SOCY 3001 Classical Theory

Dr. Tracy Kirkland
Tracy.Kirkland@colorado.edu

This is an upper-division sociology course that examines various classical social theories from the early-to-mid 1800s through the 1940s. This course considers questions such as: What explains growing economic inequality? What keeps society together? What is the role of religion in society? Why do racial and gender inequalities exits? What can be explained by individual choice (agency) and what cannot? What is the role of conflict in society? And how does social change happen? Studying classical sociological theory offers unique insight into these types of questions. Importantly Learning classical theory further develops your sociological imagination—the ability to see how issues and events are never isolated phenomena but rooted in social life and the ways in which society is organized. As such, this course focuses on the social theories developed by those who witnessed the significant social changes of the 19th and 20th centuries. We will begin with the classical sociological works of Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber, as well as other theorists such as Georg Simmel, Charlotte Perkins Gliman, W.E.B. Du Boise, and George Herbert Mead. Studying these theorists will provide you a solid foundation in classical sociological theory and offer insight into the questions posed above.

• understand and articulate the arguments made by major classical sociology theorists;
• apply major classical sociology theoretical perspectives and concepts to current issues and events in our own society;
• evaluate an event from several theoretical perspective that could possibly explain it, and;
•  develop critical thinking skills using sociological theory to analyze a social issue or event, its affect on other aspects of social life, and how the issue or event might be part of larger social processes that reinforces or challenges social structures.

PLEASE be sure you purchase the 3RD EDITION!!
Desfor Edles, Laura and Scott Appelrouth. 2015. Sociological Theory In The Classical Era. 3rd Edition. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

GRADE SCALE:
A 94-100%
A- 90-93%
B+ 87-89%
B 83-86%
B- 80-82%
C+ 77-79%
C 73-76% F 0-59%
C- 70-72%
D+ 67-69%
D 63-66%
D- 60-62%