Sociology 211.05: Social Problems 
Spring 2004
Dr Scott Schaffer

Course Meetings: MW 430pm to 545pm, Hash 210
Office Hours: MTWTh 1230pm to 2pm, Susquehanna House 105
Phone: 717/872.3567
Fax: 717/872.3942
Email: scott.schaffer@millersville.edu
Course web site: http://www.millersville.edu/~schaffer/courses/s2004/soc211

Caveat: You should note that this course is not designed to be a lecture course. My teaching philosophy, described in fuller detail below, is one that asks you to meet me halfway – to come to class having read the material thoroughly (not just turning the pages, but having thought about the materials), developed ideas and questions about the readings, and being ready to discuss these materials at more than a surface level. If you do that, I will provide you with everything you will need to succeed in the course. But if you are looking for a course that is just lecture-based, where all you do is memorize and regurgitate, this is not the course for you.

Course Description:

This class is devoted to looking at the dark side of our social lives – the side we don’M 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 is an in-depth examination of globalization. This “new” phenomenon, much ballyhooed in the media and wagged by policy wonks, will serve to define much of your life both within the university and after your passage into the “real world.” Globalization occurs in many manners – economic, political, cultural, and social – and has both positive and negative effects on all those it touches. This phase of the course is designed to enable you to explore more deeply those kinds of impacts and your responsibility for them.

You should note that this course, in addition to not being lecture-based, is also not “fair and balanced.” The course works with one particular theoretical perspective, known as critical constructionism, and deploys it to examine the various phenomena we study. I will not provide an alternating viewpoint during the semester; the point of this is not to get you to think like I do, but to show you both how it is that those who claim to be “fair and balanced” develop their particular perspective, and to offer you a role model for the development of your own perspective. If you have a problem with more critical course offerings, you may want to reconsider your place in this class.

This course will be difficult at times and depressing at others; there are many bad things in the world – things we don’M 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 Readings:

The following books are required readings, and can be purchased at the campus bookstore, or online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or another reputable online bookseller. Please make sure that you purchase them in order, and get the most current edition, which is listed below.

Heiner, Social Problems: An Introduction to Critical Constructionism, 2002. (Abbreviated SP.)
Heiner (ed.), Social Problems and Social Solutions: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, 1999. (Abbreviated SPSS.)
Beck, What Is Globalization?, 2001. (Abbreviated WIG.)
Friedman (ed.), Globalization, the State, and Violence, 2003. (Abbreviated GSV.)
Madeley (ed.), A People’s World: Alternatives to Economic Globalization, 2003. (Abbreviated PW.)

Optional but Highly Recommended Text:

Anderson, Cavanagh, Lee and Ehrenreich, Field Guide to the Global Economy, 2000. (Abbreviated FGGE.)

 

Course Assignments:

There will be six types of assignments in this course. Failure to complete all assignments in a timely manner will result in your failure in the course.

BlackBoard Discussion: Starting in the second week of the course, you will participate in online discussions with your classmates through the Blackboard system. This system will enable you to post discussion questions and responses to others’ questions and responses at any time. You are required each week to post one discussion question and two responses to others’ questions or responses to posted questions. You are also strongly encouraged to respond to the responses your question gets – after all, it is discussion. Your discussion questions must be posted prior to the Weds class session in each week; your responses to others’ questions must be posted during the rest of the week. The questions that are posted will be used as the basis for discussion in Weds class sessions. Each question you post will receive either an “A” or “F”: if it produced a discussion germane to the course issues, it receives an A; if it didn’t… Likewise, each response you make to another’s question or response should be germane and utilize course readings (with citations, if possible); if it is, it will receive an A…

Examinations. There will be two examinations in this course – a midterm exam in week eight, and a final exam during the scheduled final examination session. These exams will be essay-based, and review questions will be provided to you two weeks in advance.

Issue Papers: During the globalization segment of the course, you will be asked to write a number of essays on a core set of issues dealt with in the course. These papers, which will ask you to pursue some outside research, are designed to enable you to develop a coherent analytic perspective on globalization and the other social problems we have discussed during the course.

Pop Quizzes. There will be three pop quizzes during the semester. These are designed to ensure that you are prepared for class, keeping up with the reading, and thinking about the materials. Often, they will appear after a class session in which there is not a lot of discussion or questioning; coming to class prepared and ready to discuss the materials can stave off these quizzes, perhaps even indefinitely.

Course Participation: As always, your participation in this course is crucial to your success here. I take “participation” as anything that indicates your desire to succeed in the course. On some days, that may be simply showing up to class, taking notes, and asking questions; on other days, that might involve leading discussion on the readings assigned for that day. It can also involve posing questions in class, during office hours, or via email – in other words, all of the things you’re supposed to be doing anyway. My teaching philosophy is such that the success and enjoyment of this course is incumbent on you doing your “job” – coming to class having read the assigned materials, thinking about the readings, and preparing germane and interesting things to say during discussions and questions you have on the materials. If you are unwilling to do that, you will want to find another course to take.

 

Grade Breakdown:

Please note that I do not grade on a “points” basis; all grades for this course will be letter grades with +/- modifiers, and will be converted into GPA equivalents and weighted for the purposes of figuring out your final grade in the course.

Midterm Examination: 10%
Issue Papers: 30%
Pop Quizzes: 5%
BlackBoard Discussion: 10%
Final Examination: 20%
Course Participation: 25%


Course Policies:

Attendance and Preparation: Your attendance in each class session is mandatory – you cannot expect to do well in this course, or any other university course, without being in class. While there are no “points” given for attendance, your grade will be significantly better if you are in class, having read and thought about the material assigned for that day, and are ready to discuss that material. If you are unable to attend on a particular day, please let me know via email before the class begins, especially when something is due. No makeup exams or pop quizzes will be given in any case, and no late work will be accepted unless I am informed in advance and evidence can be provided.

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; in the event of a catastrophe, you must contact me by phone or e-mail as early as possible. Papers must be submitted to the instructor in person at the time and date due, to the Sociology 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 (with no appeal), and may be returned for editing. If a second paper is submitted without being proofread, that paper – and any future unproofed paper – will automatically receive a zero (0).

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 assignment at minimum, and failure in the course and referral to Student Affairs for judicial board proceedings at most. Just don’M even think about it – it robs us all of the learning experience.

Grading: I do my best to ensure that my evaluation of your work is as impartial as possible and reflects the quality of what you submit at the due date and time. If you have issues with my evaluation of your work, you may submit a one-page statement of how it is you think I misunderstood what you presented in your work (and only what appears in the work submitted) no sooner than 24 hours after I return the work to you. We will then meet to discuss the issue. Please note that I reserve the right to elevate your grade, maintain the grade applied, or to lower the grade depending on that re-evaluation.

Other Issues: My teaching philosophy is such that I see you as being primarily responsible for your success in the course. I do not teach in a “spoon-feeding” manner; my job is to provide you with the tools to enable your own education, and I will do that to the best of my abilities during the semester. Should you not wish to take a course like this that requires that you commit yourself to doing your best by your own motivation, it would be best for you to find another course. I also work to respond to issues that come up in class, either during the semester or on a daily basis. To that end, I reserve the right to change, adapt, or amend this syllabus, the reading schedule, and other policy issues at any time in order to make possible the improvement of the course; however, I will only do so with the consent of and input from the class as a whole. Finally, any issues that you feel are impacting on your ability to do well in the course, whether they are issues inside or outside the classroom, should be brought to me as soon as possible. If the issue is not adequately resolved through the discussion with me, proper university protocol requires that you speak with Dr Glazer, the Sociology/Anthropology department chair. I take what goes on in this course very seriously and personally; I hope you will as well.

Labor Dispute: In the event of a work stoppage resulting from the APSCUF/State System of Higher Education contract negotiations, you must continue preparing the materials as assigned in this syllabus, as we would all be unaware of how the semester calendar would change. However, if there is a work stoppage, no work submitted to anyone other than Dr Scott Schaffer will receive credit for this course. Any outstanding assignments should be held until the completion of the work stoppage, and no student will receive academic penalty in this course for electing to respect faculty picket lines.

 

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. Please ensure you have read and thought about the readings prior to each class session, and come prepared with something to say about them. You should, at the very least, be ready to discuss these five things:

·       What the readings were about (in other words, a brief summary)
·       Responses to appropriate discussion questions
·       One interesting thing about each of the readings
·       One question you had about the readings
·       One thing that made you angry, changed your mind about something, or made you rethink something you thought you knew.

Week 1 – Introduction to the Course

M Jan 12: Introduction to the Course – Syllabus, Mechanics, and Overview
W Jan 14: Introduction to the Course – Themes, Issues, and Key Concepts. Read SP, ch. 1 and 6 (pp. 1-19, 166-170)

Weeks 2-3 – Understanding and Using Critical Constructionism and “Sociological Problems”

M Jan 19: Martin Luther King, Jr Day – NO CLASS.
W Jan 21: Inequality and Family Problems – SP ch. 2-3 (pp. 20-92)

M Jan 26: Crime and Deviance – SP ch 4 (pp. 93-130)
W Jan 28: The Environment – SP ch. 5 and 6 (pp. 131-170)

Weeks 4-8 – Comparative Social and Sociological Problems

M Feb 2: Globalization – SPSS, part 1 (pp. 1-28)
W Feb 4: Social Inequalities – SPSS, pp. 29-55

M Feb 9: Inequalities of Race and Gender – SPSS, pp. 55-93
W Feb 11: Family and Education – SPSS, parts 3-4 (pp. 94-141)

M Feb 16: Working Life – SPSS, part 5 (pp. 142-184)
W Feb 18: Healthcare and the Elderly – SPSS, part 6 (pp. 185-231)
Ø     Midterm Examination Prep Sheet handed out and discussed

M Feb 23: Crime and Deviance – SPSS, part 7 (pp. 232-265, 288-316)
W Feb 25: Population and the Environment – SPSS, part 8 (pp. 317-367)

M Mar 1: Midterm Prep Session – no reading. This session will be motivated completely by your questions on the exam and the readings.
W Mar 3: Midterm Examination

M/W Mar 8/10 – Spring Recess – NO CLASS. Be safe, eh?

Weeks 9-14 – Globalization: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and You

M Mar 15: Doing sociology on globalization – WIG, Introduction and ch. 1 (pp. 1-63)
Ø     Issue papers handed out and discussed
W Mar 17: On civil societies – WIG, ch. 2 (pp. 64-86)

M Mar 22: On “world society” – WIG, ch. 3 (pp. 87-114)
W Mar 24: Globalism gone wrong, and what to do – WIG, chs. 4-5 (117-155)

M Mar 29: Reorganizing the globe – GSV, chs. 1-2 (pp. 1-66)
W Mar 31: Changing economic relations – GSV, chs. 3-4 (pp. 67-106)

M Apr 5: Globalization and violence – GSV, chs. 5 and 7 (pp. 107-140, 163-202)
W Apr 7: Globalization and warfare – GSV, chs. 8 and 10 (pp. 203-248, 279-308)

M Apr 12: What’s wrong with globalization? – PW, Introduction and ch. 2
Ø     Final examination prep sheet handed out and discussed
W Apr 14: Alternatives to globalization – PW, chs. 3-5

M Apr 19: Strategies for fighting globalization – PW, chs. 6-8
W Apr 21: Course closure – PW, ch. 10
Ø     Issue papers due at the start of class

M Apr 26: Final examination prep session – no reading. This session will be motivated completely by your questions on the exam and the readings.

Sat May 1, 1015am to 1215pm – Final Examination

 

Summing Up – Due Dates…

Every class session – Assigned readings and questions completed

Every Weds – Discussion questions posted on BlackBoard and prepared for in-class discussion

W Mar 4 – Midterm Examination

M Mar 16 – Issue papers handed out

W Apr 22 – Issue papers due

Sat May 1, 1015am – Final Examination

Paper and Exam Essay 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 is available on the course web site. These, though, are the overall guidelines in order of importance. The grading rubric, included as the last page of this syllabus, is designed to make clear how it is your work is being evaluated and how well you’ve succeeded in achieving the goals of each assignment.

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’M 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):

I consider work that receives a grade below a C to be failing work. This would include work that is presented poorly, is not thought out well, and that includes no attempt to address the assigned question.

 

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 doing your best – or even better than you think your best might be – 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 Objectives:

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