Classroom: Administration 212

Class Time: Monday/Wednesday 3:40-5:25 P.M.

Instructor: Devon Brewer, Ph.D.

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to sociology and social science through the study of prominent social problems. We will examine a diverse sample of social problems, including social stratification/inequality, crime, drug abuse, prostitution, infectious disease, family violence, racial/ethnic conflict, and war. We will explore factors underlying social problems as well as attempts to resolve them. This course emphasizes an evolutionary, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary perspective. Classes involve lecture, discussion, and films.

Course Objectives

This course has five main objectives:

1) to introduce basic social science concepts and research methods;

2) to review several persistent and widespread social problems;

3) to apply an evolutionary perspective to social phenomena;

4) to present the viewpoints of people involved in social problems;

5) to develop critical thinking and writing skills

Course Readings

The following books are required for this course and are available at the PLU Bookstore:

Fleisher, Mark S. (1995). Beggars and Thieves: The Lives of Urban Street Criminals. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

McKeganey, Neil, and Barnard, Marina. (1996). Sex Work on the Streets: Prostitutes and Their Clients. Buckingham: Open University Press.

There are also a number of articles and book chapters on reserve at the library. You may copy these or access them for free via the library's eReserves . You should print out these readings to make sure you have a hard copy.

Requirements and Grading

Attendance, notes, and reading assignments

I strongly urge you to attend class every scheduled session, although you will not be directly penalized for missing class. You are responsible for all material presented in class and handing in assignments on time. This means that if you miss class, you must get copies of notes from a classmate--I will not provide notes for anyone. I will make copies of my overheads available on the web at  http://www.plu.edu/brewerdd/soc240 . If you need handouts given in a previous meeting of the class, you must make copies from a classmate or get them from me during office hours. In my previous classes, students' performance tended to drop about a full grade (on average) for every two to three class sessions missed. In effect, you penalize yourself if you miss class.

Class discussions will typically focus on the assigned readings. Make sure to read the material assigned for a particular day before coming to that class session. For each reading assignment, I will post questions about the particular readings in class on the course web page at least one class session before we discuss them.

Homework assignments

For each reading assignment, I will designate one or a few of the questions as homework assignments. You are to write a paragraph response to each question and hand it in at the beginning of the class session in which we will discuss that reading assignment. I recommend that you type your homework assignments, although I will accept handwritten homeworks if your writing is legible. There are a total of 20 homework assignments. I will collect and grade 11 of them (I will determine at random which 11 assignments I collect). Each assignment that I collect will be graded on a credit/no credit basis. In grading homework, I will mainly be looking for evidence that you read the readings in more than a superficial way. Pay attention to legibility,
grammar, and spelling, because if I don't understand what you've written, you can't get credit for it. I will not accept any late homework assignments, but you may miss one collected homework assignment and still receive full course credit for homework.

Exams and paper

Exams consist of multiple choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and essay questions. Each student will also independently conduct a literature review of a particular social problem and report on it in a paper 5-7 pages long. We will discuss the paper assignment in greater detail in the 5th week of the course.

Grading components

Grades are based on the following components and weights:

quiz 10%

homework assignments 10%

midterm exam 25%

literature review paper 25%

final exam 30%

A+ = 97-100%     B+ = 87-89%     C+ = 77-79%     D+ = 67-69

A = 93-96%         B = 83-86%       C = 73-76%       D = 63-66%

A- = 90-92%        B- = 80-82%      C- = 70-72%     D- = 60-62%

                                                                               E < 60%

Extra credit

Students can earn up to 10% additional course credit by completing an optional extra assignment and attending class consistently. The extra assignment, worth 8%, involves providing approximately 16 hours of service over a period of 8 or more weeks to a community organization that addresses a social problem. The Center for Public Service at PLU has a list of local organizations that welcome student assistance. If you are currently involved with a similar volunteer or service learning activity, you may continue it for extra credit. If you decide to pursue this service learning assignment, you must make arrangements with me before the third week of class. Students providing service will document their experiences in a journal, which will be turned in periodically during the semester, and then write a brief (2-3 page) summary/discussion of their own and the organization’s activities.

Also, if you attend 24 or more of the 26 class sessions (I will take attendance), then you will earn 2% additional course credit.

Policies

• Come visit me during office hours if you have any questions about the requirements, assignments, exams, or any other aspect of the course. I cannot help you if I am not aware of your particular circumstances, concerns, or needs.

• In this course, we sometimes will touch on controversial topics. In class discussions, all students are expected to respect each other’s right to an opinion. I will guide discussions to make sure that we move forward and cover the appropriate material. Our goal is to examine social problems from a scientific perspective, not an ideological one.

• Cheating and plagiarism (passing off someone else’s writing as your own) each will result in severe penalties, including a failing grade. Refer to your student handbook and the University Catalog for the University’s standards for academic honesty and integrity (a summary is available at  http://www.plu.edu/acad/integ.shtml ).

• Make-up exams will be given only to those who make special arrangements in advance or who have medical excuses or personal catastrophes that are documented in writing.

• If you disagree with the score I have given to your answer on an exam question or an assignment and you wish to challenge it, you may submit an appeal to me. The written appeal should be a paragraph that explains why you think you are correct and cites supporting materials presented in class or the readings.

• Please make an appointment with me as soon as possible if you need accommodations for or adaptations to the course because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated. If you have any questions about the services available for special needs at PLU, please call the Counseling/Testing office (7206).

• You are responsible for all deadlines and other information in this syllabus and any changes that might be announced in class.

Weekly Schedule (tentative)

Week 1
	Wednesday, Feb. 7
	Introduction
	Basic social science concepts
Week 2
Monday, Feb. 12	Wednesday, Feb. 14
Research methods and design	Overview of sociological theories
Read: Fleisher, Intro., ch. 1	Evolutionary theory
	Read: Dietrich; Buss
Week 3
Monday, Feb. 19	Wednesday, Feb. 21
Presidents' Day Holiday - no class	Evolutionary theory
	Read: de Waal
Week 4
Monday, Feb. 26	Wednesday, Feb. 28
Social stratification/inequality	Social stratification/inequality
Read: Lenski	Read: Yunus
Week 5
Monday, Mar. 5	Wednesday, Mar. 7
Quiz	Crime
Paper assignment, Library presentation	Read: Fleisher, ch. 2 & 3
Read: Brewer/Miller
Week 6
Monday, Mar. 12	Wednesday, Mar. 14
Crime	Crime, Drug abuse
Read: Fleisher, ch. 4 & 5	Read: Fleisher, ch. 6 & 7
Week 7
Monday, Mar. 19	Wednesday, Mar. 21
Drug abuse, Prostitution	Prostitution
Read: McKeganey/Barnard, Intro., ch. 1-3	Read: McKeganey/Barnard, ch. 4 & 6
Week 8
Monday, Mar. 26	Wednesday, Mar. 28
Spring Break - no class	Spring Break - no class
Week 9
Monday, April 2	Wednesday, April 4
Prostitution	Midterm Exam
Read: McKeganey/Barnard, ch. 5, 7, 8
Week 10
Monday, April 9	Wednesday, April 11
Infectious disease	Infectious disease
Film: "Born in Africa: Philly Lutaya"	Read: Schoofs, pts. 1, 2, 4
Week 11
Monday, April 16	Wednesday, April 18
Infectious disease	Infectious disease
Read: Schoofs, pts. 5 & 6	Read: Potterat, Muth, & Muth
Week 12
Monday, April 23	Wednesday, April 25
Family problems	Family problems
Read: Wilson/Daly; Daly/Wilson
Week 13
Monday, April 30	Wednesday, May 2
Racial/ethnic conflict	Racial/ethnic conflict
read: van den Berghe	read: Sherif
Week 14
Monday, May 7	Wednesday, May 9
Racial/ethnic conflict	War
Extra credit due	read: Alexander
Week 15
Monday, May 13	Monday, May 15
War	Review
read: Boutwell/Klare	Course evaluations
	Paper Due

Readings on reserve:

Dietrich, Bill. (1996). The boundaries between science and religion. Seattle Times, April 23.

Buss, David M. (1999). Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (pp. 4-22, 33-39).

de Waal, Frans B. M. (1999). The end of nature versus nurture. Scientific American, December, 94-99.

Lenski, Gerhard. (1978). Marxist experiments in destratification: An appraisal. Social Forces, 57, 364-383.

Yunus, Muhammad. (1999). The Grameen Bank. Scientific American, 282 (5, November), 114-119.

Brewer, Devon D., & Miller, Marc L. (1990). Bombing and burning: The social organization and values of Hip Hop graffiti writers and implications for policy. Deviant Behavior, 11, 345-369.

Schoofs, Mark. (1999). AIDS: The agony of Africa (parts 1, 2, 4, 5, & 6). Village Voice, November 3 - December 15.

Potterat, John J., Muth, Stephen Q., & Muth, John B. (1998). "Partner notification" early in the AIDS era: Misconstruing contact tracers as bedroom police. Research in Social Policy, 6, 1-15.

Wilson, Margo I., & Daly, M. (1996). Male sexual proprietariness and violence against wives. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5, 2-7.

Daly, M., & Wilson, Margo I. (1996). Violence against stepchildren. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 5, 77-81.

van den Berghe, Pierre L. (1987). The Ethnic Phenomenon. Westport, CT: Praeger. (Ch. 2 "Ethnicity as kin selection: The biology of nepotism").

Sherif, Muzafer. (1956). Experiments in group conflict. Scientific American, 195 (5, November), 54-58.

Alexander, Richard D. (1987). The Biology of Moral Systems. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. ("Arms races, human and otherwise," pp. 227-252).

Boutwell, Jeffrey, & Klare, Michael T. (2000). A scourge of small arms. Scientific American, 282 (6, June), 48-53.