Texts:
Anderson, Elijah. (1990). Streetwise: Race. Class and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Blumer, Herbert. (1986). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goffman, Erving. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.
Gusfield, Joseph. (19QQ). The Culture of Public Problems. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. (1983). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Karp, David A. (2001). The Burden of Sympathy: How Families Cope with Mental Illness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Snow, David A. and Leon Anderson. (1993). Down on Their Luck: A Study of Home1ess Street People. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Thorne, Barrie. Gender Plav: Girls and Boys in School. (1994). New York: Rutgers University Press.

• Readings available on departmental reserve and/or online (DR, JSTOR)

Course Description and Objectives:

Because the academic terrain encompassed by "social psychology" is broad, contested, and permeable, this seminar focuses on sociological social psychology (sometimes called microsociology) and the conceptual leverage it provides toward answering a fundamental sociological question: How are social structure and culture related to human action/agency? Or, put differently, how do macro level social forces influence micro 1evel social interaction, and vice versa? To answer these questions, we will explore the self and identity as functions of the social construction of reality in face to face interaction interaction that is always situated historically, culturally, and hierarchically and in which meanings, and patterns of interaction, are created, maintained, and sometimes transformed. In addition, we will touch upon the role of emotions in identity work and the reproduction of inequality , and we will briefly explore the social psychology of social problems and collective action. At the end of the semester, you should have a strong sense of the contribution sociological social psychology makes to sociological analysis and have acquired some facility with its tools.

Requirements:

Attendance at seminar meetings: Everyone needs to come all the time.

Active and informed participation in seminar discussions: Quality is more important than quantity. A good discussion explores intellectual linkages between readings, draws explicitly on conceptual material, assesses its utility, and pushes its boundaries.

Seminar presentations on assigned readings: Each of you will be responsible for facilitating a discussion on part of the reading each seminar. For each, you will be expected to give a brief precis of key ideas and prepare questions for discussion.

Weekly responses to assigned readings: Each week following the first week, you will turn in a 1 2 page essay in which you carefully elucidate a particularly resonant "sensitizing concept" (Blumer 1969:147) or "generic social process" (Schwalbe et al 2000) from the readings and use it to make sociological sense out of data of your choosing. Minimum 10 essays, 3 additional may be done to raise grades.

Week 1 (January 15): Orientation and Technical Matters
• House, James, "The Three Faces of Social Psychology"
• Schwalbe, et al. "Generic Processes in the Reproduction of Inequality"
•
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS: SELF/SOCIAL INTERACTION/SOCIETY

Week 2 (January 22): Social Interaction and the Social Construction of Self.
• Blumer , Herbert, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method.
• Cooley, Charles Horton. "The Looking Glass Self," on DR.
• Mead, George Herbert. "The Self as a Social Structure, " on DR.

Week 3 (January 29): Social Interaction and the Enactment of Self.
• Goffman, Erving, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
• Gardner, Carole Brooks, "Analyzing Gender in Public Places," on DR.
• Lofland, Lyn H. Excerpt from A World of Strangers, on DR.
• West, Candace and Sarah Fenstermaker, "Doing Difference," JSTOR.

Week 4 (February 5): Social Interaction and the Social Construction of Reality.
• Berger, Peter L. and Thomas L. Luckmann, Excerpt from The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise on the Sociology of Knowledge, on DR
• Thomas, W. I. "The Definition of the Situation, " on DR.
• Goffrnan, Erving. "The Moral Career of the Mental Patient," on DR.
• Lemert, Ed. "Paranoia and the Dynamics of Exclusion," JSTOR.
• Emerson, Joan. "Behavior in Private Places," on DR.
• Lorber, Judith. "The Social Construction of Gender," on DR.
• Henley, Nancy. Excerpt from Body Politics, on DR

Week 5 (February 19): Identity.
• Stone, Gregory P. "Appearance and the Self," on DR.
• Weigert, Andrew J. 1983. "Identity: It's Emergence within Sociological Psychology,” on DR.
• Altheide, David L. 2000 ."Identity and the Definition of the Situation," on DR.
• Cahill, Spencer, "Language Practices and Self Defmition," on DR.
• Vaughan, Diane, "Uncoupling," JSTOR.
• Kenda1l, Lori, TBA

EMPIRICAL APPLICATIONS: SOCIAL LOCATION

Week 6 (February 12): Persistent Patterns of Social Interaction.
• Stryker, Sheldon. Excerpt from Symbolic Interactionism, on DR.
• Hughes, Everett. "Dilemmas and Contradictions of Status," JSTOR
• Maines, D. R. 1977. "Social Organization and Social Structure," JSTOR.
• Fine, Gary Alan and Sheryl Kleinman, 1992. "Agency , Structure and Comparative Contexts," on DR.
• Ridgeway, Cecelia. "Interaction and the Conservation of Gender Equality," JSTOR.

Week 7 (February 26): History and Culture.
• Mills, C. W. "Situated Action and Vocabularies of Motive," JSTOR.
• Lofland, Lyn H. "The Social Shaping of Emotion," on DR.
• Swidler, Ann. "Culture in Action," JSTOR.
• Fine, Gary Alan. "Small Groups and Culture Creation," JSTOR.
• Hall, John R. "Social Interaction, Culture, and Historical Studies," on DR.
• Steams, Peter N. "The Problem of Change in Emotions Research," on DR.

Week 8 (March 5): Hierarchy: Caste Systems of Stratification.
• Anderson, Elijah, Streetwise.
• Blee, Katherine. "Becoming a Racist," JSTOR
• Fordham, S. and J. Ogbu. "Black Students' School Success," on DR.
• Park, Edward. "Racial Ideology and Hiring Decisions in Silicon Valley ," on DR.

Week 9 (March 19): Hierarchy: Class Systems of Stratification
• Snow, David A. and Leon Anderson. Down on Their Luck.
• Macleod, Jay. Excerpt from Ain't No Makin' It. on DR.
• Paules, Greta. Excerpt from Dishing it Out. on DR.
• Maines, David. "Some Thoughts on the Interactionist Analysis of Class Stratification," on DR.

Week 10 (March 26): Hierarchy: Patriarchial Systems of Stratification
• Thome, Barrie. Gender Play.
• Cahill, Spencer. "Fashioning Males and Females," on DR.
• Messner, Michael. "Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities," on DR.
• Padavic, Irene. "The Re creation of Gender in a Male Workplace,” on DR.

Week 11 (April 2): Hierarchy: Normative Systems of Stratification
• Scott, Marvin and Stanford Lyman. “Accounts," JSTOR.
• Scully and Marolla, "Rapists Vocabularies of Motive," on DR.
• Sykes and Matza, "Techniques of Neutralization," JSTOR.
• Harvey et al. "Coping with Sexual Assault," on DR.
• Goffman, Erving. Excerpt from Stigma on DR.
• Pollner and McDonald Wikler, "The Social Construction of Unreality," on DR.
• Ellis, Carolyn, "I Hate My Voice," on DR.

Week 12 (April 9): Hierarchy: Emotions and the Reproduction of Inequality
• Hochschild, Arlie. The Managed Heart.
• Hochschild, Arlie. "Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure, " on DR.
• Clark, Candace. "Emotion and Micropolitics in Everyday Life," on DR.
• Cahill, Spencer and Robin Eggleston. "Managing Emotions in Public Places “ on DR.

Week 13 (April 16): The Social Psychology of Social Problems and Collective Action
• Gusfield, Joseph. The Culture of Public Problems
• Blumer, Herbert. "Social Problems as a Process of Collective Definition," JSTOR.
• Benford, Rob and Scott Hunt "Dramaturgy and Social Movements," JSTOR.
• Dunn, Jen. "From Survivors to Victims: Cutural Resonance and the Reframing of Battered Women," on DR.

Week 14 (April 23): Power Tools: The Fruitfulness of Sociological Social Psychology
• Karp, David A. The Burden of Sympathy

Week 15 (April 30): Summation and Assessment