Dr. Werner Binder Spring 2020
Morality and Public Sphere
Course
description
This course offers an introduction into sociological theories of morality and the public sphere.
Main interest will be the conjunction of both: public morality. We will read texts that offer
insights into the emergence of public opinions on moral topics as well as on the autonomy and
rationality of moral discourses. At the end of the course students should be able to analyze
public discourses with regard to their moral implications and cultural structure.
I Introduction: Durkheim and Durkheimian Sociology
Required
Readings
Durkheim, Émile (1965/1893): “Mechanical Solidarity”. In: The Division of Labor in Society.
New York: Free Press, pp. 70-85, 102-103.
Durkheim, Émile and Steven Lukes (1969/1898): “Durkheim ‘Individualism and the
Intellectuals’.” Political Studies 17 (1): 14-30.
Durkheim, Émile (1995/1912): The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: Free Press,
33-44. 429-430.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (1988): “Culture and Political Crisis. ‘Watergate’ and Durkheimian
Sociology”. In: Alexander, Jeffrey C. (ed.), Durkheimian Sociology. Cultural Studies.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 187-224.
II Habermas: The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Civil Society
Required
Readings
Habermas, Jürgen (1989): The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a
Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 1-26.
Habermas, Jürgen (1996): „Civil Society, Public Opinion and Communicative Power“. In:
Between Facts and Norms. Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy.
Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 359-387.
Taylor, Charles (2002): "Modern Social Imaginaries". In: Public Culture 14(1), 91–124.
Presentations Habermas, Jürgen (1989): The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a
Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 27-140.
Habermas, Jürgen (1989): The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a
Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 141-250.
III Alexander: Civil Sphere and the Societalization of Social Problems
Required
Readings
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2006): The Civil Sphere. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp.
3-9, 23-67.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2019): What Makes a Social Crisis? The Societalization of Social
Problems. Cambridge; Medford: Polity, 1-38, 73-117.
Presentations Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2006): “Communicative Institutions: Public Opinion, Mass Media, Polls,
Associations”. In: The Civil Sphere. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 69-105.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2006): “Regulative Institutions (1): Parties, Voting, Office”. In: The Civil
Sphere. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 107-150.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2006): “Regulative Institutions (2): The Civil Force of Law”. In: The Civil
Sphere. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 151-192.
Reading Week
IV Other Approaches: Adut, Boltanski & Thévenot
Required
Readings
Adut, Ari (2005): “A Theory of Scandal. Victorians, Homosexuality, and the Fall of Oscar
Wilde”. In: American Journal of Sociology 111(1), 213-248.
Adut, Ari (2012): “A Theory of the Public Sphere”. In: Sociological Theory 30(4), pp. 238-262.
Boltanski, Luc and Laurent Thévenot (1999): “The Sociology of Critical Capacity”. In: European
Journal of Social Theory 2(3), 359-377.
Presentations Adut, Ari (2018): Reign of Appearances. The Misery and Splendor of the Public Sphere. Cambridge;
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Boltanski, Luc and Laurent Thévenot (2007): On Justification. On Economies of Social Worth.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Boltanski, Luc (2004): Distant Suffering. Morality, Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
V Narrative, Performance and Icons in the Public Sphere
Required
Readings
Turner, Victor (1980): “Social Dramas and Stories about Them”. In: Critical Inquiry 7(1), 141-
168.
Smith, Philip (2012): "Narrating Global Warming". In: Alexander, Jeffrey C., Ronald N. Jacobs &
Philip Smith (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 745-760.
Alexander, Jeffrey (2011): “Performance and the Challenge of Power”. In: Performance and
Power. Cambridge: Polity, 82-91.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2017): “Seizing the Stage. Social Performances from Mao Zedong to
Martin Luther King Jr., and Black Lives Matter Today”. In: TDR/The Drama Review 61(1), 14-
42.
Binder, Werner & Bernadette N. Jaworsky (2018): “Refugees as Icons: Culture and Iconic
Representation”. In: Sociology Compass 12(3).
Presentations Smith, Philip (2005): Why War? The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2011): The Performative Revolution in Egypt. An Essay in Cultural Power.
London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Alexander, Jeffrey C. & N. Bernadette Jaworsky (2014): Obama Power. Cambridge; Malden:
Polity.
VI Civil Religion and National Imaginaries
Required
Readings
Bellah, Robert N. (1991): “Civil Religion in America”. In: Beyond Belief. Essays on Religion in a
Post-Traditional World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 40-55.
Holý, Ladislav (1996): The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. National Identity and the
Post-Communist Social Transformation. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press,
1-15, 72-113
Lakoff, George (2002): Moral Politics. How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. pp. 3-37; 143-176.
Presentations Holý, Ladislav (1996): The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. National Identity and the
Post-Communist Social Transformation. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, George (2002): Moral Politics. How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Requirements
for Passing
the Course
1. Participation in lass – 20%
2. Presentation in class OR essay (6-8 pages) – 20 %
3. Final paper – 60%