Individual and Society
50:920:357:01
Fall 2007
Professor Cati Coe
405-407 Cooper Street, Room 214
phone: (856) 225-6455
email: ccoe@camden.rutgers.edu
Class hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:00-12:20, CS 110
Office hours: Tuesdays, 3-5pm, 405-407 Cooper Street, Room 214 or by appointment
Syllabus website: http://crab.rutgers.edu/~ccoe/courses/indsoc/syllabus.html
Course Description
This course is one of the required courses for the sociology major. Therefore, there will be an expectation that you will have some familiarity with sociological thinking and concepts (such as through taking Introduction to Sociology previously). This course will examine and explore key sociological theories and concepts about how society shapes the individual and the individual shapes society. Assignments will be geared towards helping you see how those concepts and theories play out in your everyday life, so that you begin to see the world through sociological eyes.
Required Texts
Three books are at the campus bookstore:
The Managed Heart |
Money, Morals, and Manners |
The Hidden Life of Girls |
The books have also been placed on reserve at the library circulation desk and can be accessed there for an hour at a time. The remainder of the readings have also been placed on reserve and can be accessed online.
You are likely to find it necessary to approach the readings in this course somewhat differently than in other sociology courses. These are readings to study and analyze, not simply skim over. Don't be discouraged if you find some readings difficult at first. A second reading will help (and is often necessary). As you read, you will want to be watchful for the main argument, and when you find it, circle or underline it or copy it into your notes. In addition, we will spend a substantial amount of class time analyzing the readings in detail--that is, engaging in textual analysis. It's important therefore to bring whatever text we're working on to class, as well as any questions you may have accumulated. Gradually, like students before you, you will find yourself entering the world of sociological thinking, and things will begin to fall into place. I have faith that as this happens, the field of sociology will allow you to see the world around you in new and interesting ways.
Don't hesitate to bring questions of your own to class or to me during office hours. The key thing is to do the readings before the class for which they are assigned. The Rutgers course catalog states that students are expected to spend a minimum of two hours of out-of-class coursework for each hour of in-class work. To do well in this course, you will have to meet this minimum standard. Please plan accordingly.
You will also do a lot of writing in this course. A sociology major will signal to employers that you are able to interpret and make sense of complex situations and to communicate clearly and powerfully both verbally and in writing. This course aims to make you more proficient in these skills.
Course Schedule
September 4: What is the Individual? What is Society?
Discussion of "individual" and "society." Course overview and requirements.
In-class Reading: Marx, K. (1956). "Social Activity and social mind...." in T. B. Bottomore and M. Rubel (Ed.), Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy, trans. by T. B. Bottomore (pp.76-78). New York: McGraw-Hill Company.
To do by Friday at the latest:
- Get a NetID if you don't already so that you can access library resources online and from home: http://oit.rutgers.edu/services/account/quick.html
- Update your email address if necessary at https://www.acs.rutgers.edu/studentdir. This is important for receiving course emails. Be sure to keep your registered email address current in order to receive important course information.
- Get a Student Photo ID (available from the Impact Booth in the Campus Center) if you don't have one.
- Go to the bookstore to get the books.
- Print out all the readings on reserve so that you have them for the whole semester.
- If you plan to be a sociology major, declare your major at the registrar's office if you have not already done so (this is important for getting departmental news and information).
- Please review Rutgers's policy on academic integrity.
Part I: What is Reality?
September 6: Commonsense and Reality
Berger, P. L. and Luckmann, T. (1980). The Foundation of Knowledge in Everyday Life. In The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Irvington Publishers. pp. 18-43. [on reserve]
September 11: The Construction of Reality through Words
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By, Chapters 1-3 and 5, pp. 3-13, 22-24. [on reserve]
Paper #1 assignment given
September 13: Frames and Reality
Goffman, E. (1997). Frame Analysis. In C. Lemert and A. Branaman (Ed.), The Goffman Reader (pp. 149-166). Malden: Blackwell Publishers. [on reserve]
September 18: Seeing Frames in Play and Make-Believe
Bateson, G. (1987). A Theory of Play and Fantasy. In Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology (pp. 177-193). Northvale: Jason Aronson, Inc. [on reserve]
Class Resources: William Blake's Antaeus, Magritte's "This is not a pipe"
Paper #1 due
September 20: Seeing Frames in Ritual
Myerhoff, B. G. (1977). We Don't Wrap Herring in a Printed Page: Fusions, Fictions, and Continuity in Secular Ritual. In S. F. Moore and B. G. Myerhoff (Ed.) Secular Ritual (pp. 199-223). Assen: Van Gorcum. [on reserve]
Film: "Number Our Days" (1978) by Barbara Myerhoff and Lynne Littman
Paper #2 assignment given
Part II: What is the Self?
September 25: The Self as Constituted by Social Interaction
Mead, G. H. (2004). George Herbert Mead: The Emergent Self." In J. Farganis (Ed.), Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism (pp. 143-163). New York: McGraw Hill. [on reserve]
September 27: Presentation of a Front: Gender
Goffman, E. (1997). Frame Analysis of Gender. In C. Lemert and A. Branaman (Ed.), The Goffman Reader. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 201-227. [on reserve]
Film: "Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink)" (1999) by Alain Berliner
October 2: Presentation of a Front: Gender
No reading
Film: "Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink)" (1999) by Alain Berliner and "Paris is Burning" (1990) by Julie Livingston
Paper #2 due
Paper #3 assignment given
October 4: Presentation of a Front: Safe or Dangerous
Anderson, E. (1990). The Black Male in Public. In Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (pp. 163-189). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [on reserve]
October 9: Face-work: Deference and Demeanor
Goffman, E. (1956). The Nature of Deference and Demeanor. American Anthropologist 58:473-502. [on reserve]
Paper #3 due
Paper #4 assignment given
October 11: Face-work: Labor and the Constitution of Self
Hochschild, A. R. (2003). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapters 1-2 and Appendix A, pp. 1-34 and pp. 211-232.
October 16
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapters 3-5, pp. 35-86.
October 18
No class as Professor Coe will be presenting a paper at the African Studies Association annual meeting, but read Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 6, pp. 89-136 to discuss on October 23rd and work on your paper.
October 23
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapters 7-8, pp. 137-184.
October 25
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 9, pp. 185-207.
Paper #4 due
October 30
Mid-term exam
PART III: Social Class and the Making of the Self
November 1: Habitus
1) Elias, N. (2000). On Blowing One’s Nose. In The Civilizing Process (pp. 121-129). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. [on reserve]
2) Lamont, M. (1994). Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Prologue and Chapter 1, pp. xix- xxix and 1-23.
Paper #5 assignment given
November 6
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 2, pp. 24-61
November 8: Cultural Capital
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 3, pp. 62-87
November 13
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 4, pp. 88-128
November 15
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 5 and most of Chapter 7, pp. 129-149, 174-177, 181-192
Paper #5 due
Part IV: The Role of Social Interactions in the Making of the Self and Social Organization
November 20: The Construction of Social Organization through Social Interactions
Goffman, E. (1981). Footing. In Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 124-159. [on reserve]
November 22 Thanksgiving
November 27
Goodwin, M. H. (2006). The Hidden Life of Girls: Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion. Malden: Blackwell. Introduction, and Chapter 2, pp. 1-72.
Paper #6 assignment given
November 29
Goodwin, The Hidden Life of Girls, Chapter 3, pp. 73-120.
December 4
Goodwin, The Hidden Life of Girls, Chapter 4, pp. 121-155.
December 6
Goodwin, The Hidden Life of Girls, Chapters 5 and 6, pp. 156-209.
December 11
Goodwin, The Hidden Life of Girls, Chapter 7 and Conclusion, pp. 210-255.
Paper #6 due
Friday, December 14th, 2pm
Final Exam
