Anthropology / Sociology at EOU

Number of credits: 5

Course time(s): every other term (alternates with Soc 204), at 11:00 am; DDE version every winter term

General Education: SSC (Social Sciences); HB (Human Behavior in 'old' gen-ed)

Catalog description: The focus is on providing a sociological framework for students to broaden their understanding of social problems, their causes and consequences, and to explore some approaches to their resolution.

Prerequisites: None, but college level reading and writing ability is expected.

Website: www.eou.edu/socprob

Most recent syllabus: On campus (S'07); DDE (W'07)

Recent textbooks used:

• Ritzer, George. 2004. The McDonaldization of Society (New Century Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
• Orwell, George. 1961. 1984. New York: Signet.
• Steinbeck, John. 1939. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Viking Press.

General topics covered: nature of social problems; how problems are 'defined' for public consumption; mass media as source of information about problems; media bias; global warming; depletion of natural resources; rationalization/McDonaldization; globalization

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you should be equipped to:

• Think sociologically about social problems;
• Distinguish between individualist and structural explanations of social problems;
• Critically evaluate some of the key social problems facing human societies
  

What is a social problem? Well, first, it's a problem-it has undesirable consequences. And it's social-that means, it's not the problem of an individual, it's a problem that affects a large number of people. You may have had at some point a hard time finding work. But if 25 million other people are having a hard time, chances are your lack of success has little to do with your efforts or qualifications for employment-it has more to do with some broader, structural problem. The problem could be the local employment market. But the local employment market could be affected by other factors, such as the process of globalization and the infamous 'outsourcing' of jobs from the U.S. And while social problems imply many people are harmed in some way, in many cases other people or groups benefit from a social problem. Outsourcing may increase profits for multinational corporations, the board may vote a pay raise for the CEO, stockholders may get bigger dividends, and consumers might see lower prices because of the cheap labor costs.

In this course, we will focus on sociological thinking as a way to understand and analyze social problems. We'll also talk about how social problems can be socially constructed. For instance, many people think that poverty is a problem of individual failure, people with flawed character. Others say that poverty is structural-not everyone is born with the same opportunities, that there are privileged groups and classes of people, and those who struggle just to reach the poverty line. Who decides what the 'real' problem is? How can we address social problems if as a society we can't even agree on what they are? Do some groups benefit from situations which others see as serious social problems?

In this class, we'll emphasize depth over coverage and discuss only a handful of social problems in detail- the media and its role in politics, global warming and resource depletion, rationalization (McDonaldization), and globalization. We'll focus on how to think about social problems, where they 'come from,' what information people use to define and debate them, and how we might go about addressing them. In essence, you'll learn how to think about social problems like a sociologist does.