Download the syllabus here: Syllabus for Undergraduates 2009
697 Study at a Foreign Institution
(15 Credit Hours)
Central and Eastern Europe in Comparative Perspective: Assessing Social and Political Change
2nd Edition, Summer 2009
As part of this course, students will engage in (a) four weeks of intensive training and research in Warsaw, Poland (June 17 – July 16, 2009), and (b) individual Internet/personal consultations with the instructor upon their return to OSU (August).
| Instructors: | Kazimierz M. Slomczynski, Irina Tomescu-Dubrow and Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow |
| Office Hours: | Tuesday & Thursday 1:30-3:30 |
| Email: | slomczynski.1@sociology.osu.edu, tomescu.1@sociology.osu.edu, jdubrow2000@yahoo.com |
| Voice messages: | (614) 292-8078 |
| Mailbox: | 301 Bricker Hall |
| Course Website: | https://warsawsummerschool.wordpress.com |
| Time & Location: | Lecture: 10:00 –10:45, Palac Staszica, Room 164 Computer Lab: 11:00 – 12:30, Palac Staszica, Room 201 Seminars: 14:30 – 16:00, Palac Staszica, Room 164 Computer Room (internet access): Rooms 122/124, 201 |
Goals
This course is designed to achieve two objectives. First, it aims at teaching students how to employ quantitative methods in sociology to get an in-depth understanding of social and political change in Central and Eastern Europe. Relying on the Polish Panel Survey 1988-2003 (POLPAN), you will learn how to apply basic concepts in statistics to substantive problems of the post-communist transformation in Poland using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). By the end of the course, you will know:
– How to use SPSS for data analysis;
– How to describe variables (distribution shapes, central tendencies, range and dispersions of single variable);
– How to assess relationships between variables (cross-tabulation, correlation, linear regression, comparisons of summary statistics across groups);
– How to interpret research findings (samples and populations, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, understanding “statistical significance”).
The second objective of the course is to give students a comprehensive understanding of the research strategies and empirical findings pertaining to the political, economic and cultural systems of Central and East European societies. As part of the training, you will learn how to develop your own research paper on a substantive issue of your choice dealing with the post-communist transformation.
Topics
1) Methodological:The Nature of Social Research; Descriptive Statistics: Measures of Central Tendency and Variability; Probability Distributions; Samples and Populations; Statistical Inference: Testing Differences Between Means; Comparing Groups: Analysis of Variance Comparisons of Two Groups; Correlation and Linear Regression; Introduction to Multivariate Relationships; Advanced Topics.
2) Substantive: Historical Context of Central and East European Socialism; Social and Political Change after 1989; Winners and Losers: Social Stratification and Class Divisions in Post-Communist Europe; New Democracies: Political Participation and Democratic Values after 1989; Institutional Attitudes related to Politics, the State, and the Catholic Church.
Required Readings
Jack Levin and James Alan Fox Elementary Statistics in Social Research, 10th ed. (Pearson, Allyn and Bacon, 2006) ISBN 0-205-45958-7.
Course Package: A special packet will be prepared and distributed using materials from various U.S. and Polish sources. Example of these sources include: Gale Stokes, ed., From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of Eastern Europe since 1945, Oxford University Press, 1991; M. F. Goldman, Russia, the Eurasian Republics, and Central/Eastern Europe. Dushkin Publishing Group, 1992-2004 (5th and later editions); Ch. G. A. Bryant and E. Mokrzycki, eds. The New Great Transformation? Change and Continuity in East-Central Europe (Routledge, 1994); J. R. Kluegel, D. S. Mason, and B. Wegener, eds., Social Justice and Political Change: Public Opinion in Capitalist and Post-Communist States (De Gruyter, 1995); K. M. Slomczynski, ed., Social Patterns of Being Political (IFiS, 2000); K. M. Slomczynski, ed., Social Structure: Changes and Linkages (IFiS, 2002). K. M. Slomczynski and S.T. Marquart-Pyatt, eds., Continuity and Change in Social Life (IFiS, 2007).
Course Requirements
Three Assignments: Assignments will be distributed throughout the course, and will include a combination of problem solving (hand and computer calculations) and interpretation of the results. Your assignments will correspond to the choice of your variables for the topic of interest that you would further develop into the term paper. You need to turn them in on the due date, at the beginning of recitation. While studying with another student is permitted and even encouraged, you need to write the answers in your own words.
Exam: In-class examination at the end of the Study abroad course, requiring solving of a set of practical problems using SPSS on the POLPAN data. You will have to run basic analyses covered during the course, print the output, and briefly interpret your statistical results.
Research Paper: The preparation of the research paper is a two-stage stage process. During your stay in Warsaw you will identify the problem of your interest, the basic literature on this topic, the corresponding Dependent and Independent Variables in the POLPAN data set, and perform the initial analyses applying the learned methodology. A first version of your paper needs to be turned in on Tuesday, July 14, 2009. Instructors will comment on your work, and help you with developing the plan for the final version of the paper.
You need to complete the final version of your term paper no later than August 25, 2009 (Final examinations for 2009 Summer quarter at OSU, main campus), and send it in electronically to slomczynski.1@sociology.osu.edu.
Grades
Grades will be based: 10% on class participation, 30% on the assignments, 20% on the exam, and 30% on the term paper (10% for the first version; 20% for the final version).
Grading points
| A 94-100 | B+ 87-89 | C+ 77-79 | D+ 65-69 | F 59-0 |
| A- 90-93 | B 84-86 | C 74-76 | D 60-64 | |
| B- 80-83 | C- 70-73 |
Class Policies
Attendance is mandatory for lecture, seminars, and recitation sessions. 10% of your grade is made up of attendance and class participation. You are responsible for all announcements made, handouts distributed, and material discussed during lectures, seminars, and recitations.
Academic Misconduct: The University’s Code of Student Conduct defines academic misconduct as “[a]ny activity that tends to compromise the academic integrity of the University, or subvert the educational process.” While many people associate academic misconduct with only “cheating,” academic misconduct actually includes a wider scope of student behaviors, which include (but are not limited to): violation of program or course rules and regulations; knowingly providing or receiving information during an exam (this includes providing information on exam questions for make-ups); possession and/or use of unauthorized materials during an exam; submitting plagiarized work for a course assignment; falsification, fabrication, or dishonesty in reporting laboratory (research) results; serving as or asking another student to serve as a substitute (a ‘ringer’) while taking an exam; alteration of grades in an effort to change earned credit or a grade; and alteration and/or unauthorized use of University forms.
Course Outline
The dates that are provided here are tentative and could change depending on how this class proceeds. Any changes in dates, including changes in exam dates will be announced in class. You are responsible for finding out about any announcements made in class and recitation. Please read the assigned readings before the lecture in which they will be discussed.
June 16 & 17, Tuesday & Wednesday:
8:00 – 17:00 – Arrival
You will be met at the airport; transport to the Hotel Hera; short organizational meeting with Summer School organizers.
June 17, Wednesday: 17:30 – Orientation Meeting, Hera Hotel
June 18, Thursday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Populations and Samples, Variables and their Values, Organizing the Data
11:30 – 12:30 – Computer Lab
12:30 – 13:30 – Lunch (PANKLUB)
14:00 – 15:15 – Historical Context of Central and East European Communism
15:30 – 16:30 – Practical Orientation
June 19, Friday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Measures of Central Tendency
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:00 – Tour of Warsaw (Meeting Place: Entry Hall, IFiS)
June 20, Saturday:
9:30 – 18:30 – Visit to the city of Kazimierz (Meeting Place: Hera Reception).
June 21, Sunday:
10:00–14:00– Visit to Wilanow (Meeting Place: Hera Reception)
19:00 – Dinner with OSU President Gordon Gee, Restaurant POLKA
18:45 – Meeting Place: Plac Zamkowy
June 22, Monday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Measures of Variability
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:30 – 16:00 – Social and Political Change after 1989: from Where to Where
June 23, Tuesday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Testing Differences between Means
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:30 – 16:00 – Visit to the European Union Office in Warsaw
June 24, Wednesday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab; Assignment no. 1 due.
14:30 – 16:00 – Class Divisions and Structured Inequality
June 25, Thursday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Contingency Tables
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab;
Departure to city of Lodz: Train leaves at 17:00
June 26, Friday – June 28, Sunday: Trip to Lodz. Symposium – Study Tour “Movies of Central & Eastern Europe: The National Film School in Lodz” (OIA Grant)
July 29, Monday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Measures of Association Contingency Tables
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:15 – 15:30 – Invited Talk “The Politics of Dissent and Repression: How Regimes Structure Protest/Violence Cycles” Dr. Craig J. Jenkins, Chair of Sociology Department, OSU
June 30, Tuesday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Correlation and Regression, I
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:15 – 15:30 – Institutional Attitudes related to Politics, the State, and the Catholic Church.
19:00 – Dinner with Craig J. Jenkins, Chair of Sociology Department, OSU (Restaurant Qchnia)
July 1, Wednesday:
11:00 –12:45 – Lecture and Computer Lab;
14:30 – 16:00 – Democracy and Democratic Values
July 2, Thursday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Correlation and Regression, II
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab; Assignment no. 2 due.
Departure to Krakow – Train leaves at 15:15 from Warszawa Centralna
July 3, Friday: – July 5, Sunday: Trip to Krakow (Departure from Krakow: 15:00)
July 6, Monday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Correlation and Regression, III
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:30 – 15:30 – Guest Lecture: Crime and Society (Dr. Anna Kiersztyn)
July 7, Tuesday:
10:00 – 11:15 – Lecture & Discussion: Advanced Statistical Analysis, I
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
14:30 – 16:00 – Individual consultations
July 8, Wednesday:
10:00 – 11:15 – Individual Consultations
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:30 – 16:00 – Working on Individual Projects and Assignments
July 9, Thursday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Lecture & Discussion: Advanced Statistical Analysis, II
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab
14:30 – 16:00 – Working on Individual Projects and Assignments
July 10, Friday:
10:00 – 11:15 – Individual Consultations
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab; Assignment no. 3 due.
14:30 – 16:00 – Lecture: “The Roma in Central and Eastern Europe” Dr. Irina Tomescu-Dubrow
July 11, Saturday – July 12, Sunday: Free time
July 13, Monday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Quantitative Methods in Sociology: A Summary. Exam Review, Part I
11:30 – 12:45 – Computer Lab: Exam Review, Part I
14:30 – 16:00 – Guest Lecture “Dynamics of Social Inequality in Western and Eastern Europe” Dr. Henryk Domanski, Director IFiS
July 14, Tuesday:
10:00 – 11:10 – Quantitative Methods in Sociology: A Summary. Exam Review, Part II
11:30 – 12:30 – Computer Lab: Exam Review, Part II
12:30 – 13:30 – Lunch
13:30 – 15:30 – Finalizing Individual Projects; First version of Paper due
July 15, Wednesday:
10:00 – 11:15 – Exam
14:00 – 15:30 – Discussion of Individual Projects
19:00 – Dinner, Restaurant Cztery Pory
July 16, Thursday:
11:00 – 13:00– Visit to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, OSCE.
August 25, Tuesday, by 4 PM: Final Paper due, via email to Slomczynski.1@sociology.osu.edu
Summer School in Social Sciences 