Course Descriptions

SOC 1101 - Introduction to Sociology

SOC 1104 - Race and Ethnicity

SOC 1150 - Utopia in Theory and Practice

SOC 1290 - [American Society through Film]

SOC 2090 - Networks

SOC 2100 - What Is Science? An Introduction to the Social Studies of Science and Technology

SOC 2160 - [Health and Society]

SOC 2180 - American Society

SOC 2190 - Introduction to Economic Sociology

SOC 2202 - Population Dynamics

SOC 2206 - International Development

SOC 2208 - Social Inequality

SOC 2220 - Controversies About Inequality

SOC 2230 - [Culture in Markets and Economies]

The course examines different sectors of the economy from corporations to households and different types of markets from conventional ones, like the labor market and the financial market, to unconventional ones, like the bodily goods market. It also explores legal versus illegal markets and formal versus informal economies. Economic spheres of action and transaction are analyzed from a sociological perspective offering a sociological account of production, consumption, and distribution. Emphasis is placed on understanding the shaping role of social relations and culture on economic actions and outcomes and, conversely, on highlighting the underlying operation of economic principles within the intimate sphere of social life.

SOC 2250 - Schooling and Society

SOC 2460 - Drugs and Society

SOC 2480 - [Politics and Culture]

SOC 2510 - [Social Gerontology: Aging and the Life Course]

SOC 2560 - Sociology of Law

SOC 2580 - Six Pretty Good Books: Explorations in Social Science

SOC 2650 - Latinos in the United States

SOC 2710 - Social and Political Context of American Education

SOC 3010 - Evaluating Statistical Evidence

SOC 3040 - [Social Networks and Social Processes]

SOC 3070 - [Society and Party Politics]

SOC 3110 - [Group Solidarity]

SOC 3120 - Urban Sociology

(SBA-AS)

SOC 3130 - Sociology of Medicine

SOC 3150 - Research Design, Practice, and Policy

SOC 3190 - Contemporary Sociological Theory

SOC 3240 - Environment, Society, and Land

SOC 3270 - [Extremism and Toleration in Contemporary Society]

SOC 3350 - Covert Social Networks

SOC 3360 - Evolving Families: Challenges to Public Policy

SOC 3370 - Race and Public Policy

SOC 3380 - Urban Inequality

SOC 3410 - Modern European Society and Politics

SOC 3420 - Contested Terrain: Hawaii

SOC 3440 - The Corporate Citizen

SOC 3500 - [China’s Transition to Capitalism]

SOC 3540 - [Capitalism, Competition, and Conflict in the Global Economy]

SOC 3570 - Schooling, Racial Inequality, and Public Policy in America

SOC 3620 - [Employment Inequality and the Law]

SOC 3630 - My Other Self (Friendship)

SOC 3650 - Sociology of Disasters

SOC 3670 - [Social Inequalities in Physical and Mental Health]

SOC 3710 - Comparative Social Inequalities

SOC 3720 - Culture, Structure, and Emotion

SOC 3750 - Classical Theory

SOC 3950 - [Advanced Economic Sociology]

SOC 3970 - History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

SOC 4080 - [Qualitative Methods]

This course aims to acquaint students with the practice of non-quantitative research methods.  It does not offer a laundry list of techniques, rather it asks students to think about how particular methods are more or less suited to the answering of particular types of research questions.  The course is divided into four parts: (1) a general discussion of theory, methods and evidence in social science; (2) a series of readings and exercises on particular methods; (3) an analysis of full-length works to see how they were put together; (4) discussion of student projects.

SOC 4100 - Health and Survival Inequalities

SOC 4160 - Ethnography of Poverty and Inequality

SOC 4210 - [Theories of Reproduction]

SOC 4250 - [Artificial Societies]

SOC 4280 - Identities at Work

SOC 4330 - Seminar in Economy and Society

SOC 4331 - Seminar in Economy and Society

SOC 4340 - [Online Social and Information Networks]

SOC 4350 - Gender, Work and Family

This course provides an overview of key issues and perspectives in the study of gender inequality. We will focus on four central questions: 1) How much has gender inequality declined over time? Is continued decline inevitable, or does it seem less certain? 2) What constitutes “work?” How do we measure inequality in the rewards women and men receive from work? What produces this inequality? 3) Why does discrimination in the workplace occur, and what are its consequences? What types of subtle processes occur in our interactions in workplaces and households that reinforce typical roles for women and men? 4) How and why do men and women experience work-family balance differently?

SOC 4360 - [Capitalism: Actors, Institutions, Politics, Culture]

SOC 4390 - Social Dynamics and Computational Methods

This seminar addresses theoretical and empirical research topics related to the study of complex social networks, or as some have characterized the field, “the new science of networks.” These can range from very large online networks to very small artificial networks. Priority is given to topics closely related to current research in the Social Dynamics Laboratory at Cornell.

SOC 4391 - Social Dynamics and Computational Methods

SOC 4430 - Topics in Social and Political Philosophy

SOC 4470 - Families and Social Inequality

SOC 4510 - [Special Topics in Social Psychology: Social Structure and Personality]

SOC 4520 - [Sociology of Race & Education]

SOC 4530 - [Knowledge and Society]

SOC 4570 - [Health and Social Behavior]

SOC 4580 - The Science of Social Behavior

SOC 4780 - The Family and Society in Africa

SOC 4860 - Through the Prison Threshold

SOC 4910 - Independent Study

SOC 4920 - Economic Sociology of Entrepreneurship

SOC 4930 - Theorizing Refugees: Citizenship and Displacement in the Middle East

SOC 4950 - Honors Research

SOC 4960 - Honors Thesis: Senior Year

SOC 4970 - [Science, Technology and Medicine: The Sonic Dimension]

SOC 4980 - Occupy their Desire

SOC 5010 - Basic Problems in Sociology I

SOC 5020 - Basic Problems in Sociology II

SOC 5080 - [Qualitative Methods]

SOC 5100 - [Seminar on Comparative Societal Analysis]

SOC 5180 - Social Inequality: Contemporary Theories, Debates, and Models

SOC 5190 - [Workshop on Social Inequality]

SOC 5270 - [Artificial Societies]

SOC 5280 - [Conflict and the Nation State]

SOC 5400 - [Organizational Research]

SOC 5710 - Social and Political Context of American Education

SOC 5800 - [Identity and Interest in Collective Action]

Fall. 4 credits.

Next offered 2014-2015.

M. Macy.

This research seminar examines the problem of collective action from alternative theoretical perspectives: one centered on shared interests, the other on common identities.  The former claims that groups are held together because the members are interdependent and thus benefit from mutual trust and cooperation in a common endeavor. Identity theorists contend that trust and cooperation may also depend on affective and normative ties among participants who share a salient demarcation (including a “shared fate”). We will explore this debate, and its possible resolution, through an examination of formal theoretical studies (including game theoretic, evolutionary, and agent-based models) as well as empirical research using experimentation and comparative case analysis. We will also examine research on informal social control (including reciprocity and reputation systems), social networks, and mobilizing strategies as mechanisms for reconciling the tension between individual self interest and collective obligations. The primary goal is to identify, formulate, and launch promising research projects, and to that end, seminar members will be expected to critically engage the literature each week and to write a final paper that advances original research (as a detailed prospectus or, where practical, as a publishable article).

SOC 6010 - Statistics for Sociological Research

SOC 6020 - Linear Models

SOC 6030 - Graduate Research Practicum

SOC 6060 - Sociology Colloquium

SOC 6070 - Sociology Colloquium

SOC 6080 - Proseminar in Sociology

SOC 6090 - [Causal Inference]

SOC 6100 - [The Sociological Classics]

SOC 6110 - [Introduction to Network Theory and Methods]