SYLLABUS
SOCI 302Sociology of Organizations and Institutions
Spring 2010
Instructor: Deniz Yükseker
Class:CAS B40Time: 14:00-15:15
Office: SOS 254 Phone ext.: 1309E-mail:
Office Hours: Wednesday, 11:00-12.30, Thursday, 15:30-17:00, or by appointment
Course Description:This course introduces students to the sociological study of organizations and institutions. We will especially focus on the evolution of business organizations in response to technological changes and changes in the capitalist world economy. Within this context, we will discuss types of labor control and labor process in blue collar and white collar workplace settings.The course will be based on lectures, readings, film screenings and hopefully one field trip to a factory.
Course Materials:
A course pack containing most of the readingswill be available for sale at the XEROX Office. Some of the articles are available online through the SOCI302 page on Courseware as indicated below.
Course Evaluation:Your success in this course depends on regular attendance, active participation and doing the readings on time. There will be one midterm exam,four reading responses (two double-spaced pages each), one assignment (3-4 double-spaced pages) and a final exam.
Midterm: 30 percent
Assignment: 20 percent
Reading responses: 4 x 5 points = 20 percent
Final: 30 percent
Note on the assignment and reading responses:You will write your assignmentbased on your observations during our field trip. In the event that the field tripis cancelled, I will provide topics on which to write the assignment. Throughout the semester, you will write two-page (typed and double-spaced) summaries of fourweeks’readings. This will start on Week 3.
Academic Integrity and Student Conduct:Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in a grade of “0” and possible disciplinary action. Please refer to the Courseware page for the Sociology Department’s Guidelines.
Course Schedule
WEEK 1: February 16-18
INTRODUCTION
“Nature and types of organizations,” in Hall, Organizations, chapter 2.
WEEK 2: February 23-25
CLASSICAL ORGANIZATION THEORY
“Bureaucracy,”Max Weber. In F. Fischer and C. Sirianni (eds.) Critical Studies in Organization and Bureaucracy, 1994. chapter 1.
“The spirit of bureaucracy and beyond bureaucracy,”Karl Marx. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 2.
WEEK 3: March 2-4
ORGANIZATION THEORY Cont’d.
“Oligarchy,” Robert Michels. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 3.
WEEK 4: March 9-11
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION
“From manufacture to modern society.” Karl Marx,from Das Kapital, vol.1.
“Scientific management,” Frederick Taylor. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 4.
“The real meaning of Taylorism,”Harry Braverman. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 5.
Film screening: Modern Times
WEEK 5: March 16-18
LABOR CONTROL
“Forms of control in the labor process: An historical analysis,” Richard Edwards. In Fischer and Sirianni,Critical Studies, chapter 8.
“Organizing Consent on the Shop Floor: the Game of Making Out,” Michael Burawoy. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 10.
WEEK 6:March 23-25
LABOR CONTROL cont’d
“Hanging Tongues: A Sociological Encounter with the Assembly Line,” William Thompson. In James Henslin, Down to Earth Sociology, 1995.
“McDonald’s. We Do it All for You,” Barbara Garson. InJames Henslin, Down to Earth Sociology, 1995.
WEEK 7:March 30-April 1
HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOL AND ITS CRITIQUES
“Human Relations and the Informal Organization,” Roethlisberger and Dickson. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 6.
“Hawthorne, the Myth of the Docile Worker, and Class Bias in Psychology,” Dana Bramel and Ronald Friend. InSociology of Organizations. A Reader, ed. Michael Handel, 2004, pp. 97-107.
SPRING BREAK
WEEK 8: April 13-15
Midterm exam this week!
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION: VERTICAL INTEGRATION AND FORDISM
“Fordism,” David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1989.
WEEK 9: April 20-22
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION: NETWORKS AND FLEXIBILITY
“From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation,” David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1989.
“Networks, firms and upgrading within the blue-jeans industry: evidence from Turkey,” Nebahat Tokatlı, Global Networks 7(1), 2007,pp. 51–68 (available on Courseware)
“Entrepreneurship goes global,” Nerri Kara, Ivey Business Journal, November/December 2004, pp. 1-6 (available on Courseware)
Film screening: “Death Trap” (Al Jazeera-Witness)
WEEK 10: April 27-29
LABOR CONTROL IN THE ERA OF FLEXIBILITY
Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir: “Hidden Forms of Resistance among Turkish Workers: Hegemonic Incorporation or Building Blocks for Working Class Struggle?” Capital and Class, no. 81, Autumn 2003, pp. 31-59. (available on Courseware)
“Subjects, Subjectivity and Subjectification in Call Center Work: the Doings of Doings,”Donald J. Winiecki, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 36 (4)
August 2007, pp.351-377 (available on Courseware)
WEEK 11: May 4-6
WORKPLACE IDENTITIES IN THE ERA OF FLEXIBILITY
“Survival at work: flexibility and adaptability in American corporate culture,” Megan Brown, Cultural Studies, 17(5), 2003, pp. 713-733 (available on Courseware)
Film screening: “Startup.com”
Recommended reading: Brian Holmes, “The Flexible Personality for a New Cultural Critique” inHieroglyphs of the Future: Art and Politics in a Networked Era. Zagreb: Arkzin, 2002 (available on Courseware)
WEEK 12:May 11-13
WOMEN IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS
“Women and power in organizations,” Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 17.
“Enterprising Femininity: New Modes of Work and Subjectivity,” Ann Gray, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2003, 6(4), pp. 489-506 (available on Courseware)
WEEK 13: May 18-20
GENDER AND ETHNIC IDENTITIES AT WORK
“The Social Body, the Art of Discipline and Resistance” and “Becoming Dagongmei: Politics of Identities and Differences,” Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace (2005), pp. 77-132.
WEEK 14: May 25-27
Review
Assignments due on May 28
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