|
|
Roberta Garner
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Chair of Sociology Department, Professor
Political Sociology, Collective Action/Social Movements and Sociology of Education
990 West Fullerton Avenue, Room #1101
Phone: 773.325.7823
E-mail: rgarner@depaul.edu |
 |
| Winter 2008 |
SOC 381
Reseach Methods II |
SOC 500
Thesis Research |
| |
SOC 601
Candidacy Continuation
|
|
| Working Papers |
|
Introduction
|
I have wide-ranging interests in sociology that include sociological theory, political sociology, social inequality, urban sociology, and sociology of education. Many of my publications are in the area of political sociology and collective behavior, starting with my 1966 Social Forces article with Mayer Zald, "Social Movement Organizations: Growth, Decay, and Change" and then moving on to Social Movements in America (1977), Contemporary Movements and Ideologies (1996), Social Movement Theory and Research: An Annotated Bibliographical Guide (1997), and "Transnational Movements in Postmodern Society" (Peace Review, 1994). With Larry Garner, I wrote an article about the issues facing the left in Italy-an analysis that proved accurate in the long run-- "Problems of the Hegemonic Party: The PCI and the Structural Limits of Reform" (Science and Society, 1981).
I teach a wide range of courses-my current favorite is Intro Statistics for the Social Sciences to which I bring "New Math" approaches from my teen years at Uni High in Urbana, Illinois. I also teach Sociological Theory; I emphasize visualization as a way to read difficult conceptual texts, and here you can see the collages that my students created to illustrate the "all that is solid melts into air" passage in the Communist Manifesto.
View collage gallery. |
|
Research and Publications
|
My work in political sociology is closely linked to my interest in sociological theory, and I am the editor of Social Theory: Continuity and Confrontation (2000), which Broadview Press is now publishing in a new two-volume edition. It presents key texts in theories of society from Machiavelli and the classical theorists to contemporary theorists such as Stuart Hall and Arjun Appadurai.
My current writing is moving in two directions:
With my colleagues Judith Bootcheck and Michael Lorr, I am examining high school students' aspirations, school engagement, and youth culture in comparative perspective. We are using a mix of quantitative and qualitative data from eight schools in the Chicago region and nine schools in northern Italy. We presented findings from this study in a recent paper, "Pasta vs. McWorld" (Midwest Sociological Society meetings, Chicago, IL, April 2003.)
My other project is participation in The New Chicago (to be published by Temple University Press), a collection of essays that focuses on change in the Chicago area from the 1960s to 2004, including economic transformation, globalization and a new accumulation regime, the impact of immigration, changes in institutions and political activism, and dramatic shifts in the downtown area involving the built landscape and the displacement of current residents. I co-authored a chapter on the Chicago Police Department and wrote a conclusion for the book that highlights new and old social inequalities-with a couple of "sci-fi" futuristic scenarios thrown in. |
|
|
|
