Goals for you in this course. Mastering basic ideas of several key social thinkers of the current and past century will be your major task. Through this you will learn more about sociology and will also have the opportunity to improve a number of intellectual skills. Grappling with understanding concepts and theories and comparing their worth will help you develop critical thinking skills. Presenting your ideas, listening and responding to your colleagues’ ideas, and writing short papers and essay quizzes will all help you communicate more effectively. Through using theories and concepts to make sense of specific social issues, you will scrutinize your society through more discerning eyes.

Specific tasks on which you will work.

>Every week you will read a short assignment from the text and/or handout and the definitions

of several words from the Dictionary.

>In class you will discuss ideas your have read, ask questions about what you have not

understood, and work with colleagues to apply your ideas to specific situations. Opinions are

invited.

>Written quizzes every other week will give you the opportunity to assess your

understanding of thetheories and concepts.

>A short written assignment every other week will give you the opportunity to apply and

evaluate the ideas.

The books.

>Allan G. Johnson’s book, The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology,2^nd edition. This was published by Blackwell Publishers in Malden, Massachusetts in 2000.

>Berch Berberoglu’s text, An Introduction to Classical and Contemporary Social Theory: A

Critical Perspective, 2^nd edition, published in 1998 by General Hall, Inc., in Dix Hills, New

York.

Earning the Grade.

>Each week you may earn as many as 50 points as follows:

30 @ 5 = 150 points for written work, brought to class, demonstrating reflection and

comprehension,

5 @ 25 = 125 points for informed and thoughtful participation in discussion, and

30 @ 6 = 150points for demonstrating mastery on short written quizzes.

>One of six quizzes will be excluded from consideration. This may be a missed quiz or the

worst among six if all six are taken. One of six papers will be similarly dropped, missed or

worst paper.

>Two class meetings may be missed for whatever reason without loss of points.

>On the final exam, which is comprehensive, a total of 75 points may be earned.

>The grading system is:

A is 90-100%, B 80-89, C 70-79, D 60-70, and F is below 60%

Cautionary notes.

>Being in class and being prepared are necessary. There is no makeup for participation.

Written work handed in late will receive reduced credit.

>Cheating, in the form of copying another’s work or plagiarism, will result in failing the course

and may further result in a recommendation of dismissal from the University.

SO303 Contemporary Sociological Theory

Schedule for 2004

Week .	Text reading to be completed by the first meeting of the week. Dictionary words will be assigned in class. Additional material will be handed out most weeks.	Your notes and record
1
2	Ch. 10 Parsons, Merton and Functionalist Theory
3	Mills and the Sociological Imagination-handout
4	Ch.12 Mills on the Power Elite
5	Ch. 13 Domhoff on the Power Structure and the Governing Class
6	Mannheim and the sociology of knowledge-handou
7	Ch. 7. Gramsci, p 60-4 Ch.14 Althusser, p 108-9
8	Ch.17. Wilson and Willie on Race, Class, and Poverty
9	Handout: Dorothy Smith and standpoint theory
10	Handout: the Frankfurt School – critical theory
11	Ch. 18 Wallerstein and World Systems Theory
12	TBA
13	TBA
14	Tuesday: share best paper Thursday: review for final
finals week	Final Exam

Quiz dates: Paper due dates:

Q1 - 1/23 P1 - 1/27

Q2 - 2/12 P2 - 2/17

Q3 - 2/26 P3 - 3/9

Q4 - 3/18 P4 - 3/23

Q5 - 4/1 P5 - 4/6

Q6 - 4/15 P6 - 4/20