Douglas Clayton Smith |
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| Professor of Sociology 131 Grise Hall Department of Sociology and Criminology -- WKU 1906 College Heights Blvd. #11057 Bowling Green, KY 42101-1057 |
Phone: (270) 745-3131 Fax: (270) 745-6493 Personal Cell Phone: (270) 438-6056 Skype Name: douglas.smith_37 Email: Douglas.Smith@wku.edu Webpage: http://people.wku.edu/Douglas.Smith/ |
Office Hours: By appointment |
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1. No one signed up for this.
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Not for the pandemic. Not for the social distancing. Not for the sudden end of our collective lives together on campus. |
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Not for an online class. Not for teaching from home. Not for learning from home. Not for mastering new technologies. Not for varied access to learning materials. |
2. The humane option is the best option.
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We are going to prioritize supporting each other. |
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We are going to prioritize simple solutions that make sense for the most people. |
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We are going to prioritize sharing resources and communicating clearly. |
3. We cannot just do the same thing online.
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Some assignments are no longer possible or reasonable. |
4. We will do what we can to foster intellectual nourishment, social connection, and personal accommodation.
5. We will remain flexible and adjust to the situation.
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No one knows where this is going yet and what we'll need to adapt. |
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Everybody needs support and understanding in this unprecedented moment. |
To introduce students to the "sociological canon" of major works in sociological theory;
To introduce students to the form, content, and practice of current debates in sociological theory;
To demonstrate the importance of sociological theory as a part of sociological research and practice; and
To consider critically the possibilities for empirical application and testing of social theory.
Thomson, Anthony. 2010. The Making of Social Theory: Order, Reason, and Desire. Oxford University Press.
Elliot, Anthony, and Charles Lemert. 2014. Introduction to Contemporary Social Theory. Routledge.
Additional readings will be placed on Blackboard.
Attendance. The majority of the learning in this
class will come through class discussions. As there is minimal reading, no
exams, and no huge papers, attendance and class participation are critical.
Thus, I expect you to be in class with materials read.
Others will be discussed in class.
Please do not request accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) directly from the professor without a letter of accommodation from the Office of Student Disabilities Services (OSDS). Students with disabilities who require accommodations for this course must contact the OSDS. The OSDS office is in DUC A201 in the Student Success Center. The OSDS contact numbers are: Phone (270) 745-5004; TDD: (270) 745-5121; FAX: (270) 745-3199.
This is a general schedule of topics to be done in preparation for class.
| March 23 | Monday | Freud |
| March 26 | Thursday | Simmel |
| March 30 | Monday | Pragmatism: Dewey, James, Pierce |
| April 02 | Thursday | Pragmatism: Mead |
| April 06 | Monday | W.E.B. DuBois |
| April 09 | Thursday | Jane Addams |
| April 13 | Monday | Antonio Gramsci |
| April 16 | Thursday | Karl Mannheim |
| April 20 | Monday | Frankfurt School: Adorno and Horkheimer |
| April 23 | Thursday | Frankfurt School: Marcuse |
| April 27 | Monday | Parsons and Merton |
| April 30 | Thursday | Erving Goffman |
| May 04 | Monday | Theories of Structuration (Giddens/Bourdieu) |
| May 07 | Thursday | Power/Knowledge (Mills/Gouldner/Smith) |
Finally, my standard disclaimer:
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The university may have adopted a business model; however, your education is NOT a business. Moreover, the syllabus is not some sort of sacred contract (at the very least, the course calendar is not a sacred contract), but more along the lines of a road map. The readings in the course calendar are places we are scheduled to visit. Anyone who has taken a preplanned road trip or vacation knows that the trip is not fun unless you stop at the interesting roadside attractions even though they might divert from your original route or time table. It's the process of getting there that is fun and relaxing and intriguing. In that light, the above schedule and procedures for this course are subject to change in the event of extenuating circumstances. |
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