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The course is built in three steps. Firstly, we investigate the classics. Here we have taken a wide scope on the classical texts in political sociology. By introducing Sorel, we come to facilitate the introduction of genealogical and anthropological approaches to the subject. Secondly, we investigate some deeper reactions to its foundation from inside broadly founded philosophical and political theoretical approaches to our central questions. Thirdly, we come to contemporary perspectives on political sociology. Here we come to discuss modern topics in political sociology by focusing on our central themes of power and governance, and social cohesion and conflict. Finally, we come to a discussion of the demarcation between political sociology and political theory.
Introduction – Themes in Political Sociology
1. Themes in Political Sociology
The first lecture gives an introduction to this perspective and allows us to get acquainted with each other, review expectations and get a little deeper into why the syllabus looks like it does. There is no reading for the first lecture, but here we could have a small discussion of what is missing from the list of theoreticians and why!
2. The use of Religion and Culture in Political Sociology
What is the main theoretical focus in reading the history of Political Sociology today? The answer we shall give to this question will encircle an answer to what we could call the turn to religion in Political Sociology. We shall understand this turn as an example of importing the concept of culture into Political Sociology and the necessity of coming to terms with the notion of religion so deeply emphasized by Durkheim, Weber, Sorel and Schmitt. With a neutralization of the concept of religion we will be able to grasp the effect of culture on social cohesion, it will be argued. We read a small paragraph from Nietzsche and built a small framework for grasping theoretical discrepancies between functionalism, rationalism, genealogical sociology and political anthropology.
Primary reading: Friedrich Nietzsche: The Birth of the Tragedy, section VII, paragraph 6
Secondary reading: Jonathan H. Turner: Contemporary Sociological Theory, Sage, LA, 2013, p. 1 - 32
Part one The Classics
3. Emile Durkheim - The Function of Religion in Society
Primary reading: The Division of Labor , p. 97
Secondary reading: Jonathan H. Turner: Contemporary Sociological Theory, Sage, LA, 2013, p. 33 - 48
4. Max Weber – Bureaucracy and Power
Primary reading:
Secondary reading: Janoski, Alford, Hicks & Schwarts: The Handbook of Political Sociology – States, Civil Society and Globalization, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 33 – 53
5. Georges E. Sorel – Myth and Stratification
The genealogical method changes the perspective on institutions. When the birth of institutions is understood as fabrications in a radically political-societal context, the relation of power and discourse becomes the epicenter of investigation. Sorel makes a synthesis of thinkers like Henri Bergson, Vilfredo Pareto, and Friedrich Nietzsche into a theoretical composite that enables a radical focus for political sociology we later recognize in the use of genealogical method by Michel Foucault and in theoretical expositions like Hardt and Negri´s Empire.
Main concepts are violence, myth and power.
Primary reading: The Illusions of Progress + Reflections on Violence
6. Carl Schmitt – The Political and Sovereignty
Primary reading: The Concept of the Political
Part Two Postwar Reactions
7. Lewis A. Coser – The Function of Conflict
Primary reading: The Function of Social Conflict
Secondary reading: Jonathan H. Turner: Contemporary Sociological Theory, Sage, LA, 2013, p. 49 – 65 + 205 - 236
Reading: The Function of Social Conflict
8. Jürgen Habermas – Theory of Communicative Action
Critique of Rationalism and Functionalism
Reading: Theory of Communicative Action,
9. Michel Foucault – Disciplinary Institutions and Power
Reading: Discipline and Punishment, part 2 section I and II
Secondary reading: Janoski, Alford, Hicks & Schwarts: The Handbook of Political Sociology – States, Civil Society and Globalization, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 153 - 171
10. Samuel P. Huntington – Modernization and Political Movements
Reading: Political Order in Changing Societies, 1- 97
Secondary reading: Dobratz, Waldner & Buzzell: Power, Politics and Society, Pearson Education, Boston, 2012, p. 189 – 225 + Kate Nash: Contemporary Political Sociology: Globalization, Politics and Power, Wiley – Blackwell, UK, 2010, p. 87 – 130
Part Three Contemporary Themes
11. Power and Governance
Common to modern approaches to power and governance is the idea that governance structures develop with an increasing autonomy. Consequences of that autonomy is the topic for this lecture.
Primary reading: Luhmann, Beck, control, political systems and
Secondary reading: Jonathan H. Turner: Contemporary Sociological Theory, Sage, LA, 2013, p. 67 - 104
12. Social Cohesion and Conflict
Theoretical and Empirical aspects of recognition and culture
Collins, Honneth………..
Secondary reading: Jonathan H. Turner: Contemporary Sociological Theory, Sage, LA, 2013, p. 237 - 255
13. Political Sociology and Political Theory today
The turn to religion, the focus on stability: Political Anthropology, Constitutional Law, the question of power and the Theological approach to Political Sociology.
M. Kirvan: Girard and Theology, MPG Books Ltd. Cornwall, 2009, p. 20 – 32
14. Closure: The Political, Power and Social Cohesion
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