SOCI 360: Youth Culture and Society

SOCI 360-001: Youth Culture/Society
(Spring 2023)

03:00 PM to 04:15 PM TR

Innovation Hall 208

Section Information for Spring 2023

This course explores the social and cultural contexts of childhood as it has changed through the centuries moving from the role of children as contributors to the family economy in Colonial Times to the extended
dependence on families that has effectively prolonged “childhood” in contemporary western societies. Related to this development is the way in which parental anxieties have led to restrictions on children especially in the middle and upper classes, while parents in lower socioeconomic classes struggle to provide care and attention for their children. SOCI 360 challenges the traditional view of children as passive recipients of norms and values, instead emphasizing the contemporary view that children through their interactions create a distinctive culture that leads to change in the larger society. Using childcentered research and ethnographic studies this course will look at the distinctive worlds of children from little kids to high school kids. The course also examines how increased engagement in on-line communities affects young children and adolescents, shaping their concept of self, their relationships with others, and their view of the larger world. Finally, the course explores the fraying connection between children and the natural world stressing how important it is to educate children to be stewards of nature.

Course Information from the University Catalog