Sociology 211.00: Social Problems
Fall 2002
Dr. Scott Schaffer
Class Meetings: MWF 2pm to 250pm, McComsey 113

Syllabus subject to revision prior to start of fall semester

Office Hours: MWF 1pm to 150pm, TTh 1130am to 1230pm, or by appointment
Phone: 717/872.3567      Fax: 717/872.3942          email: scott.schaffer@millersville.edu

Course website: http://www.millersville.edu/~schaffer/courses/f2002/soc211

Course Description:

This class is devoted to looking at the dark side of our social lives -- the side we don't like to look at. This course asks you to look at what's wrong with the world and (y)our place in making it that way.

There are many social problems in the world, and we hear about them on CNN, read about them in the newspaper, and have them turned into guilt trips by our mothers for not eating our dinner. Starving children in Ethiopia; people with HIV/AIDS in southern Africa; crime and drug use in our cities -- all of these issues seem huge and insurmountable. In this class, we'll look at these problems, the ideas about society that are reflected in these problems, and develop tools for understanding them better so we can begin to address them individually and as a society.

The first part of this course will focus on the wide variety of social problems around the world. The term "social problem" is itself problematic; it implies a "correct" way of living with others that is not working. And it is this implied "socially correct" mode of life that we'll begin to explore by understanding these phenomena not just as social problems (drug use, crime, poverty, inequality), but also as sociological problems (conceptions of sanity and sobriety, conformity, wealth, and equality).

The second part of this course will look at the issue of fundamentalisms in the world today. As public discussion about September 11 and its aftermath has shown us, fundamentalism is an important factor in our lives. However, there are more than just Islamic fundamentalism in the world; this course will show us how a variety of things, ranging from Christianity to other forms of identity politics to capitalism itself. We will examine the processes that go into constructing fundamentalisms, their impacts on the world, and ultimately you'll be asked to pass judgment on these processes and figure out a potentially better way of living with others.

This course will be difficult at times and depressing at others; there are many bad things in the world -- things we don't like to think about and things for which we are directly responsible -- and in order to change them, we need to figure out how they came about and how they can be fixed. So, I pose this challenge to you: struggle through the dark side of our social lives, think carefully and critically about your place in things, and you'll be able to envision a better world for us all.

Course Texts:

The following texts are required, and are available for purchase from the Marauder Bookstore, or online at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. We'll read them in the following order.

Robert Heiner (ed.), Social Problems and Social Solutions (abbreviated SPSS)
Thomas Meyer, Identity Mania: Fundamentalism and the Politicization of Cultural Differences (abbreviated IM)
Joel Schalit, Jerusalem Calling: A Homeless Conscience in a Post-everything world (abbreviated JC)
Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (abbreviated CF)

Course Assignments:

There are four types of assignments for this course. Successful and timely completion of all assignments is essential to your success in this course.

Papers: As this is a writing course, you will be asked to write a significant amount this term. There will be two papers for this course -- a five-page paper due in week 8, and a ten-page research project due in the last class session. The research project will be submitted on Nov 25/2002 for comments, and a revised version will be due on Mon Dec 9/2002 in class. You should see the "How to Write a Schaffer Paper" handout, available on the course web site, for more details on what goes into these papers, and the expectations at the end of this syllabus for how I will evaluate them.

Exams: There will be two exams for this course -- one in the fifth week of the course, and another during the regularly scheduled final exam time (Th Dec 12/2002, 1015am to 1215pm). Both exams will be essay exams, and the questions that are "fair game" for the exams will be handed out in advance for your preparation.

Reading Journals: You will be asked to keep a journal throughout this course. How you use the journal in conjunction with the course is up to you; it is intended to provide you with another space in which you can deal with the issues that appear during the course. You will be asked to submit your journal twice during the semester -- once with the second paper, and again with the final paper. I do read the journals, so you know. They will be evaluated on a pass/fail basis -- you do an entry each day of a class meeting, you pass. You don't... Details on the journal assignment appear later in the syllabus.

Class Participation: Your participation in this course is vital to your success. On some days, participation will simply be your attendance and attention in lecture; on some days, you'll be asked to submit prepared questions for address by the class; and on still others, you will need to engage the class in discussion on the materials and issues at hand for that day. Fridays in particular will be dedicated to discussion of the class materials with regard to discussion questions I will hand out in advance for your preparation. In any case, this is not a class where slacking is healthy -- the success of each and every class session rests in part on your contribution.

Note: I reserve the right to give a pop quiz at any time to ensure that you're keeping up with the readings. Any time I give a pop quiz, it will be graded on a letter grade basis, and the grade will be equivalent to two sets of discussion questions. There are no makeup quizzes; if you're absent on the day it happens, you receive a zero (0) for that quiz, save in the event of an excused and previously notified absence.

Grade Breakdown: Grades for this course will be letter grades with +/- modifiers. Updates on your grades for the course will be available on request.

Midterm Exam 10%
Midterm Paper 15%
Research Project 40%
Reading Journals 5%
Final Exam 10%
Course Participation 20%

Timeliness, Presentation, and Academic Dishonesty Policies:

Timeliness: As you know, the tempo of the semester system does not allow one to fall behind, and everything in this course builds to the final research paper. As such, you are requested and required to submit all assignments on the time and date announced. Except in the case of a severe, catastrophic, and well-documented misfortune that befalls you (such as your departure from this mortal coil), no late papers will be accepted and no makeup exams will be offered; in the event of a catastrophe, you must contact me by phone or e-mail as early as possible. In no event will there be a makeup pop quiz. Papers must be submitted to me in person at the time and date due, to the Sociology/Anthropology Department office prior to the deadline, or by e-mail to me before the deadline.

Presentation: The research papers you will undertake in this course represent a significant portion of your time this quarter and are intended to get you to think about the nature of the society in which you find yourselves. The expectation is that you will pursue these assignments with vigor and a clear intent to do well in the development of your analytic and critical thinking skills. As such, you are required to proofread and spell- and grammar-check all work submitted during this course. There is no excuse for submitting shoddy work in a time when any decent word processing program can polish your work. Any paper submitted with copious errors will automatically lose two full letter grades and may be returned for correction. With the second presentation foul, your paper will receive a zero (0), and any subsequent paper submitted in a sloppy manner will receive a zero (0) as well.

Academic Dishonesty: Absolutely NO form of academic dishonesty (defined as the use of prohibited materials during an examination, any kind of communication with another person other than the professor or an exam proctor during an examination, the representation of another's work as your own whether that work was purchased or freely offered) will be tolerated in this course. As it is contrary to both the mission of the university and to MU policies, any act of academic dishonesty will be met with an immediate failure on the exam or assignment at minimum, and referral to Student Affairs for judicial board proceedings at most. Just don't even think about it -- it robs us all of the learning experience.

Lecture and Reading Schedule: Please note that you are expected to have completed the readings listed for each class session on the day they are listed. While my lectures will touch on issues raised in the readings, you should not presume that they are a substitute for actually doing the readings or vice versa. Note that Mondays and Wednesdays will be devoted to lectures, while Fridays will be primarily oriented to class discussion surrounding the discussion questions. Please ensure you have prepared them prior to that session.

M Aug 26: Introduction to the Course: Syllabus and Mechanics
W Aug 28: Introduction to the Course: Themes and Issues; SPSS, pp. 1-28
F Aug 30: SPSS, pp. 29-46, 55-65

M Sep 2: No class -- Labor Day
W Sep 4: SPSS, pp. 88-110
F Sep 6: Discussion on W1 and W2 readings

M Sep 9: SPSS, pp. 111-141
W Sep 11: SPSS, pp. 142-184
F Sep 13: Discussion on W3 readings

M Sep 16: SPSS, pp. 185-227
W Sep 18: SPSS, pp. 232-264, 288-316
F Sep 20: Discussion on W4 readings

M Sep 23: SPSS, pp. 317-326, 340-378
W Sep 25: Midterm preparation session, guided by your questions -- no reading.
F Sep 27: Midterm Exam

M Sep 30: Midterm Paper handed out and discussed; IM, pp. xi-xx, 1-26
W Oct 2: IM, pp. 27-51
F Oct 4: Discussion on W6 readings

M Oct 7: No class -- Fall Recess
W Oct 9: IM, pp. 52-90
F Oct 11: IM, pp. 91-112, 121-122

M Oct 14: Wrap-up discussion on fundamentalisms
W Oct 16: Paper prep session, guided by your questions -- no reading
F Oct 18: Midterm Paper and Journals DUE at the start of class; first half closure discussion -- no reading.

M Oct 21: Research Project handed out and discussed; JC, pp. 15-20
W Oct 23: JC, pp. 21-48
F Oct 25: JC, pp. 48-86

M Oct 28: JC, pp. 87-105
W Oct 30: JC, pp. 105-124
F Nov 1: Discussion on W9-10 readings

M Nov 4: JC, pp. 125-162
W Nov 6: JC, pp. 163-219
F Nov 8: Discussion on Jerusalem Calling

M Nov 11: CF, pp. 1-43
W Nov 13: CF, pp. 44-85
F Nov 15: CF, pp. 86-113

M Nov 18: CF, pp. 114-154
W Nov 20: CF, pp. 155-202
F Nov 22: Paper prep session; CF, pp. 203-252

M Nov 25: Research Project Draft DUE at the start of class. Late projects will not be accepted nor evaluated for the final grade.
W/F Nov 27-29: No class -- Thanksgiving Recess

M Dec 2: CF, pp. 253-289
W Dec 4: CF, pp. 290-332
F Dec 6: Paper prep session and closure discussion -- no reading.

M Dec 9: Revised Research Projects DUE at the start of class; final exam review session -- no reading.

Th Dec 12, 1015am to 1215pm: Final Examination and Journals DUE

 

Summing Up -- Due Dates

F Sep 27 -- Midterm Examination

F Oct 18 -- Midterm paper and journals due

M Nov 25 -- Draft of research project due

M Dec 9 -- Revised research project due

Th Dec 12, 1015am to 1215pm -- Final Examination and journals due

 

Journal Assignment

The purpose of the journal is to help you do a number of things:

There is one required element of the journal. Once a week, you must read and discuss a newspaper article from a foreign national newspaper dealing with the course issues and topics. In this discussion, you must provide a summary of the article and show how it relates to what we’re talking about in class. Links to accepted national newspapers appear on the course web site; more detail on this assignment will be handed out in class.

You must also write in journal at least once a week (and preferably after each class session). You can use it for taking notes on the readings, musing about your life, discussing your responses to the course or to me – anything. It is, strictly speaking, your space, so please feel free to write what you want in whatever manner you want; the key, though, is to show me that you’re thinking about the course materials and issues outside of class.

Over the years, I've found that the following usage works best for students in attaining all of the goals of this course:

1. Write in your journal on a daily basis -- after each class session. This way, the ideas and issues discussed in class are fresh in your mind, and I've found that it's easier to integrate new ideas into your existing way of thinking if you try to work it out immediately after you've learned the stuff.

2. Keep in mind the goals of the course and the purpose of the journal. I'm not expecting this to be a "Dear Diary" sort of experience for you (though discussing events and goings-on in your personal life is perfectly acceptable to me). Rather, the journal is designed to help you further your sociological and analytic abilities, and as such, writing up each day's entry to focus on that day's class material will help you retain it, understand it, and give you an opportunity to see how it relates to your everyday existence.

3. Don't fall behind. I'll know it. And since this is intended to help you deepen your understanding of social life, falling behind will have an impact on your work in other areas of the course, most especially the papers.

Evaluation: Your journals will be evaluated on the following criteria:

As with most everything else, a sincere effort will ensure that you do well on this segment of the course assignments, which will end up benefiting you on your other assignments as well.

These journals will be collected twice -- one with the midterm paper (on Fri Oct 18), and again with your final exam -- and each collection date counts as 50% of your journals grade. Failing to submit the first time will result in a 0 for that half, regardless of whether or not the entries appear on the second submission. No late journals will be accepted, and no makeup submissions are allowed.

Paper Evaluation Guidelines

More information on these guidelines and examples of what I expect is available in the "How to Write a Schaffer Paper" handout, which will be given out with the first paper assignment. These, though, are the overall guidelines in order of importance.

1. Strength and clarity of response to the paper topic's main question. Each paper assignment will ask you to respond directly to an argumentative question, and you should ensure that your paper contains a direct and clear response to this question.

2. Strength and cohesiveness of the argument. The papers you will write in this class are argument-based -- it isn't enough to deliver a simple one-sentence statement that answers the question. Instead, you need to take the time to show me how it is you came to that response -- the thought process you went through, the references you drew from in order to figure out your position, and how you put everything together. In algebra, it was called "showing your steps"; here, it's just good argumentation.

3. Accuracy in presentation and understanding of materials. While most of this course is devoted to the development of your own perspective on these thinkers and the world, there are some minimum "correct" and "incorrect" understandings of what the authors said. You need to be sure that you accurately represent what each author says, that you accurately and adequately cite any reference to the original text(s), and that you explain any unorthodox presentation of the authors' works.

4. Presentation -- spelling, grammar, tone, and the actual submitted paper. As it's become ridiculously easy to ensure that your work is cleanly presented, you must ensure that your paper is spell- and grammar-checked prior to submitting it for evaluation. You should also endeavor to ensure that it's proofread, either by you, a discussion group member, or someone else -- and this proofreading should be both for the technical matters and for clarity of argument. Otherwize, you're paper will appeer bad, even iff its the most briliant thing ever writen.

Deductions: The following are automatic deductions without appeal:

Also, note that I grade on a letter grade with +/- additions, so there should be no dallying around with the math.

In general, grades on papers indicate the following (and note that failing to meet these criteria will generally result in a failing grade):

Course Evaluation Criteria:

I know that on occasion, it's difficult to figure out what a professor expects of you in order to pass the course or to receive a particular grade. In order to assuage that concern, here is the set of expectations I have of you during this term; please note that they are not listed in order of importance:

I know that you have other responsibilities or interests you have to attend to, and I am sympathetic to the various pulls on your time. However, you should note that I take very seriously what you do in this course, and I expect that your continued presence in this course will mean that you too take that seriously. If you're not interested in the course, withdraw now. Presuming that you do take your work in here seriously, and you do your best to meet the expectations as listed above, you will pass the course. Failure to attend to your responsibilities in this course will result in your failure in this course.

Course Outcomes:

By the end of this semester, you will be able to do the following: