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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: February 5, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ 352: Law and Social Change

You will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

* * * * *

Week 3: Week of February 1, 2004

Topic: Difference and Privileging Subjectivity

Preparatory Readings:

• Curran and Takata. Sociology of Law Handbook, Chapter 2.
• Mann and Zatz. Images of Color, Images of Crime -- ch. 6.
• "Who's Habermas? Why Habermas?"
• Martha Minow on difference.
• "They Ain't Us: Identity as an Anti-Norm"
  
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
  
  
• Links to the Sociology of Law Handbook readings
  -- Introduction
  -- Chapter 1, part 1
  -- Chapter 1, part 2
  -- Chapter 2



Lecture related links:


--- Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.




Concepts to be covered:

• definition of the situation
• difference
• the dilemma of difference
• identity politics
• the Other
• privileging subjectivity
• unstated assumptions



Discussion Questions:

1. According to Habermas, what is a fact? What is a norm? And, what is the tension between facts and norms? Provide an example.

2. What does Minow mean by "the dilemma of difference"?

3. Select an issue (not used in class). How does "private autonomy" come into the argument? How does "public autonomy" come into this argument? Why.



Suggested Creative Measures:



• Read Between Facts and Norms by Jurgen Habermas.
• Find an issue or example to illustrate the "tensions" between facts and norms. Why does this tension exist? What would Habermas suggest as ways to alleviate the tensions? Why.
• new Read a book on the idea and concept of race. --- Richard Goldsby. Race and Races.
  --- Paul Ehrlich. The Race Bomb.
  --- Cornel West. Race Matters.
  --- Robert Blauner. Still the Big News: Racial Oppression in America.
  --- William Julius Wilson. The Declining Significance of Race.
  
• new Explore the idea and concept of race. What are the arguments on both sides -- the biologic and genetic concept of race vs. the social realities of race.



Recommended Readings:



• Spencer Johnson. Who Moved My Cheese?"
• John Naisbitt. Megatrends.
• Alvin Toffler. Future Shock.
• Spencer Johnson. The Present.
• John Naisbitt. High Tech, High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning.
• George Ritzer. The McDonaldization of Society.
• George Ritzer. Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption.
• James Gleick. Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.
  
  
• Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
• Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law.

takata@uwp.edu