Download SOC202 CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

SOC202 CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Instructor: Peter Baehr
Room: S0305
Voice: 2616 7185
Email: [email protected]
Introduction
This course employs modern sociological theory to help clarify a number of
issues that continue to perplex the social sciences. The course is centred on a range of
problems or questions - for instance: What is “scientific” knowledge?, What is the nature
of “action”?, How much impact can individuals have on social “structure” - that are
presupposed in much of what we do. My major objectives are to identify these problems
of social science and, simultaneously, to show how sociological theory is relevant to
understanding modern life. I shall also introduce pertinent material from political theory,
international relations and the philosophy of science. Finally, because much of modern
sociological theory draws on, and critically adapts, the ideas of the “classics,” I shall
often make reference to the ideas of Marx, Durkheim and especially Max Weber.
The key text, which you are advised to buy, is Bent Flyvbjerg’s Making Social
Science Matter. Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it can Succeed Again. I have chosen
this text not because I agree with its main arguments - I usually don’t - but because it is
very useful in identifying some areas in which sociologists disagree. The book also
contains some helpful discussions and good summaries of such authors as Herbert
Dreyfus and Michel Foucault.
Four other texts that cover a lot of the ground this course deals with are:
Jeffrey Alexander, Twenty Lectures: Sociological Theory Since World War II
Randall Collins, Theoretical Sociology
George Ritzer, Contemporary Sociological Theory (available in a number of
editions; any one will do)
Ian Craib, Modern Social Theory.
This is a demanding and challenging course. You are advised to prepare carefully
for it.
Course Assessment:
Continuous Assessment: 60%
Exam: 40%
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You are required to give one tutorial presentation (30% of your total mark), write one
term paper (30% of your total mark), and sit an end of term examination (40% of your
total mark). All work must be in English.
Tutorial presentations should be clear, invite discussion and be between 25 and
30 minutes long. Attendance in tutorials is mandatory; students who miss tutorials
without good reason (explained to me), will have marks deducted from the continuous
assessment portion of their grade. Tutorials will run on alternate weeks, so as to provide
extra time for reading and preparation. The group responsible for the In-class tutorial
presentation must come to see me the previous week during the scheduled tutorial period,
with an outline of their presentation. I will offer feedback and suggestions.
Term papers can either expand on a tutorial question – students should ask me for
extra reading and should also search for their own – or can be based on a question of the
student’s choice provided it is first negotiated with me. Term papers should be around
3500 words, typed, and double-spaced. The deadline is Thursday 17th April 2003. Term
papers must be fully referenced either using footnotes or endnotes. A list of references on
the final page of the paper is insufficient. Typically, a term paper will utilize at least eight
references. Cite your sources (references) in detail and be careful to avoid plagiarism.
It is essential that students read all of the texts below. I shall cite others as the
lectures proceed.
Week 1 (January 20-24). Introduction to the Course.
Week 2 (January 27-30). I will be in New York. Please read in my absence Bent
Flyvbjerg, “Is theory possible in social science?” in Making Social Science Matter,
chapter 3, and Anthony Giddens, “What do sociologists do?” in Giddens’, Social Theory
and Modern Sociology, chapter 1. I shall ask you questions about these texts on my return.
Week 3 (February 3-7). On the character of theory and sociological theory
(Note that the Chinese New Year holidays end on the 6th of February. This means that
there will no tutorials but there will be a lecture on the 7th February.)
Week 4 (February 10-14). On science, scientific progress and sociological development
(Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper). On “predictability” in the social sciences (Randall
Collins, Alasdair MacIntyre)
In-class tutorial on Wednesday 12. (No presentation; I shall give the first tutorial. Be
prepared to answer questions from the reading below.)
Reading:
a) Bent Flyvbjerg, “Is theory possible in social science?” in Making Social
Science Matter, chapter 3.
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b) Jeffrey C. Alexander, “What is Theory?” in Alexander, Twenty Lectures:
Sociological Theory Since World War II, chapter 1.
Anthony Giddens, “What do sociologists do?” in Giddens, Social Theory and
Modern Sociology, chapter
Week 5 (February 17-20). On the relationship between values and science. On
explanation and prediction in the social sciences (Max Weber, Bent Flyvbjerg, David
Silvermann, Len Doyal and Roger Harris, Russell Keat and John Urry, Roy Bhaskar)
Week 6 (February 24-28). On action, social action and human understanding Part I (The
Durkheimian tradition; ritual, dramaturgy and impression management [Erving Goffman];
the role of the individual in international relations [Max Weber, Kenneth Pollack])
In-class tutorial on February 26. What role do values play in social and political enquiry?
What are the tensions between social advocacy and social science?
Reading:
a) Bent Flyvbjerg, “Values in social and political inquiry” in Making Social Science
Matter, chapter 3.
b) Max Weber, “Science as a Vocation”, in H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, pp. 129156. (Available in Chinese translation; look up the library catalogue under Weber,
“Wissenschaft als Beruf”.)
c) David Silverman, Qualitative Methodology and Sociology, chapter 9.
Week 7 (March 3-7). On action, social action and human understanding Part II the
Weberian tradition; ethnomethodology)
Week 8 (March 10-14) Recap session
In-class tutorial on March 12. Tutorial Question (In class 7 March): What are the chief
ways, according to Goffman, that actors seek to carry off a successful performance?
What are the limitations of Goffman’s approach to understanding social action?
Reading:
a) Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, chapter 1.
b) Anthony Giddens, “Erving Goffman as a systematic social theorist”, in
Giddens, Social Theory and Modern Sociology, chapter 5.
c) Randall Collins, Theoretical Sociology, chapter 6 (“Interaction Ritual”).
Week 9 (March 17-21). On culture, ideology and utopian experiments. The example of
Daoist and Maoist approaches to the natural world
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Week 10 (March 24-28). On the significance of conflict and power I (Michel Foucault,
Steven Lukes, Michael Mann)
In-class tutorial on March 26. What impact did Mao’s ideological commitments have on
Chinese agriculture, and on the Chinese environment more generally, during the Great
Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution?
Reading:
a) Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China. From Revolution Through Reform,
especially pp. 60-77 (“The Features of Mao Zedong Thought”)
b) Judith Shapiro, Mao’s War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in
Revolutionary China, chapters 1 and 2.
c) Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts. China’s Secret Famine, especially chapter 5
(“False Science, False Promises”)
Week 11 (March 31-April 4). On “total” institutions and “total” domination” (Erving
Goffman, Hannah Arendt)
Week 12 (April 7-April 11). Postmodernism Part I. The so-called “Enlightenment
Project” and its critics
In-class tutorial on April 9. Compare Robert Dahl’s, Hannah Arendt’s and Steven
Lukes’s concepts of power.
Reading:
a) Robert Dahl, “Power as the Control of Behaviour,” in Steven Lukes (editor),
Power, chapter 3.
b) Hannah Arendt, “Communicative Power,” in Steven Lukes (editor), Power,
chapter 4.
c) Steven Lukes. Power. A Radical View.
Week 13 (April 14-18). No Lecture (Easter Holidays) but there will be an In-class
tutorial on April 16th. Critically examine Michel Foucault’s theory of the relationship
between power and truth.
Reading:
a) Michel Foucault, “Truth and Power” in Paul Rabinow (editor), The Foucault
Reader, pp. 51-75. (Foucault’s key book on power, Surveiller et Punir is available
in Chinese in the library; there is an English version too entitled Discipline and
Punish).
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b) Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter, chapter 8.
c) “Introduction” by Paul Rabinow to The Foucault Reader, pp. 3-29.
Week 14 (April 21-25). Postmodernism Part II. The Nature of the New.
Week 15 (April 28-May 2). Review and Revision.
In-class tutorial on April 30. In what ways, if any, are we living today in a markedly new
society?
Reading:
a) Ali Rattansi and Roy Boyne, Postmodernism and Society, “Introduction”.
b) Douglas Kellner, “Postmodernism as social theory: Some Challenges and
Problems” in Theory, Culture and Society. Special Issue on Postmodernism Vol.5
1988, pp. 239-69. (Covers the main postmodernist theorists: Leotard, Jameson
and Baudrillard.)
c) Anthony Giddens, Making Sense of Modernity, pp. 94-117.
Peter Baehr January 2003
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Additional texts to which I will refer in this course include:
Hannah Arendt, The Portable Hannah Arendt.
Peter Baehr, Founders, Classics, Canons.
Reinhard Bendix, “Two Sociological Traditions” in Reinhard Bendix and Guenther Roth,
Scholarship and Partisanship. pp. 282-298.
Roy Bhaskar, The Possibility of Naturalism.
Daniel L. Bryman and Kenneth M. Pollack, “Let Us Now Praise Great Men: Bringing the
Statesman Back In,” International Security Vol. 25, number 4 (Spring 2001), pp. 107-146.
Lewis Coser, The Functions of Social Conflict.
Randall Collins, Theoretical Sociology.
Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies.
Randall Collins, “The Geo-Political Basis of Revolution: The Prediction of the Soviet
Collapse,” in Collins, Macrohistory: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run, pp. 37-69.
Jonathan Culler, Saussure (there is a Chinese translation in the library).
Len Doyal and Roger Harris, Empiricism, Explanation and Rationality.
Norbert Elias, The Civilizing Process Volume 1: The History of Manners.
Steve Fuller, Social Epistemology.
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Harold Garfinkel, “Studies of the routine grounds of everyday activities” in Garfinkel
Studies in Ethnomethodology, chapter 2.
Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity.
Erving Goffman, “On the Characteristics of Total Institutions,” in Goffman, Asylums:
Essays on the Social Sistuation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, pp. 3-24.
Alvin Gouldner, “The Sociologist as Partisan”, in Gouldner, For Sociology. Renewal and
Critique in Sociology Today, pp. 27-68.
John C. Heritage, “Ethnomethodology” in Anthony Giddens and Jonathan H. Turner,
Social Theory Today, pp. 224-272.
Russell Keat and John Urry, Social Theory as Science.
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Jorge Larrain, The Concept of Ideology.
Francois Leotard, The Postmodern Condition.
Alasdair Macintyre, After Virtue.
Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power Volume I, Introduction. (The library also has
the Chinese version.)
Frank Parkin, Max Weber, chapter 1 (“Methods and Procedures”)
Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations.
Deborah Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand. Women and Men in Conversation.
Max Weber, Economy and Society, chapter 1 (“Basic Sociological Terms”)
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