SOC403 Theoretical Sociology

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2008
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 12 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Timetable
Tue 18:00–19:30 P24
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Contents of the course: the course is divided into two thematics blocks and concluded by a reflection on objectivity, practicality and critical aspects of sociological knowledge. First block: Sociology of meaning and cultural sociology, social constructivism and the meaningful structure of social world and experience. Second Block: Formation and metamorphoses of modern societies. Goals of the course: independent study and joint reflection of theoretical texts will cultivate basic interpretive abailities for working with analytical sociological concepts, the capacity to understand the concepts in concrete theoretical con-texts, the sensitivity to their variability, ability to use the concepts for understanding and analyzing empirical reality. The students will get acquainted with how sociological traditions deal with modernity and the modernization process as a whole, but also with some key social and cultural pillars of modernity (generations, nations and collective memories, social classes and class consciousness, social networks and social capital, system differentiation and social inclusion, capitalism, individualization, etc. Around these concepts, continuities and breaks in sociological thought of the 20th century will be discussed.
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction to the Course BLOCK I: SOCIOLOGY OF MEANING 2. Methodological introduction: social construction adn sociological reconstruction (the case of cultural sociology) 3. Modernity in the perspective of cultural sociology: collective identity 4. Modernity in the perspective of cultural sociology: generations 5. Memory, trauma, and collective identity 6. Triumphant and Traumatic Foundations of Collective Identity (lecture by Bernhard Giesen) 7. Cognitive sociology: recapitulation of block I 8. Reading week 9. Sociology and its metamorphoses in the context of modernity 10. Modernity: between cage and liquid 11. Modernity: between class society and society of networks and tribes 12. Modern personality: between individualism and narcissism 13. MOdernity as a social problem: individualization-differentiation-inclusion 14. Sociology as a critical discipline: between objectivity and practicality
Literature
  • ALEXANDER, Jeffrey C. The meanings of social life : a cultural sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 296 p. ISBN 9780195306408. info
  • GOFFMAN, Erving. Frame analysis : an essay on the organization of experience. Northeastern University Pres. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986, xviii, 586. ISBN 093035091X. info
  • SIMMEL, Georg. On individuality and social forms : selected writings. Edited by Donald N. Levine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971, lxv, 393. ISBN 0226757765. info
  • MANNHEIM, Karl. Essays on the sociology of knowledge. Edited by Paul Kecskemeti. 3rd ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964, 327 s. info
  • ALEXANDER, Jeffrey C. Cultural trauma and collective identity. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2004, ix, 314. ISBN 0520235959. info
  • GIESEN, Bernhard. Triumph and trauma. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2004, x, 196. ISBN 1594510393. info
  • ZERUBAVEL, Eviatar. Social mindscapes :an invitation to cognitive sociology. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999, viii, 164. ISBN 0-674-81390-1. info
  • WAGNER, Peter. A sociology of modernity : liberty and discipline. New York: Routledge, 1994, xv, 267. ISBN 0415081866. info
  • BOLTANSKI, Luc and Ève CHIAPELLO. The new spirit of capitalism. New York, NY: Verso, 2005, xlvii, 601. ISBN 9781844671656. info
  • WEBER, Max. Autorita, etika a společnost : pohled sociologa do dějin. Translated by Jan J. Škoda. 1. české vyd. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1997, 294 s. ISBN 8020406115. info
  • BAUMAN, Zygmunt. Liquid modernity. 1st pub. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000, vi, 228. ISBN 0745624103. info
  • BOURDIEU, Pierre. Distinction : a social critique of the judgement of taste. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 1996, xiv, 613. ISBN 0415045460. info
  • CASTELLS, Manuel. The power of identity. 1st pub. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 1997, xv, 461 s. ISBN 1-55786-874-3. info
  • The rise of the network society. Edited by Manuel Castells. 2nd ed. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2000, xxix, 594. ISBN 0-631-22140-9. info
  • MAFFESOLI, Michel. The time of the tribes : the decline of individualism in mass society. Translated by Don Smith. London ;: Sage, 1996, xii, 176. ISBN 080398474X. info
  • LASCH, Christopher. The culture of narcissism : American life in an age of diminishing expectations. Norton paperback 1991 ed. New York: Norton, 1991, xviii, 282. ISBN 0393307387. info
  • BECK, Ulrich and Elisabeth BECK-GERNSHEIM. Individualization : institutionalized individualism and its social and political consequences. 1st pub. London: Sage Publications, 2002, xxv, 221. ISBN 0761961127. info
  • BAUMAN, Zygmunt. Individualizovaná společnost. Translated by Martin Ritter. Vyd. 1. Praha: Mladá fronta, 2004, 290 s. ISBN 802041195X. info
  • URRY, John. Sociology beyond societies : mobilities for the twenty-first century. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 2000, 255 s. ISBN 0-415-19088-6. info
  • PARSONS, Talcott. The system of modern societies. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc.,Englewood Cliffs, 1971, 152 s. ISBN 0-13-881540-1. info
  • ALEXANDER, Jeffrey C. Action and its environments :toward a new synthesis. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988, xii, 342 s. ISBN 0-231-06209-5. info
Assessment methods
seminar; position papers for each class (text), individual task (homework), interim test, final test
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Information on completion of the course: závěrečný esej
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2000, Autumn 2000, Spring 2002, Autumn 2002, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Autumn 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Autumn 2015, Spring 2016, Autumn 2016, Spring 2017, Autumn 2017, Spring 2018, Autumn 2018, Spring 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2008, recent)
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