Applied Sociological Theory
(SOC 580/02)
Dr. Jon P. Bloch (pronounced "Block")
E-mail: Blochj1@southernct.edu
EN C 138, M 7:35-10:05 PM

COURSE SYLLABUS

Welcome to Applied Sociological Theory. We will be taking an in-depth exploration of the ways that the theoretical foundation of sociology can be applied in-depth to a topic of your interest. This pursuit of social theory is intended to help you with your eventual exit requirement (be it a thesis, comprehensive exam, or special project). Ideally, these materials will also inform you beyond your M. S., whether in pursuit of a Ph.D., on the job, or in your personal dealings.

Catalog Description:
Sociological theories applied to one or more social issues consequential to life in the U.S., such as discrimination, gang violence, corporate crime, global inequality and emerging current events. The Paradigms covered include functionalist, conflict, interpretive, post-modernist and feminist sociologies. Emphasis is placed on contrasting pedagogues and the different research considerations implied in each. Scheduled fall terms. 3 credits.

Graduate Program Goals:

To provide students with:

° A working knowledge of the central paradigms and theories of social behavior.

° Guidance and supervision in the conduct of in-depth investigations and discussions of important social issues.

° The expertise to evaluate and carry out research on social behavior and issues.

° The skill to communicate their research effectively through written reports and oral presentations.

° A lifelong curiosity for and commitment toward human society and social issues.

To demonstrate the above in a draft thesis proposal

Required online: There is an online study guide available at: http://home.southernct.edu/~blochj1/stg.html

This study guide provides an overview of the various course topics. It should be read before class. We also will be referring to various web links throughout the course. Additionally, toward the end of the course we might be referring to the Event Structure Analysis program of Dr. David Heise for instruction in theory construction: http://www.indiana.edu/~socpsy/ESA/

1. How to contact me: USE E-MAIL!!!! I am more happy than set up an appointment to answer your questions, but I like to avoid “phone tag.” However, if you e-mail me, I will answer your question in a timely manner. If you have not yet set up an e-mail account, you can do so online by going to "MY SCSU" on the SCSU Home Page: http://home.southernct.edu. Normally, your log-on will be your last name, first initial, and numeral 1, with NO SPACES (e.g., Blochj1). Your password is your six-digit date of birth. If this does not work, there are further instructions on the Web Site, or you can consult the help desk at 392-5123. (Note: If you want to meet with me during my regular office hours, you do not need to set up an appointment.) I often send e-mails to the entire class using My SCSU, so it is important that you set up your SCSU e-mail, and check it on a regular basis.

Do not ask if you can use a different e-mail address. Through “MY SCSU,” I can e-mail the entire class at once. Important messages might be sent out to the class, and you will be expected to regularly check your SCSU e-mail to know this information. Also, increasingly, outside e-mail addresses are posted as spam by the SCSU server. Thus, if you use a different address, your message might be listed as spam, and I will not see it. Furthermore, you can transfer your SCSU messages to another e-mail address, if that is more convenient.

NOTE: My e-mail address is available for matters pertaining only to academia, and is not to be used for any other purpose.

You will receive a raw score for each of these, not a letter grade. Final grading will use the following scale:

F = 179 or less

4. Weekly discussions: Given that this is a graduate-level course, you will be expected to attend class each week having read the readings assignments in advance of class, and be prepared to discuss them in-depth. If there are questions that you have about the readings, bring them to the discussion. You will not lose points for not understanding something in the readings, but you will lose points if you clearly did not read them. The format of the weekly discussions will be determined to a large measure by you, the students, as your needs and interests in the material emerge. Hopefully, we can have a lively “round-table” atmosphere in which a free and open exchange of ideas will be possible. Additional lecture material will be provided, but it will largely be within the context of our group discussions.

First and foremost, you should read the assignments from the standpoint of applying the theory at hand to your topic of interest:

° What about your topic would this theory be well-suited to explain—and what would it be less well-suited to explain?

° What types of research questions about your topic would this theory generate?

° What sorts of conclusions about your topic would you reach, using this theory?

° How is this theory different from others in the course—what makes it unique?

10. General Responsibilities:

° If you miss class, you will need to get lecture notes from another student.

° Films will not be shown on an individual basis.

° If you lose your syllabus, you must acquire a copy from another student or from my web page.

° The only opportunities for extra credit, if any, will be ones assigned to the entire class. There will be no special extra credit assignments for individual students.

° You are expected to make back-up copies of your papers and presentations. You should also e-mail them to yourself, to have as many copies as possible. Students who save their work on only one disk and who then cannot open the disk will not be given extra time to make up the work.

° You are expected to complete all the assignments for the course on time. Per SCSU policy, grades of “Incomplete” (I) are given rarely, in extreme situations that were truly unavoidable.

14. Proposal Instructions and Suggestions: Most of our graduate students intend on eventually writing a thesis, and so this course is organized around helping you lay the groundwork for one. Even if you later change your mind about what topic to pursue, you hopefully will be given tools to know how to theoretically frame whatever your topic ends up being. In your final proposal a year or two from now, you will be outlining what you plan to find out, and how you plan to find it out. Whatever you wish to study, and however you wish to study it, sociological theory should be a guiding influence. Sociological theory provides a framework of understanding how or why something occurs in the first place, and from there it guides you in what to look for, or what questions to ask. Thus, this exploratory paper will not be a complete proposal; instead, it will give you the opportunity to try out different theories for their goodness of fit. In this way, you will be better prepared when you begin to write your final proposal at a later time.

Note that you are not writing a term paper on a topic, but presenting a theoretical framework from which a future analysis can be built.

How to get started: The first thing you need to do is create a research question. In scholarly pursuits, research questions are as specific as possible. For example, you would not simply pose the question, “Why is there poverty?” Instead, you might ask: “Why are poverty rates rising amongst people of color in the U. S.?” Or perhaps: “How did Bridgeport, Connecticut go from being one of the most affluent communities in the U. S. to one of the poorest?” Or maybe: “What makes someone give or not give money to a homeless person asking for a handout?” Or still again: “What happens to the structure of a poor family when one member becomes rich?” The possibilities are endless; but remember to be as specific as possible.
Also, avoid multiple topics. For example, “What causes poverty and what causes crime?” are really two separate issues.

As you formulate your research question, be aware of whether it seems to suggest a macro-level or micro-level analysis. Macro phenomena tend to lend themselves to macro-level theories. You would be looking for large-scale patterns that would seem to effect a society as a whole. By contrast, micro-level approaches are more about the interactive or individual processes involved. Using the above example of poverty, the questions about the U. S. and Bridgeport would be macro-level analyses, while the questions about the handouts or the family would probably be micro-level.

Some of the theories we will be studying tend to be macro, while others tend to be micro. Still other have been applied to both levels of analysis. You should be aware of this when making your choices. Sometimes studies are micro, sometimes they are micro, and sometimes scholars like to combine both levels together. Although in this paper you will not be writing about research methods, you might want to be thinking about how theory and methods might go together. For example, macro-level studies usually use quantitative data such as statistics, while micro-level analysis is generally qualitative (field studies, informal interviews). You also might want to think about whether you want to interview or observe human subjects, or if you want to explore non-reactive measures—pre-existing texts, such as news articles, magazines, public records, films, videos, advertisements, and so on. This, too, can influence what theory or theories you use.

Selecting a theory(s): In class, we will be trying on many different theories, and applying them to your topic. You will receive input both from the instructor and your peers, but ultimately the theory or theories you select are up to you. The most important consideration should be how much explanatory power a theory has to answer the question you are posing. Different theories focus on different aspects of the social experience. For example, if your research question pertains to economic inequalities, Marxism and/or neo-Marxism would probably be a good fit. If you want to study how rules and red tape confound the criminal justice system, perhaps you will want to use Weber and his ideas on bureaucracy.

How many theories to use: In undergraduate courses, I often require a certain number of theories in final projects. However, at the graduate level, there are not such explicit guidelines. For some of you, picking just one theory might be the best choice. However, bear in mind that the fewer theories you chose, the more specific and in-depth your application should be. However, I would caution against using more than three theories; beyond that point, the issues might start to seem confusing or muddled. We will be discussing your theoretical model in class as we go along. The most important thing to bear in mind is that theory is used to explain. There is no point in using multiple theories simply to “show off.” Instead, use more than one theory because there seems a genuine and organic need for more than one theory in order to explain all you wish to explain. When using more than one theory, it should be clear how they fit together.

Whether using one theory or multiple theories, your paper should include a flow chart or diagram of how, step by step, the phenomenon you are studying theoretically unfolds. Microsoft Word makes it extremely simple to do this.

Note that you will need to look up and utilize the theories in their original texts. It is not acceptable to simply use my web page as your references.

Issues to address: in the course of your paper, you want to orient the reader to basic information surrounding the topic at hand, create a theoretical model of explanation, and discuss how using this theory and model can lead you in a particular methodological direction. For example, on the basis of the theory(s) you are using, what sort of study might you want to do to explore your topic? How would you go about doing it, using the theory as a guiding influence? What sorts of questions would you want to ask, and/or what would you look for, given the theory(s) you are using?

Again, this is not a term paper. Instead, you are writing a paper that is in many ways much more open-ended, because you are planning for a future research project. Thus, you will not be reaching the kind of straightforward conclusions that a term paper often achieves. The point here is not to produce “all the answers,” but to start learning how to ask a question at the graduate level. Always remember to emphasize that this is how this theorist would explain the issue you are looking at, as opposed to discussing your topic from your own personal viewpoint, or as an unmovable, unchanging “fact.

15. Proposal Format: once you have worked out your basic research question and the theoretical framework you will use to explore it, you are ready to write your paper. The format to use is a fairly standard one for scholarly pursuits.

1. Title. The title of your paper is very important. It has been said that if you do not know what to title something, it must not be about anything. You will notice that scholarly articles tend to have specific titles that orient the reader as to what the paper is about. When necessary, they even have double-titles, whereby following a colon (:), a secondary title elaborates on a primary title. For example, your title would not simply be: “Poverty in Families.” Instead, it might be something like: “Why the Urban Underclass is Growing: Using Marx and Bonilla-Silva to Explain the Downward Trend in Bridgeport, Connecticut.”

2. Abstract. In one paragraph, summarize your paper: the question you are posing, how you explored it, and what you concluded based on this exploration. The abstract, too, will help you to see if your paper has a cohesive theme.

3. Introduction. Following the abstract, scholarly writings generally begin with a discussion of the research question, and how it will be addressed, For example, “Despite numerous anti-discrimination policies, the wage gap between black and white Americans is increasing. In this paper, I will explore theoretical explanations for why this is happening. I plan to use Marx’s theory of economic inequality, as well as the contemporary writings of Bonilla-Silva on colorblind racism. First, I will briefly share some general statistical trends regarding economic disparity. Next, I will describe the theories of Marx and Bonilla-Silva, and how each contributes to specific aspects of this question. I will then explore how each theory can be applied to the topic in question. This will be followed by an effort to combine the theories together, and then a discussion of the limitations of my analysis.”

4. Main Body. Here, you do what you just said you were going to do, in the order you said you were going to do it. There should be no “surprises”—nothing that the reader was not prepared for from the introduction. Using the same example, there should not be a third theory that is suddenly introduced. Sub-headings can make your copy easier to follow, e.g., “The Wage Gap,” “Marx’s Economic Determinism,” etc. At the end of each sub-topic, it is a good idea to briefly reorient the reader: “Having discussed Marx’s key ideas of social inequality, I will now discuss the more recent theory of colorblind racism, as advanced by Bonilla-Silva.” Also, as per above, include one or more graphic depictions or flow charts of how your theory or theories work as applied to your topic.

5. Conclusion. First, you should briefly summarize the paper—in about one paragraph (“To briefly summarize, I have explored how the ideas of Marx and Bonill-Silva can be used to explain the current wage gap between races, etc.”) You would then point out the limitations of your endeavor, and how future explorations can build off of what you have found. By pointing out limitations, you are keeping doubts and criticism at bay. For example: “This study was limited to the application of two theorists. Other theories applied to this same issue might have led in other directions, etc. Future studies might look to see what happens when other theories are applied to this topic

6. References. Per the instructions found on my web page at: http://home.southernct.edu/~blochj1/lcourse7.html

16. Other suggestions: You should write like a professional sociologist, as opposed to a “student.” Here are some tips for how to achieve this.

1. Be convincingly objective. As social scientists, we strive to be unbiased in our accounts. If our personal opinions are obvious, our arguments are less convincing, because we apparently haven’t considered all possible points of view. Usually, it is good to include some contradictory evidence or arguments (e.g., “Of, course one also could argue that this was because of such-and-such; however, there would seem to be at least some compelling evidence to support my claim.”)

2. Don’t present your analysis as more than what it is. As already noted, your research question should be as specific as possible, and your conclusion should be explicit about the limitations of your study. But throughout the paper, be mindful of your word choices. For example, avoid saying things like: “In this paper, I will prove what causes poverty.” You hopefully are offering a compelling argument, but you are not necessarily “proving” anything.

3. Remember: You’re writing a sociology paper. This is not a course in journalism, history, biology, or psychology, but sociology. Your emphasis should be how the issue you are exploring can be explained in terms of social forces and processes. It should not be presented as a matter of brain patterns, hormones, or individual psychology. Nor should it be an historical/journalistic report of facts without a strong emphasis on the sociological forces at work.

4. Follow instructions. Remember, you will lose points if you do not follow instructions as per the number of references required, page formatting, and so on.

5. Be professional. Be mindful of basis rules of grammar. Run your paper through a spell-checker, but also remember that sometimes spell-checkers do not recognize certain words. Microsoft word now has a built-in dictionary and thesaurus, to make it easy to make precise and varied word choices. Make a new paragraph when a new idea is introduced; in scholarly writing, the first sentence of a paragraph should be the topic sentence, and the other sentences should flow from there. You might also want to look at my L course website for general tips and suggestions: http://home.southernct.edu/~blochj1/lcourse.html

17. How to read scientific studies. When reading a favorite novel, we often want to go slowly to “savor” the language. By contrast, scholarly writing exists to offer points of information, rather than entertain us. Thus, scholars develop short-cuts to get as much out of an academic piece of writing in as short a period of time as they can.

A. The title. Unlike good fiction, academic writing is not intended to keep the reader in suspense. In fact, the main point of the reading usually is stated in its title. So (obvious as it sounds), think carefully about the title of the reading. If you can explain every word in the title, you quite often can explain the main points of the reading itself.

B. The abstract. If it is a journal article, there probably is an abstract that summarizes the main points. Make note of the points addressed in the abstract, and look for elaboration of them in the main body.

C. The first sentence of each paragraph. While fictional writing “builds” as it goes along, keeping the reader turning the page for more, academic writing is structured so that the first sentence usually is the topic sentence, or main point of a given paragraph. Subsequent sentences elaborate on the first one. So go through the entire article reading ONLY the first sentence of every paragraph. You might be surprised at how much you know after doing this. (Some sources suggest reading the first and last sentence.)

D. Tables and charts. If it is a statistical analysis, there will probably be tables summarizing the numerical results. Hopefully, your training as a graduate student will include how to read these tables, if you do not already know how to do so. You can then read over the entire chapter or section, noting the key points—perhaps even jotting them down. If something is unclear, make a note of it, and get back to it later—or else ask me about it. But remember—you are reading to get the main idea of the reading, not to memorize every last nuance.

E. Go back and briefly read the entire article, mentally filling in details as needed. The important thing is that you understand the implications of the findings, and have some sense of how the social scientist went about discovering them.

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Wells-Barnett, Ida B. 1987. On lynchings. Salem, NH: Ayer.

West, Cornell. 1999. The Cornell West reader. New York : Basic Civitas Books.

Westby, David L 1991. The Growth of Sociological Theory: Human Nature, Knowledge, and Social Change. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

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