(CRN 14263) SOCIOLOGY 418, Fall 2009:

Social Services and Community: A Practicum.

Coleman 021, T 1:00-3:52

Carl Milofsky, 204 Coleman Hall; Office Hours: W, 11-12:00

phone: 73468; email: milofsky@bucknell.edu;

Course web: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/milofsky/418Home.html

This course explores the practicalities of work in social service institutions through supervised fieldwork experiences. Students must find an internship close to the beginning of the semester and spend about 10 hours per week working at their site.

Students must write field notes about their internship experiences and hand in a set every two weeks beginning with week #2. In addition, students must organize their internships around a project. At the end of the term a final paper reporting results of the project will replace the last set of field notes. These reports should combine observations from the field notes and also insights gained from reading theoretical analyses and/or sociological or sociologically informed research reports on settings similar to the one students are working in.

Students must produce a project proposal in the fourth week that includes an annotated bibliography. Students should expand their bibliography over the course of the semester and their readings should inform and help to guide their field notes and their observations in the settings.

The basic idea here is that observing and writing field notes can easily become simply a reactive and imaginative activity. Students need to be thinking about their settings and the things they observe sociologically and theoretically. Using readings to inform field observation and having an analytic goal will help.

In class sessions we will talk about things students experienced in their settings and we will talk about field notes. We also will talk about readings students have found and how their sociological guidance can be used in fieldwork. For this to be possible, students must offer field notes for class reading and also interesting articles for the group to look at and discuss. These offerings must be made by the Friday before class (on Tuesday).

One “book” is available in the bookstore:

Carl Milofsky and JoAnne Schneider, The Field Notes Manual. Doing Sociology in Sociology and Anthropology. (Lewisburg, PA: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bucknell Universirty 2006).

Depending on a student’s setting there may be additional expenses involved in securing legal clearances or taking appropriate training courses. All students must be certified as having taken the CITI course on protection of human subjects.

Course Schedule

Sept. 1 First class introduction and overview. Students talk about their field settings what they expect to be doing. Discuss Fieldnotes Manual and writing field notes. Read fieldnotes written by Clement Gyan about the North Central Secure Treatment Unit.

**Read** On Blackboard: Selections from Clement Gyan’s field notes.

Sept. 8 Discuss confidentiality requirements and protection of human subjects. Discuss sample student field notes.

**Read** Field Notes Manual Ch. 1 (4-23), Ch. 4 (pp. 54-74), Ch. 5 (pp. 75-93), Ch. 7 (pp. 127-148), and Ch. 8 (pp. 127-148).

Also read selected student field notes (posted on Blackboard Friday, e-mail will be sent giving you notice).

**Writing** First set of field notes due.

Sept. 15 Discuss writing field notes. Discuss sample student field notes. Discuss projects and readings.

**Read** Field Notes Manual Ch. 9 (pp. 149-183) and Appendix C, pp. 265-280.

Also read on Blackboard C. Milofsky, “How doctors act: The medical community as a network organization.” Pp. 108-122 in C. Milofsky, Smallville. Institutionalizing Community in Twenty-First Century America (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England 2008).

Read selected student field notes (posted on Blackboard Friday, e-mail will be sent giving you notice).

Sept. 22 Discuss project proposals

**Read** Field Notes Manual Ch. 1o (pp. 184-197).

Also read selected student field notes (posted on Blackboard Friday, e-mail will be sent giving you notice).

**Writing** Project proposals due. Second set of field notes due.

Sept. 29 Discuss the holistic concept of “organization” and talk about the organizations that students are working in.

**Read** Field Notes Manual Ch. 11 (pp. 198-214) and Appendix D (pp. 281-288).

Also read selected student field notes (posted on Blackboard Friday, e-mail will be sent giving you notice).

Oct. 6 Discuss student field notes and field experiences and also discuss readings suggested by students.