Sociology 202b: contemporary sociological theory

Spring 2016 Tuesday, 2:10-5

Watkins 1126 C. Chase-Dunn

v. 2-6-16

This graduate seminar focuses on selected works in contemporary sociological theory. This is a required course in the Sociology graduate program at UCR. .

Requirements: Grades will be based on attendance (10%), participation in discussion (10%), a take-home midterm exam (40%), and a five-page essay that compares two of the books we have read (40%). The midterm questions will be put up on the course web site on Ilearn on April 26 and the answers are due in class on May 3. The five-page essay is due on May 17. There is no final exam.

Books available in the Campus Book Store and on reserve in the Rivera Library:

Peter J. Burke and Jan Stets, Identity Theory Oxford University Press 2009.

Peter Turchin, Ultra Society Chaplin, CT: Beresta Books 2016

Jack A. Goldstone Revolutions Oxford University Press 2014

William I. Robinson Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity Cambridge

University Press 2014

Seminar Schedule:

Asterisked (*) readings are required. Others are recommended. Required readings should be read prior to the class meeting under which they are listed.

March 29 Overview of the course. Theory Construction, Theoretical Research

Programs and Sociological Theory

Paul Davidson Reynolds, A Primer on Theory Construction. 2007 Allen and Bacon.

Imre Lakatos, “Falsification and the methodology of scientific research” in Criticism and

the Growth of Knowledge. Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave (eds.) Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1974.

Jonothan H. Turner, Leonard Beeghley, Charles H. Powers 2012 The emergence of

sociological theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

April 5 Social Psychological Theories

* Peter J. Burke and Jan Stets, Identity Theory. Forward and Chapters 1-5

Peter J. Burke (ed.) Contemporary Social Psychological Theories. Palo Alto, CA:

Stanford University Press.

April 12 Social Psychological Theories

* Peter J. Burke and Jan Stets, Identity Theory. Chapters 6-10, Appendix

April 19 Sociocultural Evolution

*Peter Turchin, Ultra Society Chapters 1-5

Jonathan H. Turner and Alexandra Maryanski On the Origin of Societies by Natural

Selection.

Gerhard Lenski, Ecological Evolutionary Theory

April 26 More sociocultural evolution (Midterm Questions put up on course web site)

*Peter Turchin, Ultra Society Chapters 6-10

Christopher Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall, Rise and Demise: Comparing World-

Systems. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

May 3 Race, gender and sociological theory

Take-home Midterm is Due in Class

*Randall Collins, Janet Saltzman Chafetz, Rae Lesser Blumberg, Scott Coltrane and Jonathan H. Turner “Toward an integrated theory of gender stratification. Sociological Perspectives 36,3: 185-216, Autumn 1993. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1389242

*Karen D. Pyke 1996 “Class-based masculinities: the interdependence of gender, class and interpersonal power” Gender and Society 10,5: 527-549. http://gas.sagepub.com/content/10/5/527.full.pdf+html

*Howard Winant 2000 “Race and race theory” Annual Review of Sociology 26:169-185, http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.soc.26.1.169

Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Unequal Freedom

May 10 Collective Behavior and Social Movements

* Jack A. Goldstone Revolutions Oxford University Press 2014 (whole book)

David A. Snow and Sarah A. Soule 2009 A Primer on Social Movements New York:

Norton.

Neil J. Smelser 1962 Theory of Collective Behavior. New York: Free Press

May 17 Five-page Essay is Due.

Global social change

*William I. Robinson Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity, Intro and

Chapters 1-4

Sylvia Walby 2015 Crisis. Malden, MA: Polity Press

Immanuel Wallerstein, World-Systems Analysis

Christopher Chase-Dunn, Global Formation

May 24 more global social change

*William I. Robinson Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity Chapters 5-8

Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century.