Chapter 1: Sociology, Schaefer, 1995-2005.

Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups.

Humans:

   C. Wright Mills: "The Sociological Imagination"
(see also, The Sociology of C. Wright Mills, by Dr. Fran Elwell--a PowerPoint presentation)

• Link individual to broader social system.
• See general in the particular
• View own society as an outsider
• (Examples: Gender and phone, Night as Frontier, Soc. Of Christmas Cards)
• Peter Berger's: "Sociology as a Form of Consciousness"
• Personal Decisions

Origins of Sociology

• Enlightenment: Individualism and Rationality
• Rise of Science: Empiricism, Prediction- Power and Control
• Industrial Revolution (visit wikipedia)
• Political and Religious Change (see also: wikipedia)
• Urbanization/?of Community/Social Problems
• Evolutionary theories and the idea of Progress

Early Sociologists

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)(see also, the Dead Sociologist Index):

• Part/Whole: functional analysis
• "Social Facts" (see also)
• Integration
• Solidarity and the sociology of religion
• Theory of Suicide (see also, Durkheim's theory of suicide)
• Anomie. (see also and this chart by Jim Spickard, or this local copy)

Robert Park and Ernst Burgess:

• Social Disorganization

Talcot Parsons 1902-1979: The Social System

Robert Merton 1910--2003:

• Micro/Macro
• Theory/Methods
• Manifest and Latent Functions (The Sacred Cow in India)
• Dysfunctions.
• See also, wikipedia on Merton

Reform tradition:

• Lester Ward 1841-1913
• Jane Addams 1860-1935

Conflict Theory:

• Macro
• Change
• Inequality and exploitation (see also: Marx, capitalism, and exploitation)
• Power
• Competition between opposing groups
• Focal concern--forces that inhibit change

Karl Marx 1818-1883:

(see also, "The Dead Sociologists' Index" on Marx, and Sociosite on Marx)

• Marx's Grave
• Marx Archives
• Marx and Engels
• Dialectics
• Materialism
• Social Class
• The Communist Manifesto (1848)
• Revolution and Alienation.

W.E.B. DuBois, (see also: DuBois and The Dead Sociologist Index) 1868-1963 (online version of: The Souls of Black Folks, 1903)

C. Wright Mills 1916-1962

Feminism

Functionalism and Conflict Theory on Popular Music

• Micro
• Process
• Communication
• Interpretation
• Definition of the Situation
• Non-verbal communication
• Symbols

Max Weber 1864-1920:

G. H. Mead 1863-1931:

• The Development of Self

C.H. Cooley 1864-1929:

• Primary groups, "Looking-Glass Self"

Howard Becker:

• "Becoming a Marijuana Smoker"

Erving Goffman:

• Dramaturgy
• Sidewalk Etiquette
• "Goffman's Dramaturgical Presentation" (by Robert Harsh): http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/robert.harsh/goffmanrechtm.htm
• Analysis of The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life: http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/goffman.htm
• See also: http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/NEWPRE/CULT98/Goffman1.html
• "The Presentation of Self in Electronic Life: Goffman on the Internet," Hugh Miller, Department of Social Sciences, The Nottingham Trent University Paper presented at Embodied Knowledge and Virtual Space Conference Goldsmiths' College, University of London, June 1995 http://ess.ntu.ac.uk/miller/cyberpsych/goffman.htm
• About Goffman: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html

• Ethnomethodology