TEACHSOC: Re: Time-tested sociological insights

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:34:00 -0700

I would prefer to talk in terms of the best science......  science is self correcting..... so there is consensus regarding
planets..... 

Joyce Robbins wrote: 
There's no consensus in the scientific community over how many planets are
in the solar system; why would one expect consensus in the sociological
community?  The variety of theories is what makes teaching interesting.  I
would think that anything about which there is complete consensus would be
trivial, or the consensus would reflect some kind of cultural/intellectual
bias.

Joyce Robbins


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of Michael Francis Johnston
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 12:51 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: Time-tested sociological insights



Hi, Del,

Thanks for asking for the clarification.

What I mean by non-trivial, time-tested sociological insights are ideas that
have been produced by sociologists about the social world, were published in
sociological outlets, are backed by a consensus on empirical evidence, and
grab students attention (either because it directly matters for how the
students live their lives or because students find that the idea helps them
understand our social world in a new, interesting way).

Some sociologists might argue that "the distribution of resources remains
fairly constant from generation to generation" whereas others might argue
that there is "growing inequality."  To me, this could indicate a lack of
consensus on this particular topic.

I think that "growing incarceration rates" could legitimately be claimed as
sociological (e.g. Bruce Western at Princeton) and there is a consensus on
evidence.  But does this matter to students?  I think lots would think that
they are not in danger of incarceration.  At best, this would matter
indirectly in that lots of tax money is being spent on incarceration.  But
students have little control over how are tax money is spent.  An even less
direct argument would be that the US is becoming a more authoritarian state,
which I think would have the potential to make some students "tune out."

Thanks for the postings so far, these have been very helpful to think
through this issue!

Respectfully,
Michael


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Del Thomas Ph D
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 7:17 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: Time-tested sociological insights


Would you include science in this?  What do you mean by matter to
students and consensus?

Del

Michael Francis Johnston wrote:
  
Hi all,

Could you let me know what you consider to be some non-trivial
    
sociological
  
insights that matter to our students?  Ideally, these would be results for
which there is consensus that, yes the evidence really does show that this
is true.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

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