Theories of Community Development
FYC 6330 Section 016G
Fall Semester, 2011

Instructor: Dr. Mickie Swisher
Office: 3031 McCarty Hall
Tel: 352-273-3538

Syllabus
Team Member Assessment Procedure
Class Leadership Assessment Procedure
Example of an Annotation for the Group Annotated Bibliography
Resources for Assignments

 

Week
Date
Topic
Assignment DUE
1
Aug. 23

Theory, Research & Practice

2
Aug. 30

Evolution and Revolution (Spencer, Marx, Lenin, Michels, Schumpeter)

3
Sept. 6 Rationality, Diversity & Individualism (Weber & Durkheim)
4
Sept. 13 The Socially Constructed Society (Mead & Simmel) Group Annotated Bibliography (all groups)
5
Sept. 20 Race & Gender (Gilman, Webb, DuBois)
6
Sept. 27 Community as Structure & Function (Parsons, Merton) Class Leadership Assessments Due!
7
Oct. 4 Community as the Stage for Conflict & Criticism (Coser, Dahrendorf, Collins Take 1) Semester Project Part 1: Problem, Issue or Need of Interest
8
Oct. 11 Community as Expression of Inequality (Wilson, Chafetz)
9
Oct. 18 Community as Network and Exchange (Homens, Blau, Collins Take II, Coleman)
10
Oct. 25 Community asStage (Blumer, Goffman, Garfinkel, Perinbanayagam)

11
Nov. 1 Community as Colony (Habermas) Semester Project Part 2: Theory & Research to Understand the Problem, Need or Issue
12
Nov. 8 Community as Social Construction (Giddens, Bourdieu)
13
Nov. 15 Community in the Era of Globalization (Wallerstein, Castells, Luhmann)
14
Nov. 22 Community (?) in a Poststructural, Postmodern World (Foucault, Baudrillard) Semester Project Part 3: Theory and Practice to Address the Problem, Issue or Need
15
Nov. 29 Community as Identity (Smith, Collins, West)
16
Dec. 6 Class Presentatons, Evaluation Semester Project Part 4: Theory in the Public Discourse about the Problem, Issue or Need

Some search engines that can help you find sources of information beyond the "purely scholarly." These are good and work.

Google Scholar Includes some peer-reviewed papers, but also books and some theses. Often has materials from academic publishers, professional societies, universities and other scholarly organizations.

Infomine -- virtual library of over 35,000 Internet resources compiled by librarians

Scirus Science-specific search engine to over 450 million scientific reports, journal articles and government and university research websites. You can often find the full-text version through ScienceDirect (see UF library system)

Directory of Open Access Journals. Has over 600 journals, searchable by topic, and they meet quality control standards of scholarly journals.

Government Information Official U.S. government (includes states) search engine

Google Government Google's search engine for government and military websites

Government Science Authoritative selected science information from U.S. government agencies

Some sites that provide a lot of information about social theory

University of New England. Excellent overview of resources in the aera of social work. Goes by topic. Provides links to other sites with relevant theoretical information topic by topic.

University of Twente -- Overview of many social theories. Focuses on those that deal with interpersonal and mass communication and the media, but most of these theories are applicable well beyond the area of communication. Has good diagrams of the theories.

University of New England Master of Social Work Program has excellent materials, organized by topic (collective behavior & social movements, drugs, etc.)

The Aspen Institute - Roundtable on Community Chagne Includes Theoretical Approaches, Evaluation Approaches, Etc. Focuses on a structural approach theoretically.

Learning-Theories

The Sociology Professor

SocioWeb

Social Sciences Virtual Library

Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences

University of Amsterdam Sociosite

American Soiological Associatin's Cybertheory site

The Sociological Tour through Cyberspace (Trinity College)

McMaster University virtual library of sociological theory & theorists

University of Colorado (Denver) with good references (by theorist) on postmodernists and critical theorists

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy -- searchable by theory

World Systems Theory - Globalization Website

Examples of Use of Conflict Theory

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