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Showing posts from September, 2007

Midterm 1 Review Sheet, Introduction to Sociological Theory

Introduction to Sociological Theory Prof. Gabe Ignatow Review Sheet for Mid-term Exam I. (October 10 in class) The 1 st mid-term exam will cover the course readings on the syllabus through (i.e. including) Pierre Bourdieu. You should be able to define and discuss all of the following terms: C. Wright Mills Karl Marx Max Weber Emile Durkheim Thorstein Veblen Charles Darwin Auguste Comte Thomas Malthus Herbert Spencer Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore Ferdinand Toennies Georg Simmel Thorstein Veblen Pierre Bourdieu What is sociological theory? What is a theory? “false consciousness” Suicide and social integration Functionalism Conflict theory Inequality Cultural Theory Values Rituals Socialization Organic analogy Theological stage Metaphysical stage Positivist stage Natural selection “survival of the fittest” “Laws of Population Growth” Meritocracy Gemeinschaft (“Community”) Ges

Exam 1 Review Sheet, Sociology of the Arts and Popular Culture

Sociology of the Arts and Popular Culture Prof. Gabe Ignatow Review Sheet for Mid-term Exam I. (October 10 in class) The 1 st mid-term exam will cover the following readings: William Sewell jr., The Concept(s) of Culture (handout) Philip Smith, Introduction: What is Culture? What is Cultural Theory? (Smith) Lynn Spillman, Introduction: Culture and Cultural Sociology (Spillman) Philip Smith, 37-57 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (Spillman) Habermas, Jurgen “On Systematically Distorted Communication” Philip Smith, 13-18 Max Weber, “The Social Psychology of the World Religions” (handout) Max Weber, “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism” (handout) Bryan Turner, Islam, Capitalism and the Weber Theses You should be able to define and discuss all of the following terms: Karl Marx George Lukacs Antonio Gramsci Horkheimer a

Jurgen Habermas "The Uncoupling of System and Lifeworld"

The Uncoupling of System and Lifeworld Jiirgen Habermas The provisional concept of society proposed here is radically different in one respectfromthe Parsonianconcept:thematureParsons rein terpretedthestruc¬tural components of the lifcworld -culture, society, perso nality -as action systems constituting environments for one another. Without much ado, he subsumed the concept of the lifeworld gained from an action-theoretical perspective under systems -theoretical concepts. As we shall see below, the structuralcomponentsofthe lifeworldbecomesubsystems of ageneralsystem of action, to 'which the physical substratum of the lifeworld is reckoned along with the "behavior system." The p roposal That I am advancing here, by contrast, attempts to take into account the methodological differences between the internalist and the externalist viewpoints connected with the two conceptual strategies . From the participant p erspective of members of a Iifeworld it looks as if sociologywith

"The Concept(s) of Culture" article is pasted here

*****The formatting on this article is not great; please email me if you want the PDF file: ignatow@pacs.unt.edu****** The Concept(s) of Culture WILLIAM H. SEWELL, JR. The aim of this chapter is to reflect upon the concept-or more properly the concepts-of culture in contemporary academic discourse. Trying to clarify what we mean by culture seems both imperative and impossible at a moment like the present, when the study of culture is burgeoning in virtually all fields of the human sciences. Although I glance at the varying uses of "culture" in a number of disciplines, my reflection is based above all on the extensive debates that have occurred in anthropology over the past two decades-debatesin which some have questioned the very utility of the concept.' I feel strongly that it remains as useful, indeed essential, as ever. But given the cacophony of contemporary discourse about culture, I also believe that the concept needs some reworking and clarification.s,