Assignment First Day

Read chapter 1, "The Nonrational Foundations of Rationality" in R. Collins' Sociological Insight. If you are unable to purchase the book in time, you can download a PDF here collins-nonrational-foundations-of-rationality.pdf

Make a list of all the concepts, technical vocabulary, thinkers, schools of thought, events, historical periods, etc. that you come across and that strike you as sociologically important. This should include both those you are familiar with and those that are unfamiliar to you. For each one, be sure to note where in the text it occurs¹

For each term, indicate whether you have never heard of it or have heard of it but you are not quite sure what it means, how to define it sociologically, etc. (no need to put a special mark on these.
Your list should be typed and look like this. You should have a few dozen altogether. YOU SHOULD PREPARE THIS ASSIGNMENT PRIOR TO THE FIRST CLASS AND BRING IT TO TURN IN ON THAT DAY.

Concepts and Technical Vocabulary

Recognize/Understand/Know	Familiar but…	New to me today
bureaucracy (4.6)		functional rationality (4.9)

Thinkers & Schools of Thought

Recognize/Understand/Know	Familiar but…	New to me today
	Karl Marx (6.6)	Karl Mannheim (5.3) macrosociology (8.3) solidarity (8.6) free-rider problem (13.7)

Historical Events & Periods

Recognize/Understand/Know	Familiar but…	New to me today
middle ages (21.2)

NOTES

1. Use the "page point nine" system in which you divide the page up into nine zones — very top is .1, center is .5, bottom is .9, half-way between as shown below.