SUPA Sociology
Here are the readings for the Spring 2008 course. After each topic, click on the hyperlink for the writing assignment for that topic. Hyperlinks will be activated when the assignments are given in class.
Some thoughts on writing SUPA sociology papers are here.
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
“The Forest, the Trees, and the One Thing,” Allan G. Johnson (pp. 35-47) - handed out in class
“The Promise,” C. Wright Mills (pp. 1-7, Ferguson)
“Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia’s Dead-End Kids,” Donna Gaines (pp. 7-20, Ferguson)
DOING SOCIAL RESEARCH
“Finding Out How the Social World Works,” Michael Schwalbe (pp. 36-47 in Ferguson)
“Between a Hard Rock and Postmodernism,” Kurt Borchard (pp. 3-15) -handed out in class
“Not Our Kind of Girl,” Elaine Bell Kaplan (pp. 57-66 in Feguson)
“The New Tattoo Subculture,” Anne M. Villequette and Jeff B. Murray (pp. 66-78 in Ferguson)
“The Code of the Streets,” Elijah Anderson (pp. 79-90 in Ferguson)
“Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison,” Craig Haney, W. Curtis Banks, and Philip G. Zimbardo (pp. 47-57 in Ferguson)
“Peer Power: Clique Dynamics among School Children,” Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler (pp. 173-188 in Ferguson)
“Descent into Madness: The New Mexico State Prison Riot,” Mark Colvin (pp. 214-229 in Ferguson)
“The Mass Media as a Power Institution,” Martin N. Marger, (pp. 452-463 in Ferguson)
“Media Images and the Social Construction of Reality,” William Gamson et al. (pp. ##-##)- handed out in class
“Making Class Invisible,” Gregory Mantsios (pp. 463-472 in Ferguson)
“Animating Youth: The Disneyfication of Children’s Culture,” Henry A. Giroux (pp. ##-##) - handed out in class
“‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender,” Judith Lorber (pp. 119-132 in Ferguson)
“Boyhood, Organized Sports, and the Construction of Masculinities,” Michael Messner (pp. 132-147 in Ferguson)
“Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation,” M. Bahati Kuumba and Femi Ajanaku - handed out in class
“On Being Sane in Insane Places,” David L. Rosenhan (pp. 230-240 in Ferguson)
“Illness and Identity,” David A. Karp (pp. 559-573 in Ferguson)
SOCIAL INEQUALITIES: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER
“Racial Formations in the United States,” Michael Omi and Howard Winant (pp. 380-390 in Ferguson)
“Failing at Fairness: Hidden Lessons,” Myra Sadker and David Sadker, (pp. 366-379 in Ferguson)
“”Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity,” Ann Arnett Ferguson (pp. 592-600 in Ferguson)
“Who Rules America? The Corporate Community and the Upper Class,” G. William Domhoff (pp. 289-303 in Ferguson)
“Black Wealth / White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality,” Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro (pp. 303-317 in Ferguson)
“When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor,” William Julius Wilson (pp. 488-500 in Ferguson)
“Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” Barbara Ehrenreich (pp. 318-331 in Ferguson)
“At the Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die,” Charlie LeDuff (pp. 410-420 in Ferguson)
THINKING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE
“The McDonaldization of Society,” George Ritzer (pp. 637-645 in Ferguson)
“Community Building: Steps toward a Good Society,” Amitai Etzioni (pp. 665-672 in Ferguson)
“What We Can Do?: Becoming Part of the Solution,” Allan G. Johnson (pp. 673-684 in Ferguson)
Writing assignment #7