SOC 3301W is also offered in Fall 2024
SOC 3301W is also offered in Spring 2023
Spring 2023 | SOC 3301W Section 001: Politics and Society (65582)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Lecture
- Credits:
- 3 Credits
- Grading Basis:
- A-F or Audit
- Instructor Consent:
- No Special Consent Required
- Instruction Mode:
- In Person
- Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
- Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
Mon,
Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AM
UMTC, West Bank
Blegen Hall 155
- Enrollment Status:
Open (58 of 60 seats filled)
- Also Offered:
- Course Catalog Description:
- Political sociology is concerned with the social bases of power and the social consequences of the organization of power, especially how power operates in relationship to various forms of inequality and different institutions. We will explore political socialization, electoral politics and voting, social movements, the media and framing, and politics of inequality, poverty, and welfare. prereq: 1001 recommended; soc majors/minors must register A-F
- Class Notes:
- Click this link for more detailed course information: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?brigh009+SOC3301W+Spring2023
- Class Description:
- Political sociology uses politics as a way to theorize or ideally to better understand how/why power functions the way it does in society - political sociology is less about politics traditionally and more about power in society. In this course you will spend some time looking at political institutions and how power to allocate resources is connected to elite institutions. In this first section of the course, the role of capitalism in environmental politics, healthcare politics, and the United Nations as a limited power broker within the organizing structure of national sovereignty will be explored (thus, we'll discuss nation states, how they are made and unmade). This course will also look at power and social movements, specifically addressing issues related to Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota. Topics to be infused throughout the course will include ideology (and how it forms, mutates, infests, changes, dissipates), drivers of inequality including what informs the construction and maintenance of law and rules, and the tenuous role of democracy (what is its role?) in addressing capitalism and inequality in the US and globally. Because the current political landscape is too loud to be ignored, we will take the time we need to sociologically make sense of current political events *as they unfold* during the course of the semester. You will ideally leave this course thinking about and looking for manifestations of power in both likely and unlikely places, having interrogated your beliefs about who gets what, where, when, why, and how, as well as the beliefs of others. We will rely heavily on the role of data as a way to understand the various phenomena, and even gather some of our own.
- Who Should Take This Class?:
- prereq of 1001
- Learning Objectives:
- 1. Define power in multiple ways. Identify these "types" of power in our social landscape.
2. Apply various social institutions (not the brick and mortar kind) to processes of power, construction of laws, and allocation of resources.
3. Engage with US and global politics in real time, linking course material to current events.
4. Practice 1-2 data gathering methods.
- Grading:
- 20% Weekly "reading check" quizzes
20% Two 3- to 5-page papers (10% each)
20% One final 7- to 10-page paper
20% Two short memos connecting current events to course material
20% Attendance/participation
- Exam Format:
- Weekly quizzes will be multiple choice, to be taken prior to class for the week, on your own in Canvas
- Class Format:
- Lecture/Discussion
- Workload:
- 30-40 pages to read a week.
- Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/65582/1233
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 17 November 2022
ClassInfo Links - Spring 2023 Sociology Classes