Prerequisites and Technical Skills

There are no prerequisites for this course. Students must have knowledge of word-processing and be able to navigate D2L Brightspace.

If you learn that you cannot take the course, please contact UNB’s Registrar.

Technology

You will need access to the following hardware:

•    Desktop or laptop computer

Course Resources

Required Readings

There are no textbooks for this course; readings are used instead. Course Reserves can be viewed by selecting the following link: https://web.lib.unb.ca/reserves/index.php/viewReserves/61593

Reading List

Module 1

1. Ernst Cassirer, “A Clue to the Nature of Man: The Symbol”

2. Ernst Cassirer, “From Animal Reactions to Human Responses”

3. Herbert Blumer, “Society as Symbolic Interaction”

4. Nancy Mandell, “Children’s Negotiation of Meaning”

Module 2

1. Peter L. Berger & Thomas Luckmann, “Society as Subjective Reality”

2. George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviourist 3. Jaber F. Gubrium, “The Social Preservation of Mind: The Alzheimer’s Disease Experience”

Module 3

1. Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order

2. Tamotsu Shibutani, Society and Personality: An Interactionist Approach to Social Psychology 3. W. E. B. DuBois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”

Module 4

1. Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

2. Arlie Russell Hochschild, “Preface to the 2012 Edition; Preface to the First Edition” 3. Arlie Russell Hochschild, “Managing Feeling”

4. Daniel Albas & Cheryl Albas, “Aces and Bombers: The Post-Exam Impression Management Strategies of Students”

Module 5

1. Ellen J. Langer, Mindfulness

2. Galen V. Bodenhausen, Andrew R. Todd, & Andrew P. Becker, “Stereotypes and Stereotyping” 3. Erving Goffman, Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity

Module 6

1. Robert D. Benford & Scott A. Hunt, “Dramaturgy and Social Movements: The Social Construction and Communication of Power”

2. Robert D. Benford, “Social Movements and the Dramatic Framing of Social Reality”

3. David A. Snow, Luis A. Zurcher, & Robert Peters, “Victory Celebrations as Theater: A Dramaturgical Approach to Crowd Behaviour”

4. Peter M. Hall, “A Symbolic Interactionist Analysis of Politics”

Recommended Resources

These are resources that can help you deepen your understanding of the material and can also be used as resources for your assignments. They can be searched by selecting the following link:

https://lib.unb.ca/

•   Carl L. Bankston, Sociology Basics (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2000).

•    Edgar F. Borgatta, et al., Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd  ed. (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000).

•   Athanasia Chalari, The Sociology of the Individual: Relating Self and Society (Sage Publications, Inc., 2016).

•   Charles Edgley, The Drama of Social Life: A Dramaturgical Handbook (Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2013).

•   Joseph P. Forgas & Kipling D. Williams, eds., The Social Self: Cognitive, Interpersonal, and Intergroup Perspectives (Taylor & Francis, Inc., 2003).

•    Roberta Garner, ed., Social Theory: Continuity and Confrontation: A Reader (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2000).

•    Peter Kivisto, ed., Social Theory: Roots and Branches, 4th  ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).

•   Clark McPhail, “The Crowd and Collective Behaviour: Bringing Symbolic Interactionism Back In,” Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Fall 2006),pp. 433 – 464. Published by    Wiley on behalf of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

•    David S. Meyer, et al., Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

•   Todd D. Nelson, Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination (New York: Psychology Press, 2009).

•   Charles H. Powers, “Symbolic Interactionism on Fluid Meaning and Action,” Making Sense of Social Theory: A Practical Introduction (eBook, 2010).

•    Larry T. Reynolds & Nancy J. Herman-Kinney, eds., Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2003).

•   George Ritzer, ed., Encyclopedia of Social Theory (Sage Publications, Inc., 2005).

•   Susie Scott, Making Sense of Everyday Life (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2009).

Assessments

Grading

Final grades will be reported as follows.