Human reality, after all, is not independent of what people think it is, or, what people think they think it is. Sociology is kept from being hopelessly fragmented by the consistency of its perspective. The connection between the sociological and the FYE portions of the course could not be more direct. The common tasks are to identify the forces and practices that link you to the university, and the university to American society, and to place American society in historical perspective. Geographic maps, with which we are all familiar, are representational depictions that locate places in space.
Sociological maps seek to locate people in a social and cultural context.
Thus, my hope and intent is that you learn sociology by reflecting on and analyzing the relationship between yourself, the university and the larger world. Sociology is not for everybody. It requires questioning the assumptions that we often unthinkingly use to understand who we are and our place in the order of things. Over the first few weeks in the course we will focus on some of the fundamental concepts in the discipline, and concentrate on the ways each of us as individuals are linked and tied to the culture and society in which we live. The second part of the course will focus on some of the larger processes and structures in American society.