Kurzus nemzetközi vendég- és részidős hallgatóknak

Kar

Társadalomtudományi Kar

Szervezet

TÁTK Szociológia Tanszék

Kód

ESZOCBA01

Cím

Introduction to Sociology 1.

Tervezett félév

Őszi

Meghirdetve

2024/25/1

ECTS

4

Nyelv

en

Oktatás célja

This two-semester lecture course aims to provide an overview of a fairly wide range of concepts, theories, and research areas of sociology. Students become familiar with the main theoretical frameworks and research traditions of the discipline, with the use of analytic concepts in the interpretation or explanation of social phenomena, as well as with characteristic research problems in specific areas of social scientific inquiry. Lectures in the first semester focus on conceptual, theoretical, and methodological foundations, while those in the second semester outline some major fields of research and – through their lens – some particular domains of social life in modern societies from deviance to education and from religion to work.

Tantárgy tartalma

1-2. The emergence and foundations of modern sociology I-II What is the “social” in the social sciences? Society and kindred terms (people, nation, country, state etc.). The problem of sociability and the formation of the concept of “society”. Large social processes and transformations behind the emergence of – and the need for – the modern social sciences. Sociology: the word and the idea (Sieyès and Comte). The sociology of sociology: institutionalization of the discipline. Durkheim’s and Webers’s vision of sociology. Top-down and bottom-up approaches to social phenomena. Macrosociology and microsociology. The sociological imagination (Mills). Required readings: Durkheim, Emile. The Rules of Sociological Method and Selected Texts on Sociology and its Method, ed., intr., Steven Lukes, trans. W. D. Halls. London: Macmillan, 2013[1982]. Ch. 1, pp. 20-28. Wright, Mills C. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford: Oxford. U.P., 2000[1959]. Ch. 1, pp. 3-24. Recommended readings: Collins, Randall and Michael Makowsky. The Discovery of Society. 5th ed. New York etc.: McGraw-Hill, 1993. Chs. 1, 6, 7, pp. 19-29, 101-116, 117-139. Giddens, Anthony et al. Introduction to Sociology. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2018. Ch. 1, pp. 3-25. Porter, Theodore M. “Genres and Objects of Social Inquiry, from the Enlightenment to 1890.” In The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 7: The Modern Social Sciences, ed. Theodore M. Porter, Dorothy Ross. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Pp. 13-39. Ross, Dorothy. “Changing Contours of the Social Science Disciplines.” Ibid., pp. 205-237. 3-4. Doing research in sociology I-II The importance and characteristics of methodical research. Method and standardized methods. Data collection and data analysis. Qualitative and quantitative methods. Units of analysis and units of observation. Sampling, selection, selectivity. Generalization and exploration. Concepts, theoretical frameworks, explanatory theories. The hypothetico-deductive model. Causal explanation. The normal and the pathological. Objectivity, value-freedom, and value-relevance. Required readings: Durkheim. The Rules of Sociological Method. Ch. 3, pp. 50-68. Levi Martin, John. Thinking Through Methods: A Social Science Primer. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2017. Chs 1-2. Recommended readings: Durkheim. The Rules of Sociological Method. Ch. 2, pp. 29-49. Giddens et al. Introduction to Sociology. Ch. 2, pp. 31-49. Weber, Max. “The ‘Objectivity’ of Knowledge in Social Science and Social Policy,” trans. Keith Tribe. In The Essential Weber: A Reader, ed. Sam Whimster. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. Pp. 359-404. 5. Social groups and social roles Durkheim’s typology of social facts as group-level social constraints. Social groups vs. social aggregates. Homans’ and Merton’s concept of group membership. Merton’s distinction between social groups, social collectivities, and social categories. Simmel on group size and group structure: dyads and triads. Social statuses and social roles, ascribed and achieved statuses. Structural analysis of social roles: role set, status set, and forms of role conflict. Gender roles. Required reading: Simmel, Georg. “The Isolated Individual and the Dyad.” In The Sociology of Georg Simmel, trans., ed., intr. Kurt H. Wolff. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1950. Pp. 118-144. Recommended readings: Connell, R. W. and James W. Messerschmidt. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender and Society 19 (2005): 829-859. Homans, George C. The Human Group. London and New York: Routledge 2017[1950]. Pp. 82-86. Merton, Robert K. “The Role-Set: Problems in Sociological Theory.” The British Journal of Sociology 8 (1957): 106-120. Merton, Robert. K. Social Theory and Social Structure. Enlarged edition. New York: Free Press, 1968. Ch. IX, problems 1.2 and 1.5, pp. 338-342, 353-354. 6. Social institutions, social organizations, social systems Groups in time: Simmel on the “self-preservation” of the group. Berger and Luckmann on institutionalization. Social institutions and social organizations. Organizational structure and cultural production – the case of rock’n’roll. Grid/group analysis. Social differentiation, social integration, and social systems. Required reading: Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Penguin, 1991 [1966]. Pp. 70-85. Recommended readings: Collins, Randall and Michael Makowsky. The Discovery of Society. Ch. 11, pp. 205-219. Douglas, Mary. Risk and Blame: Essays in Cultural Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. Ch. 10, pp. 167-186. Peterson, Richard A. “Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music.” Popular Music 9 (1990): 97-116. Simmel, Georg. Sociology: Inquiries into the Construction of Social Forms. 2 vols. Trans. and ed. Anthony J. Blasi, Anton K. Jacobs, and Mathew Kanjirathinkal. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009. Ch. 8, pp. 443-461. 7. Intergroup relations, social networks, and social capital Samuel A. Stouffer and The American Soldier. Relative deprivation and reference groups. Types of reference groups. Membership and non-membership groups. Selection of reference groups. Groups vs. networks. Types of networks. Dyads and triads as building blocks of networks. Heider’s balance hypothesis. Strong and weak ties. Density and centrality. Social capital and its interpretations. Required reading: Kadushin, Charles. Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts, and Findings. Oxford: Oxford. U.P., 2012. Chs. 2-3, pp. 13-43. Recommended readings: Giddens et al. Introduction to Sociology. Ch. 6, pp. 151-175. Granovetter, Mark S. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 78 (1973): 1360-1380. Merton. Social Theory and Social Structure. Ch. IX, problems 1.3-4, 1.6, 2, 3, pp. 342-353, 354-361. Portes, Alejandro. “Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology 24 (1998): 1-24. 8-9. Social action, collective action, unintended consequences I-II. Methodological individualism. Weber’s concepts of action, social action and social relationship. Weber’s fourfold typology of action. The primacy of rationality and thinking in terms of models. Elster’s understanding of rational action. Interdependency and cooperation. The prisoner’s dilemma and Olson’s analysis of collective action. Explanations by unintended consequences of (social) action. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Required readings: Olson, Mancur. The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. Ch. 1, pp. 17-35. Weber, Max. Economy and Society: A New Translation, ed., trans. Keith Tribe. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2019. Ch. 1 (excerpts), pp. 77-85 and 99-103. Recommended readings: Elster, Jon. Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Chs. 2-4, 10, pp. 13-41, 91-100. Merton, Robert K. “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action.” American Sociological Review 1 (1936): 894-904. Merton. Social Theory and Social Structure. Ch. XIII, pp. 475-490. 10. Social interaction, performances, situations Simmel: interaction and sociation. Situational analysis. Symbolic interactionism. Durkheims’s idea of rituals and collective effervescence. Goffman’s dramaturgical approach. Randall Collins’ reformulation of the micro-macro link based on the concept of the situation. Collins on the microsociological consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic. Required reading: Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin, 1990 [1959]. Introduction and ch. 1 (excerpt), pp. 1-34. Recommended readings: Blumer, Herbert, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1969. Ch. 3, 78-89. Giddens et al. Introduction to Sociology. Ch. 5, pp. 121-147. Goffman, Erving. “The Nature of Deference and Demeanor.” American Anthropologist 58 (1956): 473-502. Collins, Randall. “Social Distancing as a Critical Test of the Micro‑Sociology of Solidarity,” American Journal of Cultural Sociology 8 (2020): 477-497. 11. Socialization, identity, and the life course Agents of socialization. Primary and secondary groups – primary and secondary socialization. Mead’s model of the development of the self. Civilization as long-term change in the process of socialization. Simmel on the development of individuality. Social identity and self-identity. Master statuses and identity. The concept of the life course. Life-stages, life-events and rites of passage. Generations. Required reading: Mead, George H. Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, ed., intr. Charles W. Morris. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972[1934]. Sections 18-20, pp. 135-164. Recommended readings: Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations, trans. Edmund Jephcott. Ed. Eric Dunning, Johan Goudsblom and Stephen Mennell. 2nd rev. ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Part IV, chs. 1-2, pp. 365-382. Giddens et al. Introduction to Sociology. Ch. 4, pp. 91-117. Jenkins, Richard. Social Identity. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2008. Chs. 2 and 13, pp. 16-27 and 156-168. Simmel. Sociology. Ch. 6, pp. 363-408. 12-13. Kin groups, households, families I-II Kinship as a basic form of social organization. Types of kinship. Kinship terminology and kinship ties. Selection of spouse/intimate partner: endogamy/exogamy, monogamy/polygamy, same-sex partnership/marriage. Age at first marriage/cohabitation, marriage/cohabitation rates. Marriage and divorce. Changing gender roles and the transformation of marriage/intimate partnership. Laslett’s household types, explanations and consequences of their varying distribution. Household formation after divorce/separation. Required reading: Beck, Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim. The Normal Chaos of Love, trans. Mark Ritter and Jane Wiebel. Cambridge: Polity, 1995. Ch. 1, pp. 11-44. Recommended readings: Adams, Bert N., “Cross-Cultural and U.S. Kinship,” in Handbook of Marriage and the Family, ed. by Marvin B. Sussman, Suzanne K. Steinmetz, and Gary W. Peterson, 2nd ed. New York, Springer 1999. Pp. 77-91. Charles, Nickie, Charlotte Aull Davies, and Chris Harris. Families in Transition: Social Change, Family Formation and Kin Relationships. Bristol: Policy Press, 2008. Ch. 3, pp. 53-79. Giddens et al. Introduction to Sociology. Ch. 15, pp. 475-515. Peter Laslett. “Characteristics of the Western Family Considered over Time.” In Family Life and Illicit Love in Earlier Generations: Essays in Historical Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Pp. 12-49. Nozawa, Shinji. “Similarities and Variations in Stepfamily Dynamics among Selected Asian Societies.” Journal of Family Issues 41(2020): 913–936.

Számonkérés és értékelés

The course is to be completed with a WRITTEN EXAM at the end of each semester. The exam will consist of multiple-choice questions about the lectures and the required readings. GRADING: 0–49% à 1; 50–55% à 2; 56–70% à 3; 71–85% à 4; 86–100% à 5 Students can also earn EXTRA percentage POINTS (which will be added to their exam score) by answering online multiple choice questions on the topic of the previous class, which are projected at the beginning of the lectures. In addition to earning extra points, these questions serve two other purposes: to review the content of the previous class to pick up where it left off; and to practice for the exam, which will consist of similar questions.

Irodalomjegyzék

See above under the lecture topics.

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