Spring 2003 Thomas Burger
Instructor

Principles of Sociology
(SOC 301)
Tuesday & Thursday
11:00 - 12:15pm
Pulliam 214

Sociology as a discipline originated around 1850 in the effort to understand the peculiar nature and dynamics of the new type of society and culture that had been emerging from the transformation of the old European socio-cultural order. In articulating this particularity, authors on one level suggested certain global characteristics in whose terms the nature of social life before the great transformation could be usefully contrasted with that prevailing afterwards (e.g., a social organization based on "status" giving way to one based on "contract," "mechanical solidarity " being replaced by "organic solidarity," or "traditional" society "contract," "mechanical solidarity "being replaced by" organic solidarity," or "traditional" society retreating before the advance of "modern" society). Using such overall diagnostic perspectives as their vehicles, these authors on another level also endeavored to elucidate the internal structures and processes of the contrasted societal types. To that end they developed an apparatus of concepts, ideas, and hypotheses for the comparative analysis of the manner in, and premises on, which people try to manage their coexistence in groups and associations, and of the results of these efforts. Today’s sociology carries on with this undertaking.

Given the comparative nature of the discipline and the fabulous complexity of contemporary societies, the field of sociology is extraordinarily vast, and this course can only deal with selected topics. The textbook discusses some of the ideas at the core of the discipline’s theoretical debates, and the lectures will present others. Textbook and lectures thus are complementary; they are not substitutes for each other.

The aim of this course is to make students conversant with a set of concepts and ideas that have been central to the sociological tradition. To the extent to which a student learns to approach social phenomena analytically in their terms, he/she will gain a unique and revealing perspective on life in society. This perspective is somewhat at a distance from the one typically adopted by individuals practically involved in everyday affairs, and it does not necessarily confirm commonly held beliefs concerning how things work in the social world. It pretends to enable the presentation of a picture that is relatively unencumbered by self-serving and justificatory slants, and its adoption is advocated in the belief that the empirically grounded diagnosis of what is actually the case, and why it is so, is desirable not only for those in a position to make policy decisions but also for any citizen interested in making informed judgments concerning the larger states of affairs in which he/she is willy-nilly involved.

Textbook: James W. Russell: Introduction to Macrosociology. 2nd ed.
Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1996.

Exams: There will be three (3) exams - short question/answer format. Each exam will
count for 25% of the course grade. Grades will be letter grades with + and -.
Attendance will count 25%. Each student is entitled to three (3) unexcused absences. After that, each such absence will lead to a penalty of one third of
a letter grade per absence. There will be no extra credit. Unexcused failure to
take an exam will result in an F for this exam.

Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 9:00-11:00am, Wednesday 12:00-2:00pm
Office: Faner Hall 3432
Telephone: (618) 453-7629.

Schedule

Jan. 14 Distribution of Syllabus

Jan 16 & 21 "Human Nature" and Social Behavior
Read: Russell, chapter 1

Jan 23 & 28 Culture
Read: Russell, chapter 2

Jan 30 & Feb 4 Social Arrangements
Read: Russell, chapter 9

Feb 6 & 11 Deviance and Social Control
Read: Russell, chapter 6, pp. 105-115

Feb 13 & 18 Societal Evolution
Read: Russell, chapters 3, 4

Feb 20 Review
Feb 25 Test #1

Feb 27 & Mar 4 Modern Society
Read: Russell, chapter 5

Mar 6 & 18 Family
Read: Russell, chapter 10

Mar 20 & 25 Economy

Read: Russell, chapter 6, pp. 94-105, 115-120

Mar 27 & Apr 1 Classes & Economic Inequality
Read: Russell, chapter 8, pp. 148-162

Apr 3 Review
Apr 8 Test #2

Apr 10 & 15 Political Domination
Read: Russell, chapter 7, pp. 126-141

Apr 17 & 22 Secularization
Read: Russell, chapter 7, pp. 141-146

Apr 24 & 29 Status Groups
Read: Russell, chapter 8, pp. 162-174

May 1 Review

Exam Week Test #3