Soc 1a: Order and Change in Society
M, W, Th 1-1:50pm
Fall 2015
Prof. Carmen Sirianni
Pearlman 210, x62652; sirianni@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Mon, Wed 5-6pm and Thursday by appointment
Teaching assistants: TBA
This course analyzes patterns of social organization and change in a variety of different arenas of
social and institutional life: work, family, gender, community, poverty, wealth, race,
environment, social movements, politics, organizations. It focuses on the contemporary United
States, though it also examines longer patterns. Broad value questions of democracy and equality
run throughout all topics.
ABSOLUTELY NO USE OF LAPTOPS OR CELL PHONES DURING CLASS
Out of respect for each other’s contributions during class, all cellphones and laptops will be
shut off and stored out of sight. Get a paper notebook for note taking, if you do not typically
utilize one. (I will make an exception only if there is a dire emergency, such as a family member
in surgery. You must inform me of such an emergency ahead of class.)
The required reading will be discussed most intensively in your discussion sections, and
everyone is required to attend these and do all of the readings beforehand. Assigned sections will
be developed within the first 2 weeks or so of the course.
Two sets of take-home essays, plus participation in section, will determine final grades. ALL
essays are due in hardcopy, stapled, paginated, double-spaced, 12-point or so font, with TA
name at top.
1. Midterm take home essays, 2 essays, 10 pages total: Oct 7 in class (35 percent of grade).
2. Final take home essays, 3 essays, 15 pages total: Dec 9 in class (50 percent of grade).
3. Participation/preparation in section: 15 percent of grade.
4. Service Learning Option: Students engaged in community service, social action, or
campus leadership projects may opt (NOT required) to write one of their essays for the
final on their experiences. This may require supplemental reading appropriate to the
nature of the student’s active engagement. Students wishing to choose this option should
discuss it with their TAs and/or the instructor as early in the semester as possible, present
a short written proposal (1 page), and must receive formal approval by Oct 15.
Disabled students requiring specific arrangements in completing course work should see their
TA and/or instructor.
Required readings: at Bookstore, on reserve, or on LATTE
Required books:
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Thomas Shapiro, The Hidden Cost of Being African American: How Wealth Perpetuates
Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2005).
Katherine K. Chen, Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event
(University of Chicago Press 2009).
Bill McKibben, Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist (Times Books 2013).
August 27: Introduction: Overview of course topics, readings, assignments.
Aug 31-Sept 17: Family, Gender, and Work
Inequality and gender at the intersection of work, family, children. Negotiating equity and
flexibility. Family myths, gender ideologies and strategies, economies of gratitude, networks
of care. The challenges of work-family policy.
Reading:
Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift (Penguin 2012 edition), chapters 4-6, pages 35-99.
Karen Hansen, Not-So-Nuclear Families: Class, Gender, and Networks of Care (Rutgers
University Press, 2005), chapter 5 (“The Beckers,” pages 98-123).
Cameron Macdonald, Shadow Mothers: Nannies, Au Pairs, and the Micropolitics of
Mothering (University of California Press 2011), chapters 6-7.
Kathleen Gerson, The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family,
Work, and Gender in America (Oxford UP 2010), chapter 3 (“The Rising Fortunes of
Flexible Families”), pages 46-71.
Mindy Fried, Taking Time: Parental Leave Policy and Corporate Culture (Temple UP
1998), chapter 3 (pages 29-62: “The Decision to Take Time”).
Sept 21-Oct 7: The Changing Nature of Work: From Industrial to Postindustrial Society
The organization and meaning of work; scientific management and industrial work;
recognition and power in service workplaces, gender, race; postindustrialism, information
technologies, and the coming of the robots.
Readings:
Frederick Taylor, “Scientific Management,” in Frank Fischer and Carmen Sirianni, Critical
Studies in Organization and Bureaucracy, second edition (Temple UP 1994), pages 4454.
Susan Eaton, "'The Customer is Always Interesting': Unionized Harvard Clericals
Renegotiate Work Relationships," in Cameron Macdonald and Carmen Sirianni, eds.,
Working in the Service Society (Temple University Press, 1996), 291-332. LATTE PDF
Rachel Sherman, Class Acts: Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels (University of
California Press, 2007), chapters 3-5 (pages 110-222).
Oct 7: Midterm essays due in class: 10 pages, double-spaced, paginated, stapled
Oct 12-22: Racial Inequality: Income and Wealth
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What are the dynamics of race, wealth, and income in the U.S., and what might these entail
for public policy? What have been the effects of the financial crisis on equality and strategies
for equity?
Readings:
Shapiro, The Hidden Cost of Being African American.
Oct 26-Nov 12: Community and Urban Politics: Religion, Race, Immigrants, Policing
How do people act through religious congregations and civic associations to build social
capital, enhance power, revitalize their communities, incorporate recent immigrants? How
can community policing, Black Lives Matter, and other organizations contribute to local
empowerment and broader structural change?
Readings:
Richard Wood, Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America
(University of Chicago Press, 2002), chapter 1: “Faith-Based Organizing in Action: The
Local Organizing Committee at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church” (pages 23-52).
Robert Sampson, The Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect
(University of Chicago Press 2012), chapter 8 (“Civil Society and the Organizational
Imperative,” pages 210-235).
Wesley Skogan, Police and Community in Chicago: A Tale of Three Cities (Oxford
University Press 2006), chapter 4 (“Involving the Community,” pages 101-37).
Carmen Sirianni, Investing in Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Collaborative Governance
(Brookings Press 2009), chapter 3 (“Neighborhood Power and Planning: Seattle,
Washington,” 66-116.
Walter Nichols, The Dreamers: How the Undocumented Youth Movement Transformed the
Immigrant Rights Debate (Stanford UP 2013), chapters 2 and 5.
Nov 16-23: Bureaucracy and Beyond?
Why has bureaucracy been such a powerful force in society and economy? What happens in
the ideal type, as well as in street-level practice? In what ways is bureaucracy being
reinvented and transformed?
Max Weber, “Bureaucracy,” in Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies in Organization and
Bureaucracy (second edition1994), pages 4-19.
Michael Lipsky, “The Rationing of Services in Street-Level Bureaucracy,” in Fischer and
Sirianni, Critical Studies in Organization and Bureaucracy (second edition1994), pages
264-81.
Katherine K. Chen, Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man
Event (University of Chicago Press 2009).
Nov 30-Dec 9: Climate Change and Environmental Movements
The emergence and development of a multi-dimensional climate movement, comprised of
contentious as well as collaborative politics. Challenges for civil society, government,
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markets. The institutional field of environmentalism. Global civil society in the Paris
negotiations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (ongoing at the time of
our classes on this).
Readings:
Norgaard, Kari Marie. 2006. “ ‘People Want To Protect Themselves A Little Bit’: Emotions,
Denial, and Social Movement Non-Participation The Case of Global Climate Change,”
Sociological Inquiry 76(3): 372-396. LATTE PDF.
Bill McKibben, Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist (Times Books 2013).
Dec 9: Final papers due in class: 15-pages, double-spaced, paginated, stapled
.
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