Part I: Foundations of Sociological Thought
Week
2/13: C. Wright Mills. 1959. “The Sociological Imagination.”Mills, Sociological Imagination
Erik Olin Wright. 2009. What Kind of a Society is “American Society?”: https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%202%20– %20what%20kind%20of%20society%20–%20Norton%20August.pdf
Week 2—
2/18: Emile Durkheim. 1893. Selections from The Division of Labor in Society (skip pages 34-38 and 50-59)Durkheim, Division of Labor in Society
Keiran Healy. 2019. Rituals of Childhood: https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2019/08/03/rituals-of-childhood/
Malcolm Gladwell. 2015. “Thresholds of Violence: How School Shootings Catch On.” The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/19/thresholds-of- violence?verso=true
2/20: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 1848. “Chapter 1, Bourgeois and Proletarians” in The Manifesto of the Communist Party: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007
Robin Kelley in the Boston Review “What did Cedric Robinson mean by racial capitalism?”: http://bostonreview.net/race/robin-d-g-kelley-what-did-cedric-robinson-mean-racial- capitalism
Week 3—
2/25: Max Weber. 1904-1905. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismWeber_Spirit_of_Capitalism
Eva Illouz. “Making Love into a Science.” in Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation
2/27: W. E. B. Du Bois. 1903. The Souls of Black FolkDu Bois, The Souls of Black Folks
Raewynn Connell. 2018. Decolonizing Sociology: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0094306118779811
3/:1 Assignment #1 due 11:59pm
Part II: American Political Economy
Week 4—
3/3: M Hacker & Pierson. 2010. “How the Winner-Take-All Economy was Made,” in
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer — and Turned
Its Back on the Middle Class. Hacker_Pierson_Ch2
Erik Olin Wright and Joel Rogers. “Democracy: How it Works:” Chapter 16 — Democracy-how it works — Norton August
John Cassidy. 2014. “Is America an Oligarchy:”
Is America an Oligarchy The New Yorker
3/5: Collins and Mayer. 2010. “Introduction” in Both Hands Tied: Welfare Reform and the Race to the Bottom in the Low-Wage Labor Market (Stop at page 20) Both Hands Tied Intro
Erik Olin Wright and Joel Rogers. Ending Poverty in America.Chapter 13 — Solutions to poverty — Norton August
Week 5—
3/10: Jake Rosenfeld’s. “Chapter 7” in What Unions No Longer Do
Schor-The Overworked American Chpt 3
3/12: No Class
Week 6—
3/17: Arlie Russell Hochschild. 2016. The Ecstatic Edge of Politics: Sociology and Donald Trump:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0094306116671947
3/19:
Week 7—
3/24: SPRING RECESS
3/26: SPRING RECESS
Part III: Distance Learning
3/31: Welcome back
4/2: Discussion Question: How is this moment similar and different from the one that confronted AIDS activists?
Watch “How to Survive a Plague” rented from Amazon
Andrew Sullivan, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/andrew-sullivan-how-to-survive-the-coronavirus-pandemic.html
Piven and Cloward – Structuring of Protest Piven and Cloward–Structuring of Protest
Week 9 —
4/7:
Naomi Klein on Coronavirus Capitalism and the Shock Doctrine: https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/19/naomi_klein_coronavirus_capitalism
Naomi Klein on Shock Doctrine: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmqyk/naomi-klein-interview-on-coronavirus-and-disaster-capitalism-shock-doctrine
Eric Klinenberg on solidarity: https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2020/3/18/21182063/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-social-distancing
Bill Scher argues against: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/24/coronavirus-socialism-sanders-144490
4/9: Rebecca Solnit. A Paradise Built in Hell. Prelude, Ch 4 to end
Week 10—
4/14: Rebecca Solnit. A Paradise Built in Hell.
4/16: Arlie Russell Hochschild. 2016. The Ecstatic Edge of Politics: Sociology and Donald Trump:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0094306116671947
4/21: https://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2020/03/together-alone-in-the-covid-19-pandemic.html
4/23:
https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/04/09/alexandre-white-how-pandemics-shape-society/
Ezra Klein, https://www.vox.com/2020/3/12/21173938/coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-elderly-epidemic-isolation-quarantine
4/28 : White Noise
4/30: White Noise
Week 13—
5/5: Masha Gessen, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/in-the-midst-of-the-coronavirus-crisis-we-must-start-envisioning-the-future-now?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker&utm_social-type=earned&fbclid=IwAR1M7Akzgnb6TC__yZGF2KEOhuihIGwZXG3xn3Zd8GHz8ClRbHlSR5Rso8g
5/7: