SOC 100 ONL: Introduction to Sociology (Online)

Dan Steward: https://djs.web.illinois.edu/.
Course Description: https://djs.web.illinois.edu/work/teach/soc100_online/. (You Are Here.)
Syllabus (Spring 2024): https://djs.web.illinois.edu/work/teach/2024s/soc100/syllabus.html (available 2024.01.16).


"No one has ever taken the idea of society as artifact to the hilt." (Unger)
"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please..." (Marx)

sociology-glossary-wordcloudThis course is a survey of the field of sociology. The field overlaps significantly with all of the other social sciences/studies (e.g., anthropology, economics, geography, political science) as well as many of the humanities (e.g., history, philosophy) and some of the natural sciences (e.g., biology). The denizens of our field, in other words, are wont to trespass anywhere and everywhere. But we send word home, and we try to fit the pieces together as best we can. Signs (numbers and narratives and everything in-between) of the great unknown-getting-known are always circulating in the sociological discourse.

But the facts we come to know are not brute facts: They are social facts. They are facts with a history, facts that vary across societies with different histories. We may, as individuals, lead lives that are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (Hobbes), but we needn't fetishize any state-of-nature. As we exercise our "sociological imaginations" (Mills), we learn to see historical/structural forces at work behind our apparently private troubles. We learn to see these troubles as public issues, as social problems that invite collective action. We may be stuck with (and by) gravity, and we may be the products of a natural selection "red in tooth and claw" (Tennyson), but we are not stuck reproducing our legacies of race, gender, and social class. The historical construction of our world is ongoing, contested, and contestable. We must be sober about our histories, and appreciate that race, class, and gender (among other variables) remain compelling realities for us, but throughout this course we will also listen to those who challenge our institutions and our common sense. Along the way, we'll hopefully find memes and institutions we want to keep, or maybe just tweak, as well as problems we need to face together.

This online course is currently offered in an eight-week format during the first half of each of the Fall and Spring terms. Course activities include readings, quizzes (everyone's favorite task!), a series of discussion forums in small groups, writing exercises, and a class-wide project of wiki-making in which we examine social problems and reflect upon the sociological imagination. Students are expected to engage with each other in various ways (e.g., discussions, peer reviews), and to cultivate a learning community together. A short-lived community, perhaps, but well-lived if we are excellent to each other.

people_like_us_documentary_title_pagemiss_representation_documentary_title_pagerace_power_of_illusion_documentary_title_pagebook-cover-intro-soc-openstaxbook-cover-sociological-eyeThe primary text is: Erikson, Kai. 2017. The Sociologist's Eye: Reflections on Social Life. Yale University Press (ISBN 9780300106671). There are also eBook and Kindle versions of this text, and it is available as a series of chapters/sections in JSTOR at https://www-jstor-org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/stable/j.ctt1s4769b (last visited 2023.08.09).

We will also make selective use of an online, free and open access textbook: Conerly, Tonja R., et.al. 2021. Introduction to Sociology, Third Edition. OpenStax/Rice University(ISBN 9781951693367). https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-3e (last visited 2023.08.09). More details about this text will be available in the Syllabus and our Moodle course site.

And we will study several videos, which are available online through the library:

Other texts will also be required, but will be made available online. Students enrolled in the course should see it listed on their Moodle Dashboard once the term begins. All course materials will be accessible through the Moodle course site.


Revised: 2024.01.12