SOC 385
Breaking Apart Fall 2015
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

The course examines the splintering of American social structure and culture. Attention to the: transformation of family, marked by the abandonment of traditional definitions of sex and gender; consequences of the de-industrialization and globalization of our economy and our new debtor-nation status; increasing bureaucratization of every sphere of life, especially the growth of the leviathan state; institutionalization of adversary political cultures, on both left and right; proliferation of claims on public and private bureaucracies, fueled by competing propaganda spun by technicians in moral outrage; transformation of mass media and of audiences into specialized cliques; alliance of insulated elites with lower classes and the underclass against the interests of middle/working classes on myriad issues, particularly crime and illegal immigration; metamorphosis of public manners, etiquette, and rules for discernment of aesthetic, artistic, and intellectual worth; clashes between the manifold cultural frameworks that give meaning to personal experiences; the racialization of public opinion and discussion; and the multiplicity of moral codes and conceptions of public order that often conflict with presumably common laws. In short, who are we now as a nation?
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 25
Expected: 25
Class#: 1422
Grading: no pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: mandatory attendance, class presentations, and a major term paper
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Anthropology and Sociology majors
Distributions: Division II
Attributes: JLST Interdepartmental Electives

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