Objectives: After completing weeks 2-5 of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand, explain and give examples of contemporary applications of the social concepts (constructs) developed by the classic or seminal theorists
• Analyze how the ideas of the early theorists build on each other, differ, and evolve to create the major theoretical perspectives that we use to understand social phenomena today
• Apply the ideas of the early theorists to identify, explain and respond to the needs, issues and problems that face communities today

Allan

71-133 in Second Edition; 41-102 in First Edition

Blackshaw

pp. 19-31 (A Theory of Community; Hermeneutic Communities)

Other Class Preparation

You will be assigned one of the following two articles to read. Read the article for content, not for specific details. You need to be able to state the author's basic explanation as presented in the article in your own words.

Rivlin, G. (2010). Confessions of a subprime lender. Pp. 84-103 in Broke, USA: How the Working Poor Became Big Business. Harper Business, New York. e-reserve

Mah, A. (2010) Memory, uncertainty and industrial ruination: Walker Riverside, Newcastle upon Tyne. International Journal of Urban & Regional Research 34(2), 398-413.

Additional Materials

Adam, B. (2009). Cultural future matters. Time & Society 18 (1), 7-25.

Berger, S. (2008). K. William Kapp's theory of social costs and environmental policy: Towards political ecological economics. Ecological Economics 67 (2), 244-252.

Carroll, M.S., Higgins, L.L., Cohn, P.J. et al. (2006). Community wildfire events as a source of social conflict. Rural Sociology 2006 71 (2), 261-280.

Gane, N. (2005). Max Weber as social theorist: "Class, status, party." European Journal of Social Theory 8 (2), 211-226.

Hollander, P. (2009). Contemporary political violence and its legitimation. Global Society 46(3), 267-274.

Hurrelmann, A., Krell-Laluhova, Z., Nullmeier, F., Schneider, S. & Wiesner, A. (2009) Why the democratic nation state is still legitimate: A study of media discourses. European Journal of Political Research 48(4), 483-515.

Mazman, I. (2008). Kowledge and religion in society: A comparative perspective. Ekev Academic Review 12 (36), 1-14.

Mitra, D.L. (2009). Strengthening student voice initiatives in high schools. Youth & Society, 40(3), 311-335.

Parekh, B. (1997). Dilemmas of a multicultural theory of citizenship. 4(1), 54-62.

Rhodes, J. (2009). The Banal National Party: The routine nature of legitimacy. Patterns of Prejudice 43(2), 142-160.

Robinson, J.W. (2009) American poverty cause beliefs and structured inequality legitimation. Sociological Spectrum 29(4), 489-518.

Rundell, J. (2009). Democratic revolutions, power and the city: Weber and political modernity. Thesis Eleven 97, 81-98.

Sitzer, P. & Heitmeyer, W. (2008) Right-wing extremist violence among adolescents in Germany. New Directions for Youth Development 119, 169-185.

Stolz, J. (2006). Salvation goods and religious markets: Integrating rational choice and Weberian perspectives. Social Compass 53 (1), 13-32.

Tijsterman, S.P. & Overeem, P. (2008). Escaping the iron cage: Weber and Hegel on bureaucracy and freedom. Administrative Theory & Praxis 30 (1), 71-91.

Torr, R. (2008). Theoretical perspectives as ideal-types: Typologies as means not ends. Social Epistemology 22 (2), 145-164.

Uchendu, V.C. (2007). Ezi na Ulo: The extended family in Igbo civilization. Dialectical Anthropology 31 (1-3), 167-219.

Waeraas, A. (2007). The re-enchantment of social institutions: Max Weber and public relations. Public Relations Review 33 (3), 281-286.

Yu, F.T. & Kwan, D.S.M. (2008). Social construction of national identity: Taiwanese versus Chinese consciousness. Social Identies 14 (1), 33-52.