Modern Sociological Theory (Fall Semester 2015) Reading list Suggested general reading Hans Joas & Wolfgang Knöbl, Social Theory. Twenty Introductory Lectures, Cambridge UP, 2009. This is a very solid presentation and critical discussion of key theoreticians and theoretical currents in sociology since 1945. It provides a context for the more specific topics that the course adresses. Lund Mandatory readings (Day 1) Texts by Adorno, Gehlen, Schelsky and Elias (will be available as PDF-­‐file). Suggested readings (Day 1) Modern German Sociology, Volker Meja & Dieter Misgeld (eds). Columbia UP, 1987. Arnold Gehlen, Man in the Age of Technology, Columbia UP, 1980. Peter L. Berger & Hansfried Kellner, ”Arnold Gehlen and the Theory of Institutions”, Social Research 32(1), 1965, pp. X–X. Carl-­‐Göran Heidegren, ”Transcendental Theory of Society, Anthropology and the Sociology of Law: Helmut Schelsky – An Almost Forgotten Sociologist”, Acta Sociologica 40 (1997), pp. 279–290. Wolfgang Lipp, ”Charisma – Social Deviation, Leadership and Cultural Change. A Sociology of Deviance Approach”, Annual Review of the Social Science of Religion 1 (1977), pp. 59–77. Heinrich Popitz, ”The Concept of Role as an Element of Sociological Theory”, in Role, J.A. Jackson (ed.), Cambridge UP, 1972/2010, pp. 11–40. Carl-­‐Göran Heidegren, Antropologi, samhällsteori och politik. Radikalkonservatism och kritisk teori, Daidalos, 2002. 1
Mandatory readings (Day 2) Bell, D. (1996) "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", in Bell, D. The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, pp. 33–85. Jamison, Andrew & Eyerman, Ron (1994) "Reinventing partisanships", in Jamison, Andrew & Eyerman, Ron, Seeds of the Sixties. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 1–29. Lasch, C. (1991) "The Narcissistic Personality of our Time", in Lasch, C. The Culture of Narcissism. American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. New York: Norton, pp. 31–50. Suggested readings (Day 2) Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism. (Revised ed.) New York: Schocken, 2004 de Beauvoir, S. (2011) The Second Sex. London: Vintage. Bell, D. (1996) "Introduction – The Disjunction of Realms: A Statement of Themes", in Bell, D. The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books, pp. 3–32. Bellah, R. N. et al (1985) "The Pursuit of Happiness", in Bellah, R. N. et al., Habits of the Heart. Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 3–26. Bellah, R. N. et al (1985) "Culture and Character. The Historical Conversation", in Bellah, R. N. et al., Habits of the Heart. Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 27–54. Bellah, R. N. et al (1985) "Transforming American Culture", in Bellah, R. N. et al., Habits of the Heart. Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 275–296. Cooney, T. A. (2004) The Rise of the New York Intellectuals. The Partisan Review and Its Circle 1934-­‐1945. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. Dorman, J. (2000) Arguing the World. The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words. New York: The Free Press. Douglas, M. (2002) Purity and Danger. An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. Fraser, N. (1989) Unruly Practices. Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Fromm, E. (1994) Escape from Freedom. New York: Owl Books. Galbo, J. (2004) "From the Lonely Crowd to the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism and Beyond. The Shifting Ground of Liberal Narratives", Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 40: 47–76. Gans, H. J., Glazer, N. & Gusfield, J. R. (eds) (1979) On the Making of Americans. Essays in Honor of David Riesman. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2
Gans, H. J. (red) (1990) Sociology in America. Newbury Park: Sage Gerth, H & Mills, C. W. (1953) Character and Social Structure. The Psychology of Social Institutions. New York: Harvest. Haraway, Donna (1988) ”Situated Knowledges. The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspectives”, Feminist Studies, 14, 575–599. Himmelfarb, G. (1995) The De-­‐Moralization of Society. From Victorian Virtues to Modern Values. New York: Knopf. Hirschman, A. O. (1997) The Passions and the Interests. Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Princeton: princeton University Press. Isenberg, Bo (2008) ”Karaktär och kultur. Sociologisk moralistik från Riesman till Sennett”, Sosiologisk Tidsskrift, Årg. 16. Nr 3 (”Character and Culture. Sociological Moralists from Riesman to Sennett”), pp. 255–278. Isenberg, Bo (2007) ”Autenticitet och serendipitet. En samtidshermeneutik”, in Isenberg, Heidegren & Carleheden, Livsföring. Ett sociologiskt grundbegrepp (”Authenticity and Serendipity. A Contemporary Hermeneutics”), pp. 155–197. Isenberg, Bo (2007) ”Moderna moralister. Om livsföring och kontingens som sociologins centrala problem”, in Isenberg, Heidegren & Carleheden, Livsföring. Ett sociologiskt grundbegrepp (”Modern Moralists. On Conduct of Life and Contingency as Sociology’s Central Problem”), pp. 51–87. Jay, M. (1973) The Dialectical Imagination. A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-­‐1950. London: Heinemann. Liebowitz, N. (1985) Daniel Bell and the Agony of Modern Liberalism. Westport: Greenwood Press. Lipset, S. M. og Lowenthal, L. (red) (1961) Culture and Social Character. The Work of David Riesman Reviewed. New York: The Free Press. Lynd, R. og Lynd, H. (1929) Middletown. A Study in American Culture. London: Constable and Company. Putnam R. D. (2000) Bowling Alone. The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. Riesman, D., Glazer, N. & Denney, R. (1950) The Lonely Crowd. A Study of the Changing American Character. New Haven: Yale University Press. Sennett, R. (1992) The Fall of Public Man. New York: Norton. de Tocqueville, A. (1997) Democracy in America. New York: Bantam Books. Trilling, D. (1993) The Beginning of the Journey. The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling. New York: Harvest 3
Trilling, L. (1971) Sincerity and Authenticity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Walzer, M. (1965) The Revolution of the Saints. A Study In the Origin of Radical Politics. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Whyte, W. H. (2002) The Organization Man. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Copenhagen Mandatory readings (Day 3) Hans Joas & Wolfgang Knöbl, What is theory. In: Social Theory. Twenty Introductory Lectures, Cambridge UP, 2009. (p. 1-­‐19) Habermas, Jürgen 1990 [1967]: On The Logic of the Social Sciences. Polity Press. (p. 117-­‐
143) Habermas, Jürgen 2003 (1984): On the Pragmatics of Social Interaction. Polity Press. (p. 45-­‐65) Hermansen, Jens Christian 2015: Introduction. In: Towards a new linguistic turn in the social sciences – dialogues with Wittgenstein and Habermas. (PhD thesis) Pleasants, Nigel 1999: Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory: A Critique of Giddens, Habermas and Bhaskar. Routledge. (p. 1-­‐11, 32-­‐51) Taylor, Charles 1995: Overcoming Epistemology. In: Philosophical Arguments. (p. 1-­‐22). Online: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/taylor.htm Winch, Peter 2003 [1958]: The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy. Routledge. (p. 1-­‐44) Wittgenstein, Ludwig 2001 [1953]: Philosophical Investigations. Blackwell. (p. 2-­‐44) Suggested readings (Day 3) Apel, Karl-­‐Otto 1980 [1972]: Towards a transformation of philosophy. Routledge & Kegan Paul. Brandom, Robert 2001 (edt.): Rorty and his critics. Blackwell. Bloor, David 1983: A Social Theory of Knowledge. Columbia University Press. Collier, Andrew 1998: Language, Practice and Realism, in Parker, Ian: Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism. SAGE. Crary and Read, Alice and Rupert 2000: the new Wittgenstein. Routledge. Habermas, Jürgen 1998b [1996]: On the Pragmatics of Communication. The MIT Press. 4
Habermas, Jürgen 2003b [1999]: Truth and Justification. The MIT Press. Kripke, Saul A. 2001 [1982]: Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language. Blackwell. Lafont, Cristina 1999: The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy. The MIT Press. Luntley, Michael 2003: Wittgenstein, Meaning and Judgement. Blackwell. MacIntyre, Alasdair 1970: The Idea of a Social Science. In Wilson, Bryan R.: Rationality. Blackwell. McDowell, John 2002 [1994]: Mind and World. Harvard University Press. McGinn, Marie 2000 [1997]: Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations. Routledge. Rorty, Richard 2010 [2006]: Wittgenstein and the linguistic turn, in Ahmed, Arif (edt.): Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations – A Critical Guide. Cambridge University Press. Rubenstein, David 2005 [1981]: Marx and Wittgenstein: Social praxis and social explanation. Routledge. Schatzki, Theodore 1996: Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social. Cambridge University Press. Stern, David 2003: The Practical Turn, in Turner and Roth, Stephen P. and Paul A.: The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Blackwell. Stern, David 2006: Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. Cambridge University Press. Williams, Meredith 2002 [1999]: Wittgenstein, Mind and Meaning. Toward a social conception of mind. Routledge. Mandatory readings (Day 4) Borch, Christian 2008 "Foam Architecture: Managing Co-­‐Isolated associations", Economy and Society, 37(4): 548-­‐571. Evans, D. (1997) "Michel Maffesoli's sociology of Modernity and postmodernity: An Introduction and Critical Assessment" The Sociological Review, 45:2, 220-­‐243. Habermas, Jürgen 1992b The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol.2, pp. 372-­‐386. Maffesoli, Michel 1996 The Time of the Tribes. London: Sage, p. 72-­‐103. Sloterdijk, Peter 2008: "Foam City", Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 9(1): 47-­‐59. Sloterdijk, Peter 2005 "Against gravity". Interview with Betina Funcke. Bookforum, Feb/March. Accessible on: http://www.bookforum.com/archive/feb_05/funcke.html 5
Adorno, Theodor 2000 Introduction to Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 35-­‐52. Tyldesley, Michel 2010 The Thought of Sorbonne Professor Michel Maffesoli (1944-­‐): Sociologist of Postmodernity. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, p.37-­‐104, 137-­‐155. Suggested Readings (Day 4) Adorno, Theodor W. and Horkheimer, Max 1989 "Elements of Anti-­‐semitism"in Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso, pp. 162-­‐208. Habermas, Jürgen 1992a The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1, pp. 43-­‐153 Habermas, Jürgen 1992b The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol.2, pp. 372-­‐399. Maffesoli, Michel 1991 "The Ethics of Aesthetics" Theory, Culture and Society, 8:1, 7-­‐20. Maffesoli, Michel 2004 Everyday Tragedy and Creation, Cultural Studies, 18, 201-­‐10. Schiermer, Bjørn (2015): "Late-­‐Modern Symbolism: Continuity and Discontinuity between the Modern and the Pre-­‐modern in Durkheim's work", Sociological Focus, 48: 49-­‐67. Keller, R. (2006) Michel Maffesoli: Eine Einführung. Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft. 6