DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
SOCI0024 MODERN SOCIAL THEORY/
SOCI6008 MODERN THEORY AND SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
(2nd semester 2012-13)
TUTORIAL TOPICS
Topic 1
The following addressed the different aspects of change in modern societies:
individualization, globalization, multiculturalism, industrial-organizational
re-structuring, information technology... What new theoretical issues are being
generated in this context?
1. C. Calhoun,
‘The Infrastructure of Modernity: Indirect Social Relationships,
Information Technology and Social Integration’, in H. Haferkamp & N. Smelser
(eds.), Social Change and Modernity. Pp. 205-36.
2. A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity. Pp. 1-54.
3. M. Berman, ‘Why Modernism still Matters’, in S. Lash & J. Friedman (eds.),
Modernity and Identity. Pp.33-58.
4. G. Delanty, Social Theory in a Changing World. Polity Press 1999.
Introduction.
5. Z. Bauman, ‘Sociology and Modernity’, in P. Joyce (ed.), Class. OUP, 1995,
pp.74-83.
6. A. Touraine, ‘Sociology and the Study of Society’, in Joyce (ed.), ibid. pp.
83-89.
7. C. Sabel, ‘Moebius-Strip Organizations and Open Labour Markets: Some
Consequences of the Reintegration of Conception and Execution in a Volatile
Economy’, in P. Bourdieu & J.C. Coleman (eds.), Social Theory for a Changing
Society. Westview Press 1991.
Topic 2
Foucault asked, ‘What means are available to us today if we seek to conduct a
non-economic analysis of power?’ What is Foucault’s view on things such as power,
governmentality and historical change?
1. M. Foucault, ‘Two Lectures’, in Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected
Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. pp. 78-108.
2. C. Gordon, ‘Afterword’, in ibid. pp. 229-259.
3. J. Simon, ‘Discipline and Punish: the Birth of a Postmodern Middle-Range’, in
D. Clawson, Required Reading: Sociology’s Most Influential Books. Boulder.
4. M. Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: an Archaeology of Medical Perception.
Ch.7, ‘Seeing and Knowing’.
5. M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Pp.3-13.
6. M. Foucault, ‘Governmentality’, in G. Burchell et.al. (eds.), The Foucault
Effect. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
7. Sven-Ake Lindgren, ‘Michel Foucault’, in H. Andersen & L.B. Kaspersen (eds.),
Classical and Modern Social Theory, pp. 294-308.
8. M. Dean, ‘Foucault, Government and the Enfolding of Authority’, in A. Barry
(ed.), Foucault and Political Reason. UCL Press 1996.
Topic 3
What is Bourdieu’s distinctive approach to sociological analysis of social structure,
social inequalities and culture?
1. P. Bourdieu, ‘Habitus’, in J. Hillier & E. Rooksby (eds.), Habitus: a Sense of
Place, pp. 27-34.
2. P. Bourdieu, ‘Social Space and Symbolic Space’, in D. Robbins (ed.), Pierre
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Bourdeiu vol. 4, pp. 3-16.
K. Maton, ‘Habitus’, in M. Grenfell (ed.), Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts.
Acumen 2008.
P. Thompson, ‘Field’, in M. Grenfell (ed.), op.cit.
B. Skeggs, ‘(Dis)Identification of Class: On not Being Working Class’, in D.
Robbins (ed.), Pierre Bourdieu 2, vol. 3, pp. 207-41.
P. Bourdieu, The Weight of the World, ‘The Order of Things’, pp. 66-76.
C. Calhoun, ‘P. Bourdieu’.
(www.nyu.edu/classes/calhoun/Theory/paper-on-Bourdieu.htm)
8. C. Calhoun, ‘On Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice’, in D. Clawson
(ed.) Required Reading: Sociology’s Most Influential Books. 1998
9. B. Longhurst & M. Savage, ‘Social Class, Consumption and the Influence of
Bourdieu: some critical issues’, in S. Edgell et.al. (eds), Consumption Matters.
Blackwell, 1996.
10. T. Butler, ‘Social Capital and the Formation of London’s Middle Classes’, in T.
Blokland & M. Savage (eds.), Networked Urbanism: Social Capital in the City.
Ashgate 2008.
Topic 4
Give a critical account of Giddens’ The Consequences of Modernity.
1. A. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity.
2. B. Barnes, ‘The Macro/Micro Problem and the Problem of Structure and Agency’,
in G. Ritzer & B. Smart (eds.), Handbook of Social Theory, pp. 339-352.
3. J. Clark et.al. (eds.), Anthony Giddens: Consensus and Controversy.
4. G. Delanty, Social Theory in a Changing World. Ch.6 “Reflexive
Modernization: Beck and Giddens’.
Topic 5
In what ways has Beck’s ‘risk society’ forced us to rethink both the meta-theoretical
and the substantive issues in modern social theory?
1. U. Beck, World Risk Society. Pp. 1-71; 91-108; 133-152.
2. U. Beck, ‘From Industrial Society to the Risk Society’, in M. Featherstone (ed.),
Cultural Theory and Cultural Change. 1992.
3. U. Beck, ‘The Reinvention of Politics: Towards a Theory of Reflexive
Modernization’, in U. Beck, A. Giddens & S. Lash (eds.), Reflexive Modernization.
1994.
4. U. Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Sage 1992. Introduction,
Preface and Ch.2.
5. G. Mythen, Ulrich Beck: a critical introduction to the risk society. Pluto Press
2004. Introduction and Ch.1.
6. U. Beck and C. Lau, ‘Second Modernity as a Research Agenda: theoretical and
empirical explorations in the ‘meta-change’ of modern society’, British Journal of
Sociology, 56:4. 2005, pp. 525-57.
7. D. Bell, ‘Afterword 1996’, in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Pp.
283-339.
Topic 6
What are the contemporary experiences and meanings of class under Sennett’s ‘new
capitalism’? What kind of character/identity formation is possible, and what are the
implications for the ‘self’?
1. R. Sennett & J. Cobb, The Hidden Injuries of Class. Pp. 1-51.
2. R. Sennett, The Corrosion of Character: the Personal Consequences of Work in
the New Capitalism. Chs. 1, 3 & 4.
3. R. Sennett, The Culture of the New Capitalism. Yale Univ Press 2006.
(electronic version)
4. R. Sennett, Together: the rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. Yale.
2012.
Topic 7
‘Sociology is itself a story – but the message of this particular story is that there are
more ways of telling a story than are dreamt of in our daily story-telling, and that
there are more ways of living than is suggested by each one of the stories we tell and
believe in, seeming as it does to be the only one possible.’ (Z. Bauman)
What stories has Bauman offered us in regard to love, work, freedom, security, etc.?
Z. Bauman, ‘Falling in and out of Love’, in Liquid Love. Pp. 1-37.
Z. Bauman, The Individualized Society. Pp. 1-56; 140-152.
T. Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity. Pp.1-51.
Z. Bauman & K. Tester, Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman. Polity 2001.
Convesration 4.
5. Z. Bauman, Living on Borrowed Time: Conversations with Citali
Rovirosa-Madrazo. Conversation VIII (‘Utopia, Love or the Lost Generation’).
Polity Press 2010.
1.
2.
3.
4.
4.
L. Nicholson & S. Seidman (eds.),
Politics. 1995.
Social Postmodernism: Beyond Identity
Topic 8
What is ‘public sociology’ according to Burawoy? What kind of public sociology do
you think is represented by the works of Bellah and his associates?
1. M. Burawoy, ‘For Public Sociology’, American Sociological Review. 70:4-28.
2005.
2. C. Calhoun, ‘The Promise of Public Sociology’, in British Journal of Sociology,
56:355-363. 2005.
3. R. Bellah et.al. ‘Individualism and Commitment in American Life’, in S.
Seidman & J. Alexander (eds.), The New Social Theory Reader: Contemporary
Debates. 306-314.
4. R. Bellah, ‘Community Properly Understood: a Defense of Democratic
Communitarianism’, in A. Etzioni (ed.), The Essential Communitarian Reader.
Pp. 15-19.
5. R. Dahrendorf, ‘A Precarious Balance: Economic Opportunity, Civil Society,
and Political Liberty’, in A. Etzioni (ed.), ibid. pp. 73-94.
6. C. Taylor, ‘The Making of Modern Identity’, in Seidman & Alexander (eds.),
ibid. pp. 315-320.
T. Wong Jan 21, 2013