political sociology / soan 365
middlebury college spring 2013 / mccallum
POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY – SOAN 365
Professor Jamie K. McCallumM/W 2:50-4:05
Middlebury CollegeAxinn 220
Spring 2013Office hours: Munroe T 10-12 / TH 9:30-10:30
Political Sociology
“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Course Description
This course is a sociological examination of power relations. Who’s got the power? Why are some groups of people able to exercise and maintain power over others? Why do the powerful sometimes lose?How is power embodied in social institutions? Answers to these questions—wide-ranging and sometimes contradictory—will emerge throughengagement with a mixture of both classic texts and those openly critical of the canon. Because the field is so broad, this class will necessarily focus on a set of particular issues that constitute some of its central concerns. The course begins with a series of theoretical readings that establish a framework for analysis of a number of related themes: political philosophy, the nature of the state and national identity, ideology and belief, political processes, social movements and revolutions, domination and violence, and historical periods of upheaval. Overall, you should leave this course with a deeper sense of the origins and significance of some major fault lines of political, socio-cultural and economic power.
Class Environment and Etiquette
You are expected to come to every class and out-of-class event. Come prepared to discuss readings but also to join group discussions. You are encouraged to have an opinion, be audacious, act out, and risk your pride (what you risk shows what you value). Class participation means you regularly attend class and take part in meaningful ways. Since critical dialogue is probably where most learning happens anyway, this should be in our mutual interests. Learning is a conspiracy, a group activity where we work, play, plot, and debate together. Students should be prepared to take notes without laptops. Cell phones and all other non-airplane-approved devices must be switched off.
Assignments
You will write six short analytical papers in response to particular readings and themes, co-create and present apolitical manifesto, and complete a midterm and final exam. Once during the semester you will kick off class discussion with a five minute introduction to the assigned material that day. I will give you more specific information on the details of each of these assignments when the time comes.
A Note on Written Work
Written work is the primary way you will be evaluated, and your writing will be graded according to its readability, grammatical accuracy, and creativity, in addition to the substantive ideas it conveys. We will discuss the challenges posed by sociological writing, but if you have any concerns about your ability, please see me and consider visiting the CTLR: All written work is accepted by email.
Grades
Your grades come from the assignments statedabove, plus class participation. Class participation is derived from a combination of attendance, frequency and quality of participation in class discussions, the competency of your five minute introduction, and observed struggle to engage the material. Late work is lowered half a grade for the first week late, and is not accepted thereafter. The grade breakdown is as follows:
Six response papers20%
Midterm20%
Manifesto Project20%
Final20%
Class participation20%
Most students can expect to receive a grade in the B range. Typically, A’s at Middlebury are reserved for outstanding work above and beyond what is average and expected. If you object to a grade you receive, email me a detailed explanation as to why you think the grade should be changed. In that email, also include a few times when you can meet me as soon as possible to discuss the matter further.
Honor Code and Academic Integrity
The Middlebury Honor Code forbids cheating and plagiarism. For details on what constitutes these breaches of conduct, please see Middlebury policy here:
Failure to abide such regulations will result in my notifying the proper college authorities. The academy is not known for its sense of humor, but plagiarism is truly no joke. For information on how to avoid plagiarizing, see Ear Babbie’s article:
POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY – SOAN 365
Professor Jamie K. McCallumM/W 2:50-4:05
Middlebury CollegeAxinn 220
Spring 2013Office hours: Munroe 110 T 10-12 / TH 9:30-10:30
Political Sociology
Note: The course schedule that follows may be revised as the course progresses
Required Class Texts:The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology
Kim Phillips-Fein. (2010) Invisible Hands: The Businessman’s Crusade Against the New Deal
Salvoj Zizek. 2009. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. Verso.
All other class texts are available on the class website here:
Week 1—What is Power?
2/11:Course Introduction / Overview of Syllabus
2/13:Reader. John Scott. Studying Power. Pgs 82-91
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A Cloward. 2005. The Structuring of Protest. Pgs 336-346. In Power: A Critical Reader. Eds Daniel Egan and Levon Chorbajian
Michel Foucault. “The Body of the Condemned.” Pgs 25-26. In Power: A Critical Reader. Eds Daniel Egan and Levon A. Chorbajian
Week 2—Approaches to Political Sociology
2/18:Karl Marx. 1848. The Communist Manifesto. (Preamble, Bourgeois and Proletarians, Proletarians and Communists): manifesto/
Reader: Bob Jessop. Developments in Marxist Theory. Pgs 7-17
2/20:Response Paper Due
Reader: Richard Bellamy. Developments in Pluralist and Elite Approaches. Pgs
17-29
Keith Dowding. Rational Choice Approaches to Power. Pgs 29-40
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A Cloward.2005. “Rulemaking, Rulebreaking, and Power.” In The Handbook of Political Sociology: States, Civil Societies, and Globalization. Pgs 33-53. Cambridge.
Week 3—States and State Formation
2/25:Reader. Gianfranco Poggi. Theories of State Formation.
David Beetham. Political Legitimacy
RW Connell. Gender and the State.
2/27:Class meets 3/28 at 4:30
Mike Menser, The Participatory Metropolis:
Week 4—Power and Ideology
3/4:Response Paper Due
Slavoj Žižek. The Sublime Object of Ideology.Select readings. See page numbers in email from 2/25
3/6:Herbert Marcuse. “New Forms of Control” and “The Closing of the Political Universe.” in One-Dimensional Man.
Week 5—Identity Politics and the Culture Wars
3/11:Response Paper Due
Walter Benn Michaels. 2006. “Introduction” In The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality. Metropolitan Books.
Reader: Alan Finlayson. Imagined Communities.
3/13:Guest Lecture by Antonia Levy
Dagmar Herzog. 2008. Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and Future of American Politics. Chapters “Saved from Sex” and “In Pursuit of Happiness.”
Week 6—Revolutionary Violence and New Forms of Protest
3/18:Jeremy Varon. 1969. Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, The Red Army Faction and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies.
In-Class Viewing of The Weather Underground
3/20:MIDTERM DUE
Anarchism and its Aspirations
Guest lecture by Cindy Milstein
Week 7—Spring Break
3/25:SPRING RECESS
3/27:SPRING RECESS
Week 8 — The Roots of the Right
4/1:Kim Phillips-Fein. Chapters 1-4. In Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.
4/3:Response Paper Due
Kim Phillips-Fein. Chapters 5-9. In Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.
Week 9—More on the Right and its Discontents
4/8:Kim Phillips-Fein. Chapters 10-epilogue. In Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.
David Harvey. “Freedom’s Just Another Word.” In A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
Reader. Crouch—Markets and States
Tonkis—Markets Against States
4/10:Response Paper Due on either Monday or Wednesday Readings
Peter Evans. 2008. Is An Alternative Globalization Possible? Politics and Society. Vol 36; 271.
Chris Hedges. 2012. The Cancer in Occupy.
Todd Gitlin. “Occupy Wall Street Is Chaotic, Romantic, and Utopian—and That’s a Good Thing.” The New Republic:
Week 10—Black Power, Civil Rights, and Non-Violent Direct Action
4/15:Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. “Chapter Two: Its Need and Substance,” pgs 34-56
Bayard Rustin. 1970. “The Failure of Black Separatism.” Harpers Magazine.
Taylor Branch. Parting the Waters. Chapter 5. The Montgomery Bus Boycott.
4/17:Response Paper Due on either Monday or Wednesday Readings
Gene Sharp. Chapter Three: An Active Technique in Struggle. In Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice And 21st Century Potential (Just Chapter Three!)
George Lakey. History is a Weapon—Strategy for a Living Revolution:
Week 11—Talkin’ Bout a Revolution
4/22:Guest Lecture on Russian Revolution by Alexis Peri, Middlebury History Dept
Readings TBA
4/24:Response Paper Dueon Wednesday Readings
Slavoj Žižek.First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: It’s Ideology, Stupid!
Week 12— The End of History and the Communist Hypothesis
4/29:Slavoj Žižek. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Communist Hypothesis
5/1: May 1st in Montpelier
Week 13—MANIFESTIVITY
5/6:Group Presentations
5/8:Group Presentations
Week 14—
5/13:SEMESTER INREVIEW
5/15: FINALS DUE by 5pm
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