SOCIOLOGY

The Make-up Exam for mid-term 2 in Introduction to Sociological Theory will be held today in Wooten 121 at 3:30pm This will be the only chance for a make-up, if you missed the exam.

The make-up exam for Mid-term 2 will be held this Thursday (tomorrow), at 3:30 pm, in Whooten Hall room 1210. The exam will be closed-book and closed-notes.

Students wishing to take the make-up exam for midterm 2 will meet at my office, Chilton 397 in the sociology department, at 3:30pm this Thursday, November 29. The exam will be short-essay format, and will be based on the same review sheet used for the regular midterm 2. This will be the only chance for a make-up.

Cultural Theory We have mentioned culture a few times already. Along with functionalist theory and conflict theory , cultural theory is one of the big theoretical perspectives in sociology. Also, the textbook’s definition of society itself includes the concept of culture. And in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism , Max Weber argued that Calvinists’ culture, and not only technology, economics, or power, contributed to the success of capitalism. When we talked about differences between different countries, students said that different countries have different cultures. But What is Culture? What does the word Culture mean? One definition is that it is different from economic and political processes . This might help, but it’s not a very good definition. Most discussions of Culture start with the idea that people are different from animals because people have culture . Some animals use tools and some teach each other how to

The date of the Soc of the Arts and Pop Culture exam is Friday, November 16 Students have the option of turning in a 4- or 5-page paper in class during the exam, or beforehand, rather than taking the exam. Instructions for the paper are in an earlier blog. GI

“Neo-Weberians” Samuel Huntington, Cultures Count and Lawrence Harrison, “Why Culture Matters” Huntington : author of the “Clash of Civilizations” Culture changes much more slowly than the economy, technology Economic and tech’l modernization can occur without modern, liberal, Western cultural values The contemporary scholars most directly influenced by Weber’s book insist that culture, usually national cultures, i.e. “culture as system,” continues to affect the economic growth of modern nations. To get their point, imagine, if you will, that we are living in the 1950s or early 1960s. Countries across the world are becoming independent, that is they’re rejecting colonialism. Optimism abounded, and serious scholars believed that economic growth would be more or less uniform in most developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Midd