Sociology
202b: contemporary sociological theory
Winter
2007 Tuesday
1:30-4:25p
College
Building South- Map Room C.
Chase-Dunn
v. 12-14-06
This graduate seminar focuses on selected works in contemporary sociological theory. This is a required course in the Sociology graduate program at UCR. .
A view of the C
Requirements: Grades will be based on attendance, participation in discussion, a take-home midterm exam, and a five-page essay that compares two of the books we have read. The midterm will be handed out on February 13 and the answers are due in class on February 20. The five-page essay is due on March 20.
Books available in the Campus Book Store and on reserve in the Rivera Library:
Ulrich Beck, Power in the Global Age.
Peter J. Burke (ed.) Contemporary Social Psychological Theories.
Christopher Chase-Dunn and
Thomas D. Hall, Rise and Demise:
Comparing World-Systems.
Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped
American Citizenship and Labor.
Tom Hayden, Radical Nomad: C. Wright Mills and His Times.
Seminar Schedule:
Asterisked (*) readings are required. Others are recommended. Required readings should be read prior to the class meeting under which they are listed.
January 2 Overview of the course. Hand out
syllabus.
“Theory
Construction” Chapter 14 of C. Chase-Dunn, Global Formation:
Structures of the World-Economy, 1998
Paul Davidson Reynolds, A Primer on Theory Construction. 2007 Allen and Bacon.
Imre Lakatos, “Falsification and the methodology
of scientific research” in Criticism and the growth of knowledge. Imre
Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.)
January 9: Social Psychological Theories
*Peter J. Burke (ed.) Contemporary
Social Psychological Theories.
January 16
*Peter J. Burke (ed.) Contemporary
Social Psychological Theories.
January 23 Socio-cultural evolution. Professor Stephen Sanderson will lead the discussion
*Christopher Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall, Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems.
Gerhard Lenski, Ecological Evolutionary Theory
January 30 more socio-cultural evolution
*Christopher Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall, Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems.
Stephen Sanderson, Evolutionism
and Its Critics
February 6 Gender
and sociological theory
*Randall Collins, Janet Saltzman Chafetz, Rae Lesser Blumberg, Scott Coltrane and Jonathan H. Turner “Toward an integrated theory of gender stratification. Sociological Perspectives 36,3: 185-216, Autumn 1993. (Available on the course web site)
Karen D. Pyke “Class-based masculinities: the interdependence of gender, class and interpersonal power” Gender and Society 10,5: 527-549, 1996.
February 13 Race and sociological theory
*Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Unequal Freedom, Introduction, Chapters 1-3, and 7.
Howard Winant “Race and race theory”. Annual Review of Sociology 26:169-185, 2000.
February 20 Take-home Midterm is Due in Class
Global Society
*Ulrich Beck, Power in
the Global Age.
William I. Robinson, A Theory of Global Capitalism
February 27 more global society. Midterm is Handed Out In Class
*Ulrich Beck, Power in
the Global Age.
Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century.
March 6 Critical Theory
*Tom Hayden, Radical
Nomad: C. Wright Mills and His Times.
Herbert Marcuse, One
Dimensional
March 13 more critical theory
*Tom Hayden, Radical
Nomad: C. Wright Mills and His Times.
Arrighi, Giovanni, Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein1989 Antisystemic Movements.
March 20 Five-page Essay is Due.
