Core Autumn Course - 949M1
30 credits
Convenor 2010-11: Gordon Finlayson
Tuesday 1 pm - 2 pm (Plenary) Fulton 203
Tuesday 2 pm - 4 pm (Discussion Groups) Fulton 204
Go to the Study Direct site for this course (available to Sussex students)
The course is a core SPT course. It introduces students to the major contemporary approaches to theorizing social and political reality and examines how they articulate explanatory and normative concerns. The topics covered concern some of the major contemporary debates on the idea of the social in social and political thought. Consideration is also given to how some of the classical conceptions of the social are challenged by recent developments.
Theorising the Social,
Course Outline 2011
Week 2 Rational Choice Theory (Andrew Chitty)
Week 3 Communication and the Social (Gordon Finlayson)
Week 4 Recognition Theory (Andrew Chitty)
Week 5 Religion the Social (Jim Livesey)
Week 6 Revolution and the Invention of the Social (Jim Livesey)
Week 7 New Conceptions of the Social: Globalisation, Virtuality and
the End of Society (Gerard Delanty)
Week 8 Engendering the Social (Alana Lentin)
Week 9 Decolonizing the Social (Alana Lentin)
Week 10 Law and The Social (Kenneth Veitch/Tarik Kochi)
General and Preliminary Reading
Elster, J. (1989) Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences, Cambridge University Press.
Gane, N. (ed.) 2004 The Future of Social Theory New York: Continuum.
Westwood, S. 2002 Power and the Social London: Routledge.