INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

2006SPRING SEMESTERUniversity of Akron

Course: Sociology 3850:100-004Meeting time: MWThF 9:55am-10:45Classroom: Leigh Hall 215Web: http://gozips.uakron.edu/~dw2/intro/

Instructor: Dana WilliamsOffice: Olin Hall 277aPhone: 330-972-8244Email: dw2@uakron.eduOffice Hours: Monday 1-2:30pm

Tuesday 1-2:30pm (or by appointment)

COURSE INFORMATION

Course DescriptionThis course is designed to introduce to you basic ideas in sociology and highlight the relevance of sociological perspectives for understanding our world. It will introduce you to the basic concepts, theoretical perspectives, and methods in the discipline of sociology. The course will be a combination of lecture and discussion, with a general emphasis upon reading academic research and participating in group-work.

Learning ObjectivesInstead of showering you with “facts” or abstracts definitions, I hope to assist you in developing an understanding of specific sociological issues and their relevance for questions that impact all members of society. The goal is for you to gain the capacity to think critically about the relationship between individuals (especially yourself) and society. Another crucial goal is to show how people have deliberately and consciously acted to make positive change in the world, and to inspire you to think about your role in such a process.

Specifically, the following are goals from the Department of Sociology:• Be able to present opposing viewpoints and alternative hypotheses on a social

issue.• Be able to examine one’s own cultural practices, beliefs, and values.• Be able to use library and computerized/on-line databases to locate published

research.

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• Be able to write clear and concise sentences and paragraphs that are grammatically correct and contain correct and contain correctly spelled words.

• Be able to identify and describe the basic ideas of the major sociological theorists (e.g. Durkheim, Marx, Weber) and perspectives (e.g., Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, Feminism).

More objectives are listed after this syllabus.

Required TextbookCurry, Tim, Robert Jiobu, and Kent Schwirian. 2004. Sociology, 4th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

This book is available at the University Bookstore. Please bring the book with you to all class sessions.

Suggested resourceComputer Test Bank Online (File #80) Packet. You may download this outline as well as other information about the Computer Based Testing Center at: http://www.uakronl.edu/sociology/@ug.htm

Additional online materialsAvailable via the instructor’s webpage… http://gozips.uakron.edu/~dw2/intro/

CLASS POLICY

Work and AttendanceThis is a four credit hour class. Since you should expect to spend two hours outside of class for every hour in class on reading, assignments, and studying, this means plan on devoting eight hours of outside time per week to this course. If you need assistance in the form of tutoring, you may go to Carroll Hall 215a and request a tutor. There is no charge for tutoring. Call 330-972-6552 for further information.

Although you are not graded on attendance, it is to your advantage to attend class on a regular basis. Students who attend class regularly, keep up with the readings, and ask questions to clarify the material have consistently and statistically been shown to perform better on exams and in the class overall. Please be in class on time. Late arrivals are disruptive for both the instructor and the class. Please turn off all electronic devices (e.g. phones and pagers) that may sound during class. According to University policy, “A student is expected to attend all class meetings for which [s/he is] registered. A student may be dropped from a course by the Dean if absence is repeated and the instructor recommends this action; a student can gain readmission only with permission of both.”

Cancelled classes

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If classes are cancelled for any reason, class will resume during the next regularly scheduled class period. Information about the cancellation will be posted in the Department of Sociology (Olin 247).

RegistrationUniversity policy dictates that: “Students whose names do not appear on the university’s official class list by Friday January 23, 2006 will not be permitted to participate (i.e. attend class, take exams, or receive credit).”

WithdrawalsLast day to withdraw is April 14, 2006. University policy states, “A student may withdraw from a course without an adviser’s or course instructor’s signature through the 14th day of a semester; and up to the midpoint of the semester, a student may withdraw from a course with the signature of the student’s advisor. After the midpoint of a semester, a student must have the signature of both the course instructor and the adviser. Such authorization must be dated and processed through the offices of the Registrar and the Cashier no later than the last day of the 12th week of classes or comparable dates during summer session, intersession, etc. Should the instructor or advisor refuse to sign the withdrawal form, the student may appeal to the Dean of the student’s college, who shall make the final decision after consultation with the instructor and advisor who declined to approve the withdrawal. An approved withdrawal will be indicated on the University official academic record by a ‘WD.’ A student who leaves the course without going through the withdrawal process will be given a ‘F’ in the course.”

PlagiarismPlagiarism is the use of others’ wording, ideas, or information without acknowledging the origins of the work. When you use someone’s exact wording, you must use quotation marks to denote it. However, even if you simply paraphrase or changing a few words, it is still necessary to cite the original source(s). Please see me if you need clarification on this policy. (Definition borrowed from another syllabus: C. André Christi-Mizell).

Plagiarism, although seemingly an unimportant thing—especially in an era of the internet, photocopiers, mp3’s, etc.—is actually a very serious thing. If you are caught plagiarizing work from others or cheating, it is grounds for academic dismissal. This could mean you being kicked out of the University of Akron! This is a very undesirable thing to happen to you (from everyone’s perspective), so every effort should be made to avoid getting into such situations. At the end of this syllabus is a “Quick Style Guide for Students Writing Sociology Papers”. Please read this before writing your first assignment in this course. If you have any questions about plagiarism or how to properly quote or cite a source, please ask the instructor.

Students with disabilities or special needsPlease contact the Office of Accessibility on campus to seek necessary accommodations.

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Tape recordingTaping—whether analog or digital—of lectures or classroom discussions of any kind shall be done only with the instructor’s prior permission.

Cell phones and other devicesPlease turn off all cell phones, alarms, etc. prior to the start of class. I realize there may be situations in which you must be able to be contacted; if so, please turn off the ringer on your phone and inform me prior to class that you may be called.

Laptops, PDA’s, iPod’s etc.Use of these devices for taking notes will only be accepted with my prior permission. Their use for email, IM-ing, surfing the net etc. is prohibited during class.

Dates to rememberCourse duration: 1/17/06 – 5/12/06January 23 – must be on class rosterMarch 27-31 – Spring BreakApril 14 – last day possible to withdraw

GRADING

Grade Composition3 Written Assignments (2 of 3) 200 points15 Quizzes/In-Class Assignments (10 of 15) 200 points5 Exams (4 of 5) 600 points

Full semester 1000 points

Extra credit (potential 75 total points)

Grading ScaleA+A-B+BB-C+

93%90-92%87-89%83-86%80-82%77-79%

CC-D+DD-F

73-76%70-72%67-69%63-66%60-62%- 60%

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Written assignmentsExploring the “sociological imagination” is central to this class. It is important to explore the impact that “society” has upon the “individual”. This and the ability to write well, convincingly, and informatively are skills that will last a lifetime. College in general and this course in particular, is an important place to learn, practice, and refine these skills.

You will investigate and write three written assignments in order to explore creative ways of interpreting society and solutions to problems. Each of these assignments will have very specific guidelines and expectations. Follow these guidelines closely, think critically, and revise your paper (a number of times) in order to do well on these assignments. There are THREE assignments (50 points each) that are due at various points throughout the semester. Only two of these assignments will count towards the your final grade. There are two ways of looking at this grading policy: 1) you can choose which two assignments to complete, based on interest and time, or 2) you can complete all three assignments and then drop the lowest grade. Thus, the final possible points for written assignments are 100 points. The grading rubric (criteria for the points and grade given) will be available to you, in order to evaluate what was well done and what needs more work in the future. Remember: you can only receive points if you do the assignment. Failure to even attempt to answer the questions and components of the assignments will result in zero points for that section.

The three assignments are as follows:1. Breeching experiment (due February 17, 2006)2. Corporation analysis (due April 7, 2006)3. Social Movement design (due April 28, 2006)

The instructor will happily look over drafts for the written assignments, which are turned in during the weeks prior to the due date. This is done to allow you to know if you are on the right track and still have time to make changes and corrections in order to do address the things that are important. These are the following last dates to do this pre-check: assignment #1 (February 7), assignment #2 (March 20), and assignment #3 (April 18).

The assignments are expected to be turned in, typed and finished, on the due dates. Every day (including weekends) that an assignment is late, an entire letter grade will be taken off the potential number of points. Thus, it is crucial to have all work turned in on time. After four days of being late, the assignment (even if perfect) will be graded as an “F”.

QuizzesFifteen pop quizzes or in-class assignments throughout the semester will be administered, based upon the chapter readings. You can drop 5 of the lowest quiz scores (10 total quizzes/in-class assignments counted). As a result there will be no makeup quizzes. Take the quizzes individually for 20 points. Total points for semester: 200. It is to your advantage to read the chapter before each week’s class period—quizzes will require

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knowledge of material in the entire chapter, not just the sections covered in class previously.

ExamsThere are five exams for this course. There is no “final” or comprehensive exam. Each exam is worth 150 points. You have two opportunities to take each exam. You are responsible for scheduling your own exams and may take them when you are ready, within the specified window of time below (see below). However, I recommend that you read all the chapters before your first testing attempt. If you miss an exam, a zero will be factored into your final score. See the class schedule for the chapter from the test associated with the weeks below.

The exams consist of 50 multiple-choice questions, which are worth three points each. Exams will cover material presented in the textbook and lectures. Exams will be given through the Computer Based Education and Testing Center in Carroll Hall 325 (3rd

Floor). Please reserve a test time in advance. You have two options for making a reservation: (1) over the web at http://cbt.uakron.edu/cbt/ ; or (2) in person at the CBE&T. You must sign in one hour before closing or you will not be allowed to take the exam. No materials (e.g. books, paper, pens) will be allowed in CBE&T. You must have a valid UA ID to be admitted for testing. Other forms of ID are not accepted. Students at Distance Learning sites will have local facilities to take exams.

You may take each exam twice. You will be required to wait approximately 24 hours between tests—use this time to review the materials. Your highest grade will be counted toward your final grade. The majority of students improve their exam scores the second time. Though not mandatory, taking each exam twice will likely benefit your grade. After you finish the first exam, a report will be generated on your performance. Please pick up this report. The report provides information about which questions were answered correctly or incorrectly. By matching the question codes to the index in File 80, you will know what parts of the chapter you need to review. The exam must be taken within a specified window of time. See the class schedule below.

Exam 1: Chapters 1-2 (150 pts)Exam 2: Chapters 3, 5, 16 (150 pts)Exam 3: Chapters 6-8 (150 pts)Exam 4: Chapters 4, 9-10 (150 pts)Exam 5: Chapters 11-12, 15 (150 pts)

Extra creditSociology is useful in everyday life. Thus, for extra credit, you are invited to analyze a current event in the context of each week’s subject matter. Every week you can turn in a two-page, double-space typed review of a news article (from either a mainstream daily paper or weekly news magazine), that deals with the topic of the week/chapter. You are to analyze how the topic and content of the article relates to the course material for that week. It is possible to submit these reviews for extra credit every week. Your paper should not be a simple summary of the article, but rather an application of a sociological

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idea to the article. The writing must be well-thought-out and well-written. I would recommend keeping in mind news articles as you read them, and then after reading the chapter before each week’s class, to pick out sociological ideas, concepts, or theories that the news articles you’ve read could inform. Each week will go quickly, so the earlier in the week you complete them, the better.

Papers must be turned-in to the instructor by noon on Friday. Sending them by e-mail is acceptable; otherwise they must be submitted to the Sociology Department and “timestamped” by a secretary, to be placed in the instructor’s mailbox. Each review is worth five points each. Thus, it is possible to get an additional 75 points during the semester, above and beyond the possible points. The article reviewed must be longer than 200 words in length, and must have been published within the last month. Staple a copy/print-out of the article with your review. If emailed to the instructor, you must send an accessible weblink to the article (double-check the link!). If the article is not attached or accessible via a link provided on the internet, half the potential points (2.5 pts) will be automatically subtracted. Please see the examples attached to this syllabus.

Other extra credit may be offered throughout the semester, at the instructor’s discretion.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Below is an outline of weekly topics and readings. We will generally be covering one chapter each week. Please note that we will not be covering chapters 13 and 14, but you are free to discuss them with me during office hours if they interest you. Any modifications to the course schedule will be announced well in advance. You are responsible for any changes in the syllabus that are announced in class. Having missed class that day is no excuse for not complying with the change.

Week Date Topic Chapter1 Jan. 18 – Jan 20 What is Sociology? 1

2 Jan. 23 – Jan 27

3 Jan. 30 – Feb. 3 Culture, Society, and Social Change

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EXAM 1 Feb. 1 – Feb. 7 1-2

4 Feb. 6 – Feb. 10 Socialization 3

5 Feb. 13 – Feb. 17 Interaction, Groups, and Organizations

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Assignment #1 Feb. 17, beginning of class Breeching Experiment due

6 Feb. 20 – Feb. 24 Collective Social Action 16

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EXAM 2 Feb. 22 – Feb. 28 3, 5, 16

7 Feb. 27 – Mar. 3 Inequalities of Social Class

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8 Mar. 6 – Mar. 10 Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity

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9 Mar. 13 – Mar. 17 Inequalities of Gender 8

EXAM 3 Mar. 15 – Mar. 21 6-8

10 Mar. 20 – Mar. 24 Deviance and Crime 4

Mar. 27 – Mar. 31 SPRING BREAK!11 Apr. 3 – Apr. 7 The Economy 9

Assignment #2 Apr. 7, beginning of class Corporation analysis due

12 Apr. 10 – Apr. 14 The Political Order 10

EXAM 4 Apr. 12 – Apr. 18 4, 9-10

13 Apr. 17 – Apr. 21 Marriage and the Family 11

14 Apr. 24 – Apr. 28 Education 12

Assignment #3 Apr. 28, beginning of class Social Movement Design due

15 May 1 – May 5 Population, Ecology, and Urbanization

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EXAM 5 May 3 – May 9 11-12, 15

Finals Week May 8 – May 12 --

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Quick Style Guide for Students Writing Sociology Papers

A Quick Style Guide for Students Writing Sociology Papers The following is taken from American Sociological Association Style Guide (2nd ed.), 1997. This is intended as a quick reference for students preparing papers.

References in the main text:Include the last name of the author and the year of publication. In order to avoid plagiarism (inappropriately using another person's words without proper citation), you must directly quote verbatim, using quotation marks and the name, date, and page number in parentheses or you must paraphrase and mention the source of the idea (name and date only).

Use page numbers only when you quote an author's words:

• Sociological analysis of cities is “critical to achieving far-reaching social change in this century,” according to Duncan (1959, p. 71)

Otherwise, if the author's name is in the text, follow the name with the year in parentheses. If the author's name is not in the text, enclose both the last name and year in parentheses:

• According to Duncan (1959), sociological analysis of cities is critical to creating positive social change in America.

• Sociological analysis of cities is critical to creating social change (Duncan 1959).

For joint authors, use both last names: (Martin and Bailey 1988)

For institutional authorship, use minimum identification in the text and complete citation under references: (U.S. Bureau of Census 1963, p. 117)

Separate a series of references with a semicolon: (Burgess 1968; Maxwell 1971)

If there is no date for a publication use “n.d.” in place of the year.

For unpublished materials, use “forthcoming” to indicate material scheduled for publication. For dissertations and unpublished papers, cite the date: (Smith, forthcoming).

For works with three authors, list all last names in the first citation in the text; thereafter use “et al.” For more than three authors, use “et al” throughout: (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962), then (Carr et al. 1962)

Block quotations are presented in smaller type and are set off in a separate, indented paragraph. They are not enclosed in quotation marks:

• As stated by Wright and Jacobs (1994):

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The variation in men's earnings relative to their peers in the labor force was not a reliable predictor of men's attrition. This finding is inconsistent with the prediction that declines in earnings are responsible for male flight from feminizing occupations. (p. 531).

Footnotes & Endnotes:Endnotes are used to explain or amplify text, cite materials of limited availability, or append information presented in a table or figure. Number endnotes and list at the end of your paper. Increasingly people use endnotes rather than footnotes and use either one sparingly as they tend to disrupt the flow of the text. Use footnotes and endnotes only when necessary. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page in which they originate.

Miscellaneous Style & Grammar Matters:

• Foreign words in your text should be italicized or underlined. Commonly used foreign words or terms, however, should appear in regular type. Examples are per se, ad hoc, et al.

• When using an acronym, spell out the complete term the first time you use it and present the acronym in parentheses: First use: “The Current Population Survey (CPS) includes . . . .”Later: “CPS data show that . . .”

• Equations in the text should be typed or printed. Use consecutive Arabic numerals in parentheses at the right margin to identify important equations. Align all expressions and clearly mark compound subscripts and superscripts.

• Do not use abbreviations such as etc., e.g., or i.e. in your text. You may use these abbreviations in parenthetical information, however:For example, some terms used in specific areas of sociology are not readily understood by the general sociologist (e.g. cultural capital, etc.).

Cited References (reference list):A bibliography includes all the works you read or scanned during the writing process. List references in alphabetical order by authors' last names. References without an author name appear at the beginning of the list. For two or more references by the same author, list them in order of the year of publication. Use six hyphens and a period (------.) in place of the name when the authorship is the same as in the preceding citation. To list two or more works by the same author from the same year, distinguish them by adding letters (a, b, c, etc.) to the year and list in alphabetical order by the title.

Sample formats:

Books

Mason, Karen O. 1974. Women's Labor Force Participation and Fertility. Research Triangle Park, NC: National Institutes of Health.

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U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1960. Characteristics of Population. Vol. 1. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Berlin, Gorden and Andrew Sum. 1988. Toward a More Perfect Union: Basic Skills, Poor Families, and our Economic Future. New York: Ford Foundation.

Journal Articles:

Conger, Rand D. Forthcoming. “The Effects of Positive Feedback on Direction and Amount of Verbalization in a Social Setting.” Sociological Perspectives.

Goodman, Leo A. 1947a. “Exploratory Latent Structure Analysis using both Identifiable and Unidentifiable Models.” Biometrika 61: 215-31.

------. 1947b. “Systems in Qualitative Variables when some of the Variables are Unobservable, Part I – A Modified Latent Structure Approach.” American Journal of Sociology 79: 1179-1259.

Articles from Collected Works/Chapters in Books:

Clausen, John A. 1972. “The Life Course of Individuals.” Pp. 457-514 in Aging and Society, vol. 3, A Sociology of Age Stratification, edited by M. W. Riley, M. Johnson, and A. Fotner. New York: Russell Sage.

Web Base Journals

Smith, Herman W. and Takako Nomi. 2000. "Is Amae the Key to Understanding Japanese Culture?." Electronic Journal of Sociology 5:1. Retrieved May 5, 2000 (http://www.sociology.org/content/vol005.001/smith-nomi.html).

Information Posted on a Web Site

American Sociological Association. 2000. "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Workshop." Washington, DC: American Sociological Association, Retrieved May 5, 2000 (http://www.asanet.org/members/socwkshp.html).

For more information . . . check out these additional referencesBecker, Howard S. 1986. Writing for the Social Sciences. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

The Sociology Writing Group. 1998. A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers. 4th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Krenzin, Joan and James Kanan. 1997. Handbook of the Mechanics of Paper, Thesis, and Dissertation Preparation. 2nd ed. Washington D.C.: American Sociological Association.

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Common Grammar Mistakes

1. Always read your writing out-loud before turning it in or have someone else read it for you. It

is unlikely that any professor in academia has ever written anything for official publication

that they did not read over and re-write at least twice. Seriously—no one gets it right the first

time!

2. Do not use contractions. Instead of “don’t” write “do not”. Contractions tend to be a bit too

informal for academic writing.

3. Unless you are writing a third-wave feminist piece, there is no reason to be writing about

“guys and girls”. These terms are very informal and might be interpreted as patronizing. The

true binary contrast would be “boys and girls” or “guys and gals”. Use “boys and girls” only

when the people are under 18 years old. Otherwise call all adults “men and women”.

4. Make sure you are using the proper tense. If you did something in the past write it that way,

not as if you are narrating. Thus, write “I said to her….”, instead of “I say to her….”

5. Numbers under fourteen (14) or fifteen (15) should be written out as words, not as numbers

using digits. Some hold this standard even higher, arguing that any amount under a hundred

(100) should be spelled out. The exception to this rule is a number that has a fractional part,

such as 3.1415 (pi). Moreover, no sentence should ever start with a number, but should be

spelled out.

6. No paragraph should be as long as a page – break your ideas up into smaller units. The same

goes for long sentences, particularly those with many commas.

7. Do not write for a formal academic paper in the way that you informally speak. A lot of

spoken language is completely unnecessary when writing. For example: “So, I think that

those guys could basically have gotten in big trouble with the cops for what they were trying

to pull” could be better written as “The men could have been arrested for their actions”. If

you type something exactly as you would say it in general, informal conversation, you

probably should try re-wording it.

8. Make sure you clarify who “they”, “that”, “s/he”, “it” is. Oftentimes the object to which they

words refer to is unclear. For example: “The boy played with his dog outside. But he was

scared by the unexpected car that drove up.” In this example, who was scared: the boy or the

dog? Avoid this confusion by re-stating who is doing the action: “But the boy was scared by

the unexpected car that drove up”.

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9. Be wary of words that are spelled differently and have different meanings, but sound similar:

accept/except, our/are, then/than, they’re/there/their, to/too/two, your/you’re,

we’re/were/where, etc.

10. Every piece of information that is not your own idea or researched fact must be cited. An in-

text citation must follow any chunk of information in your writing, including the author’s last

name and the year it was written in parentheses. All full-text citation must be listed at the end

of the paper in a “References” section, additionally including the title, publisher information,

and page numbers. Failing to do this constitutes plagiarism.

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Introduction to SociologyInstructor: WilliamsBreaching Assignment (100 pts.)Doing Sociology Assignment #1 Due Thursday, February 17 at the beginning of class

You are to conduct a “breaching experiment.” This “experiment” will require you to violate a social norm and to record what happens in response to your norm violation. You will need to collect data, describe your data collection process and discuss your findings.

Data Collection: You are to select a norm that interests you (but not a norm whose violation would require you to commit a criminal act). Preferably this will be a norm that is part of your ongoing social routine. You should complete the following components of the assignment:

1) Go out and observe normative behavior. That is, do nothing. Simply observe the way this norm operates in everyday life. Pay attention to details in order to understand how this norm functions to regulate some type of behavior. This will enable you to make a thoughtful comparison when you violate the norm and observe others’ reactions. Record what your norm is and how it regulates behavior in the particular setting you observed.

2) Violate the norm (be sure to do so without harming another person). Record how you chose to violate the norm.

3) Observe the response of others in the social setting. Describe the reactions of those around you. What types of sanctions were incurred for violating this norm?

4) Reflect on how this norm serves to regulate behavior in the social world.

The final paper you turn in will consist of three elements: description, analysis and discussion. Be sure in your paper to include all of the elements described below:

Description: (24 pts.) • A description of the setting which should include details such as: location, time of

day, number of people present, race, gender, age, weather conditions, general atmosphere. The goal is to be able to reflect on whether any of these variables may give us insight into the social order and reactions to the norm violation.

• Describe both the normative behavior in this setting and your subsequent normative violation. You should describe your norm violation in detail.

• Describe the responses of those who witnessed your norm violation. Indicate how these responses were a departure from the normal behavior you initially witnessed in this setting.

Analysis: (32 pts.) In this section you should analyze what happened when you violated the normative order of this social setting. You should use sociological concepts from the textbook chapter as well as those discussed in lecture.

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• What is a social norm (put in your own words)? • What function does this social norm fulfill for society?• Why did people respond the way that they did? • Were there sanctions for this norm violation? What kind(s)?

Discussion: (32 pts.)Reflect on the degree to which you think this norm functions to regulate social behavior. In doing so, answer the following questions:

• Did you experience any personal difficulty in purposefully violating a norm? Why or why not?

• Do you think a person of a different race, class, or gender than yours would have had the same experience? Why or why not?

• What would be the consequences for social order if you continuously violated this norm?

• In the event that you receive no responses to your norm violation, indicate why you think this was the outcome (NOTE: it doesn’t count if no one sees your norm violation).

• How does this “experiment” shed light on the power of social norms?

Grammar and Organization (12 pts.)

Examples of Norm Violations:• Violating someone’s personal space by standing too near.• Eating with one’s hands and/or in a piggish manner.• Standing at the front of the elevator, facing backwards, and/or making

conversation with others in the elevator.• Dressing very formally for a casual event, or vice versa.• Going barefoot in an inappropriate social environment.• Sitting on the floor at a coffee shop.

The final paper should be 3-5 pages long. Use proper sentence structure and paragraph formation (do not use bullet points or an outline form!). All papers must be typed double spaced using 12 point, Times New Roman font.

*Assignment adapted from Ann Martin, Edmonds Community Collegeand Suzanne Slusser, University of Akron

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Introduction to SociologyInstructor: WilliamsCorporations Project (100 pts.) Written Assignment #2 Due Thursday, April 7 at the beginning of class

Since corporations are legally considered “people” in the United States, it is important to ask the question: how do these corporate “people” behave in society? What is their interaction with the rest of society? In this assignment your task is to analyze “corporate responsibility” and the relationship between corporations and the social, political, and/or physical world.

Papers should be 3-5 pages in length and typed, double-spaced using Times New Roman 12-point font. Because of the nature of this project, valuable information may be found online. Be sure to reference these online sources and provide a list of the websites at which you found your information. There is an abundance of information about each of these corporations and their wrongdoings (whether actual or perceived). If you have a difficult time finding information be sure to talk to me. It will not suffice to write in your paper that you could not find any wrongdoings.

Choose one of the corporations from the list below:Coca-Cola Archer Daniels Midland Pacific Lumber (Maxaam) RaytheonDisney Shell Corrections Corporation of

AmericaUnocal

Wal-Mart General Motors AOL-Time-Warner EnronPfizer Lockheed-Martin Halliburton BechtelMicrosoft Phillip Morris McDonald’s NestléNike Dow Chemical Monsanto Starbucks

Investigate and discuss at least one of the following issues (note every one of these corporations has had past or current issues with at least one of the following):

1. Labor policies (e.g., employment of women and/or children, union organizing, wage structure)

2. Involvement in formal legal actions (e.g., criminal or civil actions)3. Campaign finance contributions (e.g., to whom, how much, for what purpose)4. Environmental impacts (e.g., use of natural resources, toxic dumping)

General Information on Your Corporation (12 pts.)First, visit your chosen corporation’s website.

• What is the corporation involved in? What products does it manufacture or what services does it provide?

• Is it affiliated with any other corporations or is it owned by any others? Explore the idea of the “interlocking directorate”. **(www.theyrule.net is a useful website)**

• Is the corporation a multinational corporation? In what countries does it do business?

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Corporations and Public Opinion (16 pts.)After visiting the corporation’s website answer:

• Does the corporation address any of the issues listed above (#1-4)? • How does it frame its social, political, and environmental responsibilities? Why

do you think it talks about these issues? How does talking about such issues benefit the corporation’s bottom line?o If the corporations do not address these issues, what message does this send to

consumers?

Corporations and their Influence (20 pts.)• What has this corporation done that would negatively impact our social, political,

or physical world?(please note that every corporation listed above has been noted by the media as having been involved in some negative impacts – it will not suffice to say in your paper that you could not find any negative impacts)**(www.corpwatch.org is a useful website)**- Do not rely on the corporation’s website to obtain this information (think about why this would not be an objective source of information)o What had been this corporation’s response to public criticism?

Corporations and Social Movements (20 pts.)• What organizations (be specific) have been involved in actions in response to the

corporation’s negative impact?(please note that every corporation listed above has had social movement organizations respond to their negative impacts – it will not suffice to say in your paper that you could not find any organizations that have responded to the corporations actions)

• What social movement would these organizations be considered part of?• What have these organizations done in order to change the corporation’s actions? • Have these organizations or movements been successful? Why or why not?• What policy recommendations would you make to address the impact of

corporations on the larger social world?

Corporations and Sociological Perspective (20 pts.)Finally, what sociological perspective (functionalism, conflict theory, or symbolic interactionism) is most relevant in framing what you have found? Conclude your paper with an application of this perspective to the activities of this corporation.

Grammar and Organization (12 pts.)

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Introduction to SociologyInstructor: WilliamsWritten Assignment #3Social Movement Project (100 pts.) Due Friday, April 28 at the beginning of class

In this assignment your task is to (a) identify a social inequality issue (class, race, gender, or sexuality) that is of interest to you and to explain the key problems related to this issue. Then you are to (b) analyze one social movement that’s aim is to change social conditions related to your issue (note: you are not permitted to do this paper on abortion). Finally, you are to (c) design a social movement that might better address the problems identified at the beginning of your paper.

[A note on the “sociological imagination”: C. Wright Mills wrote that the sociological imagination allows us to see our own individual situations and the situations of others as part of a larger social system. In enables us to appreciate how individuals are often falsely conscious of their social positions. Movements that work on issues of social inequality usually utilize this “imagination”, and thus see people’s problems as, at least partially, a result of the current organization of society. You should attempt to utilize your own sociological imagination in this paper.]

Papers should be 5-7 pages in length and typed, double-spaced using Times New Roman 12-point font. Laptops can be checked out at the student union and the library.

General Information on your Topic: (30 pts.)• Identify your topic area and why it is of concern to you. Look through the book

and find a social inequality issue (i.e. gender inequality in pay, class inequality in housing, racial inequality, etc.) that you find personally interesting to you.

• Explain why this issue interests you. How did you become interested in it?• Explain the concerns and problems related to your topic area.• What are the key problems related to this issue? What specific problem is of

interest to you?

Existing Social Movements: (30 pts.)• What social movement organization is already working to change social

conditions in your topic area or has previously worked for social change? (note: any social inequality issue identified in the book will in the past or currently have a social movement organization working for change)

• How does this organization define the problem?• What type of social movement organization is this (look through your notes to

identify the type)?• What tactics do they use?• Give an example of an action or campaign by the social movement organization.

Has their campaign been successful? Why or why not?• Are they addressing all dimensions of the problem?

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Your Social Movement: (30 pts.)• What suggestions do you have to improve the effectiveness of the above

organization?• If you were to address this social justice issue what type of social movement

organization would you organize?• What aspects of your topic area would you focus on?• What tactics would you use to affect social change?

Grammar and Organization: (10 pts.)

*Assignment adapted from Jodi Ross and Suzanne Slusser, The University of Akron

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** EXTRA CREDIT EXAMPLE 1 **Jane DoeExtra CreditSeptember 9, 2005Chapter 1 – What is Sociology?

The research described in “Fair? Balanced? A Study Finds It Does Not Matter” is

deductive research, because it started with a hypothesis and made empirical observations

to challenge that hypothesis. The opposite of deductive research is inductive research,

which begins with empirical observations that hopefully form into a theory. A hypothesis

is described in Chapter 1 is the expected relationship between two variables, in the case

of this article, between balanced reporting and voting behavior.

Most deductive research approaches tend to be use quantitative data. Quantitative

data refers to the data collected by research that is in the form of numbers. The article

refers to specific percentages of cable availability, thus implying that the data from the

research is quantitative. The study considered questions that were clearly quantitative, for

example the rate of voter turnout for multiple elections in a given area and was Fox News

part of the available cable options there.

Qualitative research gathers data that is non-numerical, usually descriptive in

nature, like historical records, interviews, or observational studies. In order for the

researchers’ study to be qualitative, researchers would have had to ask more open-ended

questions directly to residents of the communities being studied, that could not be easily

quantified into numbers. Such questions could have been “Why do you watch Fox News”

or “What are the different reasons that you voted for the Republican (or Democrat)

Party?”.

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Quantitative research operates on the principle of causality. The researchers

expected the availability of Fox News to cause Republican voting. Specifically, as the

availability Fox increases so should the rates of Republican voting in elections.

Independent variables are variables that cause something to happen. In this research,

availability of Fox is the independent variable. A dependent variable is what is caused by

the independent variables, in this case Republican voting rates.

The research method used in this study does not appear to be either an experiment

or a survey. To conduct research in either of those two ways, individual people must be

used. This study used secondary source data, including which communities carried Fox

News, information on voting records, demographic characteristics, and unemployment

rates, all at a city and town level (not an individual level).

The researchers did not find the relationship they expected between their variables

(i.e. the hypothesis), so they rejected their hypothesis, although it seemed plausible before

conducting the research. Even though Fox viewing rates were inconsequential to voter

behavior (as expected), the researchers offer a number of possibilities that could explain

why Fox viewing did not have the expected effect. If we were to follow the scientific

method we would now discount the original hypothesis—or test it again in a different

way to make sure—and instead test one of the other possibilities that the researchers

pointed to. Previous research shows that Fox News is biased towards the Republican

Party, so why is that bias not influencing voter behavior? Future studies could narrow

down the possible explanations until we get closer and closer to the truth of how and why

Fox News does or does not influence voting patterns.

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Fair? Balanced? A Study Finds It Does Not Matter

By Alan B. Krueger. Alan B. Krueger (www.krueger.princeton.edu) is the Bendheim professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University.August 18, 2005

THE share of Americans who believe that news organizations are ''politically biased in their reporting'' increased to 60 percent in 2005, up from 45 percent in 1985, according to polls by the Pew Research Center.

Many people also believe that biased reporting influences who wins or loses elections. A new study by Stefano DellaVigna of the University of California, Berkeley, and Ethan Kaplan of the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University, however, casts doubt on this view. Specifically, the economists ask whether the advent of the Fox News Channel, Rupert Murdoch's cable television network, affected voter behavior. They found that Fox had no detectable effect on which party people voted for, or whether they voted at all.

An appealing feature of their study is that it does not matter if Fox News represents the political center and the rest of the media the liberal wing, or Fox represents the extreme right and the rest of the media the middle. Fox's political orientation is clearly to the right of the rest of the media. Research has found, for example, that Fox News is much more likely than other news shows to cite conservative think tanks and less likely to cite liberal ones.

Fox surely injected a new partisan perspective into political coverage on television. Did it matter?

The Fox News Channel started operating on Oct. 7, 1996, in a small number of cable markets. Professors DellaVigna and Kaplan painstakingly collected information on which towns offered Fox as part of their basic or extended cable service as of November 2000, and then linked this information to voting records for the towns. Their sample consists of 8,630 towns and cities from 24 states. (Because many states do not report vote tallies at the town level, they could not be included in the sample.)

Local cable companies adopted Fox in a somewhat idiosyncratic way. In November 2000, a third of the towns served by AT&T Broadband offered Fox while only 6 percent of those served by Adelphia Communications offered it. Fox spread more quickly in areas that leaned more to Republican candidates, but the imbalance was only slight. Furthermore, looking within Congressional districts, the likelihood that a town's cable provider offered Fox in 2000 was unrelated to the share of people who voted for Bob Dole, the Republican candidate for president in 1996, or the residents' educational attainment, racial makeup or unemployment rate.

Because Fox News started just before the presidential election in 1996 and was hardly available at the time of that election, a major question is whether the introduction of Fox in a community raised the likelihood that residents voted for George W. Bush over Al Gore in the 2000 election, as compared with the share who voted for Bob Dole over Bill Clinton in the (pre-Fox) 1996 election.

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Disregarding third-party candidates, Professors DellaVigna and Kaplan found that towns that offered Fox by 2000 increased their vote share for the Republican presidential candidate by 6 percentage points (to 54 percent, from 48 percent) from 1996 to 2000, while those that did not offer Fox increased theirs by an even larger 7 percentage points (to 54 percent, from 47 percent).

When they made statistical adjustments to hold constant differences in demographic characteristics and unemployment, and looked at differences in voting behavior between towns that introduced and did not introduce Fox within the same Congressional district, the availability of Fox had a small and statistically insignificant effect on the increase in the share of votes for the Republican candidate. Thus, the introduction of Fox news did not appear to have increased the percentage of people voting for the Republican presidential candidate. A similar finding emerged for Congressional and senatorial elections.Voter turnout also did not noticeably change within towns that offered Fox by 2000 compared with those that did not.

By the summer of 2000, 17 percent of Americans said they regularly watched the Fox Cable Channel, and another 28 percent said they watched it sometimes. These numbers approached the viewership of the Cable News Network at the time.

Certainly many Democratic sympathizers feared that Fox gave Republican candidates an advantage. Al Franken, for example, called Fox ''a veritable all-news Death Star'' in Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

Why was Fox inconsequential to voter behavior?

One possibility is that people search for television shows with a political orientation that matches their own. In this scenario, Fox would have been preaching to the converted. This, however, was not the case: Fox's viewers were about equally likely to identify themselves as Democrats as Republicans, according to a poll by the Pew in 2000.

Professors DellaVigna and Kaplan offer two more promising explanations. First, watching Fox could have confirmed both Democratic and Republican viewers' inclinations, an effect known as confirmatory bias in psychology. (Borrowing from Simon and Garfunkel, confirmatory bias is a tendency to hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest.) When Yankee and Red Sox fans watch replays of the same disputed umpire's ruling, for example, they both come away more convinced that their team was in the right. One might expect Fox viewers to have increased their likelihood of voting, however, if Fox energized both sides' bases.

The professors' preferred explanation is that the public manages to ''filter'' biased media reports. Fox's format, for example, might alert the audience to take the views expressed with more than the usual grain of salt. Audiences may also filter biases from other networks' shows.

The tendency for people to regard television news and political commentary as entertainment probably makes filtering easier. Fox's influence might also have been diluted because there were already many other ways to get political information.

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** EXTRA CREDIT EXAMPLE 2 **John DoeExtra CreditOctober 7, 2005Chapter 16 – Collective Behavior and Social Movements

In the article “Faculty Eyes Work Slowdown”, University of Akron faculty with the

American Association of University Professors (AAUP) discuss their intentions to cut back

in their workload if a favorable contract is not offered and signed soon. The AAUP is a labor

union that represents tenured and tenure-track professors across the US, and is an

organization within the broader labor movement. The union may be best described as a

reform organization, not a revolutionary organization, because its main intention is achieve

better working conditions and pay for its members, not to radically alter and change the

existing work relationships in society. Akron-AAUP may not be considered an organization

within a resistance or expressive movement because it is neither opposed to change or

interested in merely individualistic change.

Social movement organizations engage in a wide array of specific tactics designed to

achieve certain collective goals. The Akron-AAUP is described as weighing the possibilities

of engaging in a work slowdown. This tactic is designed to place pressure on the daily

operations of the University of Akron, in order to help lobby political pressure upon the

university’s administration due to their perceived stalling on a new faculty contract. This

tactic may seem more aggressive than other tactics, like holding rallies or petition campaigns,

since it directly targets the ability of the university to function. Yet, it falls short of an

outright work stoppage—usually known as a strike—in its severity.

Akron-AAUP members feel that increasingly serious measures are required to

pressure their employers to sign a contract, a concern that has been building because UA

faculty have been working two years without a new contract.

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According to deprivation theory, people act when they are lacking in some sort of

good, service, or comfort. The Akron-AAUP has been lacking in a work contract, which may

be considered a primary motivating factor for the local AAUP’s organizing campaign, and

now their threat of a work slowdown. If the union had a contract, it would be unlikely to

threaten a work slowdown, since it is not deprived of any needed resources for its

membership.

The Akron-AAUP’s actions may also be explained by the resource mobilization

theory. Resource mobilization theory suggests that social movement organizations use their

varied resources to push for their political agendas. Organizations can use money, physical

resources, land, and people power to accomplish for these ends. Thus, even though it lacks

certain resources (a contract), the union still needs to mobilize the resources it does have in

order to carry out its activities and campaigns. In this instance, the Akron-AAUP has its own

labor, especially on university committees, that is promises to mobilize in the form of a

general work reduction if a contract is not offered. The resource being mobilized is the mass

labor of the AAUP’s membership, and the collective political threat of a work slowdown. As

discussed in the lecture, AAUP would also not be considered a “new social movement”, since

economic-based movements are considered to be “traditional movements”. New social

movements are commonly understood to be those that deal with equality, the environment,

and peace issues.

In the above reviewed article, the Akron-AAUP is evaluated as a reform social

movement organization, has chosen specific tactics to achieve its goals, is likely acting out of

the deprivation of a new contract, and is working to mobilize its existing resources to

pressure the university administration.

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Faculty eyes work slowdown

by Kristin Snowberger Chief Copy Editor snowberger@buchtelite.com

While many students were enjoying the summer break, the faculty union was hard at work trying to figure out exactly how much work they'll be doing this semester.

If the University of Akron faculty doesn't get a contract soon, they may cut back on their workload.

Should that happen, students might find that their professors aren't as readily available as they once were. It may be that a professor won't be in her office or won't sponsor an independent study.

While that might be the case down the road, it isn't something that students should be worried about said Jan Yoder, spokesperson for the Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

"There will be no systematic work action taken by Akron-AAUP unless at least one side votes to reject the fact-finder's report," she said.

"So, although Akron-AAUP will not call for any organized work action unless the situation comes to dictate that action, we do need to plan for the worst-case scenario."

University responds In the event of a work "slow down," the university will do whatever it needs to do, according to UA spokesperson Paul Herold.

"We expect that faculty members will obey the Ohio Public Employee Bargaining Act and not engage in any unlawful work slowdown or stoppage," Herold said. "The university will take appropriate actions to maintain normal operations in the event of a strike, with the primary goal being to avoid or minimize any disruption."

Over the summer, unionized professors at Kent State threatened to strike because of contract negotiations, but were able to come to a tentative agreement that included salary increases.

Health care costs, which had been proposed previously, were removed from the final proposal. Over 1,000 professors had been working without a contract since September 2004.

Those circumstances are not comparable to those at UA, according to Herold. "That situation is quite different from ours because contracts between Kent State and its faculty have been in place since the 1970s and have undergone negotiations every three years since that time," he said.

Financial issues are on the table at UA, but the approximately 650 faculty members represented by the AAUP are seeking more than money. Their focus is on governance issues, which Yoder says is truly at the heart of the matter.

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"What could have been two years of forward progress have been used unproductively to marginalize many faculty from the university's governance," she said.

Fact finder at work In June, 20 months after contract negotiations began, Akron-AAUP filed for fact-finding. A neutral fact-finder spent the summer reviewing the unresolved issues and considering arguments from both sides. A report will be prepared, likely by late September, recommending a settlement.

Both sides will then vote on whether to accept the proposed resolution. Herold is optimistic about the process.

"Both parties continue to meet and negotiate outstanding issues with the assistance of a mediator," he said. "To date, our negotiations have resulted in tentative agreements on 28 articles, some of which have come as recently as this month."

The union also filed its third unfair labor practice charge against the university on June 2, alleging that the university has failed to negotiate in good faith.

Yoder said the administration's negotiation team has brought eight proposals to the table, which she considers an "unwillingness to engage in real bargaining." She said the faculty is, for the most part, disappointed.

"I think there's a wide gamut of reactions among faculty," said Yoder, adding, "It does seem inevitable that faculty who feel that they have been disrespected by the administration will not be as committed to working with that administration as they may have felt in the past.

"What could have been two years of forward progress have been used unproductively to marginalize many faculty from the university's governance."

The full-time faculty voted to unionize in March 2003. At a meeting the following August, the Board of Trustees made decisions that affected the faculty's role at the university as well as their financial situation.

The faculty argue that the shared governance they had enjoyed at the university was eliminated and health care costs were passed on. This led to the first unfair labor practice charge being filed.

Two years of disputes In October 2003, the union and the administration entered into contract negotiations. Since that time, professors have picketed university events and rallied on Buchtel Common to bring attention to the one-year-mark of negotiations.

Yoder concedes that the faculty is caught in a Catch-22 of sorts.

"A big part of our work commitment does involve students, so it's hard to conceive of many effective work actions that would buffer students from the faculty's low morale and dissatisfaction with the administration," she said.

With that in mind, the union holds that, in this instance, the ends will justify the means. "(But) taking a clear stand now may be in the best interests of all students, alumnae, donors and faculty who have a vested interest in improving, not undermining, the academic standing of our

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university," said Yoder.

Herold said the administration is looking out for everyone's best interests as well. "The university hopes that fact-finding will lead to a thoughtful and comprehensive contract that is mutually acceptable to bargaining unit members and the university, and beneficial to our students, alumni, other employees and the taxpayers of Ohio," he said.

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