Advanced Sociological Theories: Exemplary Works

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

The sessions start with a brief exposition by the teacher, situating the discussion of each thematic, followed by the presentation by students of the assigned texts for the specific session. Each student must present at least two texts.

Learning Outcomes

This unit consists of the reading and discussion of a set of works which have left a strong imprint on recent theoretical and thematic approaches within Sociology, with a focus on those which have opened up new pathways to reflection and research. Selected works include both significant and innovative contributions to social theory and inroads and explorations of new topics and new directions in research, particularly those of greater relevance to the major areas covered by the Program.

The aim of this unit is to create a space for students to become acquainted with recent, significant contributions to social theory, to its extension and renewal. Students are expected to acquire a solid knowledge of the works selected for discussion, to identify and characterize their major axes of problematization, their theoretical proposals and methodological options, in order to be able to draw on them as resources for their own work as sociologists.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

. Social theories or sociological theories?

. Actor-network theory and the radical indeterminacy of the actor

. Feminist perspectives and the challenge to Sociology

. Pragmatic Sociology and action regimes

. Panopticon and beyond: Theorizing Surveillance

. Recognition and the questions of identity

. Social capital and the role of social structures

Head Lecturer(s)

José Manuel Oliveira Mendes

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Presentations in seminar: 25.0%
Synthesis work: 75.0%

Bibliography

BOLTANSKI, Luc ; CHIAPPELO, Ève - Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.

ENGENDERING the social : feminist encounters with sociological theory. Ed. Barbara L. Marshall and Anne Witz. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2004.

FOUCAULT, M., 2013, Vigiar e Punir. Lisboa: Edições 70.

JOAS, Hans ; KNÖBL, Wolfgang - Social theory : twenty introductory lectures. 1st  ed., 4th printing. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

LATOUR, Bruno - Reassembling the social : an introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2007.

LEMERT, Charles C. - Dark thoughts : race and the eclipse of society. New York : Routledge, 2002.

LES BACK, The Art of Listening. London: Blomsbury Academic, 2013.

SURVEILLANCE (The) studies reader. Ed. Sean Hier and Joshua Greenberg. Maidenhead : McGraw-Hill Education/Open University Press, 2007.