William Sewell, Jr., "The Concepts(s) of Culture"

Dear Pop Culture students,
Here is the url for the William Sewell, Jr. article.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhcz773q_12qchs8z&hl=en


I can email you a pdf version with better formatting if you want.

GI

Sociology of the Arts and Popular Culture Syllabus, Aug. 27

August 27, 2007

Sociology 4260.004

Sociology of the Arts and Popular Culture

Gabe Ignatow Department of Sociology University of North Texas gabe@pacs.unt.edu www.ignatow.blogspot.com Office: Chilton 397A

Fall Semester 2007 M/W/F 11am to 1150am Room: Business 356 Office hours MWF 2:00-2:45pm

What is culture? How do cultures shape individuals, nations, and economies? And what kinds of social processes influence cultural production and consumption (art, music, literature, movies, television)? This course looks at questions of culture through a sociological lense, and at society through a cultural lense. Most of the readings will be from cultural sociology and the sociology of culture, but we will also discuss anthropology, literary criticism, philosophy, and cultural history.

The course is fairly theoretical as sociology courses go, and requires serious reading and discussion. It is particularly suitable for students interested in the media, arts, literature, religion, social theory, and cultural differences.

Readings (available in UNT bookstore, Voertmann’s, also try books.google.com for excerpts)

Lynn Spillman, Cultural Sociology (Spillman)

Philip Smith, Cultural Theory (Smith)

Packets to be handed out in class

Assignments

Two mid-term exams, 25% each

Final exam 40% (Friday, December 14, 10:30am - 12:30pm) (in special cases a student may substitute an 8-page final paper)

Attendance and participation, 10%

Attendance Policy

Attendance is mandatory, and active participation in class discussion is encouraged. Attendance will not be taken, but absence will be noted. I will give 6 or 7 pop quizzes during the semester, worth two points each. There will be no make-up pop quizzes, but if you ace all of them, you can be awarded as many as 4 extra-credit points.

Syllabus

Week 1, Introduction

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)

Weeks 2-3, Marx on Religion & Critical Theory

Philip Smith, 37-57 (Smith)

Max Horkheimer and Theodore W. Adorno, "Society"

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (Spillman)

Habermas, Jurgen “On Systematically Distorted Communication”

1^st Mid-term Exam, Wednesday, October 10

Weeks 4-6, Max Weber and Religious Values

Philip Smith, 13-18 (Smith)

Max Weber, “The Social Psychology of the World Religions” (handout)

Max Weber, “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism” (handout)

Weber on Islam and Capitalism

Bryan Turner, Islam, Capitalism and the Weber Theses (handout)

Neo-Weberian Sociology

Samuel Huntington, Cultures Count and Lawrence Harrison, Why Culture Matters (handout)

Cultural Anthropology

Ruth Benedict, “The Diversity of Cultures” (Spillman)

Clifford Geertz, Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture (Spillman)

Richard Shweder, Moral Maps, "First World" Conceits, and the New Evangelists (handout)

Week 7-9, Durkheim’s “Religious Sociology”

Philip Smith, 9-13, 74-96 (Smith)

Emile Durkheim, from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

Lynn Hunt, The Sacred and the French Revolution (handout)

Jeffrey Alexander and Philip Smith, The Discourse of American Civil Society (handout)

Jeffrey Alexander, The Sacred and Profane Information Machine (handout)

Carlo Tognato, In the Name of Money: Central Banking as a Secular Religion (handout)

2^nd Mid-term Exam, Wednesday November 14

Week 10, Cultural Boundaries and Repertoires

Michele Lamont, Symbolic Boundaries and Status (Spillman)

Bethany Bryson, Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes (Spillman)

Weeks 11-12, The Sociology of Culture and Cultural Production

Philip Smith, 167-182 (Smith)

Richard Peterson, Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music (Spillman)

Paul DiMaggio, Market Structure, the Creative Process, and Popular Culture (Spillman)

Wendy Griswold, American Character and the American Novel (Spillman)

Pierre Bourdieu, Cultural Power (Spillman)

Richard Peterson and Roger Kern, "Changing Highbrow Tastes: From Snob to Omnivore" (handout)

Week 13, Culture and Cognition

Karen Cerulo, Deciphering Violence (Spillman)

Eviatar Zerubavel, The Fine Line (Spillman)

Weeks 14-15, Globalization and Postmodernism

John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture (handout)

Philip Smith 214-247 (Smith)

Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Spillman)

Final Exam, Friday, December 14, 10:30am - 12:30pm

*Students with disabilities are invited to meet during office hours, or to email, to discuss any special needs for this class.

*As for all classes at UNT, academic dishonesty, plagiarism, collusion and falsification of academic records or the attempt to do these things constitute academic dishonesty, as per the UNT Code of Student Conduct and Discipline. All exams for this course are closed-book and closed-notes unless otherwise specified by the instructor.

Introduction to Sociological Theory Syllabus, Aug. 27

August 27, 2007

SOC 4000.003

Introduction to Sociological Theory

Assistant Professor Gabe Ignatow ,Chilton 397A	Meeting Time: M/W/F 1:00pm to 1:50 Wooton Hall 122
e-mail: gabe@pacs.unt.edu, gignatow@gmail.com web page: www.ignatow.blogspot.com	office phone: 940 565 3616 office hours: MWF 2-2:45pm

Course Overview:

This course provides an introduction to classical, modern, and postmodern sociological theory.

Requirements:

midterm exam, 35% (October 17 in class)

final exam, 35% (Wednesday, Dec. 12, 10:30-12:30 pm)

2 quizzes, 10% each

attendance and participation, 10%

Attendance Policy:

Attendance is mandatory, and active participation in class discussion is encouraged. Attendance will not be taken, but absence will be noted. I will give 6 or 7 pop quizzes during the semester, worth two points each. There will be no make-up pop quizzes, but if you ace all of them, you can be awarded as many as 4 extra-credit points.

Course Readings:

Sociological Theory in the Classical Era, Laura Desfor Edles and Scott Appelrouth (“Reader”)

Syllabus:

1) Introduction

Reader, all of Chapter 1

What is sociological theory?

C. W. Mills

Marx on false consciousness

pp. 138-141

Weber on Verstehen

Social theory and social change

Theory in action: Durkheim’s Suicide

pp. 79-97

pp. 105-121

2) Functionalism and Social Darwinism

p. 83 (Auguste Comte), p. 84 (Spencer)

Saint-Simone

Auguste Comte

Thomas Malthus

Herbert Spencer

Davis and Moore on social stratification

3) Capitalism and Urbanization

The Transition to Modernity

Toennies on Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

all of chapter 6

Simmel on the city

pp. 97-105

Durkheim and mechanical and organic solidarity

Conflict Theory

pp. 17-78

Marx on the proletariat, bourgeosie, and capitalists

pp. 135-146, 161-191

Weber on Class, Stande

Thorstein Veblen on the leisure class (p. 25)

Pierre Bourdieu on forms of capital

Cultural Theory

Marx on religion and false consciousness

pp. 147-160

Weber on Calvinism and capitalism

pp. 121-134

Durkheim on aboriginal religion and modernity

4) Major American Theorists

W.E.B. DuBois (all of ch. 7)

C. Wright Mills

Robert Merton

Talcott Parsons

George Herbert Mead (all of ch. 8)

5) Social Constructionism

Berger and Luckmann

6) Feminist Theory

(all of chapter 5)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

7) Postmodern Social Theory

Charles Lemert, Steven Seidman

*Students with disabilities are invited to meet during office hours, or to email, to discuss any special needs for this class.

*As for all classes at UNT, academic dishonesty, plagiarism, collusion and falsification of academic records or the attempt to do these things constitute academic dishonesty, as per the UNT Code of Student Conduct and Discipline. All exams for this course are closed-book and closed-notes unless otherwise specified by the instructor.