Syllabus last revised on M Jan 20/2003 - includes Goodwin/Jasper revisions, Sewell article
Spring 2003
Scott Schaffer, PhD
Course Meetings: Weds 6pm to 830pm, South Hall 108 (Dixon)
Office Hours (Dixon Center): Weds 5pm
to 6pm
Office Hours (Millersville): MWF 11am to 1150am, TTh 1130am to 1230pm
Phone: 717/872.3567 (office) Fax: 717/872.3942
Email: scott.schaffer@millersville.edu
Course Website: http://www.millersville.edu/~schaffer/courses/s2003/soc656
Catalog Description:
Explores nature and consequences of social change, alternative theoretical perspectives on social change, and how social change might be implemented. Also discusses lessons to be learned from various planned change efforts.
Course Description:
This course is designed to examine in detail a variety of theoretical perspectives on social change, as well as processes and case studies of social change. Of course, this seems much more simple than it really is.
What this course will actually do is provide you with the basis for understanding individual and collective roles in and responsibility for a variety of forms of social change. We are -- though we don't always realize this -- the medium by which social structures, for better or worse, reproduce themselves, and we are the agents by which social structures can and do change. From the "computer revolution" to political revolutions, from changes in fashion to changes in political philosophies, both social structural factors and human beings must be involved in order for things to change; and even something as catastrophic and monumental as the Sep 11/2001 attacks can have almost no impact on a social order without both structures and people changing.
In order to realize this and make it useful, this course will start with a detailed examination and interrogation of classical and contemporary theories of social change. Through participant presentations and in-class discussions, we will explore the ways in which these theoretical perspectives allow us to understand both "top-down" and "bottom-up" forms of social change, what elements of the social order are generally considered when looking at these forms of transformation, our position in and responsibility for social change, and how these theoretical perspectives can be transformed into analytic and methodological tools for developing our own understandings of the welter of social change. We will also develop the conceptual and theoretical tools for evaluating forms of social change in terms of their beneficence or detriment for humankind during this phase of the course.
In the second segment of the course, we will examine two particular case studies of social change in recent times: the large-scale social transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War; and social movements and protests induced by globalization and global governance, starting with the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle and continuing through Genoa in 2001 and post-9/11 social movements. In each of these case studies, we will utilize the theoretical and analytic perspectives developed in the first segment of the course to gain a deeper insight into the processes of social change that surround us on a daily basis, discern lessons to be learned from the successes and failures of these movements, and develop potentially viable and efficacious new models for social change processes.
The final segment of this course will be devoted to the development and evaluation of our own research projects. These projects will ask you to represent and analyze a particular process of social change you find some interest in, and to develop a plan for further social change in that realm of social life. Each participant in the course will give a short presentation on their research project and will provide a draft of their research for peer evaluation and discussion. We will then provide constructive criticism of each participant's work in the hopes of further improving our individual and collective work.
This course will ask a great deal of you -- continuous reading, constant discussion and participation, and a regular engagement in the improvement of all of our work. I know, though, that you are up to the challenge and will perform admirably here.
Reading Materials:
The following texts are required for this course, and are available in the Co-Op Store, or online at Amazon.com or BN.com. They will be used in the following order:
Sztompka, The Sociology of Social Change
Goodwin and Jasper (eds.), The Social Movements Reader
Ramet, Social Currents in Eastern Europe
Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down
Hague and Loader (eds.), Digital Democracy
O'Brien, Goetz, Scholte and Williams, Contesting Global Governance
There will also be a number of required readings available for download on eReserve, either at IUP or Millersville's library web site. Finally, suggested readings are included in the syllabus for each week; these readings are generally available, but not specifically made available for this course. In case you're interested, you should be able to find them online through JSTOR, Ingenta, or other online databases, or through local libraries.
Course Assignments:
Presentations: You will be asked to give two presentations during the semester. The first will take place during the first and second segments of the course. This presentation should be akin to a long conference presentation (approximately 25-30 minutes in length), and should detail themes and arguments that appear in the readings, as well as criticism of the works read for that week. The second presentation will be on your research project, again 25-30 minutes in length. This presentation will ask you to present your research as if at a conference in order for you to receive feedback and constructive criticism on it. Sign-ups for both presentations will take place during the second week of class.
Papers: You will be asked to write two papers during the semester. The first, a ten-page paper, will be submitted with your first presentation; it should serve as an exegetical and analytic work that utilizes the reading materials to that point in the course to deal with the key course issues. The second, article-length (i.e., 25-30 pages) paper will be your research project. Details on both papers appear later in this syllabus.
Participation in discussion: Of course, you will be requested and required to participate in in-class discussions. The productivity of your contributions to furthering discussion, deepening our collective understanding of the materials, and highlighting matters of interest to the rest of the class will serve as the basis for the evaluation of this course segment.
Grade Breakdown:
First/text-based presentation
10%
Second/research-based presentation
10%
First/literature review paper
20%
Final research paper
40%
Course participation
20%
Policies: Attendance, Timeliness, Presentation, Academic Honesty
Attendance: You know the score -- if you're in class, great and thank you for coming; if not, please let me know in advance by phone or email that you won't be there. On the days of your presentations, you must be in class or submit your materials to me 24 hours in advance of that date for presentation by me; otherwise, you will receive a zero for those assignments.
Timeliness: If for some reason you are unable to submit a paper on time, you must contact me in advance of the due date so that we can make arrangements for its timely submission. Failure to do so, save in the case of a well-documented disastrous emergency (such as your departure from this mortal coil or that of a member of your immediate family), will result in a zero.
Should it be necessary, all submissions to me can be made via email. In that case, you need to send your work as a Microsoft Word file (no other format will be accepted), including a cover page, and send it as an attachment -- do not include the paper in an email. If you need assistance in this, please let me know -- I'm more than happy to help.
Presentation: Please make sure that all materials are professionally submitted, carefully proofread, and spell- and grammar-checked. Failure to do so will result in a zero for the assignment.
Academic Honesty: As if this need be said...
Reading Schedule:
Listed here are the course readings, as well as recommended readings to gain a deeper insight into each theorist's oeuvre. In any given class session, everyone is expected to read the course texts, as well as at least one of the other theorists or authors listed for that week. Presenters should endeavor to read as much of the listed materials as they can -- in the presentations, breadth of examination and thematization count for more than does mere regurgitation of the materials.
Week 1 -- Introduction to the Course: Mechanics, Themes, Key Issues and Questions
W Jan 15: Introductory Discussion
Readings:
Sztompka, Part I
Suggested reading: Sewell, "A Theory of Structure"
Weeks 2-6 -- Classical and Contemporary Theories of Social Change
W Jan 22: Theorizing Social Change -- The "what" and "how" of it
Readings:
Sztompka, Parts II-III
Suggested readings:
W Jan 29: Social Stasis and the Bureaucratic Order: Weber
Readings:
Sztompka, Part IV
Goodwin and Jaspers, Parts II and VII
Weber, selections from On Max Weber and Economy and Society
Suggested readings:
W Feb 5: "Top-down" theories of social change: Durkheim, Parsons, Skocpol
Readings:
Goodwin and Jaspers, Part III-IV, X
Marske, "Durkheim's 'Cult of the Individual'
and the Moral Reconstitution of Society," Sociological Theory
5: 1 (Spring 1987), pp. 1-14.
Bellah, "Durkheim and History,"
American Sociological Review 24: 4 (Aug 1959), pp. 447-461.
Tiryakian, "Sexual Anomie, Social Structure,
Societal Change" (in Durkheim Lives!), Social Forces
59: 4 (Jun 1981), pp. 1025-1053.
Emirbayer, "Useful Durkheim,"
Sociological Theory 14: 2 (Jul 1996), pp. 109-130.
Rueschemeyer, "Variations on Two
Themes in Durkheim's Division du travail: Power, Solidarity and Meaning
in Division of Labor", Sociological Forum 9: 1 (Mar 1994),
pp. 59-71.
Parsons, “Evolutionary
Universals in Society,” American Sociological Review 29: 3
(Jun 1964), pp. 339-367
Skocpol and Amenta, "States and
Social Policies," Annual Review of Sociology 12 (1986), pp.
131-157.
Skocpol, "France, Russia, China: A Structural
Analysis of Social Revolutions," Comparative Studies in Society
and History 18: 2 (Apr 1976), pp. 175-210.
Suggested readings:
Durkheim, selections from Rules of
Sociological Method.
Durkheim, selections from On Morality and Society.
Parsons, “Pattern Variables Revisited: A Reply to Robert Dubin,”
American Sociological Review 25: 4 (Aug 1960), pp. 467-483.
Parsons, “Some Sociological Aspects of the Fascist Movements,” Social
Forces 21: 2 (Dec 1942), pp. 138-147.
Skocpol, "The Enactment of Mothers' Pensions: Civic Mobilization and
Agenda Setting or Benefits of the Ballot?: Response," American Political
Science Review 89: 3 (Sep 1995), pp. 720-730.
Skocpol, "Social Revolutions and Mass Military Mobilization," World
Politics 40: 2 (Jan 1988), pp. 147-168.
Skocpol, "Old Regime Legacies and Communist Revolutions in Russia and
China," Social Forces 55: 2 (Dec 1976), pp. 284-315.
W Feb 12: "Semi-structural" theories of social change: Marx and Huntington
Readings:
Goodwin and Jaspers, Part V (II, VII,
X if not previously read)
Huntington, “The Change to Change:
Modernization, Development and Politics,” Comparative Politics
3: 3 (Apr 1971), pp. 283-322
Marx and Engels, Manifesto
of the Communist Party
Suggested readings:
Marx and Engels, "On the Possibility
of Non-Violent Social Revolution"
Marx and Engels, selections from The Grundrisse
W Feb 19: Mobilization theories of social change: Gramsci and Tilly
Readings:
Goodwin and Jaspers, Part VI
Gramsci, selections from The
Antonio Gramsci Reader (read Parts III, IV, VI, VII).
Tilly, "To Explain Political
Processes," American Journal of Sociology 100: 6 (May 1995),
pp. 1594-1610.
Snyder and Tilly, "On Debating and
Falsifying Theories of Collective Violence," American Sociological
Review 39: 4 (Aug 1974), pp. 610-613.
Tilly, "Does Modernization
Breed Revolution?" Comparative Politics 5: 3 (Apr 1973), pp.
425-447.
Suggested readings:
Gramsci, "The
Modern Prince".
Tilly, "Speaking Your Mind Without Elections, Surveys, or Social Movements,"
Public Opinion Quarterly 47: 4 (Winter 1983), pp. 461-478.
Snyder and Tilly, "Hardship and Collective Violence in France, 1830 to
1960," American Sociological Review 37: 5 (Oct 1972), pp. 520-532.
Tilly, "The Analysis of a Counter-Revolution," History and Theory
3: 1 (1963), pp. 30-58.
W Feb 26: Resistance Without Revolution: Status-quo social change -- James Scott
Readings:
Goodwin and Jaspers, Part VIII and IX
Scott, selections from Weapons of the Weak
Scott, "Resistance without Protest
and without Organization: Peasant Opposition to the Islamic Zakat and
the Christian Tithe," Comparative Studies in Society and History
29: 3 (Jul 1987), pp. 417-452.
Suggested readings:
Scott, selections from Domination and
the Arts of Resistance.
Scott, "Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia,"
American Political Science Review 66: 1 (Mar 1972), pp. 91-113.
Scott, "Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change," American
Political Science Review 63: 4 (Dec 1969), pp. 1142-1158.
Weeks 8-10: Social change in the former Yugoslavia and Central Europe
W Mar 5: Opposition and Dissent in Eastern Europe
Readings:
Stokes, pp. 3-130
Ramet, pp. 3-54 + at least one chapter each from Parts II-IV
Suggested readings:
Gurr, “Psychological
Factors in Civil Violence,” World Politics 20: 2 (Jan 1968)
Gurr, “The Revolution. Social-Change
Nexus: Some Old Theories and New Hypotheses,” Comparative Politics
5: 3 (Apr 1973), pp. 359-392
Rustow, “Transitions to Democracy: Toward
a Dynamic Model,” Comparative Politics 2: 3 (Apr 1970), pp.
337-363
Brinton, Anatomy of Revolution
Przeworski,
Davies,
Blumer,
O’Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule
Dahl, Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy
W Mar 12: “The Glorious Revolutions,” “The Great Transformation,” or “the hell years”?
Readings:
Stokes, pp. 131-217
Ramet, pp. 279-371
W Mar 19: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Building of Pluralism
Readings:
Stokes, pp. 218-260
Ramet, pp. 371-461
W Mar 26: No class.
Weeks 11-12: Anti-globalization movements, the Internet, and a "global civil society"?
W Apr 2:
Readings:
Hague & Loader, pp. 3-62, one article from Part II, and pp. 135-178, 195-244
Suggested readings:
Starr, Naming the Enemy: Anti-Corporate
Movements Confront Globalization
Klein, No Logo
McNally, Another World Is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism
Schalit (ed.), The Anti-Capitalism Reader
W Apr 9:
Readings:
O'Brien et al., entire
Suggested readings:
Weeks 13-14 -- Research-based presentations -- Be sure to submit drafts and outlines of the paper to the class prior to the week's meeting, as well as any additional readings you might wish us to consider
W Apr 16: Make-up reading day; research presentations
W Apr 23: Research presentations
W Apr 30: Final papers due at 6pm; closure discussion (location TBD)
Presentation Details
Length, Format, and Style
Your presentation should be approximately 30 minutes long, though somewhat longer presentations are most certainly acceptable. You should not simply read from a prepared paper -- that's boring for all of us, most especially you. Instead, come prepared with an outline, notes, a list of quotations to which you want to refer, and the like. If you want, feel free to distribute an outline of your talk, either in class or before the session by e-mail (address lists will be provided). Be conversational; the presentation, after all, is designed to spark further discussion on the reading materials and on the talk you give in class.
Content
The seminar presentation is not supposed to be merely exegetical; that is, you're not supposed to come in and give a detailed summary of the readings for the week. Assume that everyone has read the materials and go on from there. You can provide a brief, integrative summary of the readings, but don't take much more than a couple of minutes to do this.
Your presentation is meant to do three things: to spark the conversation we have the remainder of the evening; to highlight what you think are important issues or themes that are raised in the text; and to help you and the group synthesize the materials in preparation for the course papers. Instead, talk about what you found most interesting, challenging, intriguing, or insightful. Give us your ideas about the material, and be prepared to explain them, defend them, etc.
In general, you should think of your presentation as a mini-lecture, a conference presentation, or an oral presentation of a short paper. Present your findings in a clear, coherent, thematic manner; make some kind of argument about what you've found; give supporting evidence (i.e., page references and/or quotations, when relevant) for your findings; and all will be right with the world.
Evaluation Criteria
Your presentation will be evaluated on the following criteria: breadth of knowledge of the material; your ability to thematically analyze the materials and present key issues in a synthetic form; the success of your presentation in sparking discussion among your fellow classmates; and the cogency and clarity of your presentation. Your absence on your scheduled presentation date is not acceptable; please do your best to attend every session (especially when you're scheduled to present), and let me know as early as you possibly can if you'll be unable to attend your presentation session so we can make alternate arrangements for you and the class.
Audience Response
Class members should ensure their attendance at every session. You should pay careful attention to the presentation given, looking for key points for discussion and/or debate. Use the discussion questions as a way of preparing for the discussion, and bring your own findings to the table. Above all, please be courteous and collegial in your reception of each presentation, and engage the presenter's ideas and understandings of the materials so that we all have a good, enjoyable time discussing these important works.
Paper Assignment Details
Literature review paper assignment:
Due Date: On the date of your first in-class presentation.
Guidelines: This paper is to be a minimum of ten (10) full and complete pages in length, in standard format, with bibliography attached using ASA format. The paper should utilize the texts up to and including the week in which you present.
Assignment: This paper is designed to serve as a kind of literature review paper, in which you highlight important and interesting themes in the course readings, examine their place within the field of study of social change, and discuss the implications of these theoretical readings for studying social change. The papers are not meant to be simply exegetical or to take on a "book report" tone; rather, your work in this is to make the texts speak to the larger themes we're developing in the course, as well as the particular analytic tools and skill sets we will utilize here.
This paper will ask you to deal with not
only the texts up to and including the week in which you present, but also
any appropriate outside readings, whether listed by me, utilized by the authors
you discuss, or are found as a result of your own research. You can view this
paper as preliminary research that will situate your own project, or as an
exercise in itself.
Evaluation Criteria: This paper
will be evaluated on the basis of its success in thematizing and synthesizing
a wide variety of literature on social change; the cogency of its argument
and the mobilization of evidence; and the other standard requirements for
scholarly work. Grades assigned to the papers will indicate how likely I as
an editor would be to accept it as a "research notes" submission
or as a literature review for a larger work (A = without hesitation or revision;
B = with some revisions for logical coherence, research depth, or other issues;
C = major revisions required before reconsideration).
Research project:
Due Date: This paper is due on Weds Apr 30/2003 at the start of class. This is finals week, but we will meet in any case. Arrangements will be made for this final meeting.
Guidelines: This paper is to be an article-length (approximately 25-30 pages in length) research project, utilizing substantial outside research as well as the course materials. The paper should be submitted in standard format with a bibliography using ASA format.
Assignment: This paper is designed to serve as a research project, one that involves outside research on a particular topic of interest for you. The assignment will ask you to analyze a particular process of social change utilizing one of the theoretical frameworks discussed in the course, and to highlight the possibilities for beneficial and/or detrimental social change within that process or realm of social life. The concluding section of the paper should be your particular prescription for how this form of social change should occur, as well as the particular steps that would be required in order to bring about the kind of social change you'd like to see.
Evaluation Criteria: Papers will be evaluated on the basis of the analysis developed through the research, the "prescriptive theory" section of the paper and how well it derives from the analysis presented in the body of the work, and the other standard requirements for scholarly work. You should write this paper as if you were to submit it to a refereed journal for publication consideration; grades will be assigned based on how likely I as an editor would be to publish this work (A = without hesitation or revision; B = with some revisions for logical coherence, research depth, or other issues; C = major revisions required before reconsideration).