Sociology of Everyday Life 2012

"Familiar things happen, and [one] does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious." Alfred North Whitehead …[The sociologist's] data, however, are the already constituted meanings of active participants in the social world. It is to these already meaningful data that [the sociologist's] scientific concepts must ultimately refer: to the meaningful acts of individual men and women, to their everyday experience of one another, to their understanding of one another's meanings, and to their initiation of new meaningful behavior of their own. [The sociologist] will be concerned, furthermore, with the concepts people have of the meaning of their own and others' behavior and the concepts they have of the meaning of artifacts of all kinds. Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World, pp. 9-10.

Course Description

from the course catalog

This is a course in microsociology with a structural slant. In this course we examine the ways in which seemingly private and personal realm of the self is structured by our being always already in a social world. Topics include saving face, embodiment and movement, the lived experience of time, stage fright, gender and management, multiple realities, how to survive social gatherings, how to work a room, why little girls and little boys throw differently, the social bases of thinking, managing spoiled identities. Authors to be considered include G. Simmel, A. Schutz, E. Goffman, G. H. Mead, W. James, I. Young, O. Sacks, M. Natanson, P. Berger & T. Luckmann, and E. Zerubavel.

Books

Goffman, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Goffman, Interaction Ritual
Berger & Luckman, The Social Construction of Reality
TBA
TBA

Requirements

The written work for this course will consist of several short assignments (reading reactions and the like) and a semi-major essay for each section of the course and a final exam. Attendance and participation taken for granted. Insufficient participation "costs" 5 and exemplary participation "earns" 5. Credit breakdown between assignments and essays is approximate.

Section	Task	Percentage	Task	Percentage
Self	Assignments*	4	Essay (9/28)	10
Action	Assignments	4	Essay (10/19)	10
Interaction	Assignments	4	Essay (11/9)	10
World	Assignments	4	Essay (11/30)	10
Course	Journal	14	Final Exam (12/17)	30
* Assignments will include rotating duty as class note-taker and poster of notes

Each missed class beyond two will result in a deduction of 3% of the total possible course grade. Late assignments may be submitted for half-credit; instructor reserves right to provide no feedback on late assignments.

Academic Integrity

Customary academic standards academic integrity (including proper bibliographic citation) apply.  It is your responsibility to know what these are and to follow them.  Collaborative learning is encouraged, but work that is submitted under your name as a demonstration of your skills and competence must represent YOUR work.  Plagiarism, as defined under the Mills College Honor Code, will be cause for, at a minimum, a failing grade in this course. Please consult with instructor if you have any questions, or even the slightest doubt, about how to follow these requirements. When in doubt, cite.

Accommodations

Every effort will be made to make this class accessible for students regardless of disability. Students with needs for accomodation should contact for Students with Disabilities (Cowell Building, x2130) and inform the instructor in order for access to be arranged adequately and promptly.

Schedule

---

Introduction

---

Th 30-Aug: Course Introduction — What is water?

In other words.   To Do (after this class but before the next) Assignment #1: Exercise "I am Preedy" Access course website at http://soc153.danryan.us To verify that you can get online readings, download Brekhus, 1998. "A Sociology of the Unmarked: Redirecting our Focus, Sociological Theory, 16:1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 34-51. from JSTOR You might want to listen to or read David Foster Wallace's commencement address. In Class.    Instructor. Course. Everyday Life. Water. Roles. Masks. Sincerity.

+ Show Sources #

T 4 Sept:The Taken for Granted as an Object of Study

Everyday life is easy to study because it is right here, all the time.  Everyday life is difficult to study because it is right here, all the time.   To Do (before this class) (1) look over syllabus and books, (2) read first few pages of PSEDL, (3) draft exercise 1 essay, (4) access (and perhaps start to read) Brekhus article In Class.    (1) Discussion about being Preedy. (2) Some pointers about being an observer of Everyday Life.

+ Show Sources Bernard, “The Skills of the Participant Observer,” pp. 144-153 in Research Methods in Anthropology. Chambliss, Daniel. 1996. “Appendix on Methods” from Beyond Caring (DL). Mills, C. W. "On Intellectual Craftsmanship." (DL) Poe, E. A. "The Purloined Letter" Fleck, L. Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Restak, R. "Visual Thinking" from The Playful Brain.'' (DL) Wikipedia editors. Figure/Ground, Gestalt Psychology Wallace, D. F. //This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life.

Th 6 Sept:The Unmarked, the Non-obvious, and the Taken-for-Granted

The "water" of everyday life goes by various names as seen in the title of today's class. The one we will use the most is "taken-for-granted" (TFG). Associated with the TFG is what Schutz called "the natural attitude (of everyday life)" — the normal stance we take in which things are, until further notice, what they seem to be and today is anticipated to be like yesterday. One theme of this course is the exploration of this natural attitude and its alternatives. One might say that the "sociological attitude" is one that involves a "snapping out" of, and active examination of, the natural one. To Do (before this class) Read Brekhus, 1998. "A Sociology of the Unmarked: Redirecting our Focus, Sociological Theory, 16:1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 34-51. JSTOR You may want to work through these leading questions to be sure you understand the article and have learned the new vocabulary Read Collins, Randall. 1998. "The Sociological Eye and Its Blinders." Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 2-7.JSTOR Schutz, Alfred. 1970. "The Lifeworld," pp. 72-76 in On Phenomenology and Social Relations. (DL or GoogleBooks) In Class. We'll talk about ways of turning the ordinary around and asking questions that get the world to show us it's non-obvious side. You might want to work through some exercises before class. We will revisit them in class and you should journal about them after and/or before class. Discussion Notes

+ Show Sources Becker, Howard. 1990. “Nothing's Happening…” in Tricks of the Trade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Berger, Peter. 1963. “Sociology as an Individual Pastime” and "Sociology as a Form of Consciousness," from Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. New York: Anchor Books. Natanson, Maurice. 1974. "The World as Taken for Granted," pp. 79-96 in Phenomenology, Role, and Reason. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas. Brekhus, Wayne. "Social Marking and the Mental Coloring of Identity: Sexual Identity Construction and Maintenance in the United States." Sociological Forum, Vol. 11, No. 3, Special Issue: Lumping and Splitting (Sep., 1996), pp. 497-522 (JSTOR) If sociology is new you might have a look at Berger, Peter. "Sociology as an Individual Pasttime" (9p) from Invitation to Sociology (DL) Durkheim, Emile. "How Sociology is Different" (8pp) from Rules of the Sociological Method (DL) Mills, C. Wright. "The Sociological Imagination" (7pp) from The Sociological Imagination (DL)

---

The Self

---

NOTE: You should start reading Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life if you have not already.

Journal Check-in #1 Tuesday 11 September

Tu 11 Sept:The I and the Me and the Social Self.

The individual is our starting point but we do not take it as given or simplistically unitary. Here we discarding the stand-alone self in favor of a self as a socially generated thing and that is simultaneously subject and object.   To Do (before this class) Start your reading with this excerpt from George Herbert Mead's Mind, Self, and Society and then read a few pages from Simmel's essay "How is Society Possible?" We are especially interested in his first "a priori": humans can never whole know the other. Then use Wikipedia for a quick introduction to Cooley and his "looking glass self" and a review of Mead's I/me. Mead, George Herbert. 1934. "The "I" and the "me" as phases of the self", Section 25 in Mind Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist (Edited by Charles W. Morris). Chicago: University of Chicago (1934): 192-200. Read pp. 377.3-381.6, look at 381.7-387.8 in Simmel, Georg. 1910. “How is Society Possible?” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 16, No. 3. (Nov.), pp. 372-391. JSTOR Wikipedia Editors. looking glass self Wikipedia Editors. Cooley Wikipedia Editors. Mead Wikipedia Editors. I/me In Class.    Discussion Notes

+ Show Sources   Durkheim, E. Mead 214-216 (play), 216-220 (other), 228-233 (I/me) Cooley, Charles H. "The Looking Glass Self" Sacks, Oliver George Herbert Mead. "The Social Self, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 10, 1913: 374-380

Th 13 Sept:The Imperfect, Less than Rational, Self

Humans are neither perfect nor omnipotent processors of information about the world around them. The everyday world as we know it is distorted by "natural" biases and social lenses. Today we'll hear about cognitive bias, social perception, and typification. And we'll wrap up with some suggestions about how to read Goffman   To Do (before this class) Read over the "cognitive bias" article in Wikipedia. Pick 10 you find intriguing (you might also consist the list article) and document a recent case where each of first five has afflicted YOU and each of second five has afflicted someone else. Typification reading TBA In Class.    Discussion Notes

+ Show Sources   Kim, Kwang-ki and Tim Berard. 2009. "Typification in Society and Social Science: The Continuing Relevance of Schutz’s Social Phenomenology," Human Studies Volume 32, Number 3, Pages 263-289. (OLIN) McKinney, John C. 1969. "Typification, Typologies, and Sociological Theory," Social Forces , Vol. 48, No. 1 (Sep., 1969), pp. 1-12 (JSTOR) Schuetz, Alfred. 1953. "Common-Sense and Scientific Interpretation of Human Action," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , Vol. 14, No. 1 (Sep., 1953), pp. 1-38. (JSTOR) Typification at the SociologyIndex

Tu 18 Sept:Role and Performance

The behavioral expectations we have of others (and how we understand their behavior) and the scripts we follow in our own behavior are rooted in the shared language of role.   To Do (before this class) Theordorson & Theodorson. n.d. Dictionary of Sociology entries on "role" (DL) You have finished "Peformances" (1-76) in PSEDL and have at least a look at "Discrepant Roles" and "Communication Out of Character." In Class.

+ Show Sources   Goffman, "Role Distance" in Encounters Merton "The Role-Set: Problems in Sociological Theory," The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Jun., 1957), pp. 106-120 (JSOTR) Bates, F.L. 1955-56. "Position, Role, and Status: A Reformulation of Concepts," Social Forces 34, 313-321. (JSTOR)

if time allows:Memory and the Self

Can the self live only "in the moment"? What is the role of memory in the constitution of the competent social self?   To Do (before this class) Sacks, “The Lost Mariner” partial text at Google Books Borges, J.L. 1942.  "Funes the memorious" in Ficciones. (DL) See also, perhaps, Ryan's blog entries, "Technologically Induced Social Alzheimers," "Information Rot," "No Such Thing as Evanescent Data." In Class.

+ Show Sources

Th 20 Sept:The Embodied Self

The social self is "always already" in a body in the world. Rather than reading an abstract treatise on this (we'd pick M. Merleau-Ponty if we did), we will read an excellent article, "Throwing Like a Girl," by the feminist political theorist Iris Marion Young. In TLAG Young phenomenologically dissects the common stereotype/observation that girls throw balls differently from boys. Her analysis goes far beyond gender and sports to provide a powerful theory of the embodied social self. While reading this piece you will encounter some useful ideas derived from existentialism and, hopefully, make connections between these and Mead's I and me.   To Do (before this class) Read Young, I. M .  1990.  "Throwing Like a Girl,"  pp. 140-159 in Throwing Like a Girl.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (DL).  You may find the "Throwing Like a Girl" Glossary useful. As you are reading, answer these leading/reading questions" in your journal. If the topic is intriguing, you might be interested in "Throwing Like a Girl" by James Fallows. The Atlantic Monthly, August 1996.  In Class.    Questions

+ Show Sources   Young, I. M .  1990.  “Breasted Experience,”  pp. 189-209 in Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Young, I. M .  1990.  “Women Recovering Our Clothes,”  pp.177-188 in Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays in Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Himmelsbach, Adam. 2012. To the Boys, Her Role Is Simple: Teammate," New York Times, 2 September 2012. Ferguson, Dave. 2012. Throwing (better) like a girl at Dave's Whiteboard blog

Tu 25 Sept:Bad Faith

In TLAG we met the concepts "immanence" and "transcendance." The section concludes with further thoughts about self as subject and object, empowered and constrained.   To Do (before this class) Sartre, J. P. "Sincerity," excerpt from Being and Nothingness. (DL) Bad Faith (in Sartre's existentialism) (Wikipedia) TBA In Class.    TBA

+ Show Sources   Ronald E. Santoni. 1978. “Bad Faith and ‘Lying to Oneself,'” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 38, No. 3. (Mar.), pp. 384-398. (JSTOR)

Self Essay DUE 11pm Friday 28 Sept

---

Action and Identity.

---

Living in the social world as an activity.

Th 27 Sept:Performance and Impression Management

To Do (before this class) Goffman, E. 1959. Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, In Class.    With essays due tomorrow, we will use this class to review the rest of Goffman's book in the context of our works-in-progress. + Show class agenda (2) Sign up with empirical theme and Goffman concepts for your essay (5) Jot down comments and questions while instructor forms groups (20) Group conversations (20) Reports-back and debriefing (5) Technical details on submission (2) Pep Talk

+ Show Sources   Goffman, E. 1959. Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Journal Check-in #2 Tuesday 2 October

Tu 2 Oct:Coolness and Stagefright

The stage of everyday life can be a scary place.   To Do (before this class) Lyman & Scott, “Coolness in Everyday Life,” pp. 90-97 in Sociology of the Absurd (DL) Katz, Jack. Selections from "Ways of the Badass" in Seductions of Crime (DL) In Class. (class notes) Lecture/Discussion: "Coolness in Everyday Life"

+ Show Other Sources   "5 Steps to Maintaining Your Cool..."

Th 4 Oct:Accounts

Explaining oneself as a social act.   To Do (before this class) Lyman & Scott, “Accounts” pp. 133-55 in Sociology of the Absurd or American Sociological Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, Feb., 1968 (JSTOR) Mills, C. Wright . 1940. “Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive.” American Sociological Review, Vol. 5, No. 6. (Dec.), pp. 904-913.(JSTOR) Schutz, A. Selection from On Phenomenology and Social Relations on because/in-order-to motives, pp. 126-128. (DL) Gresham M. Sykes and David Matza "Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency" American Sociological Review Vol. 22, No. 6 (Dec., 1957), pp. 664-670. JSTOR In Class. (class notes)   Lecture/Discussion: "Accounts, Reasons, and Excuses"

+ Show Sources   Lyman & Scott, “Accounts” pp. 133-55 in Sociology of the Absurd or American Sociological Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, Feb., 1968 (JSTOR) Mills, C. Wright . 1940. “Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive.” American Sociological Review, Vol. 5, No. 6. (Dec.), pp. 904-913.(JSTOR) Weber on meaningful action Sykes-Matza "Techniques of Neutralization"

Tu 9 Oct:Routine

To Do (before this class) Chambliss, Chapters 1-2 of Beyond Caring Excerpt 1 Palmer, Nathan 2011. "Steve Jobs and the Routinization of Charisma" on the SocietyPages Blog. Selections on routinization In Class.    Notes on Routinization

+ Show Sources

Th 11 Oct:Doing Identity

To Do (before this class) Brekhus, W. Selections from Peacocks, Chameleons, and Centaurs. 2003. Chicago: [WWW University of Chicago Press Brekhus, Peacocks, Chameleons, and Centaurs Chapter 1 Brekhus, Peacocks, Chameleons, and Centaurs Chapter 7 Brekhus, Peacocks, Chameleons, and Centaurs references "Gay Suburbanites," pp. 1-34 WWW 1-25 on GoogleBooks "Vegan Peacocks, Christian Chameleons, and Soccer Mom Centaurs: Identity Grammar beyond Gay Identity," pp. 137-156. Mullaney, Jamie. Selections from Everyone is Not Doing It In Class.

+ Show Sources   Brekhus-1996-mental-coloring.pdf

Tu 16 Oct:Embarrassment and Risk

DJR Notes To Do (before this class) Goffman, “Embarrassment and the Social Order,” p. 97-112 in Interaction Ritual Goffman, “Stigma and Social Identity,” pp. 1-40 in Stigma (plus the half page preface) (ScribD) Richards, Pamela “Risk,” pp. 108-120 in Becker’s Writing for Social Scientists how to start and finish your thesis, book, or article (DL) Lyman & Scott, “Stage Fright and the problem of Identity,” pp. 69-89 in Sociology of the Absurd (DL) In Class.

+ Show Sources

Action Essay DUE 11pm Friday 19 Oct

---

Interaction

---

Th 18 Oct:Facework

Ground zero in the study of the interaction order. The self's social world is a world of others with whom we interact. Face: Having, Giving, Losing and Saving   To Do (before this class) Goffman Interaction Ritual 5-45 (“On Facework”), For next time47-95 (“The Nature of Deference and Demeanor”) In Class.    Notes on Facework

+ Show Sources

Journal Check-in #3 Tuesday 23 October

Tu 23 Oct:Gatherings

How do they work? How and why do they fail?   To Do (before this class) TBA In Class.

+ Show Sources

Th 25 Oct:Relationships and Intersubjectivity

Beyond just encountering other selves, the self can "connect" with them.   To Do (before this class) TBA In Class.

+ Show Sources

Tu 30 Oct:Social Distance, homophily

To Do (before this class) TBA In Class.

+ Show Sources

Th 1 Nov:Types and Typification

Constructing social types is both an analytical tool and a part of the "natural attitude" of everyday life.   To Do (before this class) Klapp, O. The Fool as Social Type." The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Sep., 1949), pp. 157-162 (DL) Murray S. Davis and Catherine J. Schmidt "The Obnoxious and the Nice: Some Sociological Consequences of Two Psychological Types" Sociometry Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep., 1977), pp. 201-213 JSTOR Schutz on typification (DL) Berger/Luckmann c p 60 Mary F. Rogers Sociology, Ethnomethodology and Experience "Experience, Meaning, and the Self" read available pages between 32 and 46. In Class.

+ Show Sources

TBA:Technology and EDL

Does anything change everything?   To Do (before this class) Turkle, S., selections Maria Bakardjieva Internet Society: The Internet in Everyday Life (see chapter 3) Mary Chayko, selections Chris Nippert-Eng, selections In Class.

+ Show Sources   CITASA Papers

Interaction Essay DUE 11pm Friday 9 Nov

---

The World of Everyday Life

---

Tu 6 Nov:Space

Everyday life fills space and space is what gives everyday life its multiplicity (i.e., space is what keeps everything from happening in the same place).   To Do (before this class) Goffman Excerpts from “The Territories of the Self,” pp 28-61 in Relations in Public E T Hall, Excerpts from The Hidden Dimension pp 113-129, 131-148 S Lyman & M Scott, “Territoriality,” pp. 22-34 A Sociology of the Absurd (DL) R Somer, Selections from Personal Space, pp 111-119, 132-144, 58-73 Goffman, E. 1959. "Regions and Region Behavior" 106-40 (35) in Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Lyman & Scott. "Territoriality, " except from Sociology of the Absurd. Pp. 22-34 WWW Excerpt at Google Books In Class.

+ Show Sources

Th 8 Nov:Time

Being in the world means being in time.   To Do (before this class) Lyman & Scott, “On the Time Track,” pp. 35-51 from A Sociology of the Absurd (DL) Schutz, A. "Musical Communication," pp. 209-217 in Phenomenology and Social Relations. (DL) (optional) Schutz, A. "Anticipating and Projecting," pp. 137-145 in Phenomenology and Social Relations. In Class.

+ Show Sources   Ryan, Dan. 2008. "Emergent Temporal Effects in Communities of Organizations." Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 51, Issue 1, pp. 139–162 Ryan, Dan. 2004. "Time" in ''Encyclopedia of Social Theory'', edited by George Ritzer. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ryan, Dan. 2007. "Time and Globalization" in Encyclopedia of Globalization, Roland Robertson and Jan Aart Scholte (Editors). London: Routledge. Zerubavel, pp. 1-4, 130-141 in The Seven Day Circle Zerubavel, “Standard Time,” 100-110 Zerubavel, Hidden Rhythms

Journal Check-in #4 Tuesday 13 November

Tu 13 Nov:Honor, Status, and Prestige

Our egalitarian ideology may make us shun talking about it, but everyday life is shot through and through with a strong field of value and worth. In fact, it is a dominant dimension along which the world spreads out. We have already talked about it in terms of the moral assessment of the self in Goffman's account of face to face interaction. Here we look at the issue across scales.   To Do (before this class) Weber: "Class, Status, and Party" Goffman: "Deference and Demeanor" in Interaction Ritual Garfinkel, H. "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies." American Journal of Sociology , Vol. 61, No. 5 (Mar., 1956), pp. 420-424 (JSTOR) Wikipedia Editors, Ascribed vs. Achieved status Varshney on violence and honor In Class.

+ Show Sources   Wikipedia: Social Status, "Honor, Status, and Aggression in Economic Exchange" Vern Baxter and A. V. Margavio Sociological Theory, Vol. 18, No. 3, (Nov., 2000), pp. 399-416 http://www.jstor.org/stable/223326 (and here)

Th 15 Nov:Memory and the World

Early in the course we noted the importance of memory to the existence of the self and we challenged the idea that memory is a purely personal phenomenon. Now we scale this up to "world" size and consider the question of collective memory and the construction of reality.   To Do (before this class) Readings on collective memory TBA In Class.

+ Show Sources

Tu 20 Nov:open

tba   To Do (before this class) In Class.

+ Show Sources

Th 22 Nov:open

tba   To Do (before this class) In Class.

+ Show Sources

Tu 27 Nov:The Construction of Social Reality

One of the most important concepts in mid-20th century social theory is the "social construction of reality."   To Do (before this class) Read Berger, P. and T. Luckmann. 1967. The Social Construction of Reality. In Class.

+ Show Sources

Th 29 Nov: Thanksgiving, No Class

World Essay DUE 11pm Friday 30 Nov

Journal Check-in #5 Tuesday 4 December

Tu 4 Dec:The Sociology of Information as the Study of Everyday Life

Th 6 Dec:Everything else depends on this

To Do (before this class) In Class.

+ Show Sources