SOCIOLOGY

The readings you (undergrads) need to know: William Sewell jr., The Concept(s) of Culture (email) Philip Smith, Introduction: What is Culture ? What is Cultural Theory? (Smith I) Lynn Spillman, Introduction: Culture and Cultural Sociology (Spillman) Richard Harvey Brown, Textuality and the Postmodern Turn in Sociological Theory (Smith II) Philip Smith, 37-57 (Smith I) Raymond Williams, Base and Superstructure (Spillman) Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" (Spillman) Habermas, Jurgen, "On Systematically Distorted Communication" Philip Smith, 13-18 (Smith) Max Weber, "The Social Psychology of the World Religions" (email) Max Weber, "The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism" (email) Bryan Turner, Islam, Capitalism and the Weber Theses (email) Samuel Huntington, Cultures Count and Lawrence Harrison, Why Culture Matters Ruth Benedict, "The Diversity of Cultures" (Spill...

http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13938917

If you wrote a final paper for SOC 4000 or 4260, you can pick it up in my mailbox in the sociology department, 3rd floor of Chilton Hall.

For the students who asked in class about my personal research interests and favorite theorists, I would say that while I think we can learn from all of the theorists we read in this class, the sociologists who have most influenced my own thinking are Emile Durkheim , Marcel Mauss , and Pierre Bourdieu . Yes, my favorites are all cheese-eating surrender monkeys, I know. Also, in the area of "theory" (as opposed to my other sociological interests), I have been writing about the implications of contemporary cognitive science and psychology research on sociological theory (specifically, cultural theory and the sociology of morality), and vice-versa. You can find more about all of this on my web site if you are interested. GI