Prof. L. San Giovanni
Office: A&S Hall Rm. 215
Hours: T,H - 2:30-3pm; F 12-1pm and by
appt.
Phone: 973-275-5856
email: sangiolu@shu.edu
Your
Course Page is: http://pirate.shu.edu/~sangiolu/1101.html
My
Home Page: http://pirate.shu.edu/~sangiolu/
Fall, 2000
Welcome to our introductory course in sociology. What is sociology? How does it differ from social work or psychology or socialism? The easiest answer is that sociology is the study of society, of people in groups. But the easiest is often not the best or clearest answer. In this course we investigate what C. Wright Mills called "the sociological imagination", which is a perspective that explores how peoples' lives are shaped by the history and patterns of their society.
Our course revolves around riddles-- perplexing questions about society that don't have obvious answers. Why do people marry? Why is street violence more common in the U.S. than in Italy or Japan? Why is sport so important in North America? Why do people do good? Why does poverty persist? Why do people in the West shake hands? Why do people commit suicide? Why can't gay people legally marry? Why do U.S. corporations shift jobs overseas? Why do so few Americans vote? How did computers gain such rapid acceptance?
As we ponder these riddles, we apply the sociological imagination to "see" that we, as people, create our social and personal world. We make and break rules; we join groups and leave them; we build social structures and then change them; we invent the world! Paradoxically, the sociological imagination also shows that the world we create in turn creates us; we shape society and, ironically, are then shaped by it. Just imagine how cars, suburbs, TV, computers, fast food, immigration, guns--to name but a few of our innovations--have influenced our lives and our society.
Sociology Sites: A few Web pages that may whet your sociological appetite--browse them to see sociologists at work.
Timeline for Sociology (the birth and growth of the field)
Dead Sociologists Society (it takes a while to load, but at least YOU'RE alive)
Is there a "sociology of....." everything? See for yourself at Sociological Subject Areas
Society for Applied Sociology (careers for sociologists)
The Sociology of Cyberspace (a different look at the digital world)
The Red Feather Institute (progressive/activist sociology that aims to change society)
What
does your ZIP CODE tell them about you? Click here to find out why
advertising agencies (among other organizations) want to know it. Discover
the kinds of group characteristics contains in those 5 little digits!
When you get to the site, enter your zip code; then, on the next page select
some of the information you want to view such as average income, ethnic
groups, level of education, etc. For comparisons, enter Seton Hall
University's zip code (07079) to get the same type of information and compare
your zip code data with our university's location. Finally, put in the
zip code of a wealthier area such as Livingston (07039) and a poorer area
in Essex County such as East Orange, NJ (07017). Now do you
see why they want these data? What could you use them for?
SEARCH ENGINES: Visit Search Engine Watch if you are new to (or enjoy) them. Here are some popular ones: Yahoo!, Excite, Hotbot and Altavista. I prefer Northern Light and the multi-search engine Dogpile for broad exposure to topics.
MY
VIRTUAL REFERENCE DESK Almost as good as having a personal
reference librarian! Lots of links, tools, information sources, etc., and
deserves a bookmark.
REQUIRED TEXT:
C.L. Kanagy and D.B. Kraybill.
The Riddles of Human Society. Pine Forge Press, 1999.
COURSE AIMS: Specific objectives for this course include enhancing your ability to:
USING YOUR TEXT:
As
a professor, I prefer students to do less required reading and MORE thinking
about what they read, than the reverse. Your text is a short
one, with chapters that average about 30 pages. At the end of each
chapter are three exercises to stimulate the thinking I encourage you to
do:
1. QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION (QWD) are based on the chapter material and do not have yes or no answers. They stretch your mental muscles and ask you to grapple with riddles rather than just preparing for exams. The Course Outline, below, identifies the questions to prepare for each class; bring to class a short paragraph answer to one of them which I may, at times, collect to assess your understanding.
2. ACTIVE LEARNING EXERCISES (ALE). To complete these you need to get out of the classroom! Actually DOING sociology is the best way to understand it and I have identified certain exercises in the Course Outline to carry out and bring to class for discussion.
3. INTERNET EXERCISES (NET). These projects help you to learn how to improve your understanding of the Internet, to use it as a source of sociological information, and to explore its radical implications for social life. Again, specific projects have been chosen for you to do in the Course Outline.
HOW CLASS IS ORGANIZED:Everyone does not learn in the same way, so while I prefer the Socratic method of teaching (question-answer-question) I will also mix in lectures, group work, writing, role playing, guest speakers, etc. We have 75 minutes classes which will generally break down as follows:
COMPUTER CONSIDERATIONS
1. All students need active E-mail accounts and Internet access. Visit the Computer Lab in Corrigan Hall for assistance with all technical questions. Generally, I check my e-mail once a day and will reply to messages from you within 24 hours (not including weekends/holidays). Please check your email at the start and the end of the week. NOTE:permission to obtain deadline extensions must be done by phone or in person, not by e-mail (which can be unreliable at times)
2. Library work and literature searches can easily be done on computers, using CD-ROM's in Walsh Library. Some CDs useful for sociology include: Social Science Index, Sociofile and INFOTRAC. Click here for a partial list.
3. Word-processing (a terrible term, IMHO) is required of all assigned projects. SHU uses MSWord and so must we. Please use spell check, grammar check and numbered pages on all submitted work.
4. Your Computer Lab: There is a Lab in A&S Hall, 2nd floor, a few doors from my office. The Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology is located nearby and we have special software in the Lab for social science majors. Check it out!
5. Please HAVE PATIENCE! We are at the start of the "Computer Revolution", which means that many things don't work, aren't known and cannot be fixed as easily or painlessly as phones, cars, VCRs or the TV. To cope with this requires a sense of humor, consideration, patience and other virtues supposedly acquired by now.
Extra Credit: Course participation includes the quality of your classroom contributions as well as quantity.
POLICY ON PLAGIARISM AND
CHEATING: Don't even think about it... but if you are not sure
what these activities mean, please refer to your Student Handbook. My policy
is: "one strike and
you're out"--that is, you will fail the course and the Dean's Office
will be notified of such, after the FIRST event of plagiarism and/or cheating.
A. EXPLORING SOCIAL RIDDLES: Why are Presidents
White Men?
C. THE CONCEPTS OF SOCIOLOGY: Why do People
Kill Themselves?
TEST #1
E. CULTURE (Social Software): Why do the
Amish ShunTechnology?
F. SOCIAL STRUCTURE (The Architecture of
Social Life): Why are People Poor?
G. RITUAL (THE DRAMA OF LIFE): Why
do People Shake Hands?
TEST #2
H. MICRO RIDDLES: Why do People Smoke? Own Homes?
Do Good?
Final Examination
Basic Concepts: All groups have a special "language" or jargon. Think of tennis players who speak of top spin, "love", an ace, double faults and a slice backhand. These terms are useful for playing tennis. For "playing" sociology, we have our own concepts and terms. You could learn them in order to improve your sociology.......
Society, culture, group, institution, community,
organization, socialization, stratification, social class, collective behavior,
deviance, social self, interaction, authority, power, status/role, norms,
values, rationalization, social change, minority group, demography, methodology,
hypothesis, theory, ethnocentrism, social relativity, the sociological
imagination, micro and macro sociology, mobility, variables, subcultures
Getting Good Grades: The general rule of thumb is that to do well in a course 3 hours should be spent studying outside of class for every hour spent in class. That comes to 12 hrs/week for a three credit course. In addition to putting in the hours, you need to read, think and take notes wisely during this time.
Some students, after getting a lower grade than they expected on their exams or papers, say something like, " I don't know why I got a C on this...I did what you wanted...I answered the questions". Part of the key to getting good grades is writing strong essays on your exams and in your assigned papers. Good professors will always give students some general guidelines for how to write strong essays as I will in class; however, this task is very difficult and some students still remain unsure of what is expected of them.
To help you, I have put on reserve in the library
at the front desk (under my name) several copies of Paul
Knepper's excellent essay, "An Exercise to Help Students Learn to Write
Good Essays." I use the same criteria he does in this article and
I urge you to read it WITHIN TWO WEEKS from the start of the semester (in
fact, I urge you to make a copy of it and keep it with you during your
college years)! Of course, I invite you to come during my office
hours, or use email, to discuss any problems or issues raised in our course.
A SPORTING MODEL OF OUR
COURSE: I find it useful to think of a sports analogy in making
sense of our course. You are the athlete, the classes, quizzes and newsgroups
are your practice sessions. The projects and exams are your "big games"
and I am your..... coach! In order to get good grades YOU have to
"work on your game". Don't worry if the "ball goes in the net"
at times, it's your overall desire, planning and practice that makes
for winners. Please let me know how I can help you to make this a successful
semester.