Big Questions

Is rural resentment of liberal elites dividing America against itself?

Will COVID-19 be the death of the handshake?

Can change happen in an instant?

How do you bring people over to your side?

Big Picture

Big Picture / Human Society / Social Organization & Change

Social Structure & Change

• Structure of society
• Bureaucratic & industrial specialization
• Social control
• Change

Group Structure of Society

• Various types of groups
• Racial and ethnic prejudice
• Special social concerns
  • adolescence
  • aging
  • crime
  • cultural minorities
  • drug, alcohol, gambling abuse
    • Our Social Hangover (sp)
  • gender diversity
  • poverty
  • prostitution
  • sexual deviance, harassment, assault
  • suicide

• Social service
  • philanthropy:
    • bill gates: GatesNotes
    • elitism: Winners Take All Giridharadas
    • fundraising made easy: Dipjar
    • global goals for a sustainable world: GoalKeepers
    • mega-wealth redistribution:
      • From Generosity to Justice
      • The Giving Pledge

Social Status

• Social differentiation and stratification
• Varieties of social stratification & mobility

Human Populations: Urban and Rural Communities

• Composition and change of human populations
  • Determinants of population
  • Historical changes in population
  • Theories of population
  • Policies influencing population growth and composition
    • Immigration and Refugees
  • Population projections and problems of the population explosion
• Cities
• Rural areas
  • rural resentment: The Politics of Resentment by Cramer