SOC 3063 Collective Behavior

Fall, 2013 MWF 10:00-10:50

MH 3.02.18

Instructor: Michael Miller Office Address: MS 4.02.26 Email: michael.miller@utsa.edu Office Hours: MWF 12:00-1:00

Assigned Materials: All reading, video, and audio materials will be made available online through this syllabus. Course Description: SOC 3063 addresses the study of emergent, relatively unstructured social events, activities, processes, and behaviors, as well as the collective context in which they occur, by examining major concepts, theories, and empirical findings. Forms of collective behavior to be addressed include group dynamics, fads and crazes, rumors and urban legends, mass hysteria and moral panics, crowds, mobs, stampedes and riots, disasters and disaster–relevant behavior, social protest actions, and terrorism. The course objective is to provide you with an opportunity to derive depth understanding of collective behavior, and its impact on human well-being. This will be sought through class lectures and discussions, readings, video and audio assignments, and a group project and class presentation. This section of SOC 3063 is a hybrid course in the sense that it combines conventional in-class teaching with supplemental instruction derived through online resources. Specifically, you are required to devote considerable out-of-class time to examining various video and audio programs and clips linked to the course via this syllabus.

Degree-Program Requirement Successful completion of SOC 3063 satisfies 3 hours of upper-division electives. Course Management System Blackboard Learn is available by virtue of enrollment in this class. It is an important resource which will allow you access to the course syllabus, assigned materials, and course grades. (Let me know immediately if you have any difficulties with this site.) Student Contributions The course requires your active involvement. At the minimum, you are expected to attend class, read text assignments and cover assigned Internet materials prior to class, and take examinations as specified. You are responsible for adhering to all rules concerning conduct, including those relevant to scholastic dishonesty (see The Student Code of Conduct). You are also expected to reflect the

Roadrunner Creed in your behavior. To additionally facilitate your success, consider the following suggestions: 1. Do not be a “spectator.” Your success in the class will be proportional to your engagement. This is your class—actively participate. Ask questions, discuss experiences, offer opinions... Get to know other students (exchange phone numbers/email addresses). Talk about the course, share lecture notes, hold study sessions before exams... 2. Read / watch / listen to assigned text and Internet materials before the presentation date. It will be helpful to take notes as you watch videos and listen to audios. 3. Should you have any concern or problem that is affecting, or may affect, your academic status or class involvement, please communicate with me about it. If posted meeting times are inconvenient, you may arrange a conference at another time. Note: all e-mail communication should be directed to me at michael.miller@utsa.edu. Support services, including registration assistance and adaptive equipment, are available to those with documented disabilities through the Office of Disability Services. Course Policies and Practices 1. Student Survey. During the first week, please complete an online survey about yourself in order to better meet your learning needs. 2. Class Beginning. A few minutes before starting each class, a selection of popular music may be played that in some way relates to the topic to be discussed that morning. Please listen in silence and try to determine how the lyrics of the song are relevant to topic concepts. At the conclusion of the song, volunteers will be called on for brief discussion. Note: My knowledge of current popular music is quite limited—therefore, any song contribution from you would be appreciated (please e-mail suggestions to me with brief description of how the music applies to concepts). 3. Attendance. Attendance will be taken on a regular basis. 4. Coming Late. Please enter and take a seat without disrupting others. 5. Notetaking. PowerPoint slides are regularly used in class to overview key ideas. Such slides will include images, graphics, animations, and video. Understand that your notetaking effort should also be directed to what I am saying, rather than solely the slides. Slides are not posted to Blackboard. 6. Class Ending. Do not attempt to pack-up until the class is over. Class ends at 10:50—please let me know if I run past that time. 7. Technology Use. Avoid embarrassment: turn your cell phone off before class starts. Under no circumstances can a cell phone be out during an exam. The use of laptop or tablet computers is permitted during class for course purposes only. 8. Grade Reporting. All evaluation results (except those for the final exam) will be returned to you in class (no one else may pick these up for you). Grades will also be made available to you on Blackboard (grades cannot be reported to you by telephone, fax, or e-mail). 9. Drop Procedure. Should you decide to no longer attend, be sure to follow appropriate UTSA withdrawal procedures. Evaluation Exams Three exams, including a non-cumulative final exam, will be administered over the semester. Each exam will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions, and collectively, exams will account for 80 percent of your final grade. Please note: exams from previous semesters are not made available as study aids, nor are exams taken during the semester released. If you miss an exam for a valid reason, you must submit a written request (paper copy) for a make-up exam, including documentation for your absence, at the

time of your return to class. All make-up exams will consist of essay-length questions and will be administered immediately after completion of the final exam. Video Clip Assignment Working in a group with three other students, you will locate an online video clip that is highly relevant to social stratification. The clip should be available through streaming (be sure to provide its URL), and should be no less than 2 minutes and no longer than 8 minutes in length. An appropriate lesson context plan for its classroom use should then be developed. Specifically, the plan must describe how the clip will enhance understanding of social stratification, and as well, include a set of questions that could be asked relative to the classroom application of the clip. Toward the end of the semester, your group will present the clip and the lesson to the class. In addtion, the clip and a summary of the lesson will be uploaded to the course blog for class display. The assignment will account for 20 percent of your final grade. Grading Scale Exam scores and final average should be interpreted on the following basis: A = > 89 B = 80 – 89 C = 70 – 79 D = 60 – 69 F = < 60

Course Outline (reading and video assignments are still tentative)

Date Topic

Week 1

Aug 28 Topic: Course Orientation

Aug 30 Topic: Defining the Subfield Peruse: Collective Behavior http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/socpsy-8.html

Week 2 September 2 No Class

September 4 Topic: Perspectives on Collective Behavior Read: Collective Behavior Overview http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/cbchap1.html

September 6 Topic: Social Contexts of Collective Behavior Read: Hippie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie

Watch: The Millenials Are Coming! http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3486473n%3Fsource=search_video

Week 3

September 9-11 Topic: Fads, Fashions, and Crazes

Inspect: Fads of the Century http://www.crazyfads.com/

Videos: Beatlemania http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6m9jcXkz4

Fads of the 1990s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21sxFQhLydI

September 13 Topic: Collective Behavior and Role of Rumor Reading: Rumor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumor

Week 4

September 16 Topic: Urban Legend Reading: Urban Legend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend

Inspect: Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/

September 18 Topic: Collective Delusions & Mass Hysteria Reading: Mass Delusions and Hysterias http://www.csicop.org/si/show/mass_delusions_and_hysterias_highlights_from_the_past_millennium

September 20 Topic: Collective Delusions & Mass Hysteria (continued) Video: Salem Witch Hunts http://www.explore.org/videos/player/salem-witch-hunt

Week 5

September 23 Topic: Student Meetings / Topic Selection

September 25 Exam 1 September 27 Exam Review

Week 6 September 30 Topic: Tutorial on Multimedia Presentations Reading: A System for Integrating Online Multimedia Into College Curriculum.

October 2-4 Topic: Group Dynamics / Structural Properties of Groups Readings: Kitty Genovese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Genovese

Group Think and Deindividuation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink

Crowdsourcing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing

Video: Why the Other Lines Seem to Move Faster than Yours

http://flowingdata.com/2010/12/24/why-the-other-lines-always-seem-to-move-faster-than-yours/

Week 7 October 7 Topic: Group Dynamics / Structural Properties of Groups (continued) Video: 12 Angry Men

http://youtu.be/FGP219pF2lE

October 9-11 Topic: Sociology of Disasters: Natural Readings: National Geographic Website: Natural Disasters http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/

Infographic: Earthquakes with 1,000 or More Deaths Since 1900 http://www.usatoday.com/news/mapxmlfiles/earthquake.htm

Week 8 October 14 Topic: Sociology of Disasters: Natural (continued) Video: Japan’s Killer Quake http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/japan-killer-quake.html

October 16-18 Topic: Sociology of Disasters: Man-Made Readings: A Survival Guide to Catastrophe http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1810315-1,00.html

List of Accidents and Disasters by Death Toll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_disasters_by_death_toll

Video: How Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant Disaster Happened http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,833602970001_2059584,00.html

Week 9

October 21 Topic: Sociology of Disasters: Man-Made (continued) Videos: Triangle Fire http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/triangle/player/

Storm that Drowned a City http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orleans/program.html

October 23-25 Topic: Crowd Disasters Readings: Human Stampedes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampede

How to Keep Yourself Safe If There's a Crowd Crush or Fire… http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1470144/20030225/story.jhtml

Week 10

October 28 Exam 2 October 30 Exam Review

November 1 Topic: Student Meetings – Presentation Work Hour

Week 11 November 4-8 Topic: Riots Reading: Riot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot

Videos: Black Wall Street (view pts 1-12)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENAWnZ4p9jI&feature=relmfu

Detroit Riot, 1967 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/resources/vid/13_video_detroit_qt.html

Orangeburg Massacre http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/3/1968_forty_years_later_a_look

Attica Prison Riot, 1971 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4or4JH_q6c

FYI: Annotated Bibliography on Riots and Protest

Week 12

November 11-13 Topic: Social Movements / Protest Assignments: to be determined

November 15 Topic: Terrorism Assignments: to be determined

Week 13 November 18-20 Topic: Societal Collapse Assignments: to be determined

November 22 Topic Course Conclusion Week 14 November 25-27 Group Presentations Week 15 December 2, 4, 6 Group Presentations _____________________________________________________________________________________ December 11 Final Exam (Wednesday, 7:00-9:30)