Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
---|---|---|
Foundation Core | SLS2SC005 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: Second Semester, Winter 2018-19
Course Coordinator and Team: Dr.Bidhan Chandra, Dr.GowharFazili
Email of course coordinator: bidhan[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in; gowhar[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in
Pre-requisites:None
Aim:This course follows Social Theory I taught in the first semester. While the earlier course deals with classical sociologists, the present one goes beyond the confines of classical theory. The course focuses largely on contemporary theorists, but it also looks at some of the theorists of early capitalism and modernity whose rich and nuanced ideas have often been homogenized under the rubric of functionalism, structuralism or some other broad term. The course seeks to familiarize students with various theoretical perspectives before focusing on individual theorists and engaging with specific ideas and issues they bring into focus. Hence Part I is devoted to the explication of broader theoretical perspectives, followed by various thematic modules spanning from Part IIto PartV.
Course Outcomes:
Brief description of the modules/ Main modules:
Part 1
Module 1 marks the rise of Parsonian functionalism, its decline, and the neo-functionalist attempts to salvage what remains useful by combining it with insights drawn from contemporaneous perspectives in sociology.
Module 2 is focussed on the micro-sociological challenge/s to functionalism and structural functionalism, particularly the ones posed from the phenomenological, interactionists and ethno methodological perspective.
Module 3 traces the emergence of structuralism, its relationship to developments in linguistics and allied disciplines and its exposition in the work of social anthropologists like Levis Strauss. This is followed by an engagement with a broad spectrum of post-structuralist critiques.
Part 2
Building on the introduction to Marxism in Social Theory I, module 4 introduces neo-Marxist perspectives through a selection from the writings of thinkers like Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser and Rosa Luxemburg and thus enablesappreciation of the cultural and structural turn in Marxism.
Part 3, 4and 5
Various modules (5-11) in Part 3, 4 and 5 dwell on specific themes and debates as reflected in select readings drawnfromthe works of various 20th century sociological thinkers and philosophers including Adorno, Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin,JurgenHabermas, Michel Foucault, Jean Francois Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida and Pierre Bourdieu. The contemporary debates around modernity, culture, art, knowledge, truth, power, language; reproduction and subversion of power in a range of social domains are revisited through anengagement with the said readings.
Assessment Details with weights:
Reading List:
Part I – Introduction to various theoretical perspectives in Sociology
Module 1: Functionalism and Neo-Functionalism
Alexander, Jeffry C. Ed. 1987. Twenty Lectures in Sociological Theory Since World War-II, New York: Columbia University Press, Page: 1-36
Alexander, Jeffrey C. Ed. 1985. Neo-functionalism. London: Sage
Calhoun, C. et al. 2007. Classical Sociological Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, Part-VI, Page: 399-421.
Parsons, T. 1966. The Structure of Social Action: a Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers, New York: Free Press. (Chapter-2)(Page 43-72)
Module2: Interactionism Phenomenology and Ethnomethodology
Anderson, J.A. et al. 1986. Philosophy and Human Sciences, Kent: Croom Helm Ltd. Chapter-4
Calhoun, C. et al. 2002. Contemporary Sociological Theory, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Wagner, H.R. 1970. Alfred Schutz on Phenomenology and Social Relations, London: University of Chicago Press.
Zeitlin, I. 1986. Rethinking Sociology: A Critique of Contemporary Theory, Jaipur: Rawat Publication
Module3: Structuralism and Post-Structuralism
Anderson, J.A. et al. 1986. Philosophy and Human Sciences, Kent: Croom Helm Ltd. Chapter-5
Lechte, J. 1994. Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-Humanism, London: Rutledge. Page: 58-120
Part II – Neo Marxism: Cultural and Structural Turn
Module 4: Antonio Gramsci’s concept of Hegemony and Revolution
Gramsci, A. 1996. Selections From the Prison Notebooks. Hyderabad: Orient Longman.
Louis Althusser, Capitalism and the Problem of Over Determination
Althusser, L. and E. Balibar. 1997. Reading Capital. Tr.By Ben Brewster.London: Verso.
Anderson, K. and Hudis, P. (2004) The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, London: Monthly Review Press.
Part III—RevisitingDebates on Modernity, Culture, Knowledge and Power
Module 5: Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin Debates on Culture, Modernity and Emancipation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Lq6S0b9IcThe debate on Youtube video
Adorno, T and Horkheimer, M. [1944] 1973.Dialectic of Enlightenment.Translated by John Cumming, 120-67 & 168-186.London: Allen Lane.
Palmer, D. 2007. ‘Contemplative Immersion: Benjamin, Adorno & Media Art Criticism’. Transformations 15 http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_15/article_11.shtml
Module6:JurgenHabermas, Modernity, Rationality and Emancipation
Habermas, J. [1981] 1991.The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. II. Translated by Thomas McCarthy, 113-118 and 153-197.Cambridge: Polity Press.
Module 7: Michel Foucault on Knowledge/Power and Governmentality
Foucault, M. 2002. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London and New York: Routledge.
Foucault, M. 1980. Power and Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-77, edited by Colin Gordon. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. 1991. ‘Governmentality’ in Graham Burchell et.al. (eds.) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Part IV – Language, Truth and Power
Module8: Jean Francois Lyotard on Postmodernity, Narratives and Language
Lyotard, J.F. 1984. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.Tr.By Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Module9: Jean Baudrillard
Pawlet, W. 2007. Jean Baudrillard: Against Banality. New York: Routledge
Lechte, J. 1994. Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers: From Structuralism to Post-Humanism, London:Rutledge. Page: 299-322.
Module10:Jacques Derrida on Language, Text and Construction
Derrida, J. 1980. Writing and Difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Part V—Power, Reproduction, Subversion
Module11: Pierre Bourdieu: On Social Class, Distinction & Forms of Capital
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Ed. John G. Richardson, New York: Greenwood Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1987. “What Makes a Social Class? On the Theoretical and Practical Existence of Groups.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 32: 1-17.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: