intro to sociology

  1. Outline the core principles of THREE of the main approaches in sociological theory: Conflict Sociology; Structural Functionalism (including in its social integrationist version); and Symbolic Interactionism. (Notice: NOT Rational Choice Theory.) Who contributed to each approach? 

How are these three approaches similar and how are they different?

Then, consider ONE of these two sets of phenomena: the COVID-19 pandemic and the response to it; or the January 6, 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol building and the response to it. Describe the pandemic or invasion and response to it, drawing on data (definitely including some of the data provided as part of the data analysis Discussion Forum linked with COVID or the Capitol invasion), Discussion Forum participation in class, other reading, and any personal observation or experience. 

How might a Conflict Sociologist, Structural-Functionalist, and Symbolic Interactionist analyze the pandemic, or the invasion, and the response to it? 

Which of these possible interpretations of COVID or the Capitol invasion (and the response to it) seems most promising/most plausible/most powerful to you, and why/how so? Might practitioners of this approach to sociological theory have to adjust their theory at all to account for the pandemic, or invasion, and response to it? What additional insight into the pandemic, or invasion, and response to it might we gain from looking it through the lens of this approach?