SOCIOLOGY 1A:
The Sociological Imagination:
Individuals & Society
2013/2014
School of Social and Political Science
Chrystal Macmillan Building
(Course code: SCIL08004)
Contents
WELCOME TO SOCIOLOGY 1A ................................................................................... 3
Course Aims and Objectives .................................................................................................................... 3
Course Regulations and Procedures ..................................................................................................... 4
Time and Place ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Teaching Units............................................................................................................................................. 4
Tutorials ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
Assessment................................................................................................................................................... 5
Coursework submission dates and instructions. .............................................................................. 6
Essays ............................................................................................................................................................ 6
24 Hour Take Home Exam ....................................................................................................................... 7
Resit Dates. ................................................................................................................................................... 7
Learn Readings ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Student Representation ............................................................................................................................ 8
Help with your studies .............................................................................................................................. 8
Communication ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Timetable at a glance .............................................................................................................................. 10
UNIT 1: No Such Thing as Society? (Weeks 1-3): Tom McGlew .................................................... 11
UNIT 2: Identity and Diversity (Weeks 4-5) Lynn Jamieson ......................................................... 16
UNIT 3: Digital Societies: (Weeks 6-8) Kate Orton-Johnson ......................................................... 21
UNIT 4: Transnationalism, Culture and Global Society (Weeks 8-10): Donald MacKenzie . 29
Tutorial Topics .......................................................................................................................................... 34
Essay Topics ............................................................................................................................................... 39
Appendix One: A Guide to Referencing .............................................................................................. 41
Appendix Two: Example 24 Hour Take Home Exam ...................................................................... 43
Appendix Three: Guide to Using Learn for Online Tutorial Sign-Up .......................................... 44
Appendix Four: What Grades Mean .................................................................................................... 45
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Welcome to Sociology 1a
‘The sociological imagination is the capacity to range from the most impersonal and
remote transformations to the most intimate features of the human self—and to see the
relations between the two.’
C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford, 1959
This course is designed to introduce you to the key ideas of the discipline of sociology by
examining the relationship between individuals and societies. The course explores how
social processes shape individual lives, and how changes that occur around us influence
our sense of self. It draws on C. Wright Mills’ idea of the ‘sociological imagination’. Mills
makes three claims: that individuals live within society, that they live a biography or a
personal history, and that this takes place within a distinct historical sequence. It is the
sociological imagination that provides a means of mapping and understanding the
relationships among these three elements, and allows us as individuals to relate our
personal lives to the often impersonal social world around us. That is the promise of
sociology.
Co-Course Organiser: Dr Susie Donnelly, Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3 p.m, Room
5.12, Chrystal Macmillan Building, Phone: 650-8258
Co-Course Organiser: Dr Angus Bancroft, Office Hours: Wednesday 11-1, Office:
Room 6.23, Chrystal Macmillan Building, Phone: 650-6642; Angus.Bancroft@ed.ac.uk
Course Secretary: Elaine Khennouf, Office: Room G.04/G.05, Chrystal Macmillan
Building, Phone: 651-1480; Elaine.Khennouf@ed.ac.uk
External Examiners
The External Examiner for this course for session 2013-2014 is as follows:
Dr Michael Halewood, University of Essex
Course Aims and Objectives
Aims
This introductory course has four broad aims and four objectives:
1. It is an introduction to the discipline of sociology particularly for those with
little or no previous systematic experience of it. The course both stands alone for
those for whom it is their only exposure to the subject and also provides a basis
for further study – Sociology 1b, Sociology 2 and eventually joint or single
Honours.
2. It is an introduction to key sociological themes, especially the link between
individuals and society.
3. It will allow individual students to locate themselves in society and so develop an
understanding of themselves in sociological terms. Students should be able to
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relate biography to social structure, and to realise that while they make their own
lives it is not always in circumstances of their own choosing.
4. It will give students a flavour of several substantive topics of sociological analysis,
their definition, investigation and presentation.
Objectives
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
1. Show an understanding of key sociological concepts such as self, groups,
institutions, social class, social change and gender.
2. Give an account of the changing nature of social life in modern societies.
3. Recognise and understand the processes by which social groups, whether small
scale or organised at a global level, affect our attitudes and behaviour.
4. Develop an introductory understanding of the relationship between sociological
argument and evidence.
Course Regulations and Procedures
Both Sociology 1a and 1b are taught within the School of Social and Political Science.
You must read this current booklet in conjunction with the Social and Political Studies
Student Handbook as all the regulations detailed there apply to this course. Here we
outline either aspects that are specific to this course or matters that are so essential that
they deserve to be repeated. Keep this manual safe: it acts as a kind of contract between
you and us. We shall expect you to know what it contains.
Time and Place
Lectures: Tuesday and Friday, 14.10-15:00, George Square Lecture Theatre.
NB: lectures will start promptly at 14.10 so please be seated by that time.
Teaching Units
Please email the relevant member of staff to arrange an appointment if required.
Unit 1
Weeks 1-3
Unit 2
Weeks 4-5
No Such Thing as Society?
Tom McGlew, t.mcglew@ed.ac.uk
Identity and Diversity
Lynn Jamieson, Lynn.Jamieson@ed.ac.uk
Unit 3
Weeks 6-8
Digital Societies
Kate Orton-Johnson, k.orton-johnson@ed.ac.uk
Unit 4
Weeks 8-10
Transnationalism, Culture and Global Society
Donald MacKenzie, D.Mackenzie@ed.ac.uk
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Tutorials
Tutorial attendance is a core part of the course. You are expected to attend all tutorials,
and come prepared to discuss the reading.
Tutorial Sign-Up
Tutorial sign-up is done online, using Learn. Full instructions on how to do this are
available in Appendix 3 of this booklet. You must sign up for a tutorial by Friday 20th
September (the end of Week 1) or you will be randomly assigned to a group.
Tutorials will be held weekly during weeks 2-10.
Assessment
Please visit the following page for detailed clarification on all coursework and assessment
regulations:
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/year_1_2/assessment_and_regs/coursework_requirements
Our aim in assessment is to encourage students to cover a wide range of the themes
raised through reading, discussion and writing, and to examine knowledge of the course
materials. With this in mind, we seek to differentiate each item of assessment, and to
minimise the extent to which it is possible to pass the course by focussing excessively on
just one or two elements.
One essay and a 24-hour take home exam constitute the assessment for the
course.
•
In order to pass Sociology 1a you must achieve an overall mark of at least 40%.
This mark is based on a weighted combination of essay and 24 hour take home
exam marks – see below. You must achieve at least 40% in the 24 hour take
home exam or you will fail the course overall.
Sociology uses the School’s extended common marking scheme (see Appendix 4).
Marks for essays and examinations are totalled separately.
Your final mark will be made up as follows: Essay contributes 40%. 24 hour take
home exam contributes 60%.
University Assessment Regulations require that every course be monitored by an external
examiner appointed by the University.The external examiner for Sociology 1A is Dr
Michael Halewood from the University of Essex.
All students who fail overall must resit any failed elements. Visit the following site
for details:
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/year_1_2/assessment_and_regs/examination_requi
rements
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Coursework submission dates and instructions.
Turnitin
The School is now using the ‘Turnitin’ system to check that course work submitted for
first and second-year do not contain plagiarised material. Turnitin compares every essay
against a constantly-updated database, which highlights all plagiarised work.
Essays
You will submit one essay for this course. See page 30 for essay topics, and readings.
Essay Deadline – 12 Noon, Friday 1st November 2013
(Week 7)
The essay should be 1400-1600 words long. Essays above 1,600 words will be penalized
using the Ordinary level criterion of 1 mark for every 20 words over length: anything
between 1,601 and 1,620 words will lose one point, between 1,621 and 1,640 two points,
and so on. Note that the lower 1400 figure is a guideline for students which you will not
be penalized for going below. However, you should note that shorter essays are unlikely
to achieve the required depth and that this will be reflected in your mark.
Course work will be submitted online using our submission system – ELMA. You will
not be required to submit a paper copy.
Marked course work, grades and feedback will be returned online – you will not receive a
paper copy of your marked course work or feedback.
For information, help and advice on submitting coursework and accessing feedback,
please see the ELMA wiki at https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SPSITWiki/ELMA
Avoiding Plagiarism:
Material you submit for assessment, such as your essays, must be your own work. You
can and should draw upon published work, ideas from lectures and class discussions, and
(if appropriate) even upon discussions with other students, but you must always make
clear that you are doing so. Passing off anyone else’s work (including another student’s
work or material from the internet or a published author) as your own is plagiarism
and will be punished severely. You will be asked to sign a declaration attached to the
front sheet of the essay stating that the work is your own and the electronic copy of your
essay will be submitted to ‘Turnitin’, our plagiarism detection software. Assessed work
that contains plagiarised material will be awarded a mark of zero, and serious cases of
plagiarism will also be reported to the University's Discipline Committee. In either case,
the actions taken will be noted permanently on the student's record. For further details
on plagiarism see the School of Social and Political Studies handbook or the
school website.
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Say what you mean and use accurate terms:
Language should never obscure meaning. Academic writing emphasises precision, and it
is important to be accurate and precise in the language and terminology you use in essays
and exams. To take a simple example you should never use male nouns and pronouns
when you are referring to people of both sexes (use a plural ‘they’, ‘their’ or ‘she or he’,
or ‘his/her’), even when the source material does this. Avoid colloquial and/or
derogatory terms for individuals and groups of people, the reason being that it is hard to
judge the meaning of these terms. Define the terms you use, so that you are always saying
what you mean, for example when talking about social class, ethnicity, or other labels that
define people and categories.
See the Appendix 1on Referencing.
24 Hour Take Home Exam
The 24 Hour Take Home Exam will be posted on Learn on Thursday the 28th
of November at 12 noon.
• You will have until 12 noon on Friday the 29th of November to answer two
questions, one for each of the last two units of the course.
• The 24 Hour Take Home Exam will be submitted online using our submission
system – ELMA. For information, help and advice on submitting coursework and
accessing feedback, please see the ELMA wiki at
https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/SPSITWiki/ELMA
•
•
Each answer must be no more than 1000 words. Include a word count for each
answer. Do not exceed the word count. Word count penalties apply. Footnotes,
endnotes and in-text references are included in the word count.
•
Your answers will be marked as exam answers written under semi-exam
conditions.
Unlike an essay, you will not need to produce a bibliography.
You must pass the 24 hour take home exam (with a grade of 40% or above) to
pass the course.
The 24 hour take home exam marks contribute 60% of the overall assessment.
Please see appendix 2 for an example 24 hour take home exam question paper.
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•
•
•
Resit Dates.
All students who fail the course overall must resit any failed elements.
•
•
Resit essay will be due on Friday the 6th of June by 12 noon. The essay should be
on a different question from your original essay and not reuse any of your words
from the first essay. The submission procedure will be the same as for the initial
essay.
The resit 24 hour take home exam questions will be uploaded to learn on
Thursday the 7th of August at 12 noon and answers must be submitted by 12
noon on Friday the 8th of August.
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Learn Readings
We have assembled a course reading pack, some of which will be available on Learn
under the ‘Resources’ icon. This contains readings used in the tutorials. Some of these
readings are either required or recommended for essay questions. Other readings will be
available online or in the library.
Student Representation
Your tutorial group elects a tutorial representative (rep). Tutorial reps meet with the
course organiser once a semester to discuss any issues concerning the course. Class
representatives are chosen from a pool of tutorial representatives from each tutorial
group, and this will be arranged during the first half of semester 1. Any problems with
the course should first be raised with your tutor or with the course organiser, Angus
Bancroft. We will also ask you to fill in an overall assessment form at the end of the
course.
Help with your studies
The Study Development Team at the Institute for Academic Development (IAD)
provides resources and workshops aimed at helping all students to enhance their learning
skills and develop effective study techniques. Resources and workshops cover a range of
topics, such as managing your own learning, reading, note making, essay and report
writing, exam preparation and exam techniques.
The study development resources are housed on 'LearnBetter' (undergraduate), part of
Learn, the University's virtual learning environment. Follow the link from the IAD Study
Development web page to enrol: www.ed.ac.uk/iad/undergraduates
Workshops are interactive: they will give you the chance to take part in activities, have
discussions, exchange strategies, share ideas and ask questions. They are 90 minutes long
and held on Wednesday afternoons at 1.30pm or 3.30pm. The schedule is available from
the IAD Undergraduate web page (see above).
Workshops are open to all undergraduates but you need to book in advance, using the
MyEd booking system. Each workshop opens for booking 2 weeks before the date of
the workshop itself. If you book and then cannot attend, please cancel in advance
through MyEd so that another student can have your place. (To be fair to all students,
anyone who persistently books on workshops and fails to attend may be barred from
signing up for future events.)
Study Development Advisors are also available for an individual consultation if you have
specific questions about your own approach to studying, working more effectively,
strategies for improving your learning and your academic work. Please note, however,
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that Study Development Advisors are not subject specialists so they cannot comment on
the content of your work. They also do not check or proof read students' work.
To make an appointment with a Study Development Advisor, email iad.study@ed.ac.uk
(For support with English Language, you should contact the English Language Teaching
Centre.)
Communication
During the course of the year, all important information for the class will be announced
on Learn . You should also remember to check your university email accounts on a
regular basis as this is the only way staff will be able to contact you about course
matters.
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Timetable at a glance
Week of
Course
Tuesday Lecture
Friday
Lecture
Tutorial
No:
Notes
Wk 1
September 17, 2013
September 20, 2013
No tutorial
Tutorial
sign-up
Wk 2
September 24, 2013
September 27, 2013
Tutorial 1
Wk 3
October 1, 2013
October 4, 2013
Tutorial 2
Wk 4
October 8, 2013
October 11, 2013
Tutorial 3
Wk 5
October 15, 2013
October 18, 2013
Tutorial 4
Wk 6
October 22, 2013
October 25, 2013
Tutorial 5
Wk 7
October 29, 2013
November 1, 2013
Tutorial 6
Wk 8
November 5, 2013
November 8, 2013
Tutorial 7
Wk 9
November 12, 2013
November 15, 2013
Tutorial 8
Wk 10
November 19, 2013
November 22, 2013
Tutorial 9
Wk 11
Revision
Revision
Revision
Wk 12-13
Exam period
10
Essay Due
WEEK 1
Tuesday 17/09/12: Introductory Lecture: Course Team
The introduction in which the main regulations and procedures of the course will be
outlined and in which staff will introduce their units.
UNIT 1: No Such Thing as Society? (Weeks 1-3): Tom
McGlew
Readings for Unit 1:
We’ll be using four main books: all are in the library in multiple copies (at least 12 of
each). The two we’ll use most often are Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of
Social Order: A Reader (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003) and John P. Hewitt,
Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2007).
For the tutorial in week 3, you’ll need to read Norah Vincent, Self-Made Man: My Year
Disguised as a Man (London: Atlantic, 2006). Those choosing essay topic 2 will also need
to make heavy use of Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Edinburgh:
Social Sciences Research Centre, 1956; published in the US in 1959 by Doubleday
Anchor; current publisher Penguin). It’s somewhat preferable to use one of the
published editions, which are rather more explicit on some key points than Goffman’s
original report.
To the extent permitted by copyright legislation, we’ve made key readings available
electronically via Learn. In the case of the authors in Hechter and Horne’s reader, these
extracts are usually from the original version: look in Learn for the name of the author
of the extract.
Buying books: not compulsory, but we’ll be using Hewitt and especially Hechter &
Horne quite a bit, and even books that are in the library in multiple copies can be hard to
get hold of close to an essay deadline. So you might find it useful to buy either or both,
and also Goffman if you are doing essay 2. Word Power (43-45 West Nicholson St.) has
agreed to stock all three. You can also order via www.word-power.co.uk
‘No Such Thing as Society’?
Interviewed by Woman’s Own in 1989, the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said:
‘And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women,
and there are families’. The point she was making was political – that people shouldn’t
be too reliant on the state – but her remark is also a challenge to the very idea of
sociology. It’s the discipline that studies ‘society’. But what is society? Does it really
exist? Is it not simply a collection of individuals?
Unit 1 examines five answers to the question ‘what is society?’
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a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
That what we call ‘society’ is indeed simply a collection of individuals, each
rationally seeking the maximum personal benefit;
That ‘society’ is a set of roles (for example, ‘doctor’, ‘mother’, ‘student’), with
associated ‘norms’ (the do’s and don’ts of social life) and values (e.g. ‘put your
children first’);
That ‘society’ is our susceptibility to each other, in particular our anticipation of
how we will look in others’ eyes;
That ‘society’ is a network of relationships amongst people who know each other
personally;
That ‘society’ is imitation, the way in which we do what others do and learn to
like what they like.
We’ll touch on how to apply these ideas to some of life’s practical problems: for instance,
how to be happy; how to be healthy; and why as a country we’re putting on weight (but
some people are nonetheless dying of eating disorders). You’ll learn a means of
predicting whether a marriage or other long-term relationship will last, and even a –
scientifically-tested – tip for making yourself more attractive to others, including the
opposite sex! Through matters such as this, we’ll explore the famous, if sexistly
expressed, maxim from Aristotle’s Politics – ‘man is a social animal’ – and take a literal
approach to the animal nature of human beings. We’ll have some fun, for example
playing a game (for real money, which you can really take away with you) in the first
lecture of the unit, and a further game – not, alas, for real money – in the first tutorial.
Two closely-related overall questions run through Unit 1:
1.
2.
‘How can a collection of individuals manage to live together?’ (Hechter and
Horne, Theories of Social Order, p. 27). This is what sociologists call ‘the problem
of social order’.
What is the self? We’ll explore the ‘symbolic interactionist’ argument that the self
is not an entity inside us, but ‘something named, to which attention is paid and
toward which actions are directed’ (Hewitt, Self and Society, p. 76).
If either of those questions interests you, you can investigate further by choosing essay
topic 1 or 2 from the list that you’ll find towards the end of this Handbook.
WEEK 1
Friday 20/09/13: The Selfishly Rational Human and the Norm-Following Human
Having first played the Ultimatum Game, this session will examine two views of human
beings: that we are self-seeking, rational individuals (the view labelled ‘a’ above) and, very
much in contrast, that we follow norms and values (view ‘b’ above). As you’ll see, the
evidence, including that of your own recent experience, strongly supports the latter.
Key Readings
Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A Reader (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 3-8, 15-21, 22-24 (Weber, ‘Types of Social Action’)
(Learn).
Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, ‘Cognitive Adaptation for Social Exchange’, in The
Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, edited by J. H. Barkow, L.
Cosmides, and J. Tooby (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 181-184.
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(Learn)
Further Reading
Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A Reader (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003), pp 91-100 (‘Values and Norms’) (Learn).
WEEK 2
Tuesday 24/09/13: Norms, Roles and Social Order
This session continues our examination of the ‘selfishly rational’ view and (especially) the
‘norm-following’ view of human beings. We will elaborate the ‘norm-following’ view to
take into account the fact that many norms are specific to particular social roles, and
begin our discussion of ‘social order’, explaining how phenomena as diverse as
‘happiness’ and suicide are both very much the products of social processes.
Key Readings
John P. Hewitt, Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 2007), pp. 59-66.
Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A Reader (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 27-32 (‘The Problem of Social Order’), 112–117
(Durkheim, ‘Egoistic Suicide’) (Learn), 118-128 (Durkheim, ‘Anomic Suicide’) (Learn)
Further Readings
Avner Offer, The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and
Britain since 1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 28-30, 138-153.
Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A Reader (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 170-173 (Hobbes, Leviathan) (Learn) and 251-260
(Smith, ‘The Division of Labour’) (Learn).
Friday 27/09/12: The Self and Mutual Susceptibility
This session explores sociological views of the self, especially that first proposed by
George Herbert Mead, and considers examples drawn from medicine and the classroom
of how human beings are ‘mutually susceptible’ (strongly affected by how others regard
them). We conclude with Goffman’s now famous argument of how, in order to
produce a desirable ‘self,’ we sometimes deliberately manipulate social situations.
Key Readings
John P. Hewitt, Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 2007), pp. 54-59, 66-69 and 111-113.
Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Edinburgh: Social Sciences
Research Centre, 1956; or later editions), chapter one, ‘Performances’. (Learn, essay
and tutorial topic readings)
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Scott Barrett, Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of Environmental Treaty-Making (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 3-5. (Please don’t read until after your tutorial in
week 2.) (Learn, essay and tutorial topic readings)
Further Readings
Barry Barnes, The Elements of Social Theory (London: UCL Press, 1995), pp. 53-60. (Learn)
Thomas J. Scheff, ‘Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System’, American
Sociological Review 53 (1988): 395-406. (Learn)
Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (London: Allen Lane,
2005), pp. 18-34. (Learn)
Tuesday 01/10/13: Social Networks and Social Capital
This session discusses the importance of networks of relationships amongst people who
know each other personally, and of the patterns of ties in such networks. We will
explore Putnam’s argument that the strength of social networks (an aspect of what is
called ‘social capital’) is a crucial explanation of a wide range of phenomena, including
health, happiness and prosperity.
Key Readings
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York:
Touchstone, 2001), pp. 18-19, 290-295 and 326-335. (Learn)
Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A Reader (Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 283-290 (‘Groups and Networks’), and 299-309
(Granovetter, ‘Strength of Weak Ties’). (Learn)
Further Reading
Ronald S. Burt, Brokerage and Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005), pp. 10-19, 93-97 and 167-169. (Learn)
Friday 04/10/2013: Imitation
A powerful aspect of social behaviour is the propensity of human beings to imitate each
other. In this session, focusing on the sometimes worrying power which social groups
can exert over us, we will examine the phenomenon of mass suicide and review the
classic experimental work on this topic done by Solomon Asch and Muzafer Sherif. We
will also discuss examples of the implications of imitation, including how it influences
eating disorders, behaviour in the stock market and judgements of the attractiveness of
the opposite sex.
Key Readings
Asch, S.E. 1959. ‘Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of
Judgments’. Pp. 174-183 in Readings in Social Psychology, edited by Eleanor E. Macoby,
Theodore M. Newcombe and Eugene L. Hartley. London: Methuen. (Learn)
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James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds (London: Little, Brown, 2004), pp. 3-22. (Learn)
Further Readings
Robert Baron, et al., Social Psychology (12th Ed.) (London: Pearson International Student
Editions, 2008), Chapter 8: ‘Social Influence.’
Benedict C. Jones, et al., ‘Social Transmission of Face Preferences Among Humans,’
Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274 (2007): 899-903. (Learn)
Mervat Nasser and Melanie Katzman, ‘Sociocultural Theories of Eating Disorders: An
Evolution in Thought’. Pp. 139-150 in Handbook of Eating Disorders, edited by Janet
Treasure, Ulrike Schmidt and Eric van Furth (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, second edition 2003).
(Learn)
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UNIT 2: Identity and Diversity (Weeks 4-5) Lynn
Jamieson
The first unit has already given you the idea that individuals and societies are mutually
constructed. In other words, the sort of person that you are is shaped by the society or
societies you inhabit but at the same time you participate in making that society or
societies. Another way of saying this is that we are all products of our time since all
social worlds are historically specific, even although we all participate in making history.
As Karl Marx put it ‘Men [we would now use the more gender neutral language, people]
make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under
self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and
transmitted from the past.’
Being influenced by the societies we inhabit does not make us all the same. This is not
just about whatever genetic differences we inherit but because, even at one time, societies
are made up of distinct social worlds in which people inhabit more or less advantaged
circumstances. Differences might be subtle or they might involve very distinct social
divisions and inequalities. In some historical periods and places systems of gender, caste,
social class, religious and ethnic division have created very separate, distinctive and
hierarchically-ordered social worlds within the same society. In this unit, we look at the
interaction between social worlds and an individual’s identity or sense of self. An
overarching question is: how much freedom do we have in a liberal democratic society
like the one we inhabit here and now to be whatever kind of person we want to be?
The readings you have done for the first unit are also helpful with this one. In addition to
the classic theorist some of whom featured in unit 1 (Emile Durkheim, Karl Mark, Max
Weber, Sigmund Freud and George Herbert Mead), the French sociologist Pierre
Bourdieu is introduced. Try looking each up in a Social Science dictionary; do not simply
rely on Wikipedia. Another task is to become comfortable with definitions of each of the
following: gender, sexuality, sexism, homophobia, social class, ethnicity, racism. You
should be confident that you can explain the definitions you are using and are able to
locate your usage by reference to social science literature.
Week 4
Tuesday 08/10/2013: Identity, Self-Interest, Social Solidarity and Social Order
The first lecture looks at the concept of identity and its inter-changeability with the
concept of the self. It draws on a number of different traditions of theory suggesting
ways of seeing the interconnections between social divisions, self identity and remaking
or sustaining societies – considering the pursuit of self-interest versus collective or group
interest and in either case, self-conscious versus habitual or unthinking practices.
Finally the lecture introduces the idea that, at least those of us who make up the minority
of the globe’s population living in rich, high-consumption, ‘developed’ societies, we are
more self aware and self obsessed than in previous historical eras.
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Key Readings
Hewitt, J. P. (2007) Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn
and Bacon, 94-108) but remember that the term identity is used in a range of ways and
sociologists do not necessarily limit themselves to the usages introduced here.
From Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A Reader (Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press, 2003, ‘Max Weber ‘Types of social action’ and ‘types of
legitimate domination’; Karl Marx ‘the production of consciousness’; ‘the Origins of
Belief’ Emile Durkeim; extract from Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents; and
from Mead, G.H. (2003) Mind, Self and Society and Michael Hechter, Debra Friedman and
Satsoshi Kanazawa ‘the Attainment of Social Order in Heterogeneous Societies’[all in
Hechter and Horne]
Giddens, A. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Further Readings
(Don’t be put off by any bits you do not understand. This is inevitable when pieces are
discussing difficult material you have not read. Just try to get what you can.)
Connolly, P (1998) Racism, Gender Identities and Young Children: Social Relations in a
Multi-Ethnic Inner-City Primary School. London: Routledge. 17-27 on Pierre Bourdieu
[e-book via library]
Fowler, B. 2003. 'Reading Pierre Bourdieu's Masculine Domination : notes towards an
intersectional analysis of gender, culture and class'. Cultural Studies 17: 468 - 494. [an ejournal available from LEARN or through the library catalogue]
Giddens A 1984 The Constitution of Society Cambridge: Polity, chapter 1.
Holdsworth, C. and Morgan, D. 2007. 'Revisiting the Generalized Other: An
Exploration'. Sociology 41: 401-417 [an e-journal] (Learn).
Try looking up ‘identity’ in a recent sociology text book or a Social Science dictionary
Friday 11/10/2013: Gender Identity, Sexuality, Sexism and Homophobia
There have been significant social changes in the socially acceptable possibilities of
masculinity, femininity and sexual expression as aspects of identity since the 1950s. At
the same time gender violence and sexism remain part of our social world. This lecture
reviews the sociological case that gender and sexuality are profoundly socially shaped and
interlinked identities. It considers the relationship between social change in gender and
sexuality and our complicity in gender and sexual hierarchies.
Key Readings
West, C. and Zimmerman, D. 1987. 'Doing Gender'. Gender and Society 1: 125-151. [ejournal] (Learn)
Connell, R.W. and Messerschmidt, J.W. 2005. 'Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the
Concept'. Gender and Society 19: 829-859.
Phipps, A. (2009). 'Rape and Respectability: Ideas about Sexual Violence and Social
Class'. Sociology 43: 667-683. [e-journal] (Learn)
17
Pascoe , C.J. (2007) Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley:
University of California Press, particularly p1-5 and chapter 3 (Learn)
Jamieson, L. (1998) Intimacy: Personal relationships in modern societies Cambridge: Polity Press.
Chapter 5 ‘sex and intimacy’ (Learn).
Further Readings
O’Connor, P (2006) ‘Young People’s Constructions of the Self: Late Modern Elements
and Gender Differences’ Sociology 40, 107-124 [e-journal ] (Learn)
Charles, N (2002) Gender in Modern Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, start with
chapter 1 Theorising Gender.
Eder, D (1995) School Talk: Gender and Adolescent Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press
Frosh, S, Phoenix, Ann, A and Pattman, R (2002) Young Masculinities. Basingstoke:
Palgrave, pages 1-7 and chapter 4 ‘Boys talking about girls’ (Learn)
Shaw, A (2005) ‘Is It a Boy or a Girl?: The Challenge of Genital Ambiguity’ in Alison
Shaw and Shirley Ardener (eds.) Changing Sex and Bending Gender. Oxford: Berghahn
Books.
Jackson, S. and Scott, S.(2010) 'Rehabilitating Interactionism for a Feminist Sociology of
Sexuality'. Sociology 44: 811-826 [e-journal] (Learn).
Gagnon, J and Simon, W. (1973) Sexual Conduct: The Social Sources of Human Sexuality
Chicago: Aldine, chapter 2
Try the section on gender and sexuality in a recent sociology text book or the overview at
the beginning of Beasley, Chris Gender & Sexuality: Critical Theories, Critical Thinkers
(London: Sage, 2005) or the introduction to Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott, Theorizing
Sexuality: (Open University Press, 2010).
Week 5
Tuesday 15/10/2013: Class Identity and Classism
Some social scientists claimed that social change over the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries included the death of social class as significant source of identity in rich
societies. On many objective measures, for example, who goes to university and gains
admission to high status institutions, measurable social class differences persist, whether
or not people feel they belong to social classes. In our popular culture, lampooning class
differences continues to be a standard part of British humour. A number of researchers
document continued differences in life-styles that underpin social class. Val Gillies, for
example, documents class differences in styles of parenting which help to transmit
different senses of entitlement to privilege. The work of Pierre Bourdieu is drawn on as
theorising how objective differences in access to economic, social and cultural capital are
translated into different embodied dispositions, ensuring the habitual unthinking
continuance of social class distinctions as a fundamental aspect of identities.
Key Readings
Gillies, V (2005) ‘Raising the “Meritocracy” Parenting and the Individualization of Social
Class’ Sociology 39, 835-853 [an e-journal] (Learn).
18
MacDonald, R, Shildrick, T. Webster, C. and Simpson D. (2005) ‘Growing Up in Poor
Neighbourhoods: The Significance of Class and Place in the Extended Transitions of
“Socially Excluded” Young Adults’ Sociology, 39, 873-891, [e-journal] (Learn)
Evans, S. (2009). 'In a Different Place: Working-class Girls and Higher Education'.
Sociology 43: 340-355.
Southerton, D (2002) ‘Boundaries of “Us” and “Them”: Class, Mobility and
Identification in a New Town’ Sociology [e-journal] (Learn)
de Castro, R (2004) ‘Otherness in me, Otherness in others. Children’s and youth’s
constructions of self and others’ Childhood 11, 469-493, 2004 [e-journal] (Learn) This
article begins with discussion of the social division between adults and children before
discussing how children in Brazil react to differences among themselves. The part
relevant here is their discussion of socio-economic difference. Brazil is a society with very
visible social inequalities between rich and poor. Note how the discussion is also very
gendered and sometimes incorporates sexism and racism as well as social class.
Further Readings
Christie, H. (2009) “Emotional journeys: young people and transitions to university”
British Journal of Sociology of Education 30, 123–136, .[e-journal] (Learn)
Jamieson, L. (2000). 'Migration, place and class: youth in a rural area '. Sociological Review
48: 203-223.[e-journal] (Learn)
Lareau, A (2003) Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life Berkeley: University of
California Press, chapter 3
Lawler, S (1999) ‘Getting Out and Getting Away: Women’s Narratives of Class Mobility’
Feminist Review 63, 3-24. [e-journal] (Learn)
Reynolds, T (2000) ‘Black Women and Social Class Identity’ in Sally Munt (ed.) Cultural
Studies and the Working Class: Subject to change. London: Cassell (Learn)
Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. (2009). 'The Transformation of Intimacy: Classed Identities in
the Moral Economy of Reality Television' in Wetherell, M. (ed.) Identity in the 21st Century:
New Trends in Changing Times. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Taylor, Y. 'Complexities and Complications: Intersections of class and sexuality' in
Taylor, Y., Hines, S. and Casey, E. (eds.) Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Look up social class in a recent sociology text book or a Social Science dictionary.
Friday 18/10/2013: Ethnic Identity and Racism
In this lecture we look at how ethnicity, ‘race’ and racism impact on relationships and
identities of young people.
Key Readings
Carter B. and Virdee S. (2008) ‘Racism and the Sociological Imagination’ The British
Journal of Sociology 59, 661-679 [e-journal] (Learn)
Connolly, P (2000) ‘Racism and Young Girls’ Peer-group Relations: The Experience of
South Asian Girls’ Sociology 34, 499-519 [e-journal] (Learn)
19
Kyriakides, C., Virdee, S. and Modood, T. (2009). 'Racism, Muslims and the National
Imagination'. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35: 289-308. [e-journal] (Learn)
Shah, B., Dwyer, C. and Modood, T. 2010. 'Explaining Educational Achievement and
Career Aspirations among Young British Pakistanis: Mobilizing 'Ethnic Capital'?' Sociology
44: 1109-1127.
Twine, F.W. 2004. 'A White Side of Black Britain: The Concept of Racial Literacy'. Ethnic
and Racial Studies 27. [e-journal] (Learn)
Further Readings
Back, L (1996) New Ethnicities and Urban Culture: Racism and Multiculture in Young Lives.
London: UCL Press, chapter 3 ‘“Neighbourhood Nationalism”: Youth, Race, Nation,
Identity.’
Clark, I & Moody, S. (2002) Racist Crime and Victimisation in Scotland, HMS0.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2002/05/14608/3649
Kidd, S. and Jamieson, L. Experiences of Muslims Living in Scotland Scottish
Government Social Research, 2011
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/03/08091838/14
Mac an Ghaill, M (1994) The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and Schooling.
Buckingham: Open University Press, chapter 2 ‘Local student cultures of masculinity and
sexuality’.
See also the article from Tuesday’s lecture by de Castro about children and young
people’s views of social divisions and differences in Brazil.
Reay, D., Crozier, G. and James, D. 2011. White Middle Class Identities and Urban Schooling
Basingstoke: Palgrave.
20
UNIT 3: Digital Societies: (Weeks 6-8) Kate OrtonJohnson
This unit will argue that digital technologies have transformed the way we experience our
social lives and have shaped the ways in which we connect (and disconnect) with each
other and wider society. The unit will explore these debates by considering the ways in
which our social spaces, relationships and activities are mediated by and through digital
technologies.
The unit begins with ideas about space and place– asking questions about what it means
to live in a networked society and what it means when boundaries of time, geography and
culture are eroded by information and communication flows. We will explore the ways in
which technology is changing how we communicate and manage personal relationships
and ask questions about how technology has shaped the ways in which culture and
knowledge is negotiated in digital environments.
General reading
Baym, N. (2010) Personal Connections in the Digital Age London, Polity Press
Castells, M. (2009) The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and
Culture Volume I. 2nd Edition London, Wiley-Blackwell
Castells, M. (2009) The Power of Identity: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture
Volume II. 2nd Edition London, Wiley-Blackwell
Curran, J. Fenton, N. & Freedman, D. (2012) Misunderstanding the Internet London,
Routledge
Miller, V. (2011) Understanding Digital Culture London, Sage
Rainie, J. & Wellman, B. (2012) Networked: The New Social Operating System Cambridge MA,
MIT Press
Wellman, B. & Haythornthwaite, C. (Eds.) (2002) The Internet in Everyday Life Malden MA,
Blackwell Publishing
Wessels, B. (2010) Understanding the Internet. A Socio-cultural perspective. London, Palgrave
MacMillan
Orton-Johnson, K. & Prior, N. (2013) Digital Sociology, Critical Perspectives London,
Palgrave
Papacharissi, Z. (2011) A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network
Sites. London, Routledge
Turkle, S (2011) Alone Together. Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New
York, Basic Books
21
Useful websites
http://www.pewinternet.org/ Home of the Pew Internet and American Life Project – a
wealth of resources
http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/main.html NetLab and Barry Wellman’s
home page –lots of articles available online
Online Journals
This unit makes use of a number of key journals in the field of Internet studies.
Information Communication and Society, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication and New
Media and Society are available via the electronic journal search via the library catalogue
and I would encourage you to search through the contents list to find additional readings
of interest.
WEEK 6
Tuesday 22/10/13
Ubiquity, Community and the Network Society.
This session will look at the various ways in which digital technologies have become part
of our social lives. We will explore the rise of what has been called the ‘networked’ or
‘information’ society and look at the ways in which our lives are increasingly digitally
mediated by ubiquitous technologies. The lecture will use the example of ‘community’ to
consider the impact of a dissolution of temporal and geographical boundaries and will
look at the ways in which the internet can be seen to be a tool and a space that
strengthens community or, conversely, as a technology that erodes and weakens
traditional forms of connectivity.
Readings:
Core Reading
Chapter 1 ‘The new social operating system of networked individualism’ and chapter 3
‘The Internet Revolution’. In Rainie, J. & Wellman, B. (2012) Networked: The New Social
Operating System Cambridge MA, MIT Press
Beer, D. & Burrows, R. (2007) Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial
Considerations Sociological Research Online, vol. 12, no. 5,
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/12/5/17.html
Evans, K. (2013) ‘Re-Thinking Community in the Digital Age’. In Orton-Johnson, K &
Prior, N (2013) Digital Sociology, Critical Perspectives London, Palgrave
Recommended additional reading
The UK's online obsession: the latest Ofcom figures for media consumption
22
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/dec/13/uk-online-obsession-ofcomlatest-figures#data
Baym, N. (1998). The emergence of on-line community. In S. Jones (Ed.), Cybersociety 2.0:
Revisiting computer-mediated communication and community, (pp. 35-68). Thousand Oaks, CA,
Sage
Chapter 4 ‘Communities and Networks’. In Baym, N. (2010) Personal Connections in the
Digital Age London, Polity Press
Castells, M. (2009) The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society, and
Culture Volume I. 2nd Edition London, Wiley-Blackwell
Donath, J. (1999). Identity and deception in the virtual community. In M. Smith, & P.
Kollock (Eds.), Communities in cyberspace, (pp. 29-59). New York, Routledge. Also available
online: http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html
Chapter 5 ‘Social Media and the Problem of Community: Space, Relationships,
Networks.’ In Miller, V. (2011) Understanding Digital Culture London, Sage
Rheingold, H. The Virtual Community Online Version.
http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html
Wellman, B. & Hampton, K. (1999) Living Networked On and Off Line Contemporary
Sociology, Vol. 28 No. 6., pp, 648-654
http://www.mysocialnetwork.net/downloads/onandoff.pdf
Wellman, B. & Milena, G. (1999) Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities As
Communities. In Wellman, B. (Ed.) Networks in the Global Village. Boulder, CO, Westview
Press. pp.331-367.
http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/netsurfers/netsurfers.pdf
Friday 25/10/13
Social networking: digitally mediated friendships and relationships
Virtual environments are increasingly used to socialise, communicate and connect with
friends and strangers. What implications does 'being there together' have for social
relationships? This lecture will consider the ways in which mediated communications and
forms of social networking are shaping our interpersonal relationships and identities.
What impact does microblogging and vast networks of ‘friends’ have on our sense of self
and on how we negotiate our social networks? How do relationships move between
online and offline spaces? What potentials and what risks are afforded by digitally
mediated communication and relationships? What impact does perpetual contact and
digital memory have on our self-identity?
Readings:
Core reading
Fenton, N (2012) ‘The internet and social networking’. In Curran, J. Fenton, N. &
23
Freedman, D. (2012) Misunderstanding the Internet London, Routledge
Jamieson, L (2013) ‘Personal relationships, Intimacy and the Self in a Mediated and
Global Digital Age’. In Orton-Johnson, K. & Prior, N. (2013) Digital Sociology, Critical
Perspectives London, Palgrave
Chapter 5 ‘Networked Relationships’. In Rainie, J. & Wellman, B . (2012) Networked: The
New Social Operating System Cambridge MA, MIT Press
Wellman, B & Rainie If Romeo and Juliet had mobile phones
http://networked.pewinternet.org/2012/07/09/if-romeo-and-juliet-had-mobilephones/
Recommended additional reading
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies Volume 26 issue 3 focusing on Mediated
Youth cultures: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ccon20/26/3#.UdKikj5AQbG
(There are a number of useful articles in this special edition which related to this unit)
Information, Communication & Society Volume 10 Issue 5 2007 issue on e-Relationships
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rics20/10/5 (There are a number of useful articles in
this special edition which related to this unit)
Chapter 5 ‘New Relationships, New Selves?’. In Baym, N. (2010) Personal Connections in the
Digital Age London, Polity Press
Boyd, D. (2007) Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked
Publics in Teenage Social Life. In Buckingham, D. (Ed.) (2007) MacArthur Foundation
Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press. http://www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf
Cassell, J. & Cramer, M. (2007) Hi Tech or High Risk? Moral Panics about Girls Online
In MacPherson, T. (Ed.) Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected: The MacArthur
Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 53-75
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262633590chap3.pdf
LaRose, Kim, J. and Peng, W (2011) Social Networking. Addictive, compulsive,
problematic, or just another media habit? In Papacharissi, Z. (2011) A Networked Self:
Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. London, Routledge
Chapter 4 ‘Digital Identity.’ In Miller, V. (2011) Understanding Digital Culture London, Sage
Turkle, S (2011) Alone Together. Why we expect more from technology and less from each other New
York, Basic Books
WEEK 7
Tuesday 29/10/13
Consuming Mediated culture
24
The rise of social networks and online communities of interest have created powerful
networks of people that can create and share information, globally and immediately. This
has important implications for traditional media and for the ways in which we produce
and consume culture. Is traditional media losing its monopoly over how we consume
information? Does the internet enhance the scope for individualism and creativity, or
does it homogenize society and simply provide more options for consumption and
entertainment?
Readings:
Core reading
Chapter 7 ‘ Participatory culture: mobility, interactivity and identity’. In Creeber, G
(2008) Digital Culture: Understanding New Media Milton Keynes: Open University Press
Kaye, B (2011) ‘Between Barack and a Net Place. Motivations for Using Social Network
Sites and Blogs for Political Information’. In Papacharissi, Z. (2011) A Networked Self:
Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. London, Routledge
Chapter 8 ‘Networked creators’ and chapter 9 ‘Networked Information’. In Rainie, J. &
Wellman, B. (2012) Networked: The New Social Operating System Cambridge MA, MIT Press
Social Media and Egypt’s Revolution (link to Cyborgology webpages)
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/02/16/recap-social-media-and-egypt/
Recommended additional reading
Baym, N. K. (2007). The new shape of online community: The example of Swedish
independent music fandom. First Monday, volume 12, number 8
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1978/1853
Bruns, A. & Jacobs, J. (Eds) (2006) Uses of Blogs (Digital Formations) London: Peter Lang
Publishing
Burgess, J. & Green, J. (2008) YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Gray, J. & Mittell, J. (2010) ‘Speculation on Spoilers: Lost Fandom, Narrative
Consumption and Rethinking Textuality’. Particip@tions 4.1
http://www.participations.org/Volume 4/Issue 1/4_01_graymittell.htm
Hartley, J (2008) YouTube, digital literacy and the growth of knowledge. In Media,
Communication and Humanity Conference 2008 at LSE, 21-23 September 2008,
London. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18013/1/c18013.pdf
Jenkins, H (2008) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide New York, New
York University Press
Johnson, T, Zhang, W. Bichard, S. & Seltzer, T. (2011) ‘United we Stand? Online Social
Network sites and Civic Engagement’. In Papacharissi, Z. (2011) A Networked Self:
Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. London, Routledge
25
Rheingold, H (2003) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution New York, Perseus Books
Walker, J. (2008) Blogging (Digital Media and Society) London: Polity Press
Welcome to the social media revolution. Viewpoint by Marc Benioff
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18013662
Friday 01/11/13
Power and knowledge in the networked society
The internet has had a profound effect on the ways in which information and knowledge
is generated, consumed and distributed. What does this mean for institutions traditionally
considered to be sources of formal and valid knowledge or for individuals held to be
gatekeepers of professional knowledge and expertise? Using the examples of the
university and the medical profession this session will explore the ways in which new
models of knowledge generation and circulation provide ‘consumers’ with a wealth of
resources but also with the challenges of establishing the ‘truth’ and ‘validity’ of online
information.
Readings:
Core reading
Kivitz, J (2013) ‘E-Health and Renewed Sociological approaches to Health and illness’.
In Orton-Johnson, K. & Prior, N. (2013) Digital Sociology, Critical Perspectives London,
Palgrave
Nettleton, S. Burrows, R. and O’Malley, L. (2005) ‘The Mundane Realities of the
Everyday Lay Use of the Internet for Health and their Consequences for Media
Convergence’ Sociology of Health and Illness 27, 7, 972-992.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/shil.2005.27.issue-7/issuetoc
Selwyn, N. (2013) ‘Rethinking Education in the Digital Age’. In Orton-Johnson, K. &
Prior, N. (2013) Digital Sociology, Critical Perspectives London, Palgrave
Jimmy Wales: Boring university lectures 'are doomed' By Sean Coughlan BBC News education
correspondent (May 2013)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22160988
Recommended additional reading
UK universities in online launch to challenge US
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20697392
Bayne, S (2008) Uncanny spaces for higher education: teaching and learning in virtual
worlds. Alt-J, Research in Learning Technology, Vol. 16 (3), pp. 197-205.
http://www.malts.ed.ac.uk/staff/sian/pdfs/bayne_altj_published.pdf
Hirji, J (2004) Freedom or Folly? Canadians and the Consumption of Online Health
Information. Information, Communication & Society
26
7 (4) 445 – 465 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118042000305593
Kivitz, J (2004) Researching the ‘informed patient’ The case of online health information
seekers. Information, Communication & Society 7 (4) 510-530
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118042000305629
Land, R. and Bayne, S., (eds) (2011) Digital differences: perspectives on online education,
Rotterdam: Sense Publishers
Selwyn. N. (2012) Education in a Digital World: Global Perspectives on Technology and
Education London, Routledge
WEEK 8
Tuesday 05/11/13
Exclusion, inclusion and the digital divide
Far from opening up accessible networks of communication and opportunity,
technologies have the potential, without policy intervention, to create and exacerbate
existing inequalities in society. This final session will examine the concept of the ‘digital
divide’ which contributes to material, social and educational inequality and we will
explore aspects of gendered, generational and geographical digital inequality.
Readings:
Core reading
Chapter 7 ‘Exclusion, Inclusion and the Internet’. In Wessels, B. (2010) Understanding the
Internet. A Socio-cultural perspective. London Palgrave MacMillan
Van Dijk, (2013) Inequalities in the Network Society. In Orton-Johnson, K. & Prior, N.
(2013) Digital Sociology, Critical Perspectives London, Palgrave
Chapter 4 Digital inequality: Social, political and infrastructural contexts’ In Miller, V.
(2011) Understanding Digital Culture London, Sage
Moyo, L. (2009) ‘The Digital Divide: Scarcity, inequality and conflict’. In Creeber, G. &
Martin, R. (2009) Digital Cultures. Understanding New Media Maidenhead, Open University
Press
Recommended additional reading
Eynon, R. and Helsper, E. (2011) Adults Learning Online: Digital Choice and/or Digital
Exclusion? New Media and Society 13 (4) 534-551.
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/13/4/534.refs
Goode, J. (2010) The digital identity divide: how technology knowledge impacts college
students New Media & Society vol. 12 no. 3 497-513
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/12/3/497.abstract
27
Hargittai, E. & Walejko, G. (2008) The participation divide: Content creation and sharing
in the digital age, Information, Communication & Society, Vol 11, Issue pp 239 – 256
http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1369118X&volume=11&issue=2&spage=239
Livingstone, S. & Helsper, E. (2007) Gradations in digital inclusion: children, young
people and the digital divide New Media & Society vol. 9 no. 4 671-696
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/9/4/671.abstract
Selwyn, N. (2004) Reconsidering Political and Popular Understandings of the Digital
Divide New Media & Society June 2004 vol. 6 no. 3 341-362
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/6/3/341.abstract
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UNIT 4: Transnationalism, Culture and Global
Society (Weeks 8-10): Donald MacKenzie
We began Sociology 1a with the ‘little’, with the individual and society. We end it with the
‘big’, with global processes: indeed, in the final session we turn to the very large scale,
examining the thesis put forward by the American sociologist John Meyer that in an
important sense ‘global society’ is the level at which sociologists should be looking.
We will discover, however, that the basic sociological ideas introduced in unit 1 remain
useful on this bigger canvas. (The themes discussed in units 2 and 3 can also be explored
at this level too.) We will, however, find that we also need another idea, largely implicit
earlier in the course: the idea of ‘culture’.
General reading
In the background of our discussion in this unit is the general issue of globalisation: the
flows of people, ideas, things and money across national boundaries around the world,
and the shaping of social processes within one ‘nation’ by wider international and global
processes. For two very different introductions to the idea of globalisation, take a look at:
Steger, M.B. (2009) Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, Oxford University
Press. Does what it says on the tin. It’s not profound, but it is a useful way in to the
topic, and it is indeed short.
O’Byrne, D.J. & Hensby, A. (2011) Theorizing Global Studies. Basingstoke, Hants, Palgrave
Macmillan. More sophisticated, and of course longer, than Steger. Particularly useful for
us are chapters 5 and 6, dealing with globalisation and culture, but the other chapters are
also worth dipping into.
WEEK 8
Friday 08/11/13: Globalisation and migration.
This session will introduce the notion of globalisation, and begin our discussion of
international migration, focussing today on the reasons people migrate. We will employ
Douglas Massey’s influential synthesis of theories of migration, and examine the
applicability of these theories to the main case of migration that we are discussing, the
flow of Mexican migrants to the United States.
Key Readings
Massey D.S. (1999) Why Does Immigration Occur? A Theoretical Synthesis. In C.
Hirschman, P. Kasinitz and J. DeWind (Eds) The Handbook of International Migration: The
American Experience. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 34-52.
Massey D.S. & Espinosa K.E. (1997) What’s Driving Mexico-U.S. Migration? A
Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Analysis. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 102 No. 4,
pp. 939-99. (Learn)
Further Readings
Sanderson M.R. & Kentor J.D. (2009) Globalisation, Development and International
Migration: A Cross-National Analysis of Less-Developed Countries, Social Forces, Vol. 88
29
No. 1, pp. 301-336. A helpful discussion of a wider set of evidence than Mexico-U.S.
migration. (Learn)
Castles S. & Miller M.J. (2009) The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the
Modern World. Fourth edition, Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan. The standard
textbook on migration: not very well-developed theoretically (Massey 1999 is clearer), but
lots of information and useful discussion.
WEEKS 9 & 10
Tuesday 12/11/13: Transnationalism and the Migrant Experience.
In the 1990s, researchers started to focus on migrant populations that kept up active
links to their home societies, a phenomenon that, following an influential 1992 article by
Nina Glick Schiller and colleagues, was christened ‘transnationalism’ or ‘transmigration’.
In this session, we will examine that idea and discuss a critique of it by sociologists Roger
Waldinger and David Fitzgerald. We will weigh up the different positions by drawing on
the best single study of the phenomenon, Robert Courtney Smith’s Mexican New York.
Key Readings
Glick Schiller N., Basch L. & Blanc-Szanton C. (1992) Transnationalism: A New Analytic
Framework for Understanding Migration. In Glick Schiller N., Basch L., & BlancSzanton C. (Eds) Towards A Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity, and
Nationalism Reconsidered. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, pp. 1-24.
Vertovec S. (1999) Conceiving and Researching Transnationalism. Ethnic and Racial
Studies, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 447-462. (Learn)
Waldinger R. & Fitzgerald D. (2004) Transnationalism in Question. American Journal of
Sociology, Vol. 109 No. 5, pp. 1177-1195. (Learn)
Smith, R. C. (2006) Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of Immigrants. Berkeley, CA,
University of California Press. Because this book was published back in 2006, I
interviewed Rob Smith, who has kept in active touch with the community on which the
book is based, in New York in May 2013. A transcript of our conversation is in Learn.
Please do not circulate this transcript outside of Sociology 1a. (Learn)
Further Readings
Vertovec, S. (2009) Transnationalism. Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge. A broader discussion
of transnationalism by a proponent of the idea.
Cohen R. (1995) Rethinking ‘Babylon’: Iconoclastic Conceptions of the Diasporic
Experience. New Community, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 5-18. Much of what recent authors call
‘transnationalism’ is also captured by the much older idea of the diaspora, and Cohen
provides an interesting discussion of this.
Guarnizo L.E., Portes A. & Haller W. (2003) Assimilation and Transnationalism:
Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants. American
Journal of Sociology, Vol. 108 No. 6, pp. 1211-1248. An empirical discussion of
transnational political action, which finds that it is a real phenomenon but relatively
limited in its scope and powers. (Learn)
30
Friday 15/11/13: Making Nations
Waldinger and Fitzgerald remind us of the importance of the forces that seek to
reproduce ‘container societies’ (societies with strong boundaries between ‘inside’ and
‘outside’), even in the face of globalisation and transnationalism. The most important
form of container society is the ‘nation’, and this session turns to that, using Scotland as
its main example.
‘[W]hat if Scotland only exists in the imagination? – if its potent imagery has
overpowered a puny reality?’, asks David McCrone in Understanding Scotland (second
edition, p.127). In this session, we will examine how ‘Scotland’ has been forged
culturally, focussing in particular on the change that took place from other Scots viewing
Highlanders with ‘contempt occasionally sharpened by fear’ (H. Trevor-Roper, The
Invention of Scotland, p.83) to the embracing of the Highlands as the essence of Scotland.
We will then broaden the discussion to examine the senses in which all nations are
culturally made, and in which nationalism is not age-old, but a phenomenon of
modernity.
Key Readings
McCrone D. (2001) Understanding Scotland: The Sociology of a Nation. Second edition.
London: Routledge, chapter 6, pp. 127-148. (Learn)
Trevor-Roper H. (1983) The Invention of Traditions: The Highland Tradition of
Scotland. In Hobsbawm E. & Ranger T. (Eds) The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp. 15-42. Get the gist of Trevor-Roper’s argument, but
beware the fact that the account of the invention of the short kilt is probably wrong.
Gellner E. (1964) Thought and Change. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, chapter 7, pp.
147-178. A classic statement of the modernity of nations and of nationalism.
Smith A.D. (1986) The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, chapter 1,
especially pp. 13-16. Smith marshals arguments against the modernist account of nations
and nationalism (such as by Gellner), but presents a strongly culturally-inflected account
of their ethnic origins.
Further Readings
Trevor-Roper H. (2008) The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, chapter 1. New Haven,
CN: Yale University Press, pp. 3-32. Again, get the gist: not all the detail is correct. In
particular, the distinction between P-Celtic and Q-Celtic is contentious.
Anderson B. (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
London: Verso. (Also feel free to use the 2006 second edition.) The whole book is worth
dipping into, but start with chapter 1, which ends with a crucial question raised by the
modernist account of nationalism: ‘what makes the shrunken imaginings of recent history
(scarcely more than two centuries) generate such colossal sacrifices?’
Tuesday 19/11/13: Culture
Anderson answers the question at the end of his first chapter as follows: ‘I believe that
the beginnings of an answer lie in the cultural roots of nationalism.’ But what is culture,
through which we make nations for which people are prepared to die? The notion of
‘culture’ haunts discussion of globalisation, and it is time to confront the meaning of this
31
complex idea, its advantages and pitfalls, and to discuss whether the latter can be
avoided, and if so how.
Key Readings
Said E.W. (1978) Orientalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Second edition,
Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991. Chapter 1. Said’s is perhaps the most important from
the viewpoint of this section of the warnings of the dangers in the notion of culture.
Swidler A. (1986) Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies. American Sociological Review.
Vol. 51, pp. 273-86. Swidler’s ‘tool-kit’ notion of culture will be the main version of the
idea that we will explore in this session. (Learn)
Markowitz F. (2004) Talking about Culture: Globalisation, Human Rights and
Anthropology. Anthropological Theory Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 329-352. Explores the paradox
that as ‘closed’ container cultures disappear, we seem to want them more, and indeed the
notion of ‘culture’ is often found in expressions of that desire, even by those with no
direct contact with the academic social sciences. (Learn)
Further Readings
Swidler A. (2001) Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
A book-length exposition of Swidler’s view of culture, as applied to the notions of ‘love’
and marriage of ‘middle Americans’.
Derne S. (1992) Beyond Institutional and Impulsive Conceptions of Self: Family
Structure and the Socially Anchored Real Self. Ethos, Vol. 20, No. 3, Pp. 259-287.
Perhaps a whiff of ‘orientalism’ here, but a useful contrast to the picture drawn by
Swidler. (Learn)
Greenwald A.G., McGhee D.E. and Schwartz J.L.K. (1998) Measuring Individual
Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology. Vol. 74, No. 6, pp. 1464-1480. Although they don’t seem to know
Swidler’s work, and she doesn’t seem to know theirs, it’s a powerful warning against
taking the ‘tool-kit’ view of culture in too facile a fashion. (Learn)
Friday 22/11/13: World Society
‘Culture’ plays an important role in the theorisation of globalisation with which we shall
end: John Meyer’s ‘world society’ thesis. In this final session we will examine and assess
this thesis, e.g. contrasting it with realism in political science.
Key Readings
It’s worth reading two of the papers in which Meyer explains the ‘world society’ thesis.
Although the argument in both is largely the same, the different ways in which it is
developed are helpful in understanding the idea.
Meyer J.W., Boli J., Thomas G.M. & Ramirez F.O. (1997) World Society and the NationState. American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 103, No. 1, pp. 144-81. (Learn)
Meyer J.W. (2009) Reflections: Institutional Theory and World Society. In Krücken G. &
Drori G.S. (Eds) World Society: The Writings of John W. Meyer. Oxford University Press, pp.
36-63.
32
Hafner-Burton E.M. & Tsutsui K. (2005) Human Rights in a Globalising World: The
Paradox of Empty Promises. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 110, No. 5, pp. 1373-1411.
Discusses a plausible mechanism by which global human-rights norms can affect humanrights practice, even though many states’ adherence to those norms begins as ‘empty
promises’. (Learn)
Further Readings
Meyer’s ‘world society’ thesis emerged in part from his previous work on the sociology of
organisations, for which the key reference is:
Meyer J.W. & Rowan B. (1977) Institutionalised Organisations: Formal Structure as Myth
and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 83, No. 2, pp. 340-363. Although this
article is on the sociology of organisations, it provides the intellectual background to
Meyer’s work on world society. See, e.g., the emphasis on ‘isomorphism’ of
organisational form, and the discussion on pp. 356-7 of the key idea of ‘decoupling’.
(Learn)
Kenneth N. Waltz (1979) Theory of International Politics. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 8899. This is the canonical modern text on realism, a topic which you will also find treated
in any textbook of international relations.
Meyer himself, his collaborators and those influenced by him have produced a large
number of empirical studies that are relevant to the topic. Particularly useful from our
viewpoint are three:
Heger Boyle E. & Preves S.E. (2000) National Politics as International Process: The Case
of Anti-Female-Genital-Cutting Laws. Law & Society Review, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 703-737.
(Learn)
Heger Boyle E. & Carbone-López (2006) Movement Frames and African Women’s
Explanations for Opposing Female Genital Cutting. International Journal of Comparative
Sociology, Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 435-464. (Learn)
Pierotti R.S. (2013) Increasing Rejection of Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence of
Global Cultural Diffusion. American Sociological Review. Vol. 78, No. 2, pp. 240-265.
(Learn)
33
Tutorial Topics
TUTORIAL TOPICS FOR UNIT 1
NO SUCH THING AS SOCIETY
WEEK 1 – NO TUTORIALS
WEEK 2
•
Come ready to discuss the results of the experiment performed in the lecture on
Tuesday of week 1, how you played the ‘ultimatum’ game on Friday of week 1,
and what you answered when faced with the two versions of the Wason
selection task. We’ll also play and discuss a further game (a ‘public goods’ game,
investigating what social scientists call ‘collective action’) in this tutorial. This
game is described in Scott Barrett, Environment and Statecraft: The Strategy of
Environmental Treaty-Making (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 3-5,
but please don’t read this until after the tutorial.
WEEK 3
•
‘Why can’t a woman be more like a man?’ sang Henry Higgins in My Fair
Lady. Read as much as you can of Norah Vincent, Self-Made Man: My Year
Disguised as a Man (London: Atlantic, 2006), which describes an informal
experiment addressing Higgins’s question, in which she attempted, with some
success, to pass as a man. Pp. 20-61 of Self-Made Man are available on Learn
(the ‘Ned’ referred to in the chapter is the ‘man’ Vincent was enacting).
Studying what a woman has to do to pass as a man (or vice versa) is interesting
because it throws light on what men have to do to pass as men, or women to
pass as women: see pp. 180-181 of Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1967). If you want, dip into the remainder
of Garfinkel’s account of ‘Agnes’ (pp. 116-185), although it’s much harder going
than Vincent. ‘Agnes’ was a biologically intersexed person, brought up as a
male, who was seeking to pass as a woman.
Now imagine that you were able to disguise yourself so that you could pass
‘physically’ as a member of the opposite sex (as Vincent did). What would be
involved in behaving as a man or woman? What does this reveal about:
a) roles,
b) norms, and
c) the presentation of self? (Have you, e.g., come across instances of ‘tact’, in
Goffman’s sense of an audience saving a failed self-presentation, for
instance by tacitly ignoring a failure?)
Do you agree that women and men are, in Garfinkel’s words, ‘cultural events that
members [of society] make happen’ (p. 181)?
34
Formatted: Body Text Indent 2, Indent: Left: 0.63 cm, First
line: 0.63 cm
WEEK 4
•
Essay writing skills: this tutorial will review key issues that need to be considered
when writing a University-level essay: planning, relevance, substance, argument,
presentation and referencing
TUTORIAL TOPICS FOR UNIT 2
WEEK 5
Gender and Sexuality
What would be involved in stopping ‘doing gender’? How do you see the relationship
between sexuality and gender?
Discuss with reference to the following:
Candace West and Don Zimmerman (1987) claim that:
Gender is not a property of a person or a role but the product of ‘social doing of
some sort’ and ‘an emergent feature of social situations’;
Our competence as members of society depends on how we ‘do gender’ in social
interaction and in institutional contexts, hence we usually regulate ourselves to
‘do gender’ in ways that demonstrate appropriate “essential” (but actually
conventional) masculinity or femininity;
Sexual identity has to be built on the foundation of gender identity (a claim made
some decades before by Gagnon and Simon) or ‘doing gender’;
Does the introduction of the distinctions ‘sex’, ‘sex category’ and ‘gender’ help
your understanding?
Is the account of West and Zimmerman consistent with Connell and
Messerschmidt’s view that patterns of doing things creating conventional
masculinity and femininity are sustaining gender hierarchy and hegemonic
masculinity?
For a moderated selection of Dailymail reader’s reactions to parents who downplayed
whether their child was a boy or a girl see:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089474/Beck-Laxton-Kieran-Cooper-revealsex-gender-neutral-child-Sasha.html
Readings:
West, C. and Zimmerman, D. 1987. 'Doing Gender'. Gender and Society 1: 125-151. [ejournal] (Learn)
Connell, R.W. and Messerschmidt, J.W. 2005. 'Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the
Concept'. Gender and Society 19: 829-859. [e-journal] (Learn)
WEEK 6
Sexism, homophobia, classism (claims that some social classes are better than others) and
racism involve ‘othering’: the discursive creation of categorical boundaries between
‘them’ and ‘us’. Discuss claims that this kind of talk plays a significant part in sustaining
social divisions, social hierarchies and reproducing social order.
35
Readings: (choose two of the following)
Frosh, S, Phoenix, Ann, A and Pattman, R (2002) Young Masculinities. Basingstoke:
Palgrave, pages 1-7 and chapter 4 ‘Boys talking about girls’ (Learn)
Eder, D (1995) School Talk: Gender and Adolescent Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press (extracts on Learn)
Pascoe , C.J. (2007) Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley:
University of California Pres, particularly p1-5 and chapter 3 (Learn)
Southerton, D (2002) ‘Boundaries of “Us” and “Them”: Class, Mobility and
Identification in a New Town’ Sociology [e-journal] (Learn)
de Castro, R (2004) ‘Otherness in me, Otherness in others. Children’s and youth’s
constructions of self and others’ Childhood 11, 469-493, 2004
Connolly, P (2000) ‘Racism and Young Girls’ Peer-group Relations: The Experience of
South Asian Girls’ Sociology 34, 499-519 [e-journal] (Learn)
Kyriakides, C., Virdee, S. and Modood, T. (2009). 'Racism, Muslims and the National
Imagination'. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35: 289-308. [e-journal] (Learn)
Twine, F.W. 2004. 'A White Side of Black Britain: The Concept of Racial Literacy'. Ethnic
and Racial Studies 27. [e-journal] (Learn)
TUTORIAL TOPICS FOR UNIT 3
Rather than assigning separate readings for the tutorials I would like you to bring along
to the tutorial an example that you think is relevant to the questions posed below. The
example might be an app on your phone, a newspaper story an online image or a
particular website - anything you like. Be prepared to explain why you think it is
interesting and relevant and think about how you might fit into the debates and literature
we have discussed in the lectures.
WEEK 7 – ARE YOU NOMOPHONIC??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomophobia
Millions apparently suffer from "no mobile phobia" which has been given the name
nomophobia.
During the first week of this unit I asked you to experiment with going without
technology for as long as you could. Come to the tutorial prepared to discuss your digital
blackout:
•
•
•
•
•
How long did you manage to go without using your mobile, facebook, email, google
etc?
What did you miss most and least? Is there any technology that you would be glad to
be without?
How different would your life be without digital technologies?
What technological objects do you use to access the internet? How do they fit into
you life?
Do you think the internet and email is changing the way we interact?
After your blackout experiment and before the tutorial have a look at this:
http://theworldunplugged.wordpress.com/
36
WEEK 8
Come to the tutorial prepared to discuss:
How you access information and news (eg for University work, to find out things
you need to know)?
How long do you spend “connected” each day – what does connectivity mean to
you?
Are your internet uses purely personal and within private networks, or do you
participate in ''public activities'' such as writing a blog?
What new forms of media content does the internet facilitate?
Is the internet a platform that encourages collaboration and activism or is it a space
for shopping and leisure?
TUTORIAL TOPICS FOR UNIT 4
WEEK 9
For this week, we would like each tutorial group to divide up into five subgroups.
Everyone should read chapters 1 and 2 of Robert Courtney Smith, Mexican New York:
Transnational Lives of New Immigrants (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006),
then each subgroup should prepare a little presentation on one of the following five
questions:
(a) Describe the mechanisms by which a ‘transnational political community’ (p.11) links
New York and Ticuani. How do ‘local and national processes’ (p. 92) shape it?
(chapters 3 & 4)
(b) Is it true of first-generation Ticuanenses migrants to New York that ‘men lose status
and power in the United States and women gain them’ (p.13)? (chapter 5)
(c) How does the way in which Toño and Julia enact gender roles differ between New
York and Ticuani? (chapter 6)
(d) How do promesas to Padre Jésus and taking part in rituals and celebrations in Ticuani
help young Ticuanenses negotiate their adolescence in New York? (chapter 7 &
chapter 8, pp. 186-90)
(e) Why did Mexican gangs form in New York? How did they get displaced back to
Mexico? (chapter 9). Why do second generation Ticuaneses returning to Ticuani have
to ‘walk differently’ (p. 273)? (chapter 10)
Amongst the issues that the tutorial can discuss are the advantages and disadvantages of
Smith’s ethnographic method by comparison with Massey and Espinosa’s (1997) surveybased study of Mexican migration to the US.
WEEK 10
Are nations made? What role does ‘culture’ play in the making of them? For this tutorial,
everyone should read the four key readings for the session on ‘making nations’, and then
(if you are Scottish) come prepared to discuss how ‘Scotland’ has been made. If you are
not Scottish, come prepared to tell the others in the group about similar (and also
dissimilar) processes in the contexts from which you come. Tutorial groups that meet
after Tuesday’s lecture should also discuss the cultural making of nations in the light of
37
the risks of the notion of culture outlined in that lecture, such as the risk of imagining
that people are ‘cultural dopes’.
38
Essay Topics
Essay is due 1st November by 12 noon.
Your essay MUST NOT be more than 1600 words.
Academic writing is a skill that you develop with practice. This book is a good
introduction to the craft and often hidden rules of academic writing, and it gives you a
sense of why academics write as they do:
Graff, Gerald, and Birkenstein. 2010. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic
Writing. 2nd Revised ed. W. W. Norton & Co.
1. Social order requires social behaviour to be predictable and individuals to
cooperate. Amongst the explanations of social order are five outlined by Hechter
and Horne: (shared) ‘meaning’, ‘values and norms’, ‘power and authority’,
‘spontaneous interaction’ and ‘networks and groups’. Describe how at least three
of these (or other) factors might explain social order, and discuss the extent to
which you find the explanations convincing.
Reading:
The main reading is Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order: A
Reader (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003), Don’t restrict yourself to their
introductions: also use in your essay some of the extracts they reprint from other authors,
as well as any other readings from Unit 1 that seem to you to be helpful.
2.‘The self is not a thing, nor is it equivalent to the body, nor is it mysteriously
located somewhere inside the person. Rather ... the self is something named, to
which attention is paid and toward which actions are directed’ (Hewitt, Self and
Society, p. 76). Explain what is meant by this claim, and illustrate its meaning with
examples taken from Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life or
elsewhere (including, if you wish, your own personal experience).
Reading:
Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, which is the second,
separately-paginated section of Cooley, Two Major Works (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956),
pp. 183-185. The relevant passage, Cooley’s ‘The Looking-Glass Self’, is also available
(along with much other material) via Learn at
http://www.bolender.com/Sociological%20Theory/Cooley,%20Charles%20Horton/co
oley,_charles_horton.htm
George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934), pp. 135-178. Part of this section of Mead’s
book is also to be found in Michael Hechter and Christine Horne, Theories of Social Order:
A Reader (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 65-72.
John P. Hewitt, Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 2007).
39
Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Edinburgh: Social Sciences
Research Centre, 1956; later editions published by Penguin and others). As noted, it’s
somewhat preferable to use one of the published editions, which are rather more explicit
on some key points than the original report.
3. ‘Doing gender furnishes the interactional scaffolding of social structure, along
with a built-in mechanism of social control’ (West and Zimmerman, 1987, 147)
Discuss and illustrate your argument drawing on the more recent literature.
West, C. and Zimmerman, D. 1987. 'Doing Gender'. Gender and Society 1: 125-151. [ejournal] (Learn)
Connell, R.W. and Messerschmidt, J.W. 2005. 'Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the
Concept'. Gender and Society 19: 829-859.
Phipps, A. (2009). 'Rape and Respectability: Ideas about Sexual Violence and Social
Class'. Sociology 43: 667-683. [e-journal] (Learn)
Pascoe , C.J. (2007) Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley:
University of California Press, particularly p1-5 and chapter 3 (Learn)
O’Connor, P (2006) ‘Young People’s Constructions of the Self: Late Modern Elements
and Gender Differences’ Sociology 40, 107-124 [e-journal ] (Learn)
Charles, N (2002) Gender in Modern Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, start with
chapter 1 Theorising Gender.
Shaw, A (2005) ‘Is It a Boy or a Girl?: The Challenge of Genital Ambiguity’ in Alison
Shaw and Shirley Ardener (eds.) Changing Sex and Bending Gender. Oxford: Berghahn
Books.
Jackson, S. and Scott, S. 'Rehabilitating Interactionism for a Feminist Sociology of
Sexuality'. Sociology 44: 811-826 [e-journal] (Learn).
4. With reference to either social class, ethnicity or gender or some combination
thereof, describe when and why this category or these categories remain
important for people’s sense of self.
You might wish to draw on Hewitt, J. P. (2007) Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist
Social Psychology (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 94-108) for your concept of sense of self.
Then draw readings from Friday of week 4 if you are focusing on gender, Tuesday of
week 5 if you are focusing on class or Friday if you are focusing on ethnicity.
Draw on some of the following readings if you are focusing on intersections of identities:
Fowler, B. 2003. 'Reading Pierre Bourdieu's Masculine Domination : notes towards an
intersectional analysis of gender, culture and class'. Cultural Studies 17: 468 - 494. [an ejournal available from LEARN or through the library catalogue]
Phipps, A. (2009). 'Rape and Respectability: Ideas about Sexual Violence and Social
Class'. Sociology 43: 667-683. [e-journal] (Learn)
Reynolds, T (2000) ‘Black Women and Social Class Identity’ in Sally Munt (ed.) Cultural
Studies and the Working Class: Subject to change. London: Cassell (Learn)
Taylor, Y. 'Complexities and Complications: Intersections of class and sexuality' in
Taylor, Y., Hines, S. and Casey, E. (eds.) Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Formatted: Heading 2
40
Appendix One: A Guide to Referencing
The purpose of proper referencing is to provide the reader with a clear idea of where you
obtained your information, quote, idea, etc. Essays must be properly referenced. In
Sociology we use the Harvard system of referencing. The following instructions explain
how it works.
1. After you have quoted from or referred to a particular text in your essay, add in
parentheses the author’s name, the publication date and page numbers (if relevant). Place
the full reference in your bibliography. Here is an example of a quoted passage and its
proper citation:
Quotation in essay:
‘Societies are much messier than our theories of them. In their more candid moments,
systematizers such as Marx and Durkheim admitted this; whereas the greatest sociologist,
Weber, devised a methodology (of “ideal-types”) to cope with messiness’ (Mann, 1986:
4).
Book entry in bibliography:
Mann, M. 1986. The Sources of Social Power, Volume 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Note the sequence: author, year of publication, title, edition or translation information if
needed, place of publication, publisher.
2. If you are employing someone else’s arguments, ideas or categorization, you will need
to cite them even if you are not using a direct quote. One simple way to do so is as
follows:
Mann (1986: 32) argues that contemporary issues are best understood through historical
comparison.
3. Your sources may well include journal or newspaper articles, book chapters, and
internet sites. Below we show you how to cite these various sources.
(i) Chapters in book:
In your essay, cite the author, e.g. (Jameson, 1999).
In your bibliography details should be arranged in this sequence: author of chapter, year
of publication, chapter title, editor(s) of book, title of book, place of publication,
publisher, article or chapter pages.
For example:
Jameson, F. 1999. ‘The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.’ A. Elliott. (ed.). The Blackwell
Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell: 338-50.
(ii) Journal article:
In your essay, cite the author, e.g. (Gruffydd-Jones, 2001).
In your bibliography, details should be arranged in this sequence: author of journal
article, year of publication, article title, journal title, journal volume, journal issue or
number, article pages.
For example:
Gruffydd-Jones, B. 2001. ‘Explaining Global Poverty: A Realist Critique of the Orthodox
Approach.’ Journal of Critical Realism, 3 (2): 2-10.
(iii) Newspaper or magazine article:
If the article has an author, cite as normal in the text (Giddens, 1998).
In bibliography cite as follows:
Giddens, A. 1998. ‘Beyond left and right.’ The Observer, 13 Sept: 27-8.
41
If the article has no author, cite name of newspaper in text (The Herald) and list the
source in the bibliography by magazine or newspaper title.
For example:
The Herald. 1999. ‘Brown takes on the jobless’, 6 Sept: 14.
(iv) Internet sites:
If the site has an author cite in the text as normal, e.g. (Weiss and Wesley, 2001). In the
bibliography, provide a full reference which should include author, date, title of website
and URL address:
For example:
Weiss, S. and Wesley, K. 2001. ‘Postmodernism and its Critics.’ Available at:
brief.berkeley.edu/phil/postmodern.html
If the site has no author, cite the address of the site in your text, e.g. for Centre for
Europe’s Children (http://Eurochild.gla.ac.uk/).
In the bibliography, provide a full reference including the title of the website, URL
address, publisher or owner of the site.
For example:
‘Fourteen Countries Meet in Manila to Tackle Childhood Trafficking’ (www.asem.org).
ASEM Resource Centre. Child Welfare Initiative. 23 Oct, 2001.
If no date is available, indicate the date you accessed the site.
There are many helpful websites which format the references for you such as
http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/
You can also use various referencing programmes which can automatically download
references and readings from the internet, store them and add them to your essay in the
right format. A very good free programme is Zotero, at www.zotero.org
42
Appendix Two: Example 24 Hour Take Home Exam
Please read this before starting the exam:
• You have until 3 pm tomorrow (Saturday the 17th of August
2013 ) to submit your answers.
•
Submit through Learns Resit Information and Electronic Drop
Boxes Folder.
•
Submit both your answers in the same document. Put your exam
number as the title.
•
Name your document your exam number (e.g. b123456.docx). Use
one of the following formats: rich text (.rtf), Word (.doc/.docx),
text (.txt), portable document format (.pdf).
•
Include a word count for each answer. Do not exceed the word
count. Word count penalties apply. Footnotes, endnotes and intext references are included in the word count.
•
Use exam referencing, with the author and year but without the
full reference. For example ‘Drug intoxication is a learned
response, not an automatic process (Becker, 1956)’.
•
You do not need to include a full bibliography with your answer.
If you do, it will not be included in the word count.
•
Complete a cover sheet and email this to claire.moggie@ed.ac.uk
from your university email account.
Submit 1000 words on EACH of the following questions:
1. To what extent can nationalism be said to impact everyday life?
2. Using examples, critically evaluate the claim that new technologies
have changed the way we experience our social lives.
END OF PAPER
43
Appendix Three: Guide to Using Learn for Online
Tutorial Sign-Up
The following is a guide to using Learn to sign up for your tutorial. If you have any
problems using the Learn sign up, please contact the relevant course secretary in the
Undergraduate Teaching Office, Room G.04/G.05, Chrystal Macmillan Building
.
Step 1 – Accessing Learn course pages
Access to Learn is through the MyEd Portal. You will be given a log-in and password
during Freshers Week. Once you are logged into MyEd, you should see a tab called
‘Courses’ which will list the active Learn pages for your courses under ‘myLearn’.
Step 2 – Welcome to Learn
Once you have clicked on the relevant course from the list, you will see the Contents
page for that course. This page will have icons for the different tools available on this
page, including one called ‘Tutorial Sign Up’. Please click on this icon.
Step 3 – Signing up for your tutorial
Clicking on the Tutorial Sign Up icon will take you to the sign up page where all the
available tutorial groups are listed along with any students who have already signed up.
Click on the ‘Sign up’ button next to the group that you wish to join. The Confirm Sign
Up screen will display. Click ‘OK’ and you will be added to your chosen group.
IMPORTANT: If you change your mind after having chosen a tutorial you cannot go
back and change it. You will need to contact the course secretary who will be able to
reassign you. Reassignments will only be made in exceptional circumstances once
tutorials are full.
Tutorials have restricted numbers and it is important to sign up as soon as
possible. The tutorial sign up will only be available until the end of Week 1 of
Semester. If you have not yet signed up for a tutorial by this time, please contact
the course secretary as soon as possible.
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Appendix Four: What Grades Mean
These are the SSPS Common Essay Marking Descriptors which show what each grade
signifies in terms of your performance.
A1 (90-100%) An answer that fulfils all of the criteria for ‘A2’ (see below) and in addition shows an exceptional
degree of insight and independent thought, together with flair in tackling issues, yielding a product that is deemed
to be of potentially publishable quality, in terms of scholarship and originality.
A2 (80-89%) An authoritative answer that provides a fully effective response to the question. It should show a
command of the literature and an ability to integrate that literature and go beyond it. The analysis should achieve a
high level of quality early on and sustain it through to the conclusion. Sources should be used accurately and
concisely to inform the answer but not dominate it. There should be a sense of a critical and committed
argument, mindful of other interpretations but not afraid to question them. Presentation and the use of English
should be commensurate with the quality of the content.
A3 (70-79%) A sharply-focused answer of high intellectual quality, which adopts a comprehensive approach to the
question and maintains a sophisticated level of analysis throughout. It should show a willingness to engage
critically with the literature and move beyond it, using the sources creatively to arrive at its own independent
conclusions.
B
B- (60-63%) B (64-66%)
B+ (67-69%)
A very good answer that shows qualities beyond the merely routine or acceptable. The question and the sources
should be addressed directly and fully. The work of other authors should be presented critically. Effective use
should be made of the whole range of the literature. There should be no significant errors of fact or
interpretation. The answer should proceed coherently to a convincing conclusion. The quality of the writing and
presentation (especially referencing) should be without major blemish.
Within this range a particularly strong answer will be graded B+; a more limited answer will be graded B-.
C
C- (50-53%) C (54-56%)
C+ (57-59%)
A satisfactory answer with elements of the routine and predictable. It should be generally accurate and firmly
based in the reading. It may draw upon a restricted range of sources but should not just re-state one particular
source. Other authors should be presented accurately, if rather descriptively. The materials included should be
relevant, and there should be evidence of basic understanding of the topic in question. Factual errors and
misunderstandings of concepts and authors may occasionally be present but should not be a dominant
impression. The quality of writing, referencing and presentation should be acceptable. Within this range a
stronger answer will be graded C+; a weaker answer will be graded C-.
D
D- (40-43%)
D (44-46%)
D+ (47-49%)
A passable answer which understands the question, displays some academic learning and refers to relevant
literature. The answer should be intelligible and in general factually accurate, but may well have deficiencies such
as restricted use of sources or academic argument, over-reliance on lecture notes, poor expression, and
irrelevancies to the question asked. The general impression may be of a rather poor effort, with weaknesses in
conception or execution. It might also be the right mark for a short answer that at least referred to the main
points of the issue. Within this range a stronger answer will be graded D+; a bare pass will be graded D-.
E
(30-39%) An answer with evident weaknesses of understanding but conveying the sense that with a fuller
argument or factual basis it might have achieved a pass. It might also be a short and fragmentary answer with
merit in what is presented but containing serious gaps.
F
(20-29%) An answer showing seriously inadequate knowledge of the subject, with little awareness of the relevant
issues or literature, major omissions or inaccuracies, and pedestrian use of inadequate sources.
G
(10-19%) An answer that falls far short of a passable level by some combination of short length, irrelevance, lack
of intelligibility, factual inaccuracy and lack of acquaintance with reading or academic concepts.
H
(0-9%) An answer without any academic merit which usually conveys little sense that the course has been
followed or of the basic skills of essay-writing.
45