Lectures: M&W,
5th period (1:10-2:00), 126 Sociology-Psychology Bldg.
Discussion
periods: Friday, 3rd
& 5th periods
Instructional
Staff:
| Prof. E.A. Tiryakian, 339 Soc-Psych Bldg., Durkhm@soc.duke.edu | Previous Midterm Test |
| Mr. Benjamin Dalton, 014 Language Bldg., Bdalton@soc.duke.edu | Previous Final Exam Test |
| Ms. Maureen McClarnon, 014 Lang. Bldg., Maureen@soc.duke.edu |
Objectives:
This course
intends to provide students with greater awareness of challenges confronting
American society and the emergent global social (dis)order in the 21st
Century by relating the present to the development of social thought. We will consider major features of the
“sociological imagination” and its embededness in various national settings. To
better situate our present situation, we will examine in lectures , readings,
and discussions major theoretical currents, paradigms and controversies that
have impacted sociology from both within and outside the discipline. Some of
the externals have been technological and structural changes; others have been
social philosophies, ideologies, and even social movements that have political
consequences, while yet others are developments in other sciences that have
been powerful stimuli. Together, all these comprise what is alluded to as
“modernity”, which is not a static but a dynamic condition.
In the layout of
“modernity”, we will recognize several great “divides” which provide
ruptures or crises, in the United States as well as in Europe and other parts
of the world. Among these, are (1) the mid-18th Century set of
revolutions that launched the modern social order which lasted until very
recently, (2) the unfolding of the urban-industrial social order with its
internal social conflicts and
adjustments, (3) the eclipse of European dominance as a consequence of
World War I and the rise of American sociology to dominance, (4) the crises
against authority that climaxed in the West in 1968 and in the East in 1989,
and (5) lastly, our own ambiguous setting
as to what paradigms, whether that of “globalization” or
“post-modernism” or some other best describe and anticipate the next phase of modernity.
Because of time limitation, the course will devote
most of its coverage to the Western setting, in terms of both “mainstream” and
“dissident” voices. However, some mention will be made of “other voices” of
either traditional social thought or of social thought generated by reactions
to Western contacts (either contacts of ideas or those stemming from the
imposition of features of the Western social order on indigenous societies. Students wishing to do so may bring in
comparative non-Western materials in the discussion periods and/or in a term
paper
Course
Structure. A mid-term will be held Wednesday, March 1st. Students will be expected to prepare a 10-15
page paper on a topic of their choice
on April 14th; they
should have consulted with their section leader or the course instructor in
advance.
Grading: midterm exam, 20%; paper,
20%; class participation, 20%; final exam 40%.
Recommended
for purchase:
(1)
Lengermann,
P. M. and J. Niebrugge-Brantley, The Women Founders. Sociology
and Social Theory 1830-1930.
(2)
George
Ritzer, Sociological Theory, 5th
ed. (2000).
Readings. Readings other than those assigned in the
two recommended for purchase may be downloaded from the on-line reserve for
this course in Perkins Library.
Bracketed Optional items are
not required readings.
COURSE
SCHEDULE
Part I . Introduction. Social theory and sociological theory: what’s the difference? Structures of theory. How to conceptualize the history of sociological theory. Paradigms and paradigm shifts. The duality of social thought: normative vs. scientific. Visions of “the good society”. Where to begin sociology? The first “invention” of society, ca. 500 B.C. : Plato and Aristotle. The later rupture of modernity: the 18th Century and its triple revolution: the matrix of the “new social order” and its changing image of social change: “what’s new is good, what’s old is bad”. The second “invention” of society: Saint-Simon’s vision of the industrial order, and Comte’s positivism.
Week
of:
| January 10 | (1) | Adam Smith, selection from Wealth of Nations; | |
| (2) | John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics in Perspective (“The New World of Adam Smith”); | ||
| (3) | Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
selection from The Social Contract |
||
| è note: since January 17 is a university holiday, there will be a lecture Friday, January 14, instead of a class discussion; the first discussion meeting will be on January 21. | |||
| January 17 | Ritzer, Sociological Theory (hereafter, ST), chapter 1. | ||
| January 24 | The prophetic mode of theory: | ||
| (1) | Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party | ||
| (2) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 2 (“Karl Marx”) | ||
| January 31 | The (gendered?) Sociological Eye of Visitors: | ||
| (1) | de Tocqueville, selections from On Democracy, Revolution and Society | ||
| (2) | de Tocqueville, selections from Democracy in America, pp. 319-32, 390-401 | ||
| (3) | Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley, The Women Founders, Sociology and Social Theory (hereafter, WFSST), chapters 1 and 2. | ||
| (4) | Harriet Martineau, selection from Society in America |
||
| Part II. The Classic Period of Sociology: Its Academic Institutionalization in France and Germany. The Victorian Era: triumph of the bourgeoisie, triumph of science, triumph of the nation-state. New demands for social knowledge with the rust of modernity: social unrest with “the dangerous classes”. Conflicts of church and state and cleavages of left and right. Capitalism as the juggernaut of modernity: can sociology curb it? The evolutionary paradigm. The reconstruction of society and the quest for the “good society”. | |||
| February 7 | The French republican setting. From prophetic mode of theory (Saint-Simon) to the priestly mode (Durkheim). Anomie vs. solidarity. | ||
| (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 3 (“Emile Durkheim”) | ||
| (2) | Durkheim, selection from Suicide | ||
| (3) | Durkheim, “Individualism and the Intellectuals” | ||
| [optional: Durkheim, Division of Labor;
Professional Ethics & Civic Morals] |
|||
| February 14 | The German imperial setting (I). Modernity as an intersection of rationality and irrationality. The appeal of Nietzsche: nihilism and beyond morality. Enter Weber. | ||
| (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 4 (“Max Weber”) | ||
| (2) | Max Weber, “Science as a Vocation” | ||
| (3) | Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley, WFSST , chapter 6 (“Marianne Weber”) | ||
| [optional: Marianne Weber, Max Weber] |
|||
| February 21 | The German imperial setting (II). Weber and Simmel. | ||
| (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 5 (“Georg Simmel”) | ||
| (2) | Simmel, “Individual Freedom,” (pp. 331-54 in Simmel, The Philosophy of Money) | ||
| Coda. Crises of identity. World War I and the shattering of the paradigm of progress. The decline of European sociology and the decline of democracy. The rise of American sociology: the end of the old frontier and the rise of the new urban frontier). | |||
| February 28 | (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 6, pp. 183-196 | |
| (2) | Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley, WFSST, chapters 3 (Jane Addams), 4 (Charlotte Perkins Gilman), 8 (Beatrice Webb) | ||
| Note: midterm on Wednesday, March 1. All materials in Parts I and II. | |||
| Part III. | The institutionalization of American sociology, 1890-1970. Two great centers, Chicago and Cambridge. The Chicago school(s): pragmatism and empirical research. The Harvard school. Structural-functional analysis as mainstream sociology. New priests, new prophets. | ||
| March 6 | (1) | Ritzer , ST, chapter 10 (“Symbolic Interactionism”). | |
| March 20 | (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 7 (“Structural Functionalism, etc.”) | |
| (2) | Robert K. Merton, “Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge” | ||
| (3) | read either: Talcott Parsons, “Social Classes and Class Conflict” or Parsons, “Health and Disease: A Sociological Perspective” | ||
| Part IV.
The cultural crisis of American society in the 1960s.
New voices in the polis, new voices in the sociological forum. After the cold war, what is left of center?
The return of individualism. Where is modernity headed? |
|||
| March 27 | (1) | Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley, WFSST, chapter 5 (“Foundations of Black Feminist Sociology”) | |
| (2) | Frantz Fanon, selection from Black Skin, White Masks | ||
| (3) | Malcolm X, Speeches at Harvard, pp. 161-75 | ||
| (4) | Gunnar Myrdal, selection from An American Dilemma | ||
| April 3 | (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 13 by Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley (“Contemporary Feminist Theory”) | |
| (2) | Simone de Beauvoir, selection from The Second Sex | ||
| (3) | Jennifer Lehmann, “Durkheim’s Theories of Deviance” | ||
| April 10 | (1) | Ritzer, ST, chapter 8 (“Varieties of Neo-Marxian Theory”); chapter 16 (“Contemporary Theories of Modernity”). |
|
| (2) | Vaclav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless” from Open Letters | ||
| April 17 | (1) | James Coleman, “Social Theory, Social Research and a Theory of Action” | |
| (2) | Robert N. Bellah, et.al., selections from Habits of the Heart | ||
| [optional: Robert Bellah, et.al.,
The Good Society] |
|||
| April 24 | The 21st Century: Reconstructing the social order, reconstructing sociological theory. | ||
| No assignment | |||