• Foundation to contemporary Sociological Theory

• Transition Thinkers (Simmel, Mead, Dubois)

• Functionalists (Parsons, Merton, Davis & Moore)

• Conflict theorists (Dahrendorf, Mills, Z and Domhoff) and then Marcuse and Habermas  -- the Critical School - neo Marxists

• Microsociologists & Phenomenology (Schutz, Berger, Mead, Blumer, Homans (great site), Coleman, Blau, Blumer, Garfinkel, Zimmerman and West, Hochschild)

• Intersectionalists-"isms" (Collins, Smith - where DuBois left off)

• Postmodernism  (Foucault Lyotard) all narrative - all the time

• Sociology for the future: 

  • identity breakdown - Foucault, Lyotard, Giddens

  • identity construction - Habermas

  • what should Sociology do now?  "fix", build, experiment, philosophically guide people, build the "self" as a work of art?  (Foucault p. 19).

1975 Ritzer:  Soc'y is a "multi-paradigm science" -
 is this the truth or cop-out?

Foundation &  Transition
origins of Contemporary Sociology

Marx, Durkheim, Weber & social change

Transition sociologists:

Simmel - Size matters  number   conflict    the stranger     metropole - money
Mead - reflexive self   me and I    the generalized other interactivity (social psychology)

Cooley  looking glass self
Dubois - race, aggregates, the color line      two-ness      the veil

Functionalists - Functional  theorists detailed notes on "stasis perspective"  
Davis & Moore
Parsons  
Merton

 

EXERCISE -  FIND latent functions.  How do you find them?  guess?  Can you "test" that a latent function really comes from a particular cause?         e.g., CLICK TO a latent (positive) function of mortgage crisis.

Racial SUB-CULTURES:  the question is:  what question do we ask: are WE IN THE same world VS. DO WE want to be IN THE same world Role Models -a Merton's offering:  Who is/was role model for African American politician? Who is/was the role model for the woman politician?   YouTube:GloriaSteinem on women-as-managers are mother

Conflict theorists Functionalists couldn't handle Change

• Ralph Dahrendorf

• C. Wright MILLS:  The Power Elite
  intersections
  meaningful questions
  notebooks
  Sociological Imagination

• Domhoff and Zweigenhaft p. 223-237 most significant facts or themes

  • family,

  • school,

  • impression management,

  • tokenism & its effects:

Microsociology:

READ  ALL MONDAY INTRO 331-333
SKIP Blumer 334-341
READ A GROUP Goffman 341-350
READ B GROUP Hochschild 350-360
READ ALL INTRO Feminist 363-365
SKIP Smith 366-374
READ C GROUP Collins 375-383

MicroSociology Varieties: 

1. exchange theory:  Homans (equilbrium), Coleman (capital), Blau (power)

2. phenomenology  Schutz  phenomenology notes- epoche

3. SI symbolic interactionism: Blumer people always intrepreting, making it up; breaching experiments - Shared understandings:  Garfinkel

4. dramaturgy:  symbols of the situation Goffman

5. Micro-Marxism:  managed (read:  oppressed) heart Hochschild

6. Ists SI and gender - "doing gender":  Zimmerman and West

7. po-mo:  any narrative

Micro sociologists of the exchange variety

Homans (equilibrium)
Blau (winner loser)
Coleman (capital)

ð The “coleman” part of it is how people get to be the “types” that they are – acquire their social capital.

The “blau” part of it is what consequences ö  the face-to-face interview is to get the positions:  who wins, who loses, and what structures of power are thereby formed

The “homans” part of it is that each of us óas a “type” seeks equilibrium , so we are balancing our way to continue to be and develop who we are, what we are, given our social capital. 

See how they all 3 "go together," covering different aspects of the phenomenon.   so, if you wish to discuss human behavior as exchange, this distinction should lead the way.

SKIM INTRO 281-283
SKIP Homans 243-252 (operant conditioning & Exchange)
SKIP Blau 253-266 (emergent & established social groups)
READ Coleman 266-78 read parts - (human capital)
SKIP Schutz:  p 283- 300 (phenomenology)
SKIP Berger: 300-310 (the sacred canopy)
READ 1/2 read Garfinkel  312-320 (routine - everyday)
READ  1/2 read West & Zimmerman 321-329 (doing gender)
          bring notes on Wednesday:  3 best points + overall sum

not required, but extra on Rational Choice

• Berger: we all live under "sacred canopies" (very Durkheimian)

• Garfinkel:shared understandings: meaning is contextual  1- shared agreements, 2- commonplace remarks, 3- background expectations.
  Breaching was to make us see, not to "prove"
  a slight change in shared understandings can exacerbate trivial situations -- yes, so much so that we see the question arise:  does a life of routine and monotony beneficial to us?
  Schutz: "attitudes of everyday life" "the world known in common and taken for granted."
  SUM:  We share a lot that is unworded; others (outsiders) do not share it; we do not know how much we really share, since it is assumed

• West and Zimmerman:
  "Doing gender" means creating differences and making the essentialness of gender remain (always a gender, though many roles)
  Gender is related to power, so by "doing" gender, we engage in "micropolitics"
  NOTE:  While we all play a variety of roles, as Erving Goffman told us with his dramaturgical perspective, there is ONE aspect of us that we carry to every role and that is our GENDER
  Skit:  can you come up with a skit where men act like women and women act like men, so we can see this?

• Blumer: SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM.  Mead is talking about self being reflexive.
  this is IT.  All must know.  The reflexivity is not just "ego" as the psychologists would talk about it.  Reflexivity is exactly what sociologists must latch onto as their province.
  Social life is "the fitting together of individual lines of action" - 336
  Bloom:  Blumer:  Blooms into strong defence of S.I.

• Goffman:  DRAMATURGICAL PERSPECTIVE.   the self is a repertoire of acts.  We have many, not one.  So the self is a result of a situation.  the situation is best described by dramaturgical language:  actor, roles, stages, lines, props, rehearsals, performances.  the self will change in another social situation, so the self is not a constant.  “impression management”  creates  “types” of people.   "Impression Management" - read it in the article by Domhoff and "Z"  - it's a most important aspect of class and the power elite!   (Axelrod?  The privileged seat of white ... of man ...)

• Hochschild:  EMOTIONAL LABOR (Micro-Marxist) we are not only paid for our labor to produce goods and services, and with all that Marx implied about that, some of us are paid to have a particular emotional "front"; hence, there is this matter called emotional labor.
  Study women  - paid to please.  Dependent women, in particular, "paid" or "supported" to seem happy.  Air line.  1974 - flying still somewhat "elite" - not a bus.
  Today, services:  paid to seem happy?  anybody believe it?  paid to say "My job is to bring you excellent service - did I do that today?" 

Intersectionalists:  all "ists"

Feminists (but also those who study race and age)
- hey, you missed women               VARIETY 1
- all "ists":  be fair, be equal           VARIETY 2
- situational Marxism                     VARIETY 3 - Hochschild example
- All are equal                             VARIETY 4 - conservative-women make different choices
- Each is different                       VARIETY 5 - women are special
- Structure is micro-politicized      VARIETY 6 - "doing" gender

READ ALL INTRO Critical Theory 389-392
SKIP Marcuse 393-405
READ 1/2 Habermas 405- 412
READ ALL PoMo Intro 415-416
SKIP Foucault 416-426
READ 1/2 Lyotard 426-436

One student wrote about the movie:  "We sometimes don't realize how similar we are and how different we think we are."

Quiz 1

FINAL  FINAL

Final Scantron Mon Aug 25 7:30 : covers fundamentals throughout term.  General questions.  Know the thinkers' names; understand their basic concepts and how they compare and contrast

Final paper Wed Aug 20:   2 pieces of paper.  Final Paper: Keep MORALITY and "shoulds" out - this is Sociology.  How do social relations work or function? If the thinkers had their own shoulds, however, you can report them.

OPTION ONE

read every quote on Home Page until you find one that "gets you".  Sociologically speaking, why & how does it move you? What would 2-3 of our theorists add to contextualize your ponderings?

Consider above question Mead, Simmel, Dubois, Merton, Davis / Moore, Parsons, Mills, Dahrendorf, Marcuse, Lyotard, Z and Domhoff, Blau, Coleman, Homans, Goffman, Garfinkel, Hochschild, West and Zimmerman, Collins, Smith, Critical theorists, Post Modernists.  Did I forget anyone?  Pick 3, focusing on 2 of those 3.

OPTION TWO

take two sets of terms or distinctions from two thinkers and combine them to shed light on a particular "unit of analysis"

THINKERS

Marx

Durkheim

Weber

immigration

politics

economy 

happening

TOPICS

POWER

RELIGION

GENDER

WHO AM I