Using the featured work of the named theorist, please choose one question and answer it. Make sure you review the theorist's perspective on the issues raised by the question. Please make sure you indicate which question you are answering.
Choose one Question:
Question 1: After Horkheimer:
Do you think that individuals living in advanced, capitalist societies are as "pacified" as the critical theorists argue? Has individuality been "liquidated" as the critical theorists suggest? What evidence can you point to in support of your view?
Question 2. After Marcuse:
While the critical theorists presented here deride mass culture and technology for corrupting our ability to reason, what role, if any, might education play in promoting a "totally administered society"? Second, as a form of technology, do you consider the Internet a potential source of liberation or domination? Why?
Question 3. After Adorno:
Many musical groups express in their songs a discontent with existing social conditions and a mistrust of those in positions of authority. What effect, if any, does such music have on the broader society? How might such "protest" songs paradoxically reinforce the very social order they aim to criticize?
Course Objectives: This discussion forum will develop your ability to do the following:
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Course Objective One
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Define sociological theory.
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Course Objective Three
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Identify major bodies of theoretical work in contemporary sociology and the theorists associated with them.
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Course Objective Four
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Analyze important developments in sociological theory, including developments in European sociological theory that influenced the growth of theory in the United States.
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Reference
Sociological Theory in the Contemporary Era: Text and Readings Appelrouth, S., & Edles, L. D.