Individual and Society
50:920:357:01
Spring 2009
Professor Cati Coe
405-407 Cooper Street, Room 214
phone: (856) 225-6455
email: ccoe@camden.rutgers.edu
Class hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9:05-10:00, Armitage 221
Office hours: Mondays, 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 |
He-Said-She-Said |
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
January 21 What is the Individual? What is Society?
Discussion of "individual" and "society." Course overview and requirements.
Video for discussion: "Politeness at CWU"
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.
- 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?
January 23 : 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 (pp. 18-43). New York: Irvington Publishers. [on reserve]
January 26: The Construction of Reality through Words
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By ( pp. 3-13, 22-24). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [on reserve]
Paper #1 assignment given
January 28 : 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]
January 30 : 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"
February 2 : 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]
Paper #1 due
February 4: Seeing Frames in Ritual
Re-read Myerhoff's "We Don't Wrap Herring in a Printed Page"
Film: "Number Our Days" (1978) by Barbara Myerhoff and Lynne Littman (30 minutes)
Paper #2 assignment given
Part II: What is the Self?
February 6: 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]
February 9 : 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
February 11: Presentation of a Front: Gender
Re-read Goffman's "Frame Analysis of Gender"
Film: "Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink)" (1999) by Alain Berliner (88 minutes)
February 13 : Presentation of a Front: Gender
Re-read George Herbert Mead's "The Emergent Self"
Continue discussion of
"Ma Vie En Rose"
Paper #2 due
Paper #3 assignment given
February 16: 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]
Class Resources: Introduction to Streetwise
February 18: Face-work: Deference and Demeanor
Goffman, E. (1956). The Nature of Deference and Demeanor. American Anthropologist 58:473-502. [on reserve]
February 20: Face-Work: Deference and Demeanor
Re-read Goffman's "The Nature of Deference and Demeanor"
Paper #3 due
Paper #4 assignment given
February 23: 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, pp. 1-34
Class Resources: Arlie Russell Hochschild
February 25
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Appendix A, pp. 211-232.
February 27
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 3, pp. 34-55.
March 2
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapters 4-5, pp. 56-88.
March 4
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 6, pp. 89-136
Class Resources: Airline Advertising
March 6
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 7, pp. 137-161.
March 9
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 8, pp. 162-184.
March 11
Hochschild, The Managed Heart, Chapter 9 and Afterward, 188-210.
Paper #4 due
March 13
Mid-term exam
Spring Recess
PART III: Social Class and the Making of the Self
March 23: Habitus
Elias, N. (2000). On Blowing One’s Nose. In The Civilizing Process (pp. 121-129). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. [on reserve]
Paper #5 assignment given
March 25
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.
March 27
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 2, pp. 24-61
March 30 : Cultural Capital
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 3, pp. 62-87
April 1
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 4, pp. 88-128
April 3
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 5, pp. 129-149
April 6
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, Chapter 6, pp. 150-173
April 8
Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners, most of Chapter 7, pp. 174-177 and 181-192
Film: "People Like Us: Social Class in America" by PBS (WETA) (2001)
April 10
Steinhauer, J. (2005). When the Joneses Wear Jeans. In Correspondents of The New York Times (Ed.), Class Matters (pp. 134-145). New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Film: "People Like Us" continued
Part IV: The Role of Social Interactions in the Making of the Self and Social Organization
April 13
Goodwin, M. H. (1990). He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization among Black Children. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Chapters 1 & 2, pp. 1-26.
Class Resources: Marjorie Harness Goodwin
Paper #6 assignment given
Paper #5 due
April 15
Goodwin, Chapter 3, pp. 29-53
April 17
Goodwin, pp. 63-64 and chapter 4, pp. 65-74
Class Resources: Play, Games, and Socialization
April 20
Goodwin, Chapter 5, pp. 75-108
April 22
Goodwin, Chapter 6, pp. 109-137
April 24
Goodwin, Chapter 7, pp. 140-188
April 27
Goodwin, Chapter 8, pp. 190-225.
April 29
Goodwin, Chapters 9 & 10, pp. 229-257
Class Resources: Press Conference on AIG Bonuses, March 17, 2009
May 1
Goodwin, Chapter 11, pp. 258- 279
May 4
Goodwin, Conclusion, pp. 283-289.
Paper #6 due
Thursday, May 7th, 9am
Final Exam
