Sociological Theory (under development)
Thematic/Reading Outline
Below I offer a list of readings and themes that will inform my Sociological Theory
course. This list is still underdevelopment, but it provides a general framework on how
such a course would progress and the readings I’d likely assign. I begin with classic
sociological theory (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel), then move into the
“American Turn” (Functionalism, Interactionism, Ethnomethodology, Phenomenology)
and then onto to more recent developments (Critical Theory, Feminist Theory,
Intersectionality) and end by briefly covering post-modernism (Foucault).
THE CLASSICS: European Theorists
Karl Marx
Capital, Exchange Value, and Commodification
Marx, Karl. (1994 [1964]). “Capital, Volume One.” In Karl Marx: Selected Writings.
Lawrence Simon (Ed.). Pp. 214-254, 264-294. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing
Co.
 Preface: Pp. 214-219
 The Commodity: Pp. 220-243
 The Process of Exchange: Pp. 244-254
 The Sale and Purchase of Labor Power: Pp. 264-273
 The Labor Process and the Valorization Process: Pp. 274-294
Alienation
Marx, Karl. (1994 [1964]). “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.” In Karl
Marx: Selected Writings. Lawrence Simon (Ed.). Pp. 40-53. Cambridge: Hackett
Publishing Co.
Marx, Karl. (1994 [1964]). “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.” In Karl
Marx: Selected Writings. Lawrence Simon (Ed.). Pp. 54-68. Cambridge: Hackett
Publishing Co.
Consciousness and Ideology
Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. (1994 [1964]). “The German Ideology.” In Karl
Marx: Selected Writings. Lawrence Simon (Ed.). Pp. 102-156. Cambridge:
Hackett Publishing Co.
Class Consciousness
Marx, Karl and Frederick Engels. (1948). The Communist Manifesto. New York:
International Publishers.
Emile Durkheim
Social Facts
Durkheim, Emile. (Date). “What is a Social Fact.” and “Rules for the Explanation of
Social Facts.” In The Rules of Sociological Method. Sarah Solovay and John
Mueller (Trans.). George Catlin (Ed.). New York: The Free Press.
Solidarity, Anomie and Social Integration
Durkheim, Emile. (1984). The Division of Labor in Society. W.D. Halls (Trans).
New York: The Free Press. (Selected Chapters).
Book 1:
 Chapter 2: “Mechanical Solidarity, or Solidarity by Similarities”
 Chapter 3: “Solidarity Arising from the Division of Labor, or Organic Solidarity”
 Chapter 5: “The Increasing Preponderance of Organic Solidarity and its
Consequences”
 Chapter 6: “The Increasing Preponderance of Organic Solidarity and its
Consequences (cont.)”
Book III:
 Chapter 1: “The Anomic Division of Labor”
 Chapter 2: “The Forced Division of Labor”
Social Integration: Suicide
Durkhiem, Emile. (Date). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. New York: The Free Press.
(Selected Chapters).
 Book Two: Chapter 2: “Egoistic Suicide”
 Book Two: Chapter 4: “Altruistic Suicide”
 Book Two: Chapter 5: “Anomic Suicide”
Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Weber, Max. (Date). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Talcot Parsons
(Trans.). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. (Selected Chapters).
 Chapter 1: “Religious Affiliation and Social Stratification”
 Chapter 2: “The Spirit of Capitalism”
 Chapter 4: “The Religious Foundations of Worldly Asceticism”
 Chapter 5: “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism”
Bureaucracy
Weber, Max. (1978). “Bureaucracy.” In Economy and Society, Vol. 2. Guenther Roth and
Claus Wittich (Eds.). Pp. 965-1003. University of California Press.
Ideal Types
Weber, Max. (1949). The Methodology of Social Sciences. New York: The Free Press.
(Selected Chapters).
Jenks, Chris. (2005). “Culture, Idealism and Social Action.” Culture. (2nd Edition).
London: Routledge.
Class, Status and Power
Weber, Max. (1978). “Class, Status, Party.” In Economy and Society, Vol. 2. Guenther
Roth and Claus Wittich (Eds.). Pp. 926-939. University of California Press.
Georg Simmel
Farganis, James. (2000). “Georg Simmel: Dialectic of Individual and Society.” In
Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism. Boston:
McGraw Hill.
Simmel, Georg. (1955). The Web of Group-Affiliations. Pp. 127-167. New York: The
Free Press.
THE AMERICAN TURN
Functionalism
Merton, Robert. (1957). “Manifest and Latent Functions.” In Social Theory and Social
Structure. New York: The Free Press.
W.E.B. Du Bois
Farganis, James. (2000). “W.E.B. Du Bois: Double-Consciousness and the Public
Intellectual.” In Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to PostModernism. Boston: McGraw Hill.
 The Philadelphia Negro (excerpt)
 The Souls of Black Folk (excerpt)
Symbolic Interactionism, Phenomenology, and Ethnomethodology
Symbolic Interaction
Blumer, Herbert. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Los
Angeles: University of California Press. (Selected Chapters).
 Chapter 1: The Methodological Position of Symbolic Interactionism
 Chapter 3: Society as Symbolic Interaction
Edgley, Charles. (2003). “The Dramaturgical Genre.” In Handbook of Symbolic
Interactionism. Larry T. Reynolds and Nancy J. Herman-Kinney (Eds.).
New York: AltaMira Press.
Katovich, Michael, Dan Miller, and Robert Stewart. (2003). “The Iowa School.” In
Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism. Larry T. Reynolds and Nancy J. HermanKinney (Eds.). New York: AltaMira Press.
Forte, James. (2003). “Applied Symbolic Interactionism.” In Handbook of Symbolic
Interactionism. Larry T. Reynolds and Nancy J. Herman-Kinney (Eds.).
New York: AltaMira Press.
Phenomenology
Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann. (1963). The Social Construction of Reality:
A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books. (Selected
Chapters)
 Chapter 1: “The Foundations of Knowledge in Everyday Life”
 Chapter 3: “Society as Subjective Reality”
Ethnomethodology
Garfinkel, Harold. (Date). “Studies of the routine Grounds of Everyday Action.” In
Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Critical Theory
Horkheimer, Max and Theodor Adorno. (1987). “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment
As Mass Deception.” In Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Continuum.
Farganis, James (2000). “Critical Theory.” In Readings in Social Theory: The Classic
Tradition to Post-Modernism. Boston: McGraw Hill.
 “One-Dimensional Man” (Herbert Marcue, except)
Calhoun, Craig. (1995). Critical Social Theory. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.
(Selected Chapters).
 Introduction
 Chapter 1: Rethinking Critical Theory
Feminism
hooks, bell. (2000). “Introduction: Come Closer to Feminism.” In Feminism is for
Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
Smith, Dorothy. (1990). “Women’s Experience as a Radical Critique of Sociology.”
In The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge.
Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Post-Modernism