Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
University
Teacher:
Type of course:
Credits:
Radim Marada
Seminar (2-4 hours a week)
10 & 5 ECTS
Regular classes:
Wednesday, 11:30am-1pm
room U34
Fridays, 1:30-8:00pm (irregular, see schedule below)
room U34
Additional classes:
Teachers office hours:
E-mail:
Assistance:
Annotation:
The course introduces students into major paradigmatic areas of
contemporary social theory and sociological research. It mainly builds on
reading and discussing texts by selected sociological classics of the second
half of the 20th century and by renowned authors who draw on, develop, and
modify the classical traditions today. Understanding continuities and
discontinuities in contemporary social thought is one important aim of the
course. Therefore it includes examples of older classical texts that inspire the
present-day theories either as assigned readings or as presentations given
by individual students. In the main part of the course we focus, among others,
upon links between the micro and macro levels of social research and
analysis. In this way, the empirical relevance of abstract sociological
concepts is to be brought to light. Selected prominent issues in contemporary
social theory will be, in turn, discussed within paradigmatic theoretical
contexts introduced throughout the course.
Requirements
The classes are intended as seminars, rather than lectures. Particular attention
will be paid to students capacity to understand, reproduce and interpret
theoretical concepts and paradigms in empirical terms. . Students work
consists in:
Intensive reading of assigned texts and active participation in the class
discussions.
For each class, students prepare position papers, in which they
summarize major arguments of each of the assigned texts, identify
possible contradictions or confusions, and formulate their questions.
During the semester, each student will give two individual presentations
(20 minutes long) on selected theoretical texts which are not part of the
assigned reading but closely related to it.
By mid of the semester (before the reading week), each student will
have chosen a topic for her or his final essay. This topic has to be
consulted with and approved by the course teacher. Final essay is the
major outcome of the Seminar (SOC757a), and has to be submitted
by the end of the examination period at the latest.
Occasionally, students will be confronted with short interim tests
(multiple choice questions). These tests wont be announced in
advance.
The CST (SOC757) course is concluded by an extensive final test
(multiple choice questions).
Final evaluation criteria:
SOC757
-
(10%)
(10%)
(20%)
(50%)
SOC757a
-
(20%)
(20%)
(50%)
Schedule of classes
(Should any change occur in the assigned reading or in the sequence of
classes during the semester, students will be notified well ahead.)
1.
Assigned readings:
o Sztompka, Piotr. 2004. Shaping Sociological Imagination: The
Importance of Theory. In: Alexander, J. C., Marx, G. T. & Williams,
C. L. [eds.] Self, Social Structure, and beliefs. Explorations in
Sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press (pp. 254267). _13 pages
o Seidman, Steven. 1991. The End of Sociological Theory: The
Postmodern Hope. In: Sociological Theory, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn,
1991), pp. 131-146. _15 pages
o Alexander, Jeffrey C. 1991. Sociological Theory and the Claim to
Reason: Why the End is Not in Sight. In: Sociological Theory, Vol.
9, No. 2 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 147-153. _7 pages
64 pages o Turner: 1-15, 281-295 _29 pages
26. 2. 2014
2.
3.
Texts to be presented:
o
Seidman, Steven: The End of Sociological Theory: The
Postmodern Hope & Alexander, Jeffrey C.: Sociological Theory
and the Claim to Reason: Why the End is Not in Sight. In:
Sociological Theory, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 131-153. (21 pages)
o
Knorr Cetina, Karin: Sociality with Objects: Social Relations in
Postsocial Knowledge Societies. In: Theory, Culture and Society.
14(4), 1997. (34 pages)
o
Aakvaag, Gunnar C. Social Mechanisms and Grand Theories of
Modernity Worlds Apart? (manuscript) (24 pages)
12. 3. 2014
4.
5.
Continuity in discontinuity
Collective effervescence and collective emotions
From ritual to performance
From emblems to icons
General sociological theory of religion
Assigned readings:
o Durkheim, mile. 1965 (1912). The Elementary Forms of Religious
Life. New York: Free Press. (Book II, chapter 7: pp. 235-272) _37 pages
o Durkheim, mile. 1965 (1912). The Elementary Forms of Religious
72 pages Life. New York: Free Press. (Conclusion) _35 pages
21. 3. 2014 (Friday, 4:00-8:00pm)
6.
Assigned readings:
o Weber, Max. 2002 (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers. (pp. 3-50, 103-125) _70 pages
o Boltanski, Luc & Chiapello, Eve. The New Spirit of Capitalism
96 pages (conference paper) _26 pages
2. 4. 2014
7.
During the reading week, students will study the following text:
Wagner, Peter. 1994. A Sociology of Modernity: Liberty and Discipline.
Routledge: London. _240 pages
While reading the text, pay specific attention to the following issues:
The concept of modernization: the origins of modernity and its evolution
(3 stages)
Major characteristics of the three stages/modes of modernity (in what
do they differ from one another)
i. The character of major institutions and the nature of
authority
ii. The experience of collective belonging (class and class
conflict, nation, ethnicity, etc.)
iii. Bases and formations of social identities and self-identities
Respective changes in the sociological conceptualization of modernity
The dialectics of emancipation and disciplination in modern times
8.
9.
_42 pages
10.
Assigned readings:
o Parsons, Talcott. 1971. The System of Modern Societies.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, inc. (pp. 51-121) _70 pages
11.
Assigned readings:
o Brubaker, Rogers & Loveman, Mara & Stamatov, Peter: Ethnicity
as Cognition. In: Theory and Society, 33, 2004 (str. 31-64) _33 pages
o Taylor, Charles. TBA
o Foucault, Michel. 1980. The History of Sexuality, vol. 1. New York:
Vintage. _164 pages
211 pages o Turner: 124-138 _14 pages
7. 5. 2014
12.
Assigned readings:
o Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press. (pp. 52-65, 112-133) 13 + 21 = 34 pages
o Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the
Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
(pp. 97-168, 466-484) 71 + 18 = 89 pages
o Mannheim, Karl. 1964. The Problem of Generations. In: Essays on
the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
(pp. 276-320) _44 pages
191 pages o Turner: 83-102 _19 pages
14. 5. 2014
13.
_12 pages
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