Royal
Department
Of POLITICS AND INTERNATIUONAL RELATIONS
Course Outline
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Code: PR3113A |
Value: 1.0 |
Status: Core |
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Title: Society and Sociology in the New
Millennium |
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Year: 2005-6 |
Term: 1 and 2 |
Pre-requisites: None |
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Co-ordinator: Dr Chris Rumford |
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Aims: To examine important developments in sociology at the turn of the century in the context of social and cultural change; and to ask students to consider sociology within their everyday lives, and within the wider society.
Intended Learning Outcomes: 1. To recognise and account for recent developments in sociology and their wider intellectual and social context; 2. To provide an analysis of the key issues of contemporary sociology and their main exponents; 3. To understand the key problems and debates that have arisen in sociology in relation to these issues, and their likely development in the future.
Content: Today, sociology might be characterised as a ‘mature industry’, operating in a postmodern and global environment. However, the society in which sociology now operates is more complex and differentiated than ever. Diversity has arguably replaced controversy in sociology, though debates about what it means to say that we live in a postmodern, global, or risk society show that sociology can still be a lively and critical discipline. This course examines some of the most important developments in sociology over the last ten years or so against a backcloth of wider structural and cultural change in society.
Chris Rumford’s webpage
Students are directed to the useful resources collected at: http://www.chrisrumford.org.uk/plate_noticeboard.html
Coursework and
Assessment
All students must submit three essays of between 2500
and 3000 words. The best two of these will contribute 50% to the final mark.
All students will also take a 2 hour ("unseen") examination which
will contribute 50% of the total marks for the course.
The deadline for the submission of essays is as follows.
Please note that essays must be submitted by
First essay –
Second essay –
Third essay –
Lecture programme
1. Introduction: key themes
Sociology has undergone a transformation in recent times, reflecting significant changes in society and social life. The course will examine the changing nature of sociology and the social transformations which characterize contemporary social life: postmodernity and globalization, in particular. Are these changes far-reaching and epoch-making, or are they overstated? Have issues such as identity, mobility, and risk replaced the more conventional sociological preoccupation with social structure and inequality? Is it business-as-usual for sociology, or has society transformed so fundamentally that a new ‘sociology beyond society’ is needed?
Giddens,
A. 2000: ‘The social revolutions of our time’ in K. Nash (ed)
Readings in Contemporary Political Sociology
Bauman, Z. 2000: Liquid Modernity.
Delanty, G. and Rumford, C. 2005: Rethinking
Urry, J. 2000: Sociology Beyond
Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first century. London: Routledge 301.001 URR
2. Sociology and social theory
Social theory is concerned with understanding the transformations in contemporary societies, particularly those transformations not easily dealt with by the discipline of sociology, which was developed to understand and explain modern, industrial, nationally-contained societies. In the contemporary context social theory deals with questions raised by globalization, postmodernity, postnational identity, the nature and dynamics of transnational communities etc., all areas considered problematic for conventional forms of sociology.
Question: What is the relationship between sociology and
social theory?
Gane, N. 2004: The future of social theory
Delanty, G. 2000: ‘The
foundations of social theory: origins and trajectories’ in B. Turner (ed) The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory
Ritzer,
G. and Smart, B. 2001: ‘Introduction: theorists, theories and theorizing’ in G.
Ritzer and B. Smart (eds) Handbook of Social Theory.
Delanty, G. 1999: Social theory in a changing world
:conceptions of modernity
Bauman, Z. 2000: Liquid Modernity
Beilharz, P. (ed) 2001: The Bauman reader.
3. Postmodern sociology or a sociology of postmodernity?
Postmodernity refers to the waning of ‘modern’ social structures and the advent of post-industrial society (or ‘second modernity’) and the implications for class-based political identities. Postmodernism at the cultural level rests on the assumption that earlier distinctions are now being thoroughly inverted – high and low art forms – expert and lay views of science and medicine – the public and the private. The implications for sociology have been widely debated.
Question: What kind of social transformation does postmodernity represent, and what are the implications for sociology?
Bauman, Z. (1991) ‘Legislators and interpreters: culture as the ideology of intellectuals’ in, Intimations of Postmodernity London Routledge 301.2BAU
Bauman, Z. (1991) ‘Is there a postmodern sociology?’ in, Intimations of Postmodernity London Routledge 301.2 BAU
Seidman, S.
Owen, D. 1997: ‘The postmodern challenge to sociology” in D. Owen (ed) Sociology after postmodernism.
Owen, D. 2001: ‘”Postmodern” political sociology’ in K. Nash and A. Scott (eds) The Blackwell
Companion to Political Sociology.
Smart, B. (2000) ‘Postmodern social theory’ in B. Turner (ed)
The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory.
Crook, S. (2001) ‘Social Theory
and the Postmodern’ in G. Ritzer
and B. Smart (eds) Handbook
of Social Theory.
4. Globalization and its consequences
The term ‘globalization’ has come into everyday speech in countless areas of life. Although it is often understood as resulting in the dominance of market economics over every other form of life, it can be more usefully thought of as a series of processes (economic, cultural, political) through which the world is becoming more unified – and an awareness that this is so. But what are the main social and cultural components of globalization and what do they mean for experience in everyday settings?
Question: Do we now live in a global age?
Robertson, R. (1992) Globalization:
Social Theory and Global Culture
Albrow,
M (1996) The Global Age: State and Society Beyond
Modernity
Scholte, J.A. (2000) Globalization :a critical introduction.
Houndmills: Palgrave
330.9
SCH
Walters, M.
(1995) Globalization.
Beck, U. (2000) What is globalization?
Lechner, F. and Boli, J. (eds) 2004: The Globalization
Reader (Second Edition)
Lechner, F. and Boli, J. World Culture: Origins and Consequences.
5. Identity and belonging
For most of the Twentieth Century social and political identities were defined primarily by class and/or national belonging, and more recently by gender and ethnicity. The last couple of decades have seen a proliferation identities and the rise of ‘identity politics’. Rather than being situated by an ‘objective’ class position, identities are now subjective, multiple, and often the result of lifestyle choices. We will look at the importance of identity politics and multiple forms of belonging in the contemporary world.
Question: Why has the concept of identity become so central to contemporary sociology?
Croucher, S.2004. Globalization
and belonging: the politics of identity in a changing world.
Castells, M. 1997: The Power of Identity
Woodward, K.
1997: ‘Concepts of identity and difference’ in K. Woodward (ed)
Identity and Difference
Hall, S. 2000: ‘The question of
cultural identity’ in K. Nash (ed) Readings in
Contemporary Political Sociology
Hall, S. and du Gay, P. 1996: Questions
of Cultural Identity
Norval, A. 2001: ‘The politics of
ethnicity and identity’ in K. Nash and A. Scott (eds) The
Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology.
Ashenden,
S. 1997: ‘Feminism, postmodernism and the sociology of gender’ in D. Owen (ed) Sociology after
postmodernism.
Tomlinson, J. 2003:
‘Globalization and cultural identity’ in D. Held and A. McGrew (eds) The global
transformations reader :an introduction to the
globalization debate (Second edition)
Lechner, F. and Boli, J. World
Culture: Origins and Consequences (esp. Chapter 9)
6.
Risk Society
It has been argued that we now live in a risk society. From terrorism to environmental hazards and the risks inherent in everyday lifestyle choices (food, relationships) we seem to be bombarded with information about risk. Contemporary society seems to be characterised by risk and how it should be managed at both the institutional and personal levels. However, we need to ask what it means to characterise western societies as ‘risk societies’ and investigate further the changes that this designation supposes. Is it not the case that societies have always been ‘risk societies’?
Question: How far does risk permeate everyday life, or is it an exaggeration of postmodern sociology?
Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: towards a new
modernity
Beck, U. (1992) ‘From industrial society to the risk society: questions of survival, social structure and ecological enlightenment’ Theory, Culture and Society 9, 97-123
Beck, U. (undated) ‘Politics of risk society’ http://www.envsci.nau.edu/sisk/courses/env555/Readings/Beck.PDF
Lupton, D. (1999) Risk
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity
and Self Identity: self and society in the late modern age (esp. Chapter 4)
Furedi, F. 1998: Culture of
Fear: Risk-taking and the Morality of Low Expectation.
Elliott, A. (2002) ‘Beck’s sociology of risk: a critical assessment’ Sociology 36, 2, 293-315
7. Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism has once again become a key concept in the social and political sciences. Traditionally, cosmopolitanism is associated with rather utopian notions of world citizenship or universal brotherhood. In more recent constructions it refers to, on the one hand, the multiplicity of identifications and belongings which characterise life in the contemporary world, and, on the other, a desire to move beyond narrow and exclusive forms of national belonging. Recent developments – Tsunami relief efforts, the postnational citizenship of the European Union, and widespread acceptance of the universality of human rights – have suggested a more concrete content to cosmopolitan aspirations.
Question: Do we need a cosmopolitan sociology?
Delanty, G. 2006:
‘Cosmopolitanism in contemporary social theory: theoretical considerations and
methodological implications’ British Journal of Sociology 57(1) (copy
available from CR)
Beck, U. 2000: ‘The cosmopolitan perspective:
sociology of the second age of modernity’
British Journal of Sociology 51(1)
http://www.transformaties.org/bibliotheek/beck.pdf
Beck, U. 2004: ‘The
cosmopolitan turn’ in
Delanty, G. and
Rumford, C. 2005: Rethinking
Vertovec, S. and Cohen, R. (eds) 2002: Conceiving cosmopolitanism: theory,
context, and practice.
Archibugi, D. (ed) Debating cosmopolitics.
Stevenson, N. 2002:
‘Cosmopolitanism, Multiculturalism and
Citizenship' Sociological Research Online
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/1/stevenson.html
Beck, U. 2002: ‘The cosmopolitan society and
its enemies’ Theory, Culture & Society 19(1–2) http://www.sunysb.edu/sociology/faculty/Levy/Beck%20Cosmopolitan%20Society%20and%20its%20Enemies%20(TCS).pdf
8. Theories of the
self
Contemporary sociology has been very much concerned with understanding the self. Increasingly mistrustful of essentialist explanations, which explain human action in terms of the expression of an underlying core essence, and privileging approaches that emphasise the distinctiveness of the individual, sociologists have attempted to understand the nature of the self and its potential for transformation. We will focus on the work of Goffman, Gidedens and Foucault.
Question: How have sociologists approached the issue of the self and individuality?
Giddens, A (1991) Modernity and
Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.
Goffman, E. (1961) Asylums. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 362.2042 GOF
Goffman, E. (1971) The presentation of self in everyday life Harmondsworth: Penguin 301.11 GOF
Bauman, Z. (2000) Liquid Modernity
301.2 BAU
Dean, M. (2002) “The regulation of the self,” in T. Jordan
and S. Pile (eds) Social
Change.
Barrett, M. (1999) “Human nature,” in Imagination in
Theory: Culture, Writing, Words, Things.
Smart, B. 1988. Michel Foucault.
Dean, M. 1999: Governmentality :power and rule in modern society
9. The sociology of the body
‘Embodiment’ has become one of the watchwords of recent sociology and has stimulated much thinking associated with the ‘politics of identity.’ The argument has been put forward that earlier sociology was strangely ‘disembodied’, considering the importance of the human body to social interaction and identity. The advent of postmodernism with its emphasis on consumer culture and bodily display would seem to suggest that the topic of the body should be at the centre of sociological analysis.
Question: Should the body be brought centre stage in sociological analysis?
Shilling, C. (2001) ‘The Embodied
Foundations of Social Theory’ in G. Ritzer and B.
Smart (eds) Handbook of
Social Theory.
Turner, B (2000) ‘An outline of a
general sociology of the body’ in B. Turner (ed) The
Blackwell Companion to Social Theory.
Turner, B. (1996) ‘Sociology and
the body’ in, The Body and Society (2nd edition)
Shilling, C. (1993) The Body and Social Theory 301 SHI 1 x Short loan
Howson, A. and Inglis, D. (2001)
‘The body in sociology: tensions inside and outside sociological thought’ The
Sociological Review 49, 3, 299-317 (plus other articles in this issue by Crossley and Shilling, and then Inglis and Howson’s response in The Sociological Review 50, 1,
136-139 - 2002)
Sassatelli, R. 2001: ‘Body
politics’ in K. Nash and A. Scott (eds) The Blackwell Companion to Political
Sociology.
10. Sociology and the emotions
Sociology has traditionally privileged rationality and cognition over the emotions, and emotional responses have been widely mistrusted as means of obtaining accurate information about both ourselves and the world. Today, as with the body, there are calls for a postmodern sociology to recognise more clearly the role of emotions in everyday life – in nationalist attachments, responses to disasters, personal relationships etc. Sociology has begun to question whether it is possible (and desirable) to maintain an artificial separation between rational and emotional aspects of social existence.
Question: Is it worthwhile for sociology to recognise more explicitly the role of emotions in social life?
Jackson, S. (1993) ‘Even sociologists fall in love: an exploration in the sociology of emotions’ Sociology 27, 2, 201-220
Hochchild,
A.R. (1983) The Managed Heart: commercialisation of human feeling
Bendelow,
G. and Williams, S.J. (1997) Emotions in Social Life: social theories and
contemporary issues
Craib,
Vogler, C (2000) ‘Social identity and emotion: the meeting of psychoanalysis and sociology’ Sociological Review 48, 1, 19-42
Elias, N. (1978) The History of Manners: The Civilizing Process vol 1 Oxford Blackwell 301.69 ELI
Duncombe, J. and Marsden, D. (1993) ‘Love and intimacy: the gender division of emotion and ‘emotion work’ Sociology 27, 2, 221-241
Nash, K. 2003: ‘Cosmopolitan Political Community: Why Does It Feel So Right?’ Constellations
10(4)
11. Intimacy and sexuality
In the analysis of modern social institutions, intimacy and sexuality have been expressed within definite structures. Most notably, marriage and the family have traditionally been seen to regulate sexuality. Recently, however, with the advent of postmodernism, sex and intimacy have been separated from these institutional constraints. On the one hand this has led to the commercialisation of sex, and on the other the possibility of more ‘authentic’ relationships. One key debate is whether friendship, as a ‘pure’ form of association, expresses contemporary relationships most accurately.
Question: Are intimacy and friendship threatened by postmodernity and risk society?
Giddens, A. (1992) The
Transformation of Intimacy: sexuality, love and eroticism in modern societies
(chaps one, three and four)
Bauman, Z. (2003) Liquid Love: On the Fraily
of Human Bonds,
Giddens, A (1991) ‘Tribulations of the self’ in, Modernity and Self Identity (chap six) 301.001GID
Woodward, K. (2002) ‘Up close and personal: the changing
face of intimacy’ in T. Jordan and S. Pile (eds) Social Change
Jamieson, L. (1997) Intimacy: personal
relationships in modern society
Russell, J (2005) ‘What are friends for?’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1396917,00.html
Elliot, A. (2001) ‘Sexualities: Social Theory and the Crisis
of Identity’ in B. Smart and G. Ritzer (eds) Handbook of Social Theory
12. Inequality
Sociology has traditionally seen inequality through the category of class, with gender and ethnicity subsequently being recognised as major sources of inequality in the last quarter of the C20th. Debate on inequality has broadened in recent times and has centred on notions of social exclusion/inclusion, wider notions of global inequality caused by the marketization of societies all over the world, and the crystallization of new notions of rights and justice.
How have sociologists attempted to understand the changing nature of inequalities?
Walters, M. 1997: ‘Inequality after class’
in D. Owen (ed) Sociology after
postmodernism.
Phillips, A. 1999: Which equalities matter?
Levitas, R. 2005: The inclusive society?: social exclusion and New Labour. Houndmills:
Palgrave 361.942 LEV
Scholte,
J.A. 2000: Globalization: a critical introduction (esp. Ch. 10 –
‘Globalization and (in)Justice’) Houndmills:
Palgrave 330.9 SCH
Steans, J. 2003: ‘Gender inequalities and feminist politics in global
perspective’ in
Steans, J. 2003: ‘Globalization
and gendered inequality’ in D. Held and A. McGrew (eds)
The global transformations reader :an introduction to the globalization debate (Second
edition)
Pogge, T. 2003: ‘Priorities of global justice’ in
D. Held and A. McGrew (eds) The global transformations reader
:an introduction to the globalization debate (Second edition)
13. Community
Community used to refer to tight-knit, cohesive and geographically proximate groups with a strong sense of self-identity. The nature and meaning of community is much changed in the contemporary world. One the one hand, cohesive working class or rural communities are in many ways a thing of the past. On the other hand, new communities have arisen: virtual communities, transnational communities, lifestyle communities. Globalization has led to resurgence in the value of locality and belonging, and created the possibility for new types of ‘communities-at-a-distance’.
Seminar topic: What is the meaning of community in the global age?
Delanty, G. 2003: Community.
Bauman, Z. 2000: Liquid Modernity.
Rose, N. 1999: Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political
Thought.
Albrow, M., Eade, J., Washbourne, N., and Durrschmidt, J. 1994: "The impact of globalization on sociological concepts: community, culture and milieu," Innovation 7(4).
Putnam, R. 1995: “Bowling alone:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EHYPER/detoc/assoc?bowling.html
Edwards, B. and Foley, M. 1998: “Social capital and civil society beyond Putnam”
http://arts-sciences.cua.edu/pol/faculty/foley/putnam2.htm
Parekh, B. 2000: Rethinking multiculturalism
:cultural diversity and political theory. Houndmills:
Palgrave 301.451 PAR
Wellman, B. (undated) ‘Little Boxes, Glocalization,
and Networked
Individualism’
http://www.digitalcity.jst.go.jp/cosmos/symposium/3_barry2.pdf
Hampton, K. and Wellman, B. 2001: ‘Long
Distance Community in the Network Society: Contact and Support Beyond Netville’ American Behavioral
Scientist 45(3)
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/
14. Mobilities
Mobility is a key theme in contemporary sociology. Interest in mobility has arisen as a consequence of the increasing importance of migration, diaspora, tourism, transnational social movements etc, and the more general impact of globalization-inspired accounts of flows, networks and movements. However, mobility does not have to be seen in geographical terms (or even in the conventional sociological sense of ‘upward mobility’). The work of Beck introduces us to ideas of ‘inner mobility,’ and ‘place polygamy.’ We will look at some enthusiastic readings of corporeal mobility and/or networks as the defining feature of contemporary societies (Urry, Castells) and compare these with critiques which argue that the case for such mobility has no sociological reality and/or for a more rooted or emplaced sociology (Favell, Ray).
Question: how important is the idea of mobility to contemporary sociology?
Urry, J. 2000: Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first century.
Urry, J. 2000: "
Beck, U.
(2000) What is Globalization?
Ray, L. 2002 ‘'Crossing Borders? Sociology, Globalization
and Immobility' Sociological Research Online http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/3/ray.html
Favell, A. 2003: ‘Migration, mobility and the new
http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/programs/euc/pdfs/favell.pdf
Castells, M. (2000) The Rise of the
Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture: Volume 1
(Second Edition). Blackwell:
15. Spaces
Space has become an important issue in sociology in recent years, partly as a result of the ‘spatial turn’ in the social sciences more generally (the recognitions that social space is constructed rather than natural, and also constitutive of social and political relations). In addition, sociologists have begun to recognise the important relationship between place, space and social organization, and how this has been transformed by globalization. A major contribution to this has been Castells’ understanding of the shifting dynamics of space and territory, referred to as the tension between a space of places and a space of flows. Sociology has also become increasingly interested in transnational and global spaces, thereby displacing the study of national spaces from the centre of the sociological imagination.
Do sociologists need to rethink the meaning of social space?
Castells,
M. (2000) The Rise of the Network Society:
The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture: Volume 1 (Second Edition).
Blackwell:
Sassen, S. (2001) ‘Spatialities
and temporalities of the global: elements for a theorization.’ in A. Appadurai (ed) Globalization.
Pries, L. 2005: ‘Configurations
of geographic and societal spaces: a sociological proposal between
'methodological nationalism' and the 'spaces of flows'.
Global
Networks 5 (2), 167-190.
Delanty, G. and
Rumford, C. 2005: Rethinking
Brenner, N. 1999: ‘ Beyond
state-centrism? Space, territoriality, and
geographical scale in globalization studies’
http://sociology.fas.nyu.edu/docs/IO/222/1999.Brenner.TS.pdf
Urry, J. 2000: ‘Sociology of time
and space’ in
B. Turner (ed) The Blackwell companion to
social theory
Brenner, N. et al
2003: State/Space: A Reader
16. Borders
The very nature of borders is increasingly uncertain in a
world traversed by flows and mobilities and
characterized by interconnectedness. There exists a major tension between the
notion of rebordering, which highlight the increasing
securitization and impermeability of borders, and the
idea of differentiated, diffuse, and mobile borders consistent with a world of
flows. We will look at the ways in which borders are both dissolving in a borderless world, and
paradoxically becoming more important as a result of the rebordering
processes associated with securitization.
How have
sociologists attempted to understand borders in a globalizing world?
Rumford, C. 2006:
‘Theorizing borders’ European Journal of Social Theory 9(2) (copy available from
author)
Rumford, C. 2006:
‘Borders and bordering’ in G. Delanty (ed) Europe
and Asia: Towards a New Cosmopolitanism
McNeill, D. 2004 New
Andreas, P. 20000: Border
games: policing the U.S.-Mexico divide Cornell University Press
364.157 AND
Balibar, E. 1998: ‘The borders of
Delanty, G. and
Rumford, C. 2005: Rethinking
Walters, W. (2002) 'Mapping Schengenland:
Denaturalizing the Border'. Environment & Planning D: Society & Space, 20(5): 561-80.
Kennedy, P. and Roudometof, V. (eds) 2002: Communities across borders
:new immigrants and transnational cultures
17. Knowledge society
There have been many designations for the contemporary age: post-industrial society, postmodernity, risk society etc. Perhaps the most compelling is the ‘knowledge society’ in which information is the most important form of capital in a ‘wired world’ of connectivity and technological driven change. The idea of knowledge society is frequently associated with globalization and modern communication and media technology, but there are other important aspects which deserve consideration. Not least of these is the idea that postmodernity has allowed for greater contestation over knowledge than was previously the case. In a world where authoritative figures of knowledge production are increasingly under challenge (the state, scientists, doctors etc.), and alternative sources of expertise and information are available, we live in a society in which access to knowledge is a central component of democracy.
Question: What are the consequences for democracy of living in a “knowledge society”?
Stehr, N. (2001) ‘Modern societies as knowledge societies’ in B. Smart and G. Ritzer (eds) Handbook of Social Theory London, Sage 301.01 HAN
Castells, M. (2000) The Rise of the
Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture: Volume 1
(Second Edition). Blackwell:
Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: towards a new
modernity (esp. Chapter 2)
Delanty, G. (2003) ‘Ideologies of the Knowledge Society and the Cultural
Contradictions of Higher Education’ Policy Futures in Education 1(1)
Fuller, S. (2003) ‘Can Universities Solve the Problem of Knowledge in Society without Succumbing to the Knowledge Society?’ Policy Futures in Education 1(1)
Webster, F. (2002) Theories of the
information society.
301.14 WEB
Hamilton, P. (2002) ‘From
industrial to information society’ in T. Jordan and S. Pile (eds) Social Change.
Drucker, P.F. 1994: “Knowledge Work and Knowledge Society: The Social Transformations of this Century” http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ifactory/ksgpress/www/ksg_news/transcripts/drucklec.htm
18. Nostalgia
Much sociology is wilfully nostalgic, in the sense that the discipline has constituted itself around comparisons with pre-modern forms of social life which are often held to be more authentic or natural. It is no exaggeration to say that the separation of the modern from the non-modern world was central to the formation and development of sociology in the C20th. However, sociology has not always seen fit to reflect on the formative role of nostalgia, which has often been masked by nationalist perspectives and the enduring search for authentic community. In recent times the study of nostalgia has been placed on the sociological agenda by both postmodernity and globalization, which have (in different ways) sought to relativize history, identity and belonging, and in doing so have promoted more reflexive approaches to sociology.
Question: In what ways is sociology becoming aware of the importance of nostalgia to the sociological imagination?
Robertson, R. (1992) Globalization:
Social Theory and Global Culture
Robertson, R. (1990) ‘After
Nostalgia? Wilful Nostalgia and the Phases of Globalization’ in B. Turner
(ed.), Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity, Sage,
Turner, B. (1987) ‘A note on nostalgia’ Theory, Culture and Society 4(1)
Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism,
or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Strangleman, T. (2002) 'Nostalgia for Nationalisation - the Politics of Privatisation' Sociological Research Online 7(1)
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/1/strangleman.html
19. Review
20. Review
Essay List
1.
How far, in your view,
do sociological theories of globablization, postmodernity, and risk society present a pessimistic view
of the future?
2.
Has social theory
replaced more conventional forms of sociology in accounting for contemporary
social transformations?
3.
What implications, in
your view, does the concept of postmodernity have for
sociology?
4. In
what ways has globalization transformed sociology as an academic discipline?
5. ‘Identity
and difference have become key concepts in sociology’ Discuss.
6.
What are the strengths
and weaknesses of the risk society thesis?
7.
What benefits does a
cosmopolitan perspective bring to sociology?
8.
In what ways have
contemporary sociologists understood the self and individuality?
9.
How far should the
body become a focus for sociological analysis?
10. Evaluate the notion that sociology should examine more
explicitly the role of emotions in social life.
11. In what ways are intimacy and friendship changing under conditions of postmodernity and globalization?
12. Is sociology capable of understanding inequalities in
modern societies?
13. What you understand by ‘community’ in the global age?
14. Is John Urry correct in thinking
that we need a ‘mobile sociology’ to understand contemporary societies?
15. What is the significance of Castells’
idea that under conditions of globalization a space of flows has replaced a
space of places?
16. Has globalization brought about a borderless world?
17. What consequences
does living in a ‘knowledge society’ have for democracy?
18. In what ways does nostalgia
shape the sociological imagination?
