Contemporary Theoretical Debates II

Recommended Prerequisites

General access requisites to the master programme apply.

Teaching Methods

In addition to the teachers’ lectures, debates are a fundamental element of the weekly sessions. These debates must be based in the prior reading of suggested literature. In a few sessions there will be, also, oral presentations by the students.

Learning Outcomes

The unit aims to provide an update of sociological knowledge about central issues of our time both in theoretical and empirical terms. The breakdown by 3 teachers throughout the semester presupposes a diversity of topics in order to follow current trends and discussions in our societies. It is aimed the development of specific competencies in understanding and critical reflection on the topics under scrutiny such as sexual identities and socio-biological construction of gender, social change and social movements, sociological approaches to complexity, crisis and social conflict in contemporary Europe, globalization and sexual inequality and democratic network local governance.

At the level of generic competencies it is stimulated the understanding of ideas, the capacity to mobilize the learned concepts and theories in the interpretation of reality, critical reading skills, capacities in expressing opinions and argumentation skills, team work and oral and written communication skills.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Feminine / Masculine - gender explains everything? Sexual identities analyzed in the light of studies on brain function in women and men.

2. Social change and conflict; - state, society and ideology; - Structural and functional conflict; - Social Movements and systemic contradictions of capitalism;

3. Approaches in sociology of complexity - the complexity and the main paradigms of modern science;

4. Utopia, capitalism, fascism, socialism and communism - Crisis, Conflict and social transformation in modern Europe; Politics and economics: blockages, challenges and emancipatory projects;

5. Globalization as a mechanism of (in) equality - systems and systems of inequality; evolution and impact of various types of inequality;

6. Democratic network local governance - the main theories on governance, the meanings of the concept of governance and its various modes - hierarchy, exchange, networking and solidarity.

Head Lecturer(s)

Sílvia Margarida Violante Portugal Correia

Assessment Methods

Final Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Assessment
Oral presentation: 25.0%
Synthesis work: 75.0%

Bibliography

Bevir, M (ed) (2010). The SAGE Handbook of Governance. Sage, 2010

Byrne, David (1998), Complexity theory and the social sciences. Abingdon: Routledge.

Castellani, Brian; Hafferty, Frederic W (2009), Sociology and Complexity Science. Springer.

Enjolras, B. and Bozzini, E. (org) (2011), Governing Ambiguities: New Forms of Governance and Civil Society. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2012), Sex/Gender – Biology in a social world, Routledge.

Fine, Cordelia (2010), Delusions of Gender – How our minds, society, and neurosexism create difference, W. W. Norton, 2010.

Judt, Tony (2010), Um Tratado Sobre os Nossos Actuais Descontentamentos. Lisboa: Edições 40.

Mann, Michael (2011), Fascistas. Lisboa: Edições 70.

Santos, José M. (org) (2005), O Pensamento de Niklas Luhmann, Universidade da Beira Interior.

Therborn, Goran (2012), Do Marxismo ao Pós-Marxismo? São Paulo: Boitempo.

Walby, Sylvia (2009), Globalization & Inequalities – Complexity and Contested Modernities, Sage.