Theory and Research in Social Change

Sociology 6750/ Fall 2016
Tuesday, 1:30 – 4:00 pm
Distance Ed (DE) 006 / Professor: Dr. Christy Glass
Office Hours: TH 1:30 – 4:30 pm

The classic focus, in short, is on substantive problems. The character of these problems limits and suggests the methods and the conceptions that are used and how they are used. Controversy over different views of 'methodology' and 'theory' is properly carried on in close and continuous relation with substantive problems.

—C. Wright Mills

Course Objectives

This course is a Ph.D.-level seminar on selected sociological theories and exemplary empirical analyses in the area of social change. The primary objectives of this seminar are to promote your intellectual development as both a consumer and producer of social theory and sociological research. The course will help you develop a broad understanding of evolution some of the major theoretical developments and debates in the field, and to develop skills necessary to competently conduct theory-driven research. A solid background in classical sociological theory is assumed and expected.

Central Questions

  1. How does each theoretical model draw upon, extend and/or critique classical models of change developed by Marx, Weber and Durkheim?
  2. What is the mechanism and/or nature of change (e.g. evolution, diffusion, acculturation, revolution, modernization, industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization, etc.)? In other words, what factor(s) drive (or impede) change?
  3. At what level of analysis is theoretical mechanism (i.e., micro, meso, macro)?
  4. What sort of empirical research agenda and/or methodology follows from each of these theories?
  5. How does the researcher draw upon, extend and/or critique the theoretical model in which s/he is framing the empirical study?
  6. What is the role of theory? What is the role of empirical research? What is the relationship between theory and research?

Assessment Procedures:

Course components as percentage of your final grade will include the following:

  • Class participation: 30%
  • Paper proposal (10/4):10%
  • Paper outline (11/1): 10%
  • Final paper (12/13): 50%

For the final paper you must identify a research question and frame the question theoretically. The required format is the introduction to a journal length manuscript or research proposal (i.e., everything that comes before the methods section). Your theoretical framework can draw on multiple theoretical models or develop within a single theoretical model. Either way the final paper will require you to incorporate literature beyond what appears on the syllabus. The empirical articles we read throughout the semester will serve as exemplars for this project.

Required Books

  1. Karl Polanyi. 1957. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Beacon Press.
  2. Michael Foucault. 1978 [1990]. The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. Vintage Books.
  3. Erving Gofmann, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books.
  4. Viviana Zelizer, Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy, Princeton.
  5. (Optional) Antonio Gramsci. 1987. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. International Publishers.
  6. (Optional) Pierre Bourdieu. Distinction. Harvard.

Accommodation with Students with Disabilities

If you have a documented disability and need reasonable accommodation to participate in this course, please make an appointment to meet with me as soon as possible so that together we can arrange the necessary reasonable accommodations. Please note that prior to our meeting you must obtain documentation of your disability through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) on campus.

Plagiarism Statement

Academic dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated. Please be familiar with the Code of Policies and Procedures for Students. Keep in mind that ignorance of the policies contained therein is not an excuse for violating them. Penalties for plagiarism can include grade adjustments, academic probation, suspension, expulsion, withholding of transcripts, and denial or revocation of degrees.

Course Schedule

8/30 / Introduction to Themes
Calhoun, Craig. “Editor’s Comment”, I & II
9/6 / Review of Classical Models of Change
MARX, “Thesis on Feurbach”; “German Ideology: Part I”; “Manifesto of the Communist Party”
WEBER,“Class, Status, Party”; excerpts from “Bureaucracy”; “The Sociology of Charismatic Authority”; “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism”
DURKHEIM, excerpts from The Division of Labor in Society
9/13 / Neo-Marxist Conflict Models of Change
THEORY: Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, pp. 133-185, 206-246, 277-318, 419-458.
RESEARCH: Kandil, “Islamizing Egypt?”
9/20 / Social Movements & Change
THEORY: McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly, Dynamics of Contention, Part I; McAdam and Scott, “Organizations and Movements”; Davis and Zald, “Social Change, Social Theory and the Convergence of Movements and Organizations” in Social Movements and Organization Theory; Snow, “Framing Processes, Ideology and Discursive Fields”
RESEARCH:Agnone, “Amplifying Public Opinion”
9/27 / Institutionalist Theories of Change
THEORY: Polanyi, The Great Transformation, pp. 35-80, 136-228.
RESEARCH: Levien and Paret, “A Second Double-Movement?”
10/4
*paper proposals due in class / State Institutionalist Theories of Change
THEORY: Skocpol, “Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research”; Evans, excerpts from Embedded Autonomy
RESEARCH: Orloff and Skocpol, “Why Not Equal Protection?”
10/11 / Institutional Variation& Social Change
THEORY: Hall and Soskice, “An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism”; Hall and Thelen, “Institutional Change in Varieties of Capitalism”; Kenworthy, “Institutional Coherence and Macroeconomic Performance”
RESEARCH: Western, “Unionization and Labor Market Institutions”
10/18 / Cultural/Institutional Theories & Social Change
THEORY: Zelizer, Economic Lives
RESEARCH: Healy, “Embedded Altruism”
10/25 / Cultural Reproduction & Change
THEORY: Bourdieu, excerpts from Distinction; “The Forms of Capital”; “Structures, Habitus, Power”.
RESEARCH: Carter, “’Black’ Cultural Capital, Status Positioning and Schooling Conflicts”
11/1
*paper outlines due in class / Performative/Interactive Models of Change
THEORY: Goffman, excerpts from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life; West & Zimmerman, “Doing Gender”; Kimmel, “Masculinity as Homophobia”
RESEARCH: Pascoe, “Dude, You’re a Fag”
11/7 / Social Constructionist Theory & Social Change
THEORY: Berger and Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality; Mary Waters, “Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?”; Omi and Winant, “Racial Formations”
RESEARCH: Morning, “Reconstructing Race in Science and Society”
11/15 / Inter- and Intra-Organizational Theoriesof Change
THEORY: DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited”; Kanter, Men and Women of the Organization
RESEARCH: Everyly and Schwartz, “Predictors of the Adoption of LGBT Friendly HR Policies” OR Skaggs et al., “Shaking Things Up or Business as Usual?”
11/22 / No Class: Thanksgiving Break
11/29 / Social Cognition Theories of Change
THEORY: Tajfel and Turner, “A Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior”; Brewer, “Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love or Outgroup Hate?”; Reskin, “The Proximate Causes of Employment Discrimination”
RESEARCH: Ely and Thomas, “Cultural Diversity at Work”
12/6 / Post-Structural Theories of Change
THEORY: Foucault, The History of Sexuality
RESEARCH: Gagne and McGaughey, “Designing Women”
12/13 / Final paper due by 5:00 pm in my departmental mailbox (224 Main)