Dr. E. Helen Berry Sociology 3600 Old Main 224J Fall 2010 435‐797‐1245 Class:11:30‐12:20 Office Hours: M&W 12:30‐1 Main 304 R 10‐11:30 [email protected]
The Sociology of Urban Places Sociology 3600
Introduction:
This class is an introduction to urban sociology. There are other classes on urban topics throughout the USU: in geography; landscape architecture; anthropology; history and English. Sociology, because it is the science of society, will include aspects of each of these topics as well as including a uniquely sociological perspective on urban places and how cities are deeply embedded into modern and not-so-modern societies.
The first part of the course will be an overview of the field focusing on the rise of cities and the structures of cities, as well as some aspects of urban social life. The course will cover the aspects of immigration, globalization, politics, history, and geography.
Goals for the course:
1. Communicate effectively. 2. Think critically, analytically, and reason logically about social issues and/or social problems. 3. Understand and use sociological principles, concepts, and theories to examine urban issues 4. Understand and evaluate the application of sociological methods to social behavior and issues.
In pursuit of these goals, the professor assigns papers, quizzes, and other projects in order to assist students to:
• Demonstrate an understanding of the development of & place of urban society within social settings. • Identify and critically evaluate the contributions of urban places to larger political, social, cultural, and historical events and • Identify and critically evaluate the contributions of larger political, social, cultural and historical events to the development of cities. • Identify and critically evaluate the forces and institutions that influence his or her life as a member of urbanized and global society. • Identify, comprehend, and apply the quantitative and qualitative methods of sociological research to analysis of city life and spaces
Assessment:
Measure percentage percent of grade Assignments Two individual assignments 15% each 30
One group assignment 10% 15 mid-term one 20% each 20 Final one 30% (cumulative) 30 Class In class discussion and projects 10% 10 participation
Class Readings and Course Schedule
The professor reserves the right to alter the course schedule and to add and subtract course readings. At present I don’t plan on doing either but this may occur.
Assigned Text for Class is J. John Palen’s The Urban World, currently in the Eighth Edition. Paradigm Press. 2008. Paperback – Hereafter this will be referred to as “text”
Other readings will be linked from the Library or through the web. These are to be linked through Blackboard.
Week 1 – August 30
What is Urban? - Chapter 1 in Text
Week 2 – September 8 Readings:
1. Chapter 2 and Chapter 13 in Text 2. Web Link: On Men and Machines – Read ALL the links 3. Web Link: Columbian Exchange and Columbian Exchange II
Week 3 – September 13 Readings include those for Week 2
1. Begin reading Chapter 3 2. Population Reference Bureau reading: Immigration Shaping and Reshaping America http://www.prb.org/Publications/PopulationBulletins.aspx
No class on September 17
Week 4 – September 20 Readings: 1. Chapter 3 in Text 2. Chapter 4 in Text
Week 5 – September 27
1. Chapter 5 – 2. The Next Slum? Christopher B. Leinberger - http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/the-next-slum/6653/ 3. Where the jobs will be – Richard Florida http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/where-the-jobs-will- be/61459/
Week 6 – October 4
1. Chapter 6 2. Read: Urban Sprawl & Public Health, Howard Frumkin, CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/articles/Urban_Sprawl_and_Public_Health_PH R.pdf 3. NASA: Urban Sprawl, the Big Picture – Look at the pretty pictures - http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/11oct_sprawl/
Midterm logically should fall on October 14 and include Chapter 7.
Week 7 – October 11, 13, and 14. October 15 is Fall Break
1. Chapter 7 2. Louis Wirth - Urbanism as a Way of Life 3. Claude Fischer – A Subcultural Theory of Urbanism
Midterm logically should fall on October 14 and include Chapter 7.
Week 8 – October 18
1. Chapter 8 2. Crime in Memphis: The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/cities-and-crime/6906/ 3. Crime – Riis and Lemann (also in The Atlantic magazine) http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/american-murder- mystery/6872/
Week 9 – October 25
1. Chapter 9 2. Prostitution - http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/77jan/vorenberg.htm 3. The Great Migration – Read each link from Overview through Legacies. Looking at the Image Gallery is good too. http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/landing.cfm?migration=8
Week 10 – November 1
1. Chapter 10 2. American Indians (Not really sociology but interesting) Mowhawks who Built Manhattan http://www.thehistorychannelclub.com/articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/29 6/the-mohawks-who-built-manhattan 3. U.S. Census Data – Hispanics - http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hhmcensus1.html#axzz0xGa4k6Kr
Week 11 – November 8
1. Chapter 11 2. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/gentrification-and-its- discontents/8092/
Week 12 – November 22 only.
Discuss Group Project In-class
Reading: Abstract of Saskia Sassen, Global Cities
November 24-26 is Thanksgiving
Week 13 – November 29
1. Chapter 14 & 15 2. Cities at night from the space station http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEiy4zepuVE 3. Dubai – You-Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TjeyzsUmTs&feature=related
Week 14 – December 6 – No test week
1. Chapters 16 & 17 2. Africa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr4AiXBbACc
Week 15 – Final Exam on December 17 at 9:30 a.m. General Course Policies
Class Decorum: Certain activities are distracting to fellow students and to whomever is leading the class. If you wish to text, read the paper, check facebook, IM, sleep, chat, play games on your cell phone, cuddle a friend, etc., please do so. These are all excellent activities. But, please do them outside the classroom so that class does not interfere with your activities and you do not interfere with our activities. Similarly, please be on time. Laptops: I know that there are students who like to take notes via laptop. I expect that you will sit in the back of the class and take notes, not play games or surf. Attendance: Students are expected to attend all class sessions. Attendance is considered when determining whether to award plus or minus grades. Challenging Course Topics: "If you are unwilling to experience embarrassment, you will never learn much of anything." Arthur Hinman Examinations: Students are expected to take the examinations when scheduled. Make up exams will be given only when students contact me AHEAD OF TIME. Please note: the date for the final is fixed. I realize that some of you have already bought plane tickets home or are planning to get married that day or the day before or have a sister of who is getting married that day or are having a Christmas party that day or .....sorry. I expect you to be there F at 9:30-11:20 a.m. Written Work: All written work must be neat, typed, or word processed (except in-class exams). Reading and thinking outside of class: Utah State University policy calculates that each course credit requires two to three hours of study outside of class. Successful completion of a three-hour course requires an average of nine to twelve hours of study beyond class time. Incompletes: University policy states that incomplete grades are not to be given for poor performance in class. Any incomplete must be cleared with me before the end of the semester and must be completed within 6 weeks of the end of the semester. You will be expected to sign a contract specifying the terms of the incomplete grade. Extra Credit: Extra credit is not given. If you show improvement over the course of the semester, you will be given the benefit of the doubt in the final grade. That is, if your first assignments were D or C level and later assignments were A or B level, I will assign greater weight to the later work. Working Together: You may work together. As noted earlier, I will not put you in study groups, but you may find them to be quite useful. However, if you don't like your study group, don't ask me to fix it! And don't forget that, even if you are in a study group, not everyone in a study group need have the same answer to an assignment or quiz question. If you disagree I recommend that you go with your own best judgment, not the group’s. Also, please realize that some of you will write numerous pages and get lower grades than those who write few; some of you will work together yet receive different grades. Because assignments are in your own words, what you SAY counts, as well as how MUCH you write. I ask you to put assignments in your own words so that I can assess your understanding and try to help you fix any weak spots. Plagiarism and Cheating: Plagiarism is the use of another person’s written or oral work without citation of the author. This includes “borrowing” from fellow students, from the web, or even buying something from the web/a fellow student. Although you may work together on assignments, under no circumstances should any part of any assignment be plagiarized. All assignments must be your own work. You may use quotations, but no more than 20% of any paper should be in quotes. Proper citation is expected. Plagiarism also includes preparing identical assignments for any group assignment. In other words, put everything into your own words. Any incidence of plagiarism or cheating will result in a grade of F for the assignment. Two instances of cheating or plagiarism will result in an F for the course. ADA statement Accommodations: If a student has a documented disability that will require some accommodation by the instructor, the student should contact the Disability Resource Center, preferably during the first week of the course. Any request for special consideration relating to attendance, pedagogy, taking examinations, etc must be discussed with and approved by the instructor and the Disability Resource Center. In cooperation with the Disability Resource Center, course materials can be provided in alternative formats.
SOME NOTES ABOUT SOCIAL SCIENCE WRITING
As noted earlier, a secondary but important purpose of this course is to provide students with more than the usual, slim opportunities to write and to receive feedback on their writing. This will largely be done in section and with the GSI, although you can come to me for advice and you will submit the final research paper to me.
The kind of writing you will be expected to do in this class is analytical: proposing and defending a thesis, however simple it may be (e.g., “Writer A and Writer B disagree on question X”). So, we will be concerned with making clear and convincing arguments. We will concerned as well with the basic skills of writing, such as grammar, spelling, correct vocabulary use, conciseness, clarity, precision, and so on.
Often, students have picked up – or been taught – bad habits in high school and college that interfere with good analytical writing. For example, many have been trained to always write “personal essays.” In social science writing, however, how you feel about something (e.g., “people being stuck in traffic makes me sad”) is irrelevant and your own personal story (e.g., “I get stuck in traffic”) is almost always irrelevant. You need to make arguments about what you think is objectively true and present the impersonal evidence to back it up. (E.g.: “Time spent in traffic tends to cut into family life, as demonstrated in Smith’s study which showed that ....”)
Many write in the passive voice (sometimes because a school teacher told them not to use “I” in a sentence – nonsense!). So, they write phrases such as “Data were analyzed which showed...,” rather than “I calculated that...” The second kind is far better! Many believe that big words and convoluted phrases mean the author has big ideas. Usually it means the author has confused ideas. Instead of sentences such as “The ethnographic investigator delineates the processes by which males of younger ages utilize systems of semantic and discursive understandings of environmental contingencies so as to more optimally minimize the probabilities of harmful and/or problematic encounters,” please try to use (not “utilize”) sentences such as “Anderson shows how young men rely on ‘street smarts’ to avoid trouble.”
Remember: Just because a computer spell-checker allows a word does not mean it is the write right word or used good well.
This set of suggestions is quoted from Claude Fischer’s Sociology 125 Syllabus for spring 2007 at Berkeley. Claude Fischer writes some of the very best Urban Sociology out there. To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City, 1982, U of Chicago Press.