Soc 101 (01):  Introduction to Sociology            Office Hours:    By appointment

Instructor:  Len Berkey                                                 311 Robinson Hall (ext. 0420)

Course website:   http://www.albion.edu/anthsoc/berkey/INTRO/101.01fall08.htm

                                                            Course Description

Why did you choose Albion College?  Why are you attending college at all?  Surely you could find other

interesting things to do with your time.  What are your goals in life?  Are your parents opposed to those goals? 

Sociological analysis investigates the myriad ways in which personal experience is shaped by the larger social

context in which we live.  Without denying free will or the ability of humans to change, sociologists assume that

most of what humans do is highly predictable and that it reflects their social background.  You probably aren’t

here totally by accident!!

What makes this analysis scientific is that it is empirical:  it rests upon skepticism and the analysis of observable data. 

While other social science disciplines concentrate on a specific segment of the human experience – psychology: on

mental processes, personality, or perception;  political science: on the nature and function of governments, political

parties, and civic culture;  economics: on market transactions – sociology investigates the nature of human interaction

and social institutions themselves.  What, for example, is the basis of society?  How does it function?  How do social

institutions influence individuals to do what a society wants them to do?  What are the limits of individual prerogative

in a healthy society?  What is the significance of racial and ethnic diversity in maintaining social harmony or conflict? 

In what ways does the United States, as a modern highly developed capitalist society, contrast with other societies either

comparably developed or less developed?  What are the most important forces that stimulate social change, and where

are they leading us in this century?  These are the types of questions that sociologists explore.

This course also fills the Modeling and Analysis mode of inquiry for the Core.  This means that students are expected

in this course to learn the meaning and value of social scientific research as it involves creating and applying theoretical

and empirical models to sociological analysis.  We will focus primarily on the utility of ethnographic methodology for

producing social scientific knowledge.

Finally, this course will be organized on a lecture/discussion basis, with discussion encouraged at all class meetings. 

Your attendance and active participation in these discussions will be expected.  Occasional videos and small group

exercises will supplement this format.                     

                                                              Course Materials

The following books are required reading for this course.

    1.     C.J. Pascoe, Dude, You’re a Fag (University of California Press, 2007).

    2.     Karyn McKinney, Being White  (Routledge, 2005).

    3.     Heather Beth Johnson, The American Dream and the Power of Wealth

        (Routledge, 2006).

4.     Karen Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis, The Meaning of Difference:

        Fifth Edition (McGraw-Hill, 2008).

                                                          Course Requirements

Your final grade for this course will reflect your performance on the following four requirements:

    1.     An hour-long examination on     Friday, September 26^th   (20% of your grade);

    2.     An hour-long examination on     Friday, October 31^st        (20% of your grade);

    3.     An hour-long examination on     Tuesday, Dec 9th  from 11:30-1:30 p.m. (also 20%);

    4.     A ten page research paper, plus field notes, that is due on   Friday, November 21^st

            (40% of your grade).  See the last page for more details about the paper.

                                     Reading Assignments

Section One:               Theory and Method in Sociology

                                      (August 25- 29))

                                    1.    C. Wright Mills, “The Sociological Imagination”   (e-mail)

                                    2.     Carter Dougherty and Katrin Bennhold, “For Europe’s Middle-

                                                Class, Stagnant Wages Stunt Lifestyle”    (e-mail)

                                    3.    Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone:  America’s Declining Social

                                           Capital"  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html

4.        C.J. Pascoe, Dude, You’re a Fag, pp. 175-193.

Section Two:              The Social Construction of the Self

                                                (September 3- 5)

                                    1.    Erving Goffman, “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”  (e-mail)

                                    2.    The Meaning of Difference, pages 2-35.

Section Three:           Doing Gender and Constructing Sexuality

                                                (September 8- 24)

                                    1.   The Meaning of Difference:  numbers 10, 11, 19, 20, 32, 55.

                                    2.   C.J. Pascoe,   Dude, You’re a Fag, pp. 1- 174.

                                    3.   Sara Mead, “The Truth about Boys and Girls”

                                    http://www.educationsector.org/usr_doc/ESO_BoysAndGirls.pdf

Section Four:             Constructing Race and Ethnicity

                                          (September 29- October 29)

                                    1.    The Meaning of Difference, pages 194- 218.

                                    2.    The Meaning of Difference:  numbers 1-3, 6-8, 24-26, 28, 46, 47, 50, 57.

                                    3.    Being White by Karyn McKinney.

Section Five:              Does Social Class Matter?

                                                (November 3- 24)

                                    1.    The Meaning of Difference:  pages 334- 350.

                                    1.    The Meaning of Difference:  numbers 13-15 and 36-38.

                                    2.    Heather Beth Johnson,  The American Dream and the Power of Wealth.

                                    3.    “What It Takes to Make a Student”!!   Paul Tough (distributed).    

                                    4.    Emily Bazelon, "The Next Kind of Integration"  (e-mail).                                               

Section Six:                Social Change and the Possibility of Bridging Differences

                                                (December 1- 5))                                            

1.        The Meaning of Difference, pages 468- 475.

2.        The Meaning of Difference:  numbers 59 and 60.

                                       Research Paper Assignment:       

               “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,

                           but in having new eyes.”                                  Marcel Proust

You must first select one particular area of social interaction for fieldwork – the social construction of gender,

race/ethnicity, or class, or some alternative area that we can agree upon – and write regular and detailed

fieldnotes (see below) of your observations.  All of you will then be divided into research teams of roughly

half a dozen members, and you will be asked to share at least one fieldnote with the other members of your

team every week.  While you will be responsible for submitting your own research paper near the end of the

course, the intention is to deepen the analysis and understanding in each project by situating it within a team effort.

Final papers, roughly ten pages in length (plus fieldnotes!), will be due in class on Friday, November 16^th

and will represent 40% of your final grade.  Grades for these papers will be based upon: 1) the quality and

discipline of your fieldwork, 2) your ability to use course materials (or other sources that we agree upon) to

construct a compelling analysis of the data, and 3) the overall clarity of your argument.

For most of you, this project will require some “re-socialization,” or as Proust terms it the creation of “new eyes.” 

Rather than critiquing others for their behavior, ethnographers seek “a deeper immersion in others’ worlds in

order to grasp what they experience as meaningful and important”  (Robert Emerson et al., Writing Ethnographic

Fieldnotes, 1995).  Good fieldwork produces accurate and detailed descriptions of what you see and hear, not

critical commentaries about what you like and dislike.  If you chose to include your reflections on the behavior that

you observe, label those at the end of the fieldnote as “Reflections” or “personal opinion,” as in the one below. 

Should be fun, eh!!!!

Sample Fieldnotes:

One

While at a recent party, I observed some sorority members. Three of the girls are active members, and the

other five girls are "pledges." The respective sorority is on the "higher" end of the social spectrum at

Albion College. I was at the party because I am best friends with two of the active members. So, naturally,

when the five pledges arrived, there was a certainly level of respect given to me. As the pledges entered

the house, they paid close attention to the active sisters. The pledges made sure they complimented each

other's clothing as well as the active members, reinforcing that each member met a certain status. But

more importantly, there was another girl at the party who was not a member of the sorority. I will call

her Jane. Jane had pledged the sorority--but had been rejected.  From simply observing the situation,

Jane sat in the corner chair and was very disengaged from the conversation. At one point, there was

reference to recruitment and how any junior who does not make it through informal recruitment is not

getting into the house, period. This, of course, struck Jane and she turned around because she was a junior

and had been rejected twice. Then, the active sister qualified herself and said, "Well, with the exception of

Jane!" It was clear that there was no sincerity in the statement, and the other members knew it too. I can

draw this conclusion because not once did the pledges or the active try to engage in conversation with her. 

Two

In a recent discussion with a first year, whom I will Ryan, we talked about Albion and his impressions. Even though

in high school he was very active in extracurricular activities, he found himself social inept at Albion. As we talked,

he mentioned anxiety over the level of wealthy people who attend Albion. Ryan felt that his clothes were not good

enough to go out and visit the frats, and when I asked if he would rather get something to eat, he said, "You know,

I really have to be careful with my money, at least for the rest of the week." At the same time, I did not want to pry

about his financial situation, but I assured him that I, too, understood what he was going through because my family

is also working-class. So he felt comfortable enough to expand a little bit on his financial situation. In fact, Ryan

expressed how much he respected his mom because she worked four jobs just to make it. (I am assuming the jobs

are part time, but it is still a ridiculous amount.) So instead of going out and having a good time, he chose to stay in

because of his fear of not meeting the standards of others.  
 
Personal opinion:  
I find it very interesting that an individual who graduated with 3.8 would give a shit about the rest of the college campus.

He obviously proved that he is good enough to get in, but at the same time, that did not necessarily imply that he was

"classy" enough to socialize with others. Social anxiety over approval is natural; at the same time, people do not realize

how detrimental it can be to people who lack types of capital. It will be very interesting to monitor his interaction. Will

he adopt some of the superficial attitudes--or will he become a recluse?