Pot-Pourri du jour – Dr. Bill

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Dr. Bill

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2025-26 Academic year
- Winter ’26
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Dr. Bill

1984 links: Doublespeak
1984 links: Information control
1984 links: Perpetual war
1984 links: Police state
205 Americans’ relationship with stuff
205 Assignments: On campus
205 Discussion Weekly share
205 final exam study guide
205 lecture material for midterm
205 McDonaldization’s darker sides
205 Midterm multiple choice sample questions
205 Midterm study guide
205 On Campus Calendar
205 Orwell Main
205 Orwells 1984 links big brother
205 Readings Week 10
205 Small group discussion: Ground rules
205 Small group discussion: Main
205 Small Groups Dr. Strangelove meets 1984
205 small groups put me in charge
205 Social problems: Thinking about causes
205 tax cuts and doge
206 Small groups: AI
206 Social problems can be complex and layered
310 Assignments
310 Beck: Risk Society
310 Climate change: A whirlwind primer
310 Geography of risk in maps
310 Glossary
310 Midterm study guide
310 Migration concepts
310 Mitigating climate destabilization
310 page links
310 POET model
310 Source material
315 A very brief history of welfare in the US
315 Assignments: On campus
315 Assignments: Online
315 Bi-weekly quizzes
315 Business pushback
315 Calendar
315 Capitalism
315 Caricatures of the poor
315 Children Project Questions
315 community development
315 Community development and social capital
315 Comparing child-rearing practices
315 Comparing households
315 Corporate welfare
315 Course resources
315 End of term evaluation
315 Fries with that career?
315 Get a job . . .
315 Group discussion children and anti-fragility
315 group discussion children’s mental health
315 group discussion homelessness
315 group discussion social security
315 group discussion taxes
315 Is poverty functional?
315 lecture material Capitalism
315 Looking back
315 Making up discussion threads
315 midterm lecture pages
315 midterm mcq examples
315 midterm study guide
315 Outline
315 Policies
315 Poverty and inequality
315 Questions
315 Questions
315 Readings
315 Reflection paper: Developing (or refining) a welfare philosophy
315 Reflection paper: Developing (or refining) a welfare philosophy
315 Reforming the reform
315 Regulating the poor?
315 Research questions: Discussion and response
315 Research-based discussion
315 Rural poverty
315 Schools compared
315 Small groups
315 Small groups (remote)
315 Social insurance social security
315 Social Welfare
315 Social welfare in your area/community
315 Social welfare in your area/community
315 Stigma and welfare
315 Structure, agency, and social welfare
315 Summarizing
315 Summary: bureaucracy
315 Systems of privilege
315 The bureaucracy
315 The changing nature of work
315 There’s work, and then there’s work
315 There’s work, and then there’s work
315 Unequal childhoods … in a social welfare class??
315 Unequal Childhoods: Underlying theory
315 Victim blaming as common sense, ritual
315 Week 1 summary
315 Week 7 Summary
315 Weekly ‘share’
315 Welfare and ‘Family Values’
315 Welfare and work ethic
315 Welfare as a tool to regulate labor markets?
315 Welfare basics
315 Welfare Concepts
315 Welfare expands in the 1960s
315 Welfare programs–Some basics
315 What does the welfare system look like?
315 What if?
315 What’s in a wage?
315 Why is poverty in the US so persistent?
315 Work hard, play by the rules, and . . . . (part deux)?
315 Working poor
344 Advice 1
344 Alternative news sites
344 Assignments
344 Bait
344 Calendar
344 Class Outline
344 Countering propaganda
344 Course Materials
344 Fake news
344 Four strategies of persuasion
344 Four strategies of persuasion War
344 Heuristics
344 journalists and bias
344 Left vs Right
344 Left vs right stereotypes
344 Media bias?
344 Media structure
344 More on propaganda
344 More resources
344 News filtering 2
344 News filters
344 Participation
344 Persuasion and global warming
344 Persuasion strategies and global warming
344 Pierce’s ‘rules’
344 Project Censored paper
344 Psychology of mass persuasion
344 Selling The News
344 Spin journal assignment
344 Spin journal sources
344 The media ‘echo chamber’
344 Using the media (techniques)
345 A different mnemonic device?
345 A new paradigm
345 Act independently
345 Assignments
345 Assignments Friday small groups
345 Assignments on campus
345 Authority–a brief review
345 Basic Advice
345 Be accountable
345 Bias
345 Bias (classroom outline)
345 Calendar
345 Cautious optimism, hopeful skepticism, or jaded cynicism?
345 Checking the dailies
345 Code of ethics
345 Coke, Pepsi, Fox, CNN, Republicans, Democrats
345 Combatting elder fraud
345 Conspiracies and you
345 Countering propaganda
345 Framing war for public consumption–Iraq
345 from the Daily Show
345 Glossary
345 Group projects (paper and presentation)
345 Heretofore aforementioned misnomers
345 Heuristics
345 How we got here
345 Imagery
345 Integrating media, politics and propaganda
345 Investigative reports
345 Junk Food for the Soul
345 Left vs right stereotypes
345 Media, politics and propaganda
345 Midterm study guide
345 Minimize harm
345 Minneapolis and headlines
345 More resources
345 News Filters
345 News filters 2
345 News filters illustrated
345 on campus attendance
345 on campus calendar
345 Outline, resources
345 Outlines
345 Participation: Discussion forums and weekly share
345 Persuasion strategies illustrated
345 Persuasion vs news
345 Pierce’s Rules
345 Policies
345 Politics and TV
345 Power and media
345 Psychology of mass persuasion
345 Quizzes
345 Readings
345 Resources
345 Seek the truth
345 Social proof
345 Spin journal
345 Structure, agency, and the news
345 Student Pages
345 Tools
345 Tricks of the trade
345 TV and presidents
345 TV and showbiz
345 What makes the ‘news?’
345 What? To do?
345 What’s ‘news?’
365 Assignments
365 Assignments Midterm
365 assignments midterm exam
365 assignments term project
365 assignments term project presentation
365 Calendar
365 Communities Home
365 Course resources
365 Demographics
365 Design principles checklist
365 Design principles for development
365 Emergency response/public safety
365 Labor force
365 Lecture material power
365 Participation and community-based research
365 Policies
365 questions and issues
365 Readings
365 Smart Growth
365 Some questions to ask
365 sources infrastructure
365 Water resources
365 Week 6 readings
370 ‘Tropic of Chaos’
370 A page from the skeptic’s playbook
370 Americans’ stuff–hands off!
370 Buddhist Economics
370 Climate change: Action
370 Discussion forums
370 Earth
370 End of term survey
370 Energy
370 Environment and humans
370 Environmental ethics
370 Environmental movements, timeline (an abridged version)
370 Environmental Racism
370 Glaciation and glaciers
370 Global warming: How high are the stakes?
370 Grades
370 Humans and greenhouse gases
370 Humans and natural resources
370 Humans and natural resources
370 Humans and the environment
370 Miscellaneous
370 More on energy
370 Movements
370 Overshoot
370 Persuasion and warming
370 Population growth and the ‘tragedy of the commons’
370 Property
370 Property
370 Quizzes
370 Risk Society
370 Summary
370 Summary Week 7
370 Summary-outline
370 The greenhouse effect
370 Thinking about technology
370 Understanding change
370 University
370 Website Analysis
370 Week 4 Summary
370 Wise use vs environmentalism (according to Arnold)
370 Your carbon footprint
370 Your carbon footprint
371 Assignment: Final reflection/journal
371 Assignments Remote
371 Assignments: On site
371 calendar on site
371 Calendar remote
371 Class attendance
371 Class outline
371 Course Resources
371 Definitions
371 Discussion forums
371 European colonialism
371 History
371 Industrialization and risk
371 Overheard …
371 Participation (attendance) on site
371 POET: A model of social change
371 Policies
371 Readings
371 Summary/analysis of readings
371 Technology & Society
371 Technology & Society Home
371 The resource process
371 Thinking about change
371 Thinking about technology
403 Capstone Getting Started
403 Field placement
403 Final paper
403 Journal
403 Learning Objectives
403 Research component
454 Social Theory
454 What’s going on?
460 Analysis of development measures
460 Assignments
460 Calendar
460 Change happens
460 Change happens (part 2)
460 City life
460 Conventional assumptions of development
460 Course Resources
460 Design principles.
460 Development
460 Development and colonialism
460 Discussion forums
460 Factory work
460 Farming and gender
460 Farming systems
460 Gender and poverty
460 Gender bias
460 Important dates on campus
460 Informal sector
460 Land tenure
460 Planning
460 Policies
460 Power and women
460 Power, tradition, authority
460 Power, women, and the state
460 Privilege systems
460 Quizzes
460 Reading schedule
460 Roots of development
460 Rural urban migration
460 Sex trafficking
460 Social movements: Incorporating gender, then environment
460 Structural adjustments
460 Summarizing development
460 Summarizing women and environment
460 Term project
460 The future …
460 Thinking about change
460 Violence: A public health issue
460 Week 1 Summary Outline
460 Week 3 wrap-up
460 Week 5 Summary
460 Week 6 outline
460 Women and health
460 Women in Poor Countries
460 Women, development, and social movements
460 Writing (in discussion forums)
A day in the McLife
Academic year 2023-24
All Courses
Assignment: News media paper
Assignments on campus: Group discussion
Assignments: Midterm exam
Authority
Community Development and Social Capital
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 205
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 327
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 344
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 345
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 370 Environment & Society
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 371
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 403
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 420
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 454
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc 460
Dr Bill Courses Offered Soc-315
dr-bill-courses offered
Elementor #9301
Extra credit: Course evaluation
Fall 22′ Courses
Filtering the news
Giddens and Bourdieu
Global warming and humans
Global warming: Harmless (no)? Hopeless (no)?
Global warming: Some facts
Global warming: Some trends
Global warming: Understanding the scientific case, concepts
Greenhouse Effect
Home
How to think about addressing social problems
Important dates
Journalism ethics: Act independently
Journalism ethics: Be accountable
Journalism ethics: Minimize harm
Journalism ethics: Seek the truth and report it
Journalistic ethics and standards
Lareau’s thesis: Comparing child-rearing practices
Left and right stereotypes
Marx: Some terms and concepts
McDonaldization
McDonaldization and irrationality: Outline and resources
McDonaldization and Reality TV
McDonaldization as social problem: Applying the SP framework
McDonaldization as social problem: Irreversible trend?
McDonaldization as social problem: Outline and resources
McDonaldization as social problem: Supersize that cage 4 U?
McDonaldization: A primer
McDonaldization: Applying the principles
McDonaldization: Outline and resources
Media and politics (outline)
Media as social problem?
Media as social problem?
Media bias (outline)
Media bias?
Media paper
Media Structure
Midterm exam
Money and politics
More on social problems
Natural resources
Natural resources: Are we running out?
Neolexicon
new file
News media: Coverage of the presidential election
On campus assignments: ‘Wednesday’ projects
On campus assignments: Community projects
On campus assignments: Exams
Online assignment: Weekly ‘share’
Orwell and 1984
Orwell: Outline and resources
Overshoot: Is there a problem, Officer?
Participation (attendance)
Poetry Korner
Poetry korner: Change
Poetry korner: In the village
Poetry korner: On the street
Poetry korner: Random miscellany
Poetry korner: Rants
Pot-Pourri du jour
Publications
Quotable
Rationalization
Reflection paper: Your welfare philosophy
Small group discussion: Readings schedule
Small groups: AI
Small groups: Conspiracism
Small groups: Smart phones
Small groups: The McMusic Industry
Small groups: The McSignment
Soc 205 Campus Resources
Soc 205 Discussion Forums
Soc 205 End of term survey
Soc 205 Lecture Pages
Soc 205 Left vs Right Stereotypes
Soc 205 Quizzes
Soc 205 Reading Week 1
Soc 205 Reading Week 2
Soc 205 Reading Week 3
Soc 205 Reading Week 4
Soc 205 Reading Week 6
Soc 205 Reading Week 8
Soc 205 Readings Framing war and terrorism
Soc 205 Readings Week 5
Soc 205 Readings Week 7
Soc 205 Readings Week 9
Soc 310 Climate and Migration
Soc 315 Online assignments discussion forums
Soc 315 Reading Week 10
Soc 315 Reading Week 2
Soc 315 Reading Week 3
Soc 315 Reading Week 4
Soc 315 Reading Week 5
Soc 315 Reading Week 6
Soc 315 Reading Week 7
Soc 315 Reading Week 8
Soc 315 Reading Week 9
Soc 315 Readings Week 1
Soc 315 Writing in discussion forums
Soc 344 How to trick friends and influence suckers
Soc 345 Assignments on campus exams
Soc 345 course evaluation
Soc 345 Four stratagems of persuasion
Soc 345 Glossary
Soc 345 Heuristics
Soc 345 Psychology of persuasion
Soc 345 Reading Week 10
Soc 345 Reading Week 3
Soc 345 Reading Week 4
Soc 345 Reading Week 5
Soc 345 Reading Week 6
Soc 345 Reading Week 7
Soc 345 Reading Week 8
Soc 345 Reading Week 9
Soc 345 Readings Week 1
Soc 345 Readings Week 2
Soc 345 Some advice
Soc 365 Assignments Community Event
Soc 365 Assignments Interview Project
Soc 365 Course resources Demographics
Soc 365 Small group discussion
Soc 365 Smart growth
Soc 365 week 1 readings
Soc 365 Week 10 readings
Soc 365 Week 2 readings
Soc 365 Week 3 readings
Soc 365 Week 4 readings
Soc 365 Week 5 readings
Soc 365 Week 7 readings
Soc 365 Week 8 readings
Soc 365 Week 9 readings
Soc 370 Assignments
Soc 370 Buddhist Economics
Soc 370 Environment & Society
Soc 370 Environmental racism (and justice)
Soc 370 final study guide
Soc 370 Heuristics
Soc 370 Important dates
Soc 370 midterm study guide
Soc 370 On campus assignments term projects
Soc 370 Policies
Soc 370 Reading Week 8
Soc 370 Readings
Soc 370 Readings Week 1
Soc 370 Readings Week 10
Soc 370 Readings Week 2
Soc 370 Readings Week 3
Soc 370 Readings Week 4
Soc 370 Readings week 5
Soc 370 Readings Week 6
Soc 370 Readings Week 7
Soc 370 Readings Week 9
Soc 370 Risk Society
Soc 370 Risk Society What’s that?
Soc 370 Week 1
Soc 454 – Where does theory come from?
Soc 454 Assignments
Soc 454 Assignments: (bi) weekly ‘share’
Soc 454 Bureaucracy
Soc 454 Calendar
Soc 454 capitalism
Soc 454 Discussion forums
Soc 454 Durkheim and suicide
Soc 454 Extra credit opportunities
Soc 454 Haiku forum
Soc 454 Main Reading Page
Soc 454 Marx: Some terms and concepts
Soc 454 on campus calendar
Soc 454 Policies
Soc 454 Privilege systems
Soc 454 Quizzes
Soc 454 Reading Week 2
Soc 454 Reading Week 3
Soc 454 Reading Week 4
Soc 454 Reading Week 6
Soc 454 Readings Week 1
Soc 454 Readings Week 10
Soc 454 Readings Week 5
Soc 454 Readings Week 6
Soc 454 Readings Week 7
Soc 454 Readings Week 8
Soc 454 Readings Week 9
Soc 454 summary week 1
Soc 454 term project resources
Soc 454 Testing Theory
Soc 454 Week 3 Reading
Soc 454 Writing in discussion forums
Soc 460 Assignments (on campus)
Soc 460 Reading Week 1
Soc 460 Reading Week 10
Soc 460 Reading Week 2
Soc 460 Reading Week 3
Soc 460 Reading Week 4
Soc 460 Reading Week 5
Soc 460 Reading Week 7
Soc 460 Reading Week 8
Soc 460 Reading Week 9
Social Problems 205 Assignments
Social Problems 205 Calendar
Social Problems 205 Policies
Social Problems 205 Readings
Social Problems 205 Resources
Social Problems 206 Home
Social problems: How are they framed (and by whom) for public consumption?
Social problems: Thinking about consequences
Social problems: Thinking about who benefits
Social problems: What to do, and who to do it?
Social Theory 454 Term Project
Social Theory Rational Choices?
Sociology for children of all ages
Some basic questions: A framework
Some news sources
Structure and agency
Stuff
That’s TV Entertainment (part II)
Tragedy of the commons (outline)
War and terrorism: Concepts
War and terrorism: Context
Website assignment list
Week 9 Summary
What are social problems?
What is a social problem?
What’s driving global warming?
When rationalization turns irrational
Where Does theory come from Part 2?
Work hard, play by the rules, and … ?

315 Home
Readings
Assignments: Online
- Assignments: On campus
Calendar: Online
- Important dates
Policies
Course resources

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315 Home
Readings
Assignments: Online
- Assignments: On campus
Calendar: Online
- Important dates
Policies
Course resources

Pot-pourri du jour

Op-eds in Scoop
Series in the (La Grande) Observer on 2008 presidential election
from U of Idaho (The Argonaut), MS era

Links (Academic Year 2025-26)

Courses offered

Senior Capstone (Soc 403)

Message to ’21 graduates

Soc/Soc welfare checksheet

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All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Dr. Bill Grigsby

Dr. Bill GrigsbyProfessor of Sociology

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