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Crash Course
Major Sociological Paradigms: Crash Course Sociology
This week we introduce sociology’s three major theoretical paradigms, and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each paradigm.
Crash Course
Theory & Deviance: Crash Course Sociology
Last week we introduced deviance as a concept, but today we’re going return to our major paradigms in sociology and how each approaches deviance. We’ll explore how structural functionalism sees deviance fulfilling a function in society;...
Curated Video
Sociological Perspectives
A general introduction to the major sociological perspectives.
ShortCutsTv
Social and Commonsense
Can Sociology go ""beyond commonsense"" - and, if so, how? Using the concept of crime, this film illustrates some of the key differences between sociological and commonsense thinking.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Would you opt for a life with no pain? - Hayley Levitt and Bethany Rickwald
Imagine if you could plug your brain into a machine that would bring you ultimate pleasure for the rest of your life. The only catch? You have to permanently leave reality behind. Hayley Levitt and Bethany Rickwald explore Robert...
TED Talks
TED: Is technology our savior — or our slayer? | Ruha Benjamin
When it comes to technology, we're often presented with two contrasting visions of the future: one where technology fulfills all our desires, and another where it leads to chaos and conflict. Sociologist Ruha Benjamin is here with a more...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read "The Handmaid's Tale"? - Naomi R. Mercer
Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction masterpiece The Handmaid's Tale explores the consequences of complacency and how power can be wielded unfairly. Atwood's chilling vision of a dystopian regime has captured readers' imaginations since...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Would winning the lottery make you happier? - Raj Raghunathan
Imagine winning a multi-million dollar lottery tomorrow. If you're like many of us, you'd be ecstatic, unable to believe your good luck. But would that joy still be there a few years later? Raj Raghunathan describes a phenomenon called...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "One Hundred Years of Solitude"? - Francisco Diez-Buzo
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" brought Latin American literature to the forefront of the global imagination and earned Garcia Marquez the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature. What makes the novel so...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Should you trust unanimous decisions? - Derek Abbott
Imagine a police lineup where ten witnesses are asked to identify a bank robber they glimpsed fleeing the scene. If six of them pick the same person, there's a good chance that's the culprit. And if all ten do, you might think the case...
TED Talks
TED: The tipping point I got wrong | Malcolm Gladwell
In his 2000 bestseller "The Tipping Point," Malcolm Gladwell told the story of why crime fell in New York City in the 1990s. Now, 25 years later, he's back with a confession and a mea culpa: "I was wrong," he says. He shares how his...
ShortCutsTv
Criminal Profiling
An area that’s captured the public imagination from tv shows like Mindhunter and Criminal Minds is criminal profiling. But what’s the reality behind the hype? What is criminal profiling? What do profilers do? Does profiling work? In this...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The famously difficult green-eyed logic puzzle - Alex Gendler
One hundred green-eyed logicians have been imprisoned on an island by a mad dictator. Their only hope for freedom lies in the answer to one famously difficult logic puzzle. Can you solve it? Alex Gendler walks us through this green-eyed...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you outsmart this logical fallacy? | Alex Gendler
Meet Lucy. She was a math major in college, and aced all her courses in probability and statistics. Which do you think is more likely: that Lucy is a portrait artist, or that Lucy is a portrait artist who also plays poker? How do we know...
ShortCutsTv
Self Report Methods: Interviews and Questionnaires
How do school students negotiate the pressures to perform well academically alongside the pressure to popular and cool? Carolyn Jackson combined questionnaires and interviews to research this question and this film uses her study, Lads...
Then & Now
Theories of Nationalism and National Identity: An Introduction
In this video, I introduce some foundational theories of nationalism and national identity. I look at primordialists like Edward Shills and Clifford Geertz and modernists including Ernest Gellner (Nations and Nationalism) and Benedict...
Macat
An Introduction to Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks
Imagine being forced to assimilate: giving up your language and culture, adopting the traditions of your oppressors. Frantz Fanon's study of colonial domination is the focus of a short video that introduces viewers to the key ideas in...
Veritasium
The Science of Six Degrees of Separation
The concept of everyone on earth being separated by only six degrees of social connections originated more than 100 years ago. Connect the dots using an installment from an engaging video series that takes a look at various social...
Macat
An Introduction to Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population
Can human population ever exceed its ability to produce food? High schoolers watch a short overview of Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population to learn more about the subsistence level of the human population,...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: The Sociological Imagination: Lesson 3
This lesson will define and explain what what the sociological imagination is, the contributions of C. Wright Mills and his development of the sociological imagination . It is 3 of 4 in the series titled "The Sociological Imagination."