Your paper should not be organized around these prompts, but rather around

Your paper should not be organized around these prompts, but rather around your thesis/statement of argument. You control the scope of your argument.

1. By now, we have studied many perspectives on inequality, including those added by Weber and Bourdieu. Which perspective do you find to be the most useful for sociological analysis of contemporary society, and why? Consider not only supporting the perspective you chose, but also arguing against the others. Or perhaps one could merge aspects of these perspectives together?

2. Is Weber’s arguments in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism still relevant in 2024, and if so, how? (Rather than phrasing your argument as a matter of agreement/disagreement, it may be better to phrase it like this, or something similar: “Contemporary conditions of [x], [y] and [z] show that Weber was [correct/incorrect] in his analysis of the consequences of rationality”)

3. A variation on the above: Are Weber’s fears about the Iron Cage of instrumental rationality well- founded? Has history since his death proved his concerns valid, or have we developed alternatives to such a future? To what extent was Weber correct about the triumph of instrumental rationality?

4. Critically apply Weber’s typology of legitimate domination to any political situation, historic or current. Remember that Weber is performing an ideal-typical analysis. Common topics: recent

presidential elections, outsider candidates, chances of third-party political success, religious leaders, religious leaders who are also heads of state, the tipping point between traditional and rational domination, etc.

5. To what extent do you find Weber’s ideas in “Class, Status, Party” useful for understanding

contemporary issues involving inequality (ideally one you care about)? Do his ideas work outright, or are modifications necessary? If so, what kind?

6. Bourdieu’s ideas about ‘distinction’ focus on how certain practices and dispositions connect to

structural locations, creating not only structural but cultural barriers to equality. Typically, this

approach has been useful in examining the practices of the elite, or at least the upwardly mobile. Discuss an example (or a few) of how cultural capital operates for those “on the bottom part of the graph,” that is, for those who are, in a traditional view, understood as middle/lower middle class, working class, or poor.

7. Scholars have argued that Bourdieu’s ideas have been more popular and applicable in Europe than in the US. This could be something about how the US never had the ranks of nobility typical of European societies, other claim it us due to the US’s larger middle class, while others still point to various aspects of “American Exceptionalism,” such as ‘our’ Protestant history and moral/ethical principles, ‘our’ version of capitalism, and/or ‘our’ spirit of individualism. Do Bourdieu’s ideas translate to American society? Where do they fall short? Or, identify and explain, with Bourdieu’s concepts, aspects of American society where economic and cultural capital overlap to reproduce inequality.

TEXTS:

▪ Max Weber: “Objectivity” in Social Science (1904)

▪ Max Weber: Basic Sociological Terms (1914)

▪ Max Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)

▪ Max Weber: The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905)

▪ Max Weber: Bureaucracy (1921)

▪ Max Weber: Politics as a Vocation (1918)

▪ Max Weber: The Types of Legitimate Domination (1920)

▪ C. Wright Mills: The Power Elite (1956)

▪ Theda Skocpol: The Narrowing of American Civic Life (2004)

▪ Max Weber: The Distribution of Power within the Political Community: Class, Status, Party (1922)

▪ Pierre Bourdieu: Forms of Capital

(1986)

▪ Pierre Bourdieu: Social Space and Symbolic Space (1991)

▪ Pierre Bourdieu: Structure, Habitus, Practices (1980)

▪ Pierre Bourdieu: Social Space and Social Power (1989)

▪ Recommended (Canvas) – Rogers Brubaker: Rethinking Classical Theory: The Sociological Vision of Pierre Bourdieu (1985)

Weber’s Core Concepts

▪ “Objectivity” and anti-positivism

▪ Verstehan

▪ Social Action

▪ Ideal types of social action

▪ Affectual,

▪ Traditional,

▪ Value-Rational,

▪ Instrumental-Rational

▪ Ideal types as a methodological tool

▪ The Protestant Ethic

▪ The Spirit of Capitalism

▪ The relationship between the two

▪ The Iron Cage

▪ The ideal typical factors of bureaucracy

▪ Weber’s definition of the state

▪ The military industrial complex

▪ The professionalization of non- profit work

▪ Weber’s definitions and conceptualizations of class, status, and party

▪ Cultural capital

▪ Embodied

▪ Objectified

▪ Institutionalized

▪ Distinction

▪ Habitus

▪ Field

▪ Bourdieuian graphs

▪ The false binaries of social theory

CONTENT REQUIREMENTS: TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Papers must be oriented around a clear thesis or statement of argument.

• Papers offering only summary will fail. These papers are about creating an argument and applying/extending ideas.

• In addition to the thesis statement, the introduction should have a ‘roadmap’ which signals the structure of the argument.

• Topic sentences should connect a paragraph’s main idea(s) to your overall argument(s).

• The conclusion should summarize your central argument(s) in fresh language.

• Important concepts, terms, etc should be clarified using course texts. Show me that you can use the text, break down ideas, etc.

• Strong use of evidence, especially from the text, but from other sources as well, makes any argument much stronger.

• A paragraph must be at least 3 sentences.

• Proofread for grammar, spelling and formatting. Fresh eyes see more. Consider intellectual friendships.

You may use Times New Roman in 10, 11, or 12 points; no other fonts/sizes are acceptable.

Use normal/standard margins (1” all around).

. Your papers must be double-spaced.

. Put page numbers at the bottom right of every page; do not number title pages.

Use ASA citation style. The standard ASA in-text citation format is: “Quote” (Lastname

year:page#). You do not need to use any other ASA conventions.

Parenthetical/in-text citations are always needed.

. For my classes, separate works cited entries/references pages are not necessary; simply place your bibliographic entries at the end of the paper.

only need bibliographic entries for non-course materials.