You will have to produce a five-page paper on the first two (utilitarian tradition and conflict tradition). For each paper you will use the two traditions to understand any current social or political issue (for example, the utilitarian tradition vs. the conflict tradition on racism or poverty).
You will be graded on how well you use the concepts and texts from class to examine an issue. I do not want to see papers that are simply inspired by class and loosely throw around some concepts. I want to see papers that do textual work, i.e. that bring in quotes and citations from the texts we are using in class. Don’t show me that you are a great conversationalist and can discuss the news. Show me that you can use the concepts and readings from this class to penetrate an issue, break new ground and say something non-obvious.
Please note that the first draft will be worth ten percent of your final grade. It is not optional. If you do not hand it in on time, you will get a zero for that ten percent. Note also that it is a “first” draft, not a “rough” draft. If you hand in a rough draft you will get a rough grade. I will try to get your drafts back to you in one week, and you will submit your final draft (worth twenty percent as well) one week later. The same pattern will be followed for the final papers (see session calendar below).
ALL the readings: The Rational / Utilitarian Tradition Class 2 (1/18) “The Rational / Utilitarian Tradition” Four Sociological Traditions pp.121-153 Class 3 (1/23) George Homans “Social Exchange among Equals and Unequals” pp.135-144; and Mancur Olson “Public Goods and the Free Rider Problem” pp.162-170 FST: Selected Readings Class 4 (1/25) “The Rational / Utilitarian Tradition” Four Sociological Traditions pp.153-180. Class 5 (1/30) 8 James March and Herbert Simon “Bounded Rationality and Satisficing” and Thomas Schelling “Tacit Coordination” FST: Selected Readings pp.145-161. Class 6 (2/1) James Coleman “The Realization of Effective Norms” FST: Selected Readings pp.171-189. III. Conflict Tradition Class 7 (2/6) “The Conflict Tradition” Four Sociological Traditions pp.47-81. Class 8 (2/8) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels “History as Class Struggle,” and “Materialism and the Theory of Ideology,” FST: Selected Readings pp.4-17. Class 9 (2/15) Karl Marx “The Class Basis of Politics and Revolution” FST: Selected Readings pp.17-35. Class 10 (2/20) Max Weber “Class, Status and Party” [pdf to be distributed] Class 11 (2/22) Max Weber “Protestant Ethic”
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