DSOC 25A05 - Sociology of organizations and collective action

People, alone and in groups, shape who we are, how we eat, heal, work, love, laugh, learn, and think, what we buy or believe, where we live, and how. Resistance, too, rarely happens in isolation; it requires coordination, collaboration, and communication.

This course explores the interplay of individual lives and the social world. First, we develop conceptual dimensions—formal, relational, cultural, and institutional—for understanding collective processes. Second, we examine methodological approaches, from qualitative and ethnographic to quantitative and computational. Throughout, we stay close to real social problems: the drivers of inequality and political activism, the dynamics of technological innovation and failure, and institutional change in financial markets and everyday work.

Reflection memos

Reading presentation

Final paper