SOC 231 - Organizations

This course provides a broad introduction to the analysis of organizations in sociology and related fields. Organizations are a ubiquitous feature of social, economic, and political life, and involve a striking variety of cases, ranging from corporations, community nonprofits, and state welfare providers to firefighting teams, symphony orchestras, hospitals, rape crisis centers, and universities. They represent social sites in which we spend a substantial proportion of our daily lives, profoundly shaping opportunity, power, identity, and everyday interactions both within their boundaries and in the broader society. We address variation and change in the nature of organizations, and the consequences of organizational structure and form for how organizations operate, what and who individuals and groups can and cannot do or become, and how societies evolve. Topics include organizational types and forms (e.g., hierarchical vs. network; corporations, nonprofits, cooperatives; standing vs. temporary organizations); organizations and power; organizational ecologies or systems; organizations, inequality, and social stratification; organizations and community; and organizations, mobilization, and social movements.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): SOC 211
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.