Requirements

Students are asked to read the assignment before each class session. Since this course follows a seminar format, student participation in class discussion is critical. There will be a couple of class presentations based on the reading assignments. There will be one mid-term essay, and a final concept paper which discusses relevance of various theories to conflict analysis. The final term paper is assigned to help students deepen or widen their analytical skills by applying conceptual understanding to specific issues of student interest.

Reading Materials

Freire, Paulo, 1998, Pedagogy of the Opressed, New York: The Continuum Publishing.

Coser, Lewis, The Functions of Social Conflict, The Free Press, 1956

Rose, Fred, Coalitions across the Class Divide: Lessons from the Labor, Peace and Environmental Movements, Cornell University Press, 2000

Chasin, Barbara H., Inequality and Violence in the United States, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1997

Burton, John, Violence Explained, University of Manchester Press, 1997 (to be borrowed from ICAR Library)

Weber, Max. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: The Free Press, A Division of MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. Edited and Introduced by Talcott Parsons.

Bourdieu, Pierre, Language and Symbolic Power, Polity, Cambridge, 1992

Joe Scimecca, Society & Freedom, Chicago, Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1995

Outhwaite, William, Habermas: A Critical Introduction, Stanford University Press, Standford, 1994.

Schedule

Week 1
Introduction and overview: structure and social theories

Week 2
Organizational Principles and Rationality

Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, pp. 87-123 (Required); pp. 124-151 (Recommended)

Week 3
Social Functions of Conflict

Coser, Lewis, The Functions of Social Conflict, pp. 33-66, 67-86

Week 4
Organizational Conditions

Coser, Lewis, The Functions of Social Conflict, pp. 87-110, 111-158

Week 5
Mid-Term Essay
Structural Violence and Institutions

Burton, Violence Explained

Week 6
Communicative Action

Outhwaite, William, Habermas: A Critical Introduction, Stanford University Press, Standford, 1994, pp. 5-37, 38-79.

Week 7
Power, Social Relations, Conflict

Joe Scimecca, Society & Freedom, pp. 1-28, 75-122

Week 8
Institutions and Structural Violence
Guest lecturer

Scimecca, pp. 123-186

Week 9
Chasin, Inequality and Violence

Week 10
Coalition Politics
Rose, Coalitions across the Class Divide

Week 11
Cultural Politics and Symbolic Power

Bourdieu, Pierre, Language and Symbolic Power, pp. 1-31,163-202

Week 12
Transforming Relations

Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, pp. 25-67, 68-164

A concept essay due at the end of the week

Week 13
Structure and Identity: Transformative Perspectives

Week 14
Synthesis and Application

Week 15
A Term Paper Due