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Course title: The world and I – Civil society, religion, and world culture
Course code: GTS 5
Discipline: Sociology
Teacher responsible: Dr. Ali Qadir
Visiting lecturers: Prof. Pertti Alasuutari, Dr. Marjaana Rautalin, Dr. Tatiana
Tiaynen-Qadir
Number of ECTS: 10
Type or level of studies: 32 lecture hours and 32 seminar hours for a semester (over
two periods)
Learning outcome: Thorough grasp of world culture as an analytical tool to
understand transnational civil society, religion and construction of selfhood
General description: World culture is a key term in sociological neoinstitutionalism.
But how is it different from local or national culture? What are the various elements
of world culture? How do they work to shape my perceptions, actions, and even
beliefs about religion or sexuality in my ordinary life? While other courses in the
program focus on policy-making, the nation-state, and the media, this course will
focus on the “soft side”: the intangible yet highly significant culture of
transnationalism. The course will help students see how sociological
neoinstitutionalism can unpack otherwise complex, sometimes invisible, global
processes through the concept of world culture.
The course begins with in-depth exploration of the concept of world culture. In the
first application, students will see how that concept helps make sense of the growth
and functioning of international and national civil society, as well as the place of the
global human rights discourse. This will include discussions on world cultural aspects
of local and global social movements, as well as ethnic constructions. In the second
application students will see how religion and, in particular, religious conflicts and
fundamentalism, are understood in the prism of world culture. Empirical case studies
of cutting-edge research will help contextualize the contents of this module. Finally,
in the third application, students will see how world cultural scripts pervade our
everyday lives, from our individual sense of self and how to improve it, to the role of
culture in our personal relations. This module will include cutting-edge case studies
from research into constructions and transnational flows of modern selfhood, as well
as Foucault’s texts on the Western self.
Evaluation: 2-3 essays, 1 presentation, and final exam.
Language of instruction: English
Number of students: 6 – 20
Course material: Extended compulsory and optional reading lists, including
handouts. These include:
Alasuutari, Pertti. 2015. “Neoinstitutionalist sociology.” Pp. -- in SAGE Handbook of
Cultural Sociology, edited by --.
Comaroff, John L., and Jean Comaroff. 2009. Ethinicity, Inc. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Elliott, Michael A. 2007. "Human rights and the triumph of the individual in world
culture." Cultural Sociology 1(3):343-63.
Foucault, Michel. 1988. The History of Sexuality Vol. 3: The Care of the Self. New
York: Vintage.
Lechner, Frank J. 2000. "Global Fundamentalism." Pp. 326-9 in The Globalization
Reader, edited by Frank J. Lechner and John Boli. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lechner, Frank J., and John Boli. 2005. World Culture: Origins and Consequences.
Malden: Blackwell.
Qadir, Ali. 2014. "Parliamentary hereticization of the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan: The
modern world implicated in Islamic crises." Pp. 135-154 in Religion in Times
of Crisis, edited by G. Ganiel, C. Monnot and H. Winkel. Leiden: Brill.
Selections from: Regev, Motti. 2013. Pop-rock Music. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Tiaynen-Qadir, Tatiana and Suvi Salmenniemi. 2015. “Domestication of self-help
therapies in Russia”
Thomas, George M. 2007. "The Cultural and Religious Character of World Society."
Pp. 35-56 in Religion, globalization and culture, edited by Peter Beyer and
Lori G. Beaman. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV.
Thomas, George M. 2004. "Constructing world civil society through contentions over
religious rights." Journal of Human Rights 3(2):239-51.
Thomas, George M. 2002. "Religious Movements, World Civil Society, and Social
Theory." The Hedgehog Review:50-65.