American Society 4219-AW009

The lecture presents basic issues important for understanding the specificity of American society. Starting from the early accounts of life in America we will try to understand how history has influenced the contemporary shape of the American society. The issues discussed include role of race and immigration in shaping American social structure; social class in times of growing inequality; attitudes toward poverty and public assistance to the poor; attitudes toward sexuality; traditional and new forms of family life; housing ideals and attitudes toward cities and suburbs; work and consumption, and religion. We will also consider what makes the American society with its values and norms different from other societies of advanced capitalism.

Type of course

obligatory courses

Prerequisites (description)

The lecture presents basic dimensions of social life in the United States: American values and ideology, religion, work, consumption, social movements, social stratification, racial and ethnic groups, immigration, and family. The historical roots of contemporary social processes are discussed.

Course coordinators

Term 2024Z:

Jan Smoleński

Term 2023Z:

Andrzej Turkowski

Mode

Remote learning

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully pass this course will acquire basic understanding of the American values and ideology, social class, race and ethnicity, sexuality and family, housing and lifestyle ideals, attitude toward work and consumption, religiosity as well as how these social institutions and attitutdes in the US have been different from coresponding ones in Europe.

Assessment criteria

Students will be graded on the basis of the mid-term written in-class test (50% of the final grade) and end-of-semester written in-class test (50% of the final grade). Both mid-term test and end-of-semester test last for 45 minutes. Both mid-term test and end-of-semester test consist of total number of 30 multichoice and true/false questions. Correct answer is given 1 point, incorrect answer is given zero points and no answer is given zero points. OGUN students also get 1 point for each correct answer and 0 points for incorrect or no answer. Grading of both midterm quiz and final exam is the following: 0-55% of maximum score of 30 results in grade 2, 56-70% results in 3, 71-85% results in 4, 86-100% results in 5. Both tests are obligatory. A minimum total score required to receive a passing grade of 3 is 34. All questions will concern the problems discussed in the assigned readings and during the lectures. To prepare for the exam, the assigned fragments of the textbook (J.J. Macionis, Sociology, Prentice Hall, 2005) and other assigned readings are essential. Attending the lecture is optional. Additional readings are optional. Their purpose is to provide broader background to a given issue and help students to decide about the BA thesis topic.

Bibliography

Assigned literature on the reserve in the library:
The course handbook: J.J. Macionis, Sociology, Prentice Hall, 2005.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 4219-AW009 in USOSweb