My version seems to be more hands-on with a variety of research activities and includes lots more historical examples, such as from The Philadelphia Negro by Du Bois because of his use of systematic observation and interviews in the study of race. Many of the readings in my sections of research methods ended up examining the topics of race and order using different methods. In addition to Du Bois on race, Duneier used mainly participant observation but also interviews, conversation analysis, a simple field experiment, and historical research. LaPiere ran a famous field experiment in the 1920s followed by a questionnaire, and there are the field experiments by Pager (black and white men, with and without criminal records, applying for jobs) and by Massey and Lundy (undergrads at Penn calling landlords about apartments).This Spring 2006 syllabus has less on order than what I assigned in previous semesters. That topic pops up in Du Bois, Duneier, as well as Zimbardo on street vandalism.
Sociology 357—Methods of Sociological Inquiry
Spring 2006, the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lecturer: Chuck
Ditzler
Office 7105 Social Science Building Office Hours: Tuesday 11am-noon,
Office Phone:
262-7458 Thursday
11am-noon, or by appointment
Email: cditzler@ssc.wisc.edu
Class Scheduled: TR 9:30am-10:45am Class Location: 6232 Social Science Bldg.
Course Description
This is a hands-on course that introduces methods of sociological
research. Two themes thread throughout much of this version of the course:
recognizing facts inconvenient for one’s position and developing one’s
imagination or ways of perception in research.
The primary task of a useful
teacher is to teach his students to recognize “inconvenient” facts—I mean facts
that are inconvenient for their party opinions. And for every party opinion
there are facts that are extremely inconvenient, for my own opinion no less
than for others. I believe the teacher accomplishes more than a mere
intellectual task if he compels his audience to accustom itself to the
existence of such facts. I would be so immodest as even to apply the expression
“moral achievement,” though perhaps this may sound too grandiose for something
that should go without saying. Max Weber
“Science as a Vocation”
Shams and delusions are esteemed
for soundest truth, while reality is fabulous. If men would steadily observe
realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it
with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’
Entertainments. Henry David Thoreau
“Where I Lived and What I Lived For” Walden
From the Undergraduate
Catalog, 2003-2005:
357 Methods of Sociological Inquiry. (Crosslisted with Rur
Soc) I or II or SS; 3-4 cr (I). Scientific methods and their application in the
analysis of society; procedures in testing sociological theory: problem
definition, hypothesis construction, collection and evaluation of data. P: So
st; not open to stdts who have taken Soc 358.
