theoretical perspectives
you will create an essay using these sources only C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press. 1959
Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City (NY): Anchor Books/Doubleday. 1959.
Rod Watson, Analysing Practical and Professional Texts: A Naturalistic Approach. Burlington (VT): Ashgate. 2009
You will not use information from the internet, textbooks or any other source. The sole exception is that you may look at other books and articles by C. Wright Mills (such as The Sociological Imagination), Erving Goffman (e.g., Behavior in Public Places; Encounters; Stigma; Asylums; Frame Analysis; Gender Advertisements), and Rod Watson (AKA D. R. Watson). I am interested in what YOU think, not in what professional writers think. I already know what they say. It is your development as a sociologist that is the goal of the course, so I dont want you to cut and paste from the web or any other source.
First, for each of the books, write a one page summary of what you think are the main points of the author. There is no wrong answer. Second, for the rest of the paper, you have free rein. You are limited only by your imagination. Here are some of the things you may want to address in the paper: How are structural functionalism and conflict theories interrelated? How does Rod Watsons analysis of Goffman highlight and explain that authors theories? What is the relationship between micro analysis (as presented in Goffman and Watson) and macro analysis (as presented in Mills and in our analysis of Structural functional theory)? How does Watsons ethnomethodological analysis of texts and reading help you to gain insight into Mills perspective? Is Exchange theory relevant to Mills discussion and that of Goffman? If so, in what ways?
