociological questions, gather relevant and valid information with which to answer those questions and then interpret the evidence you have gathered.

In this course you will learn about different schools of sociological thought and different ways to conduct sociological research. You will be introduced to a wide variety of questions asked by sociologists, to the research work they have done to answer those questions and to the theories they have devised to explain their findings.

Texts:

Karen Anderson, 2012. Thinking about Sociology: a critical perspective, Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Additional required readings can be accessed online either directly via moodle, or through York’s library online resources – www.library.yorku.ca . These readings are noted throughout the syllabus.  Other readings may be assigned or recommended during the course.

Highly Recommended: Margot Northey, Lorne Teperman and Patrizia Albanese, 2012. Making Sense : A Student’s Guide to Research and Writing Social Sciences Toronto:

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Oxford University Press. This guide has been included with your textbook as a complimentary copy. Please be sure to make good use of it!

Organization of the Course

You will be asked to participate actively in lecture and tutorial sessions by engaging in discussion with other students as well as with members of the course instruction team.  Most lectures will include interactive sessions, and will often be supplemented by documentaries, films and guest speakers.  Tutorial meetings will be a further locus of discussion of required readings, lecture materials and assignments.  The required readings, lectures, films and documentaries, guest presentations and interactive lecture and tutorial exercises are all central to this course.  They all serve to enrich, clarify and illustrate the issues around which this course is organized. They are all intended to help you achieve the course objective of thinking like a sociologist.

All of the activities of this course focus on helping you to think clearly about basic sociological questions asked by sociologists, and the basic research methods and theoretical perspectives used by sociologists. You will be asked to continually engage your mind during lectures and tutorials and while preparing for lectures and tutorials. To do this you will need to become a critical thinker and an active participant in your own learning.

Class time will often focus on you figuring out things about the social world by using your own mind to apply the concepts, techniques and theories that you have read or heard about in class. On a typical class day you will listen to short lectures and then work in small groups practicing disciplined sociological thinking. You are expected to actively participate in all class sessions, and to work with your peers to continually process information by restating it, giving examples, and offering alternate points of view. In this course you will be expected to be involved in group work, self-assessment, and peer assessment, and to make presentations.

Course Learning Objectives

Primary Learning Objective of this Course: The primary learning objective of this course is for you to learn to think critically as a sociologist, so that you are able to accurately assess your strengths and weaknesses and to take charge of your own learning.

Specific Learning Objectives of this Course: students will:• understand the sociological perspective• gain exposure to key issues and areas of study of interest to sociologists• practice using sociological research methods and theoretical perspectives• demonstrate their grasp sociological research methods and theoretical perspectives  by applying those methods and perspectives to their own research and to analyzing topics of interest to sociologists.

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Course Format One two-hour lecture, one one-hour tutorial weekly. 

Highly recommended WebsitesA useful statement on how to write like a sociologist can be found on the website sponsored by the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The general URL for that Writing Center is http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/ . The specific document on writing for sociology is found at http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/sociology/.  This document contains: • a clear discussion of assumptions and expectations of the discipline of sociology; • an explanation of what constitutes the sociological perspective; • key issues that need to be considered in any sociological writing, including argument, evidence and units of analysis. Links to other UNC Handouts, all of which will help you to write better papers, whatever the discipline, can also be found at this site.

Additional References for sociology students: The Dictionary of Anthropology. Cambridge, Mass : Blackwell, 2000, c1997. Turner, Bryan S. The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Malden, Mass. :

Blackwell Publishers, 2000. Calhoun, Craig. Dictionary of the Social Sciences. New York: Oxford University

Press, 2002.  Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. 1998, c1996. The Sociology Writing Group.  A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers. New York:

St. Martin’s Press.  1994 or later. Joanne Buckley.  Fit To Print: The Canadian Student’s Guide to Essay Writing. 

Toronto: Harcourt Brace, (1998) Hugh Robertson.  The Research Essay: A Guide to Essays and Papers.  Piperhill

Publications, Ottawa. 2001 or later.

Moodle

Course schedules, assignments, additional readings and announcements are all posted on Moodle.  You must learn to use Moodle in order to access readings and to submit assignments for this course.

What is Moodle?  Moodle is an easy-to-use learning management system that your instructor uses to supplement a face-to-face course or deliver a complete online course. Moodle allows you to access course materials online, communicate with others in your class, and submit assignments.

Moodle can be accessed at moodle.yorku.ca.   Click on the Moodle2013/2014 button on that page and enter your Passport York ID and password.

Resources for students, including The Students Quickstart Guide is found at https://moodle.yorku.ca/students/documentation.htm

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If you have Moodle related questions, please direct them to UIT Client Services at 416.736.5800 or email ithelp@yorku.ca. DO NOT EMAIL the Course Director or your TA with moodle related questions.

Evaluation

In this course, there are four different ways that your progress towards achieving course objectives will be assessed.  All students must complete the following:

1. Four essay-exams: 40% of your final grade (10% each)

For each of the four essay-exams you will be given a short essay questions to answer during the set exam period. The objective of these essay questions is to allow you to demonstrate your familiarity with using the sociological concepts, theories and research methods covered in the course.  Method of delivery: TBA. Dates: Oct. 24, Dec 5, Feb 13, April 3.

2.  One Research Project and Tutorial Presentation: 20% of your final grade.

During the first term you will be asked to undertake a research project as part of a tutorial sub-group and to present the results of that project your tutorial group. For this project each tutorial group will be divided into sub-groups of 4 or 5 students and each sub-group will act as a research team. Your individual paper, which serves as your contribution to your research team’s overall project, will be graded individually and will be worth 20%. Your research team will be asked to make a presentation to the larger tutorial group. That presentation will be graded and the grade will be assigned to each member of the group. Each presentation is worth 5% of your final grade.

The objective of these two assignments is to familiarize you with a wide range of sociological research methods and theoretical perspectives.

3. Sociological Autobiography: 20% of your final grade (Due March 20)

3. Tutorial Participation: 20% of your final grade. (10%) per term (Including the Entry Ticket)

Seminars: Your Information/Analysis Commons Your seminar participation is an essential component of this course. Seminars provide you with the opportunity to challenge yourself, and to think through ideas collectively, through your active participation. We encourage your informed participation in the seminars and are more concerned with the quality of your verbal participation than the quantity. ‘Informed participation’ means that your comments and questions will be based upon your critical reflections on, and engagement with, the course readings and lecture material.

Grades for seminar attendance and participation will take into consideration:

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Demonstrated grasp of the weekly readings. Expressed familiarity with course lecture content. An analytic and thoughtful approach to the topic in question. The clarity and originality of thoughts and opinions expressed during seminar

discussions. Avoidance of unsubstantiated personal opinion.

When you do not attend seminars, you cannot participate.While active participation in seminars is very important, we recognize that some students may find speaking in groups particularly challenging. We do our best to provide a supportive environment in seminars, recognizing that students come to a course with a wide range of expectations, prior knowledge, and abilities. We work to create an atmosphere where all are encouraged to participate in seminar discussions, and where critical discussion and diverse perspectives on all course topics are welcomed. Keep in mind that freedom of speech entails not simply personal liberty to speak as one chooses, but taking responsibility for the creation of an intellectual environment where insult and exclusion does not result from prejudicial or discriminatory words and actions. Freedom of speech demands of the speaker a commitment to open up, rather than shut down, intellectual inquiry.

To be free is not merely to cast off ones chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

Nelson Mandela

The Entry Ticket

Entry tickets provide your TA with the basis for an ongoing assessment of your progress in the course. They provide the TA with the opportunity to assess and respond to your individual scholastic needs in a mass education context. As well, they provide a context for ongoing written reflection, a process that will prepare you for longer writing projects. Pay careful attention to the criteria that follows:

You will write an entry ticket upon arrival in seminar. They will respond to one of the Discussion Questions listed in your textbook for that week, or to a question posed by your TA. Entry tickets are to be written during the first seven minutes of tutorial time, so please arrive promptly and arrive prepared to write.

You are strongly encouraged to refer to your entry tickets during seminar discussion.

Statements of personal opinion must express an informed critical reflection on course material, making direct reference to that material.

You may use this as an opportunity to ask questions about matters for which you would like further clarification. However, you must first ensure that you meet the requirements of the assignment.

Entry tickets do influence your participation mark. However, they will not be

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individually graded.

Entry tickets are the means by which seminar leaders keep attendance. If you do not submit an entry ticket upon arrival at seminar, you will not be counted as present. For this reason, late entry tickets are not accepted.

You are subject to plagiarism charges if you copy the entry ticket of another student. TA’s compare entry tickets on a regular basis.

Don’t forget to include your name, the topic and date, and your seminar number on your entry ticket!

Grading, Assignment Submission, Lateness Penalties and Missed Due Dates

Grading Policies

The teaching team for Sociology 1010B is committed to the principle that good thinking and good writing go hand in hand.  Uppermost in our minds will be the question: “what, specifically, does this piece of writing demonstrate about your ability to reason as a sociologist?”

Here are some tips:

1.  Good sociological writing is clear and precise.  When you write sentences that can be interpreted in many different ways you demonstrate that you are thinking in a vague way.  Write so that you make clear and precise what you mean.

2.  Sociological thinking is grounded in the real world.  When you do not use concrete examples and illustrations to make your points clear, you demonstrate that you do not know how to clarify your thought as a sociologist. Give relevant examples and illustrations that are focused on the existing social world.

3.  Good sociological thinking is logical.  When you do not make clear with appropriate transitional words and critical vocabulary the logical relations between the sentences and paragraphs you write you reveal that you do not fully understand the structure of your own reasoning.  Make clear the logical relations between the sentences and paragraphs that you write.

4.  Sociological thinking is analytic.  When you fail to employ key sociological concepts and to demonstrate their logic you show that you are weak at conceptual analysis.  Use key sociological concepts in your written work wherever appropriate.

5.  Sociological thinking is always focused on sociological questions.  When you fail to clarify the questions and/or issues you are dealing with or when you drift from one issue to the next, you reveal a lack of intellectual discipline, focus and understanding of what each issue you raise requires of you. You also demonstrate a lack of sense of relevance. Clarify the questions and or issues you are focusing on and stick to them throughout the

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written piece.  Show how each point you make is relevant to the sociological questions/issues you are pursuing.

6.  Good sociological thinking does not jump to conclusions.  When you make sweeping judgements about a position you have not sufficiently analyzed you demonstrate intellectual laziness and/or arrogance.  Show in your writing that you have considered a variety of reasonable ways of looking at the issue. (Adapted from Paul and Elder: 2006, pp 18-19)

Grading CriteriaGraded assignments and exams will be returned to you bearing either a letter grade designation (A+, A, B+, B etc.) or a corresponding number grade (e.g.12/15, 8/10). (For a full description of York grading system see the York University Undergraduate Calendar - http://calendars.registrar.yorku.ca/pdfs/ug2004cal/calug04_5_acadinfo.pdf

Written work will be graded using criteria loosely based on “Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO)” taxonomy developed by Biggs and Collis, (1996).

A-A+ . Written work demonstrates that student is able to: critically reflect on his/her own experiences, readings and/or research. evaluate his/her experiences, readings and/or research findings using

explicitly stated theories that are relevant to the assignment. formulate his/her own theory(ies) and/or generate a new approach to

assignment content based on the principles and approaches taught in the course

B-B+. Written work demonstrates that the student is able to: critically reflect on his/her own experiences, readings and/or research apply course content and recognize good and poor applications of

principles understand that certain aspects of the course content can be used as a

theory to evaluate experiences, readings and/or research findings.

C-C+ Written work demonstrates that the student: is able to discuss his/her own experiences, readings and/or research

meaningfully does not transfer or apply course materials or other relevant materials to

evaluate experiences, readings and/or research findings.

D-D+ Written work demonstrates that student: has sparse understandings of course materials, readings and/or

assignments has some misunderstandings of course materials, readings and/or

assignmentsF Written work demonstrates that the student:

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has fundamental misunderstandings of course materials, readings and/or assignments

has not made the necessary effort lacks involvement with course materials, readings and/or assignments (See John Biggs. “Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment” in Higher Education, 32: 347-364, 1996).

Assignment Submission: Proper academic performance depends on students doing their work not only well, but on time. Accordingly, assignments for this course must be received on the due date specified for the assignment. Assignments are to be submitted via Moodle on or before the due date. As well, students must submit printed copies of assignments on the due date, at the beginning of lecture period.

Lateness Penalty: Assignments received later than the due date will not be accepted. Exceptions to the lateness penalty for valid reasons such as illness, compassionate grounds, etc., may be entertained by the Course Director but will require appropriate supporting documentation (e.g., a doctor’s letter).

Missed due dates – If you miss a due date for medial or personal reasons, please contact the Course Director immediately (via email is best). You must provide appropriate documentation in order to have your submission graded. The manner in which the missed assignment (which has been appropriately documented) is handled will be at the discretion of the Course Director.

What is appropriate supporting documentation?

a) Medical circumstances – assignment due dates missed due to medical circumstances must be supported by an attending physician’s statement or a statement by a psychologist or counsellor. A copy of the Attending Physicians Statement may be found at http://www.yorku.ca/grads/forms/NEW/attending_physician_statement.pdf

NOTE: the physician's office may be contacted to verify that the forms were completed by the physician.

b) Non-medical circumstances – assignment due dates missed due to non-medical circumstances must be supported by corroborating documentation, e.g., death certificates, obituary notice, automobile accident report, airline/bus ticket/receipt for emergency travel (with date of booking on ticket), etc. Airline/train/bus ticket/receipts for emergency travel must indicate destination, as well as departure and return dates.

Grade Reassessments -If you believe you have received a lower than expected grade for an exam, you may request a grade reassessment. To request a grade reassessment you must:

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1. Write a request for re-grading of no less than 250 type-written words explaining why you believe your assignment was incorrectly marked. The use of clear argumentation and supporting evidence are important components of this request for re-grading. 2.  Submit your typewritten request, along with the original marked paper, to your TA for reassessment.3.  If, after receiving a reassessment from your TA, you are still not satisfied, submit a written request for reassessment to Professor Anderson of no less than 250 typewritten words, explaining why you believe your assignment has  been incorrectly marked, along with the original marked paper.4.  Your grade may be raised, lowered or remain the same.

Academic Honesty and Integrity

All students are expected to familiarize themselves with York University Policies, Procedures and Regulations found at http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/policies/index-policies.html. Of special concern are the sections on Academic Honesty.

All students are expected to complete the Academic Integrity tutorial found at:http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity/

Consulting Your Teaching Assistant

In a course of this size, Teaching Assistants provide a vital link between the Course Director and the students. When you have questions or concerns about the course that cannot be answered through reference to the syllabus, please consult your TA as soon as possible. When appropriate, the TA will communicate your questions and concerns to the Course Director. You should also feel free to discuss course themes and topics with the Course Director, should such a discussion appeal to you. Intellectual inquiry is always welcome.

Teaching Assistants organize seminars and mark all tests and assignments for their seminar groups. Your TA is thus in the best position to assess your progress, and may supply additional in-seminar exercises or pedagogical materials designed to enhance your comprehension of course materials. Any specific concerns about the evaluation of your work must first be addressed with your TA. Please only consult the Course Director in instances where you have been unable to resolve matters through consultation with your TA. Your TA will provide you with her/his office hours and office location. Email Policy and Practice

Please note that email communication, while convenient, can add significantly to TA workload. Your TA will provide you with their contact information, and inform you of

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their schedule for checking and responding to student queries. This means that you should not expect immediate response to communications such as emails.

Send all email intended for the Course Director yorksociology1010@gmail.com. Please include your name and the name of your TA in all correspondence. Email communications do form impressions of the sender on the reader, so be sure to ensure that your messages convey information clearly and effectively, contain appropriate forms of address (Professor Brock, Professor Ok Park), and are free of grammatical and spelling errors.

Course Directors and TAs will not respond to email information requests where the requested information has been provided in the syllabus or in lectures or tutorials. Only brief inquiries will be responded to by email. For more detailed inquiries, please make an appointment or attend your TA office hours.

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SCHEDULE: FALL TERM

Week 1 Sept 12 Introducing Sociology

Lecture Topics

Introductions The sociological perspective Thinking like a sociologist, and writing like one, too. How to read for this course: The SQ4R Reading Method MOODLE

Readings

University of North Carolina Writing Centre. “Sociology”. http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/sociology.html

The SQ4R Reading Method Textbook Preface, pages xvi-xx.

Tutorials

Introductions The SQ4R Reading Method “Why am I attending University?” Student study guide: www.oupcanada.com/Anderson (follow the links)

Week 2 Sept 19 The Sociological Perspective and Two Core Concepts

Lecture Topics

The “Sociological Imagination” Application of the sociological imagination: why you’re attending university The Social Construction of Reality

Readings

Anderson, Chapter 1 C. Wright Mills. The Sociological Imagination (1959), Chapter 1, “The

Promise”: http://www.lclark.edu/~goldman/socimagination.html

Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise on the Sociology of Knowledge (Garden City, New York: Anchor

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Books, 1966), pp. 51-55, 59-61” http://www.sociosite.net/topics/texts/berger_luckman.php

Reading Guide to Berger and Luckman (1966) The Social Construction of Reality http://www.arasite.org/bandl.htm

Tutorials

What is the sociological imagination? Examples? What is “the social construction of reality”? Examples? The SQ4R Reading Method

Week Three Sept 26 Critical Thinking Skills

Lecture Topics

Critical Thinking Skills- what they are, why they’re important Illustration of Critical thinking Skills Sociologists and Social Activism

Readings

Anderson, Chapter 2 and Chapter 20

   Tutorials

Critical thinking Social Activism

Week Four Oct 3 Sociological Research Strategies

Lecture Topics Factors influencing sociological research Quantitative and Qualitative Research Strategies Theory, Ontology, Epistemology

Readings Anderson Chapter 3.

Tutorials Discuss Quantitative and Qualitative Research strategies

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Week 5 Oct 10 Research Design, Methods, Ethics and Experiments

Lecture Topics  Research Design, Methods and Ethics Research Experiments Participant Observation Field Observation Assignment

Readings Anderson, Chapter 4

Kang, Miliann. 2003. “The Managed Hand: the commercialization of bodies and emotions in Korean immigrant-owned nail salons”. Gender & Society 2003 17:820-839.

See also: How to choose a research method:

http://www.experiment-resources.com/different-research-methods.html Research Ethics: http://www.experiment-resources.com/ethics-in-

research.html Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiment 1961: http://www.experiment-

resources.com/stanley-milgram-experiment.html             Milgram Experiment

Ethics: http://www.experiment-resources.com/milgram-experiment-ethics.html            

Philip Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment 1971: http://www.experiment-resources.com/stanford-prison-experiment.html            

Solomon Asch Experiment: http://www.experiment-resources.com/asch-experiment.html           

Tutorials

Tutorial Group Field Observation

Week 6 Oct 17 The Sociological Imagination in Action

Lecture TopicsTBA

Readings

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Review chapters covered to date.

Tutorials Preparation for Mid-Term Exam Work on field observation assignment and presentations

Week 7 Oct 24 Mid-Term Exam

Tutorials Work on field observation assignment and presentations

Week 8 Oct 31 Co-Curricular Day: Class will not be held.

Week 9 Nov 7 Durkheim, Weber, Marx

Lecture Topics Ontological and epistemological bases of sociological inquiry Important concepts from three of the founders of sociology- Marx, Weber and

Durkheim.

Readings Anderson, Chapters 5 and 6 Karl Marx and Frederic Engels. Excerpt from the Communist Manifesto,

Preamble and Chapter 1. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, part III, chap. 6, pp. 650-78. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012142736/media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/Weber/BUREAU.HTML

Emile Durkheim, The Rules of the Sociological Method, (Ed. by Steven Lukes; trans. byW.D. Halls). New York: Free Press, 1982, pp. 50-59. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012142734/media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/Durkheim/SOCFACT.HTML

Tutorials Discussion of concepts of “modes of production”, “social facts” and

“bureaucracies” Presentation of first-term research projects

Week 10 Nov 14 Cooley, Mead and Goffman: Symbolic Interactionism

Lecture Topics Social interactionist perspective:

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· George H Mead- The I” and the “Me” · Chas. H. Cooley- “The Looking-Glass Self” · Erving Goffman- “The presentation of self in everyday life”

Readings Anderson, Chapter 7 Cooley, "The Looking-Glass Self" From Charles Horton Cooley, Human

Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner's, 1902, pp. 179-185. http://web.archive.org/web/20080119134001/media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/Cooley/LKGLSSLF.HTML

G.H. Mead, Mind, Self and Society, Sections 20-29 inc. http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Mead/pubs2/mindself/Mead_1934_20.html

Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday, 1956, http://www.clockwatching.net/~jimmy/eng101/articles/goffman_intro.pdf

Tutorials Discussion of symbolic interactionist perspective Presentation of first-term research projects

Week 11 Nov 21 Socialization and Social Interaction

Lecture Topics Socialization: What makes us humans? Social Interaction Rituals

Readings

Anderson, Chapters 8 and 9 Sapolsky RM, Share L (2004) A pacific culture among wild baboons: Its

emergence and transmission. PLoS Biol 2: e106. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020106.http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020106

Tutorials Discussion of socialization and social interaction rituals Discuss End-of-1 st term exam

Week 12 Nov 28 Culture and Pop Culture

Lecture Topics The concept of culture- Nature vs. Nurture Popular Culture and cultural identity Cultural insiders/outsiders, culture shock

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Pumped Up Kicks- Lyrics and song http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=pTeFDHcCRR8&feature=related, Sao Paulo performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=zJp0vynlYXU&feature=related Interviews http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=22941http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2011/09/foster_the_peoples_mark_foster.php

Class Exercises: culture and public toilets

Readings Anderson, Chapter 10 Julian Tanner et al 2008. “Our favourite melodies: musical consumption and

teenage lifestyles”. British Journal of Sociology, 1:117-144

Tutorials Discuss concept of “culture” Discuss how music/dress/speech patterns is used to mark social distinctions

Week 13 Dec 5 End-of-1st Term Exam

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SCHEDULE: WINTER TERM

Week 14 January 9 Social Structure, Social Agency, Social NetworksLecture Topics

Social structure Anthony Giddens- structuration theory Pierre Bourdieu- “habitus” Social Networks

Readings Anderson, Chapter 11

Tutorials Discuss social structure and agency Discuss social networks

Week 15 Jan 16 Social Stratification, Inequality and Class

Lecture Topics inequality in Canada Marx on social class and the capitalist mode of production Weber on social class, status, party and class situation ·

Readings Marx and Engels, “Bourgeoise and Proletarians” (Manifesto of the

Communist Party). http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm

Anderson , Chapter 12 Picot and Myles. 2005. Income Inequality and Low Income in Canada: an

International Perspective. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. Catalogue no. 11F0019MIE — No. 240. [Access through York University Library- search eResources by title.]

United Way of Greater Toronto and The Canadian Council on Social Development. 2004. Poverty by Postal Code: the geography of neighbourhood poverty 1981-2001 http://www.unitedwaytoronto.com/whatwedo/reports/povertybypostalcode.php

2011. Poverty by Postal code 2: Vertical Poverty. http://unitedwaytoronto.com/verticalpoverty/report/introduction/

Tutorials

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Discuss concepts of Class, Class Conflict, modes of production

Week 16 Jan 23 Two Approaches to Social Class

Lecture Topics Eric Olin Wright- social class and occupation Pierre Bourdieu- Taste, consumption and life style Discussion of Mid-term exam Discussion of Sociological autobiography assignment

Documentaries People Like Us The Take

Class Exercises Applying Marx, Weber and Bourdieu’s concepts of class conflict, social class,

and habitus to “People Like Us” Applying Marx, Weber and Bourdieu’s concepts of class conflict, social class,

and habitus to The Take

Readings Anderson, Chapter 13 Pierre Bourdieu, “Classes and Classifications”. Excerpt from: Distinctions. A

Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste . pp. 466-84. http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/bourdieu.htm

Tutorials Discuss social class Discuss sociological autobiography assignment

Week 17 Jan 30 Sex and Gender

Lecture Topics The history of sex and gender Nature/nurture arguments Biological sex/social gender Insights from neurological and cognitive sciences

Readings Anderson, Chapter 14

Tutorials Discuss sex/gender

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Discussion of Mid-term exam

Week 19 Feb 13 Mid-Term Exam

Week 20 Feb 20 READING WEEK: Class will not be held

Week 21 Feb 27 Gender Inequalities and Differences

Lecture Topics Gender and employment Gender Revolution? Doing gender Gender and domestic violence Final assignment

Class Exercise “walk like a man, talk like a woman”

Readings Ahmad et al. 2009. “Why doesn’t she seek help for partner abuse?” An

exploratory study with South Asian immigrant women”. Social Science & Medicine 69: 613–622

Anderson, Chapter 15

Tutorials Discuss gender and violence Discuss gender and employment

Week 22 March 6 Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Orientation

Lecture Topics sexual orientation and identity history of sex and sexuality sexuality and sexual orientation in a cross cultural perspective sex work

Readings Anderson, Chapter 16

Film Paradise Bent

Tutorials Discuss sex, sexuality and sexual orientation

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Week 23 March 13 Race and Racism

Lecture genetics of race the social construction of race discussion of sociological autobiography paper

Film The journey of man: a genetic odyssey

Readings Anderson, chapter 17 Spencer Wells interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=lxgs9rkwkbu&feature=related Spencer Wells – the journey of man- a genetic odyssey.

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbjdgzzrmyq

Tutorials Discussion of “race” and “racism” discussion of sociological autobiography paper

Week 24 March 20 TBA Essays Due at beginning of lecture period!

Week 25 March 27 About Media /Course Summary and Review

Lecture The communication of popular culture Mass media and the consumption of culture Social Media and social networking Overview of the year Discussion of end of term exam

Readings Anderson, chapters 18 and 19

Tutorials March Discussion of mass media and social media discussion of sociological autobiography paper

Week 26 April 3 End of Term Exam

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