Conflict and Change in Society, Spring 2011
Instructor: Ted Goertzel tedgoertzel@gmail.com
| This is a "hybrid internet" class which will
meet on campus three times, on January 17, February 28 and
April 24. We are scheduled to meet in Penn 401 which
is on the fourth floor above the library. You enter
from the side of the building facing the law school.
If you have a laptop computer, bring it with you on
January 17 if you want help in accessing the virtual
classroom. The other classes will be held online in
our Virtual
Classroom which can be accessed by clicking here.
All classes meet on Tuesday at 7:30. If you can't
make it on a particular week, you may view it on recording
and submit a 250 word reaction paper within one week of
the class date.
Click here for the links to the recordings.
Late reaction papers will not normally be accepted, except
for students who enroll late and need to make up the first
class. Enrolling late does not exempt you from
viewing the first class on recording. There are no
excused absences in this class since all classes are
available on recording. |
Contacting the instructor: Please email me directly at tedgoertzel@gmail.com rather than using the email facility in SAKAI. You can also use my Rutgers email address, goertzel@camden.rutgers.edu, which is forwarded to gmail.
This course begins with an overview of the concepts of conflict and social change as used in sociology. It then explores recent changes and trends in contemporary American society; discusses concepts, theories, and models of change with reference to social movements, revolutions, innovation, and the role of change agents as producers of social change; and concludes with a discussion of world-scale trends and change processes in the modern world, with reference to development, globalization, environmental issues, and prospects for the future. Special emphasis will be given to the role of technology, especially computerization, in generating social change and to analysis of possible, probable, preventable and preferable future developments.
Weekly assignments will be posted in the SAKAI course management system. To find them, open our SAKAI home page and click on the Weekly Assignments and Materials link on the left margin, then click on the folder for each week. An assignment page will be posted each Wednesday at the latest. We will have one required book, Exploring Social Change: America and the World by Charles L. Harper and Kevin T. Leight (fifth or sixth edition ok). Other reading materials will be available online. Links to these will be posted in the weekly SAKAI Assignments and Materials folder. Occasional writing assignments will also be announced on the weekly assignment page and instructions for submitting them will be posted. No late writing assignments will be accepted.
| Unfortunately, the textbook costs
over $107.20 new in the bookstore. It is $83.39 on
Amazon.com. You can, however, rent it ffrom the
bookstore for $52.55. Used copies are also
available online. The least expensive option would
be to buy a copy
of the Fifth Edition used. Some copies are
available inexpensively on amazon.com, bn.com, and
probably others. The supply may be limited,
however. I have examined the fifth edition and it
is almost identical to the sixth. It
is also possible to rent a digital edition from the
publisher for $42.99. |
There will be a weekly SAKAI quiz which must be taken each week. There will be no makeups on quizzes, but there will be two versions of each quiz, an "early bird" that will close at 11pm on Sunday and a "last chance" that will close Mondays at 11 p.m. The two will be similar, but not all items will necessarily be the same. Your highest score will count as your grade on each quiz. If you miss the "early bird" your score on the "last chance" will count. After you take the early bird you will be able to review your answers and see which items you got wrong. If you have technical problems taking either of the quizzes, let me know by email before the quiz closes. If a problem comes up after the quiz closes, it will be too late. All problems with quizzes must be resolved within one day of the closing of the quiz. A broken computer is not an excuse for not taking a quiz, you should use the computer laboratory at Rutgers or at your local public library.
Grading will be based on quizzes, writing assignments and attendance and participation.