LFU:online

Institut für Soziologie Institut für Soziologie

Victor Meyer Lidz, PhD Victor Meyer Lidz, PhD

408019

American Society

SE 2

Block

keine Angabe

Englisch

To present an overview of major institutional characteristics of American society with emphasis on its distinctive modes of social integration and of channeling forces of social change. A brief course cannot cover all of the major institutions of a complex society, but focus on institutional arrangements that have characterized American society continuously since the early 19th century can convey insight into its essential qualities, both strengths and vulnerabilities.

The central work around which readings, lecture, and discussion will be organized is Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, still acclaimed as the finest work ever written about the United States, even though it was first published nearly 170 years ago. Tocqueville’s characterization of the “democratic social condition”, which he contrasted with the “aristocratic social condition” of European societies of his day, captures qualities of American social life that have endured with little change through the processes of industrialization, bureaucratization, urbanization, and demographic growth that have occurred since his time. Other works to be discussed will amplify understanding of major aspects of the democratic social condition as it has evolved but also provided continuity in American social life down to the present.

Class meetings will be conducted through a mixture of informal lecture, question and answer, open discussion, and presentation of précis of term papers by volunteers among seminar members. Seminar participants will be expected to submit seminar papers of approximately ten pages, double spaced. Papers may be submitted electronically in the weeks

Suggested readings will consist of selected chapters from de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America followed by selected essays or book chapters by American sociologists and social historians that amplify our understanding of the democratic social condition. A formal syllabus will be distributed electronically in advance of the seminar. Each seminar member is expected to prepare to discuss the suggested readings for at least one session. The seminar paper may then center on critical evaluation of the selected readings.

Computeranmeldung. Begrenzte TeilnehmerInnenzahl 30!
Beginn: 03.05.07