CSOn4005 Contemporary Cultural Sociology

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 12 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of sociological theories and methods is presupposed.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 7 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This course offers an opportunity to study key themes within contemporary cultural sociology. Our approach promotes the ability to use sociological concepts and theories in creative ways. Students are expected to actively participate in a seminar and write a term paper (2000 words) addressing the subject of one of the seminars. Term papers should discuss the chosen topic in reference to two academic texts published in a sociological journal in the last 10 years.
Learning outcomes
Knowledge of the basic analytical apparatus of contemporary cultural sociology. Ability to critically interpret and utilize articles published in academic journals for own research. Ability to employ relevant analytical apparatus for explaining various cultural processes and social problems.
Syllabus
  • 1. week: Introduction (Csaba Szaló) Foucault, Michel. 2002. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. London: Routledge, (Chapter 10. The human sciences), pp. 375-421, (46 pages). Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2021. “Recovering the Primitive in the Modern: The Cultural Turn and the Origins of Cultural Sociology.” Thesis Eleven 072551362110328 (10 pages).
  • 2. week: Authority (Csaba Szaló) Leypoldt, Günter. 2020. “Spatial Reading: Evaluative Frameworks and the Making of Literary Authority.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology. doi: 10.1057/s41290-020-00107-w (27 pages). Watson, Ash, and Andy Bennett. 2022. “Why Do People Read Zines? Meaning, Materiality and Cultures of Reading.” Pp. 65–89 in The Cultural Sociology of Reading: The Meanings of Reading and Books Across the World, edited by O. Thumala María Angélica. Cham: Springer. (34 pages) Guhin, Jeffrey. 2022. “Traces of the Dead, Actions of the Not-Alive: A Prologue to a Theory of Agentification.” American Behavioral Scientist 1–12. doi: DOI: 10.1177/00027642221144854. (11 pages)
  • 3. week: Brands I. On Clans and Totems (Radim Marada) Stratton, Greg, and Jeremy Northcote. 2016. “When Totems Beget Clans: The Brand Symbol as the Defining Marker of Brand Communities.” Journal of Consumer Culture 16(2): 493–509. Maffesoli, Michel. 2016. “From society to tribal communities”. In: The Sociological Review, Vol. 64, 739–747 (9 pages).
  • 4. week: Brands II. On Myths and Icons (Radim Marada) Holt, Douglas B. 2006. “Jack Daniel’s America: Iconic Brands as Ideological Parasites and Proselytizers.” Journal of Consumer Culture 6(3): 355–377. Evans, David M. 2020. “After Practice? Material Semiotic Approaches to Consumption and Economy”. In: Cultural Sociology, Vol. 14(4) 340– 356 (17 pages).
  • 5. week::Brand Communities (Radim Marada) Lane, Jeffrey. 2018. “Rethinking the Brand–Community Relationship: Wearing a Biggie in Harlem.” Journal of Consumer Culture 1469540518773823 (17 pages). Suttles, Gerald D. 1984. “The Cumulative Texture of Local Urban Culture”. In: American Journal of Sociology, Sep., 1984, Vol. 90, No. 2 (Sep., 1984), pp. 283-304 (22 pages)
  • 6. week: Textural Sociology and Iconicity (Csaba Szaló) Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2020. “The Performativity of Objects”. In: Sociologisk Forskning 57(3–4), 381–409. de la Fuente, Eduardo. 2019. “After the Cultural Turn: For a Textural Sociology.” The Sociological Review 67(3): 552–67. Darmon, Isabelle. 2021. “Of Sound and Flavour – Revisiting the Notion of Material for the Cultural Sociological Analysis of Art Domains”. In: Cultural Sociology, Vol. 15(3) 327–345 (19 pages)
  • 7. Reading Week – no class
  • 8. week: Symbolic Violence (Csaba Szaló) Rius-Ulldemolins, Joaquim. 2021. “Monopolization, Classification and Symbolic Violence: Pierre Bourdieu’s Contribution to the Analysis of State Nationalism.” Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory 22(2): 210–25. (15 pages) Lindell, Johan. 2022. “Symbolic Violence and the Social Space: Self-Imposing the Mark of Disgrace?” Cultural Sociology 16(3):379–401. (22 pages) Xu, Xiaohong, and Isaac Ariail Reed. 2023. “Modernity and the Politics of Newness: Unraveling New Time in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966 to 1968.” Sociological Theory 41(3):229–54. doi: 10.1177/07352751231183721. (25 pages)
  • 9. week: Performance and Audience Mobilization (Csaba Szalo) Cossu, Andrea. 2012. “There’s No Success Like Failure: Performance and Audience Mobilization in the Electric Turn.” In: Cossu, Andrea. 2012. It ain’t me, babe: Bob Dylan and the performance of authenticity. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. (pp. xi-xix, 33-69) Greer, Chris & McLaughlin, Eugene. 2021. “The Celebrity Icon Mask: The Multi-Institutional Masking of Sir Jimmy Savile”. In: Cultural Sociology, Vol. 15(3) 364–385 (22 pages). Brighenti, Andrea Mubi & Castelli, Alessandro. 2016. “Social camouflage: functions, logic, paradoxes”. In: Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 17:2, 228-249 (22 pages).
  • 10. week: Cultural Classification Revisited (Csaba Szaló) Giesen, Bernhard. 2017. “Inbetweenness and Ambivalence”. In: Jeffrey C. Alexander, Ronald N. Jacobs, and Philip Smith (eds.). 2017. The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology. Online Publication, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195377767.013.30 (19 pages) Smith, Philip. 2014. “Of ‘near pollution’ and non-linear cultural effects: Reflections on Masahiro Mori and the Uncanny Valley”. In: American Journal of Cultural Sociology 2(3), 329-347. Kurakin, Dmitry. 2015. “Reassembling the Ambiguity of the Sacred. A Neglected Inconsistency in Readings of Durkheim”. In: Journal of Classical Sociology 15(4), 377-395.
  • 11. week: 03.12.2024 Modelling Culture (Csaba Szaló) Lizardo, Omar. 2017. “Improving Cultural Analysis: Considering Personal Culture in its Declarative and Nondeclarative Modes”. In: American Sociological Review 82(1), 88-115. Simko, Christina & Jeffrey K. Olick. 2021: “What we talk about when we talk about culture: a multi-facet approach”. In: American Journal of Cultural Sociology 9(4), 431-459. Rotolo, Michael. 2022: “Culture beneath discourse: a conceptual model for analyzing nondeclarative cultural knowledge”. In: American Journal of Cultural Sociology 10(3), 432-460.
  • 12. week: Agency, Power, Modernity (Csaba Szaló) Reed, Isaac Ariail, and Michael Weinman. 2019. “Agency, Power, Modernity: A Manifesto for Social Theory.” European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology 6(1):6–50. Lizardo, Omar. 2022. “Solving the Problem of the Permanent Social: On Isaac Ariail Reed’s Power in Modernity.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology. doi: 10.1057/s41290-022-00156-3. (5 pages) Reed, Isaac Ariail. 2022. “The Volatility of Sacred Signs: A Response to Omar Lizardo.” American Journal of Cultural Sociology. doi: 10.1057/s41290-022-00158-1. (7 pages)
  • 13. week: Embodiment in Cultural Sociology (Csaba Szaló) Vandenberghe, Frédéric. 2024a. “David Le Breton’s Existential Sociology of the Body.” Body & Society 30(4):3–30. doi: 10.1177/1357034X241293795. Champagne, Anne Marie, and Asia Friedman, eds. 2024. Interpreting the Body: Between Meaning and Matter. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Literature
  • Check the schedule above and course-related instructions in the Study Materials section of the ISMU!
Teaching methods
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Assessment methods
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Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
Teacher's information
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The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2020, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2025, recent)
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