Daily Schedule and Announcements Page

Optional Marx and MicroCase Rewrites due Monday, October 13th.
Click here for Marx and MicroCase optional rewrite instructions.

Please note the schedule changes for the section on Durkheim, including the fact that there WILL be a class on Friday, October 17th (the short paper has reverted back to an "exercise."

Fri. Sept. 5 : The Discovery of Society: Early Visions of Sociology
Read Collins and Makowsky (C&M), Introduction and Chapter 1.

Complete all bulleted tasks to the right by Monday.

for Part One readings. Please use it and come prepared to respond to the questions for this and the next two classes.

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Complete the following tasks before next Monday's class at the latest:
Access the online syllabus. Read it carefully and explore its links. Remember that your print copy may soon be outdated.
Sign into the Sakai course website and post a response to my question on Online Class Discussion forum no later than Sunday night. Read your classmates' responses for class discussion on Monday.
Update your email address if necessary at https://www.acs.rutgers.edu:8892/studentdir (this is important for receiving course and departmental emails). Be sure to keep your registered email address current in order to receive important course and departmental information.
Get a Student Photo ID (available from the Impact Booth in the Campus Center) right away if you don't have one.
Familiarize yourself with the department website, including the resources at its web-enhanced curriculum. Pay special attention to the plagiarism and citation webpages.
Declare your sociology major at the registrar's office if you have not already done so (this is important for getting departmental news and information)

The Dead Sociologists Index has useful supplementary material on Auguste Comte. Having read about Comte's obsession with Clotilde, you may want to check out Project Clotilde, which includes a portrait of her.

Mon. Sept. 8: An Introduction to Theory
Read Salzman, Chapter 1
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

(click on appropriate link to access text)
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Please prepare by using the
for Marx readings.

Recommended: Marx & Engels Internet Archive
Be sure to use the reading guide on the left to prepare for class discussion and to master the material.

Prepare for the Marx and MicroCase assignment. MicroCase CP can be accessed in three ways: 1) It can be accessed in the Statistics Folder in all the student computer labs or directly on the desktop in the Sociology department lab; 2) The program and five data sets may be downloaded separately from the Sakai site and installed on your home computer (available soon). 3) You may borrow a program disk and install the full program and all its data sets (about 600 megabytes worth) on your computer. You will need to type in the exact license information when prompted. (Note: Anyone planning to take my Social Stratification course in the spring may want to take this third option, since we will use the program in that course as well.)
For Students who have not used MicroCase before: I recommend that you watch the two-part Online Tutorial for Social Stratification and Sociological Theory MicroCase Exercises on the department's MicroCase Resources webpage. I will also try to arrange a group hands-on tutorial during a free period next week.

Wed. Sept. 17: Marx and Structural Political Economy
Read: Marx, "Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859)" (online) and
Lewis Coser, A Summary of Ideas:"The Sociology of Knowledge" at Dead Sociologists Index (online) and
Marx on the "opium of the people" (useful Wikipedia online discussion for Marx and MicroCase question)
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Mon. Sept. 22: Marx and Anthropology
Read: Salzman, Ch. 4: Determining Factors: Cultural Materialism and Political Economy, pp. 49-66, and "Contra Materialism," pp. 130-131 and

PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Wed. Sept. 24: Background to de Tocqueville: Marx, the Enlightenment, and the Anti-Modernists
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout for today and Friday
Marx and MicroCase Exercise due at the beginning of class.

Fri. Sept. 26: Alexis de Tocqueville on Democratic Barbarism and Liberty
Read C&M Ch. 3 on Alexis de Tocqueville

Explore: Democracy in America website
Strongly Recommended for Sakai Online Class Discussion: Robert Putnam, "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital." An interesting "deTocquevillian" analysis of contemporary American society.

Nietzsche, Repression and the Irrational
Read: C&M, Ch. 4 and "The Madman" (online)
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Please prepare for this class and the next two by using this

Study guide for first exam available

Recommended: one hour BBC film on Nietzsche on YouTube:

For a useful primer on Darwin, watch Evolution Primer#2: Who Was Charles Darwin? on YouTube

Marx and MicroCase Exercise rewrite option discussed. Click here for Marx and MicroCase optional rewrite instructions.

Recommended: The Emile Durkheim Archive. Note: Depending on your browswer and printer, you may find that the link on the left to the Crime readings may not print out properly. What I did was to highlight and copy the text, paste it into a Word document, and print it out from there.

Fri. Oct. 10: Sociology as the Study of Social Facts

Wed. Oct. 15: Religion and Society
Read:Excerpts from Durkheim, Coser and Thompson, "Religion" (online)
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Mon. Oct. 20: Film: Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed (excerpts)

Durkheim and MicroCase Exercise due at the beginning of class.

Explore: Vershehen: Max Weber's HomePage

For a cute little video on Weber's basic methodological ideas, check out Sociology: Max Weber on YouTube
Please use the reading guide to prepare for class discussion in this section on Weber. Bring the reading material to class each day.

 Mon. Nov. 3: In Weber's Footsteps: Cultural Meaning and Ethos
Read: Salzman, Ch. 5, Coherence in Culture: Dominant Patterns and Underlying Structures, pp. 67-86, and "Contra Culture Patterns," pp. 131-132 and
David Berreby, "Unabsolute Truths: Clifford Geertz," [Sakai Resources]
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Study Guide and Essay Questions for Exam 2 available

Mon. Nov. 17: The Chicago School and the Theory-Research Divide
Read: C&M Chapter 10: The Discovery of the Ordinary World: Thomas, Park, and the Chicago School

Wed. Nov. 19 : W.E.B. DuBois
Read: C&M Ch. 11: The Emergence of African-American Sociology: DuBois..." pp. 175-190.
Film Excerpt from W.E.B.DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices
No PowerPoint today

Mon. Nov. 24: The Sociological Imagination
Read C&M, Ch. 13 (Michels, Mannheim, Mills), pp. 206-228 and
Excerpts from Mills, The Sociological Imagination
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout

Fri. Dec. 5: Sociological Theory & Science
Read: Stephen Cole, "Why Sociology Doesn't Make Progress Like the Natural Sciences." Sociological Forum 8,1 (1994) part one and part two [Sakai Resources]
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF Handout