The Process of Research: Social Theories
Schedule and reading instructions
Fall 2014
Örjan Bartholdson
Kjell Hansen
Date Time Lecture room
Monday 1 September 10-12 MVM A2034
Introduction
13-15 To be announced later
Why do we need theory: the act of theorizing
Linking research problems, methodology and theory
Lecturer: Örjan Bartholdson
Required Reading
Alvesson, Mats. & Sköldberg, Kaj. (2000). Reflexive Methodology. New Vistas for Qualitative Research. London. SAGE Publications. Page 1-12
Boghossian, Paul, A. 2010. Relativizing the Facts. In Relativism. A Contemporary Anthology. Pages 170-182. New York. Columbia University Press.
Inglis, David. 2012. An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 1-37
Lewontin, Richard. 2009. Why Darwin? In New York Review of Books. Page: 19-22. May 28-June 10
Swedberg, Rickard. 2012. Theorizing in sociology and social science: turning to the context of discovery. In Theory and Society. Vol. 41: 1-40
Thursday 4 September 10-12 E
13-15 E
Discussion seminar on the process of theorizing
Monday 8 September 10-12 F
The birth of social theory and the problems they addressed
The founding fathers: Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and Boas
Lecturer: Kjell Hansen
Required Reading
Inglis, David. 2012. An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 38-61
Mauss, Marcel. 2000. Introductory. Gifts and return gifts. The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies.W.W. Norton & Company. Pages 22-34
Recommended reading
Inglis, David. 2012. An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 189-207
Thursday 11 September 10-12 BioC C212
13-15 BioC C212
Discussion on how to explore and analyze modern society
Monday 15 September 10-12 J
How people organize themselves and how they perceive the world:
Social organization, social structure and culture
Lecturer: Örjan Bartholdson
Required Reading
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Chapter 3, 4, 5. Small Places, Large Issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. Pages 30-81
Herdt, Gilbert, H. 1982. Sambia Nose bleeding Rites and Male Proximity to Women. In Ethos. Vol. 10(3): 189-231
Thursday 18 September 10-12 E
13-15 E
Discussion seminar on social organization and culture
Monday 22 September 10-12 J
To interpret the world and to act and feel within it:
Hermeneutics and phenomenology
Lecturer: Kjell Hansen
Required Reading
Alvesson, Mats. & Sköldberg, Kaj. (2000). Hermeneutics. Interpretation and insight. In Reflexive Methodology. New Vistas for Qualitative Research. London. SAGE Publications. Page 52-109
Frykman, Jonas & Nils Gilje 2003: Being There. In Frykman, Jonas & Nils Gilje (eds.): Being There. New Perspectives on Phenomenology and the Analysis of Culture. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. Page 7 - 49Inglis, David. 2012. Phenomenological paradigms. The symbolic interactionist paradigm. In An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 86-128
Recommended Additional Reading
Alvesson, Mats. & Sköldberg, Kaj. (2000). Poststructuralism and Postmodernism: Destabilizing Subject and Text. In Reflexive Methodology. New Vistas for Qualitative Research. London. SAGE Publications. Page 179 - 224
Gorenberg, Gershom. 2009. The War to Begin All Wars. In New York Review of Books. Page: 38-41. May 28-June 10.
Jackson, Michael. Introduction. In Things as They Are. New directions in phenomenological anthropology. Indiana University Press. Page 1-50
Thursday 25 September 10-12 E
13-15 E
Discussion seminar on hermeneutics and phenomenology
Monday 29 September 10-12 J
From materialism to ideology
Lecturer: Örjan Bartholdson
Required Reading
Inglis, David. 2012. Marxist and Critical Theory Paradigms. In An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 62-85
Thompson, E.P. 1993. Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism. Customs in Common. Penguin Books. Pages 352-403
Wolf, Eric. 1982. Modes of Production. The Fur Trade. In Europe and the People Without History. Berkely. University of California Press. Pages 73-100, 158-194
Recommended additional reading
Bloch, Maurice. The Past and the Present in the Present. In Man. Vol. 12(2): 278-292.
Thursday 2 October 10-12 To be announced later
13-15 To be announced later
Discussion seminar on Marxist inspired research
Monday 6 October 10-12 J
Structure, agency and structuration theory
Bourdieu and Giddens
Lecturer: Örjan Bartholdson
Required reading
Bourdieu, Pierre; Wacquant, Lois. 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Pages: 94-135, 167-173. Cambridge. University of Chicago.
Giddens, Anthony. 1986. Agency, Structure. Central Problems in Social Theory. Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Hong Kong. MacMillan. Pages 49-73
Inglis, David. 2012. Structurationist Paradigms. In An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 208-234
Thursday 9 October 10-12 E
13-15 E
Discussion seminar on structure, agency and ideology
Monday 13 October 10-12 J
The study of classification and power:
The legacy of Foucault
Lecturer: Kjell Hansen
Required reading
Foucault, Michel 1991: Governmentality. In: Burchell, G.; Gordon, C; Miller P. (eds.): The Foucault Effect. Studies in Governmentality. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Hacking, Ian. 2000. Why Ask What? The Social Construction of What? Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Pages 1-35.
Inglis, David. 2012. Structuralist and post-structuralist paradigms. Post-modernist paradigms. In An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 165-207
Recommended reading
Barker, Philip. 1998. Power, Truth and Strategy. In Foucault, Michel. An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press. Page: 20-47
Gledhill, John. 2000. From macro-structure to micro-process: anthropological analysis of political practice. In Power and its Disguises. Anthropological Perspectives on Politics. London. Pluto Press. Pages 127-152
Thursday 16 October 10-12 E
13-15 E
Discussion seminar on power and its impacts
Monday 20 October 10-12 J
From a structured universe to its demise:
structuralism and post-structuralism
Lecturer: Örjan Bartholdson
Required reading
Clifford, James. 1986. Introduction. Partial Truths. In Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography (ed. Clifford, James.; Marcus, George, E. 1986). University of California Press. Pages 1-26
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Small Places, Large Issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. Pluto Press. Page: 102-105
Inglis, David. 2012. Structuralist and post-structuralist paradigms. In An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 165-188
Thursday 23 October 10-12 E
13-15 E
Discussion seminar on structuralism and post-structuralism
Monday 27 October 10-12 J
From gender relation to a feminist theoretical approach
Lecturer: Örjan Bartholdson
Required reading
Moore, Henrietta. 1994. Kinship, labour and household: Understanding Women’s work. Feminism and Anthropology. Cambridge. Polity Press. Page 42-73
Moore, Henrietta. 1999. Whatever Happened to Women and Men? Gender and other crisis in anthropology. Anthropological Theory Today (ed. Moore, Henrietta). Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 151-171.
Ortner, Sherry. 2005. Chapter 1: Making Gender. Chapter 2: Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? Making Gender. The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston. Beacon Press. Pages 1-42
Recommended reading
Alcoff, Linda. 1994. Cultural Feminism versus Post-Structuralism: The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory. Culture/Power/History. A reader in contemporary social theory (ed. Direk, N.B., Eley, G., Ortner, S.B.) New Jersey. Princeton University Press. Pages 96-122.
Thursday 30 October 10-12 BioC C212
13-15 BioC C212
Discussion seminar on gender and feminist theoretical approaches
Monday 3 November 10-12 J
Binding actors and articfacts together: Actor network theory approach
Lecturer: Kjell Hansen
Required reading
Erdman Vigh, Henrik, Brehm Sausdal, David. 2014. From essence back to existence: Anthropology beyond the ontological turn. In Anthropological Theory. Vol. 14(1): 49-73
Latour, Bruno. 1999. Actor Network Theory and After.In The Sociological Review.
Law, John. 1992. Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy, and Heterogeneity. In Systems Practice. Vol. 5 (4)
Friday 7 November
Deadline exam 4 pm
Literature
You will only have to purchase the books marked with a *, that is, the first two books mentioned on the list below.
Books:
*Alvesson, Mats. & Sköldberg, Kaj. 2009. Reflexive Methodology. New Vistas for Qualitative Research. London. SAGE Publications.
*Inglis, David. 2012. An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press.
Excerpts of Books:
Boghossian, Paul, A. 2010. Relativizing the Facts. In Relativism. A Contemporary Anthology. Pages 170-182. New York. Columbia University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre; Wacquant, Lois. 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Pages: 94-135, 167-173. Cambridge. University of Chicago.
Clifford, James. 1986. Introduction. Partial Truths. In Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography (ed. Clifford, James.; Marcus, George, E. 1986). University of California Press. Pages 1-26
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Small Places, Large Issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. Pluto Press. Pages 30
Foucault, Michel 1991: Governmentality. In: Burchell, G.; Gordon, C; Miller P. (eds.): The Foucault Effect. Studies in Governmentality. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Frykman, Jonas & Nils Gilje 2003: Being There. In Frykman, Jonas & Nils Gilje (eds.): Being There. New Perspectives on Phenomenology and the Analysis of Culture. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. Page 7 - 49Inglis, David. 2012. Phenomenological paradigms. The symbolic interactionist paradigm. In An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 86-128
Giddens, Anthony. 1986. Agency, Structure. Central Problems in Social Theory.Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Hong Kong. MacMillan. Pages 49-73.
Hacking, Ian. 2000. Why Ask What? The Social Construction of What? Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Pages 1-35.
Mauss, Marcel. 2000. Introductory. Gifts and return gifts. The Gift. Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies.W.W. Norton & Company. Pages 22-34
Moore, Henrietta. 1994. Kinship, labour and household: Understanding Women’s work. Feminism and Anthropology. Page 42-73
Moore, Henrietta. 1999. Whatever Happened to Women and Men? Gender and other crisis in anthropology. Anthropological Theory Today (ed. Moore, Henrietta). Cambridge. Polity Press. Pages 151-171.
Ortner, Sherry. 2005. Making Gender; Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? Making Gender. The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Boston. Beacon Press. Pages 1-42
Thompson, E.P. 1993. Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism. Customs in Common. Penguin Books. Pages 352-403
Wolf, Eric. 1982. Modes of Production. The Fur Trade. In Europe and the People Without History. Berkely. University of California Press. Pages 73-100, 158-194.
Articles:
Erdman Vigh, Henrik, Brehm Sausdal, David. 2014. From essence back to existence: Anthropology beyond the ontological turn. In Anthropological Theory. Vol. 14(1): 49-73
Herdt, Gilbert, H. 1982. Sambia Nose bleeding Rites and Male Proximity to Women. In Ethos. Vol. 10(3): 189-231.
Latour, Bruno. 1999. Actor Network Theory and After.In The Sociological Review.
Law, John. 1992. Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy, and Heterogeneity. In Systems Practice. Vol. 5 (4)
Lewontin, Richard. 2009. Why Darwin? In New York Review of Books. Page: 19-22. May 28-June 10.
Swedberg, Rickard. 2012. Theorizing in sociology and social science: turning to the context of discovery. In Theory and Society. Vol. 41: 1-40.
Note that some literature might be added to the list and some may be changed or omitted.
Discussion seminars
Discussion seminars will be held each Thursday, 10-12 or 13-15. At times the seminars will last 10-15 (excluding lunch), but these prolonged seminars will be announced well in advance
The students will be divided into small groups and each group will be responsible for organizing the seminars. The teachers will help the groups with questions and seminar forms, if needed.
Exam
The deadline of the exam is on Friday 7 November. You shall write a paper of about 5 pages or approximately 2 000 words. The content of the examination will be based on the literature and the lectures.
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