MARION FOURCADE
Department of Sociology
UC Berkeley
[email protected]
Office Hours: Monday 3:45-5:45pm Barrows 474 (please sign up in advance at
http://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/hepeo)
SOC201B. CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY.
This course is a continuation of our required graduate theory course. We will focus on
the problem of the social construction of the self and its relationship to broader patterns
of social organization. We will also place a special emphasis on the connection between
social theories and their privileged methods. Important topics include, among others,
patterns of social interaction and socialization, the strengths and weaknesses of the
taken-for-granted, the concept of social space and social trajectories within it,
commonalities and differences between various forms of domination, and the
constitutive power of expert knowledge.
REQUIREMENTS
(1) 4 reaction memos (no more than 2 pages each). These papers are due about once a
month. You should use clear and concise language to summarize, probe or challenge
the readings. Two of these memos are directed by me, two are self-directed. You
are encouraged to use the open memos as an opportunity to use the theorists to
help you think through the topic of your final essay. Each reaction paper will be
marked as √-, √, or √+.
a. Reaction paper # 1: Compare and contrast Simmel and Mead’s
conceptualization of social interaction. Due February 6 in class.
b. Reaction paper #2: Free reflections on weeks 4, 5, 6. Due March 6 in class.
c. Reaction paper #3: Compare and contrast Norbert Elias’s and Pierre
Bourdieu’s concepts of the habitus. Due April 3 in class.
d. Reaction paper #4: Free reflections on weeks 10, 11, 12. Due April 24 in
class.
(2) One final essay (no more than 15 double-spaced pages) This essay will address an
interesting empirical question of your choice. The paper should include a
substantial description of your empirical case, and contrast at least two possible
theoretical explanations for it, using the authors presented in this class. You
should work on this paper throughout the semester and are required to come
discuss the topic with me in office hours at least once. I will not read drafts
before the paper is due, however you are welcome to submit a one-to-two pages
progress report at any point before Spring break if you want some additional
feedback. Due May 8 by email or in my mailbox.
(3) Participation in class discussions is essential, but so is courtesy vis-à-vis other
students and a helpful attitude toward facilitating the collective conversation.
Please be mindful that everyone should get an opportunity to participate.
Course website
A course website has been set up in bCourse (Modern Sociological Theory).
Readings
The following books are required and have been ordered from the Cal student store.
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman. The Social Construction of Reality. Anchor Books.
Pierre Bourdieu. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press.
Pierre Bourdieu. 1984. Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard
University Press.
Michel Foucault. 1978. History of Sexuality. Vol I. Vintage Books.
Michel Foucault. 1995. Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books.
Charles Lemert and Ann Branaman, eds. The Goffman Reader. Wiley-Blackwell.
Norbert Elias. 2000. The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations.
Blackwell.
Donald N. Levine, ed. Georg Simmel. On Individuality and Social Forms. University of
Chicago Press.
Additional readings are available from electronic reserves on the course website,
under “files”.
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE. TAKING STOCK OF THE CLASSICS, LOOKING FORWARD.
(JAN 23).
• RW Connell, 1997, "Why is Classical Theory Classical?" American Journal of
Sociology 102(6): 1511-1557.
• Geoffrey Hawthorn, 2009, “History Ignored” Pp191-216 in Enlightenment and
Despair. Cambridge University Press.
PART I. SELF AND SOCIETY.
2. SIMMEL (1858-1918) (JAN 30)
• From Donald N. Levine, ed. 1971. Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms.
Pp2-35. "How is Society possible?" "The Problem of Sociology", Pp143-149 (“The
Stranger”); Pp251-257 (“Group Expansion and the Development of
Individuality”), 324-339 (“The Metropolis and Mental Life”), 294-323 (“Fashion”).
• From From the Sociology of George Simmel, trans. Kurt Wolff, “On the Isolated
Individual and the Dyad” Pp118-125; 135-142.
Recommended:
From Donald N. Levine, ed. 1971. Georg Simmel, On Individuality and Social Forms. “Introduction.” pp iv-lxv.
3. COOLEY, MEAD (1863-1931), DUBOIS (1868-1963) (FEB 6)
• Charles Horton Cooley, “The Looking Glass Self” In Human Nature and the Social
Order. Pp136-178 (focus on .
• George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and Society. "The Point of View of Social
Behaviorism" (Pp1-18), 117-125 (“The Mind”); 135-164, 173-178, 192-209 (“The
Self”), 273-281, 303-310, 317-336 (“Society”).
• W.E.B. Du Bois. 1994 (1903). The Souls of Black Folks. "Of our Spiritual Strivings"
Recommended:
Herbert Blumer, 1966. "Sociological Implications of the Thought of GH Mead." American Journal of Sociology
71(5): 535-544.
Reaction paper # 1 due in class
4. PHENOMENOLOGY TO ETHNOMETHODOLOGY AND NEO-INSTITUTIONALISM (FEB 13)
• Alfred Schutz. 1970. “The Lifeworld.“ In Helmut Wagner (ed.) On Phenomenology
and Social Relations.
• Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality. Pp118, 47-79, 129-147, 163-173.
• Harold Garfinkel. 1963. “Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities.”
Social Problems 11(3): 225-250.
• John Meyer and Brian Rowan, 1977, “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal
Structure as Myth and Ceremony.“ American Journal of Sociology 83(2): 340-363.
Recommended:
Harold Garfinkel, 1967, “What is Ethnomethodology?” and “Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex
Status in an 'Intersexed' Person.” In Studies in Ethnomethodology. Prentice Hall.
Michael Lynch. 2011. “Harold Garfinkel”. Social Studies of Science. 41(6) 927–942.
Ann Warfield Rawls, 2006, "Respecifying the Study of Social Order--Garfinkel's Transition from Theoretical
Conceptualization to Practices in Details." Pp1-98 in Ann W. Rawls (ed.) Seeing Sociologically. The Routine
Grounds of Social Action. Paradigm.
John Meyer. 2010. “World Society, Institutional Theories, and the Actor.” Annual Review of Sociology 36: 1-20.
FEB 20 – NO CLASS (HOLIDAY)
PART II. SOCIAL STRUCTURES
5. GOFFMAN (1922-1982): THE ORDER OF INTERACTION (FEB 27)
• From Charles Lemert and Ann Branaman, eds. The Goffman Reader. Chapter 2
(“Self Presentation”), Chapter 9 (“Social Life as Drama”), Chapter 10 ("Social Life
as Ritual" until p111), Chapter 14 (“Frame analysis of Gender”).
• Arlie Hochschild, 1990. "Gender Codes in Women's Advice Books," in S. H.
Riggins (Ed.), Beyond Goffman: Studies on Communication, Institution, and Social
Interaction. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter: 277-294.
Recommended:
Erving Goffman, 1983, “The Interaction Order.“ American Sociological Review 48: 1-17.
Candace West and Don Zimmerman, 1987, “Doing Gender,” Gender and Society 1: 125-151.
6. GOFFMAN AND FANON (1925-1961): MORTIFICATION, STIGMA (MAR 6)
• From Charles Lemert and Ann Branaman, eds. The Goffman Reader. Chapters 6-7
(“The Mortified Self”, “The Stigmatized Self”)
• Franz Fanon, 1994, Black Skin, White Masks. Ppvii-23, 17-40, 109-140. New York:
Grove Press.
• Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Starr, 2000, “The Case of Race Classification
and Reclassification in Apartheid.“ Pp195-226 in Sorting Things Out. Classification
and Its Consequences. MIT Press.
Recommended:
Fred Davis, 1961, “Deviance Disavowal: The Management of Strained Interaction by the Visibly
Handicapped.” Social Problems 9(2): 120-132.
Edward Saïd, 1979, "The Scope of Orientalism: Knowing the Oriental" Pp31-49 in Orientalism. Vintage Books.
Reaction paper #2 due in class
7. BOURDIEU (1930-2002): HABITUS (MAR 13)
• Pierre Bourdieu, 1997, Pascalian Meditations, Stanford University Press. Pp1-92,
128-205.
• Loïc Wacquant, 2011, “Habitus as Topic and Tool: Reflections on Becoming a
Prizefighter,” Qualitative Research in Psychology 8(1): 81-92.
Recommended
Marcel Mauss, 1979, “Techniques of the Body.” In Sociology and Psychology: Essays. Routledge.
Matthew Desmond, 2006, “Becoming a Firefighter”, Ethnography 7 (4): 387-421.
Pierre Bourdieu, 2002, “The Forms of Capital,” Pp280-291 in Nicole Biggart, Readings in Economic Sociology,
Blackwell.
William Hanks, 2005, "Pierre Bourdieu and the Practices of Language." Annual Review of Anthropology. 34:67–83.
8. BOURDIEU: SOCIAL SPACE AND THE THEORY OF CLASSES (MAR 20)
•
•
Pierre Bourdieu, 1984, Distinction. Harvard University Press. Preface, Pp1-97;
then pick one of chapters 5, 6, or 7; Pp466-502. Expect to have to explain your
chapter (working class, middle class, or upper class) to your classmates.
Kimberly Kay Hoang, 2011, ''She's Not a Low-Class Dirty Girl!'': Sex Work in Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 40: 367-396.
Recommended
Pierre Bourdieu, 1985, "Social Space and the Genesis of Groups.” Theory and Society, 14(6): 723-731.
Pierre Bourdieu, 1992, “Structures, habitus, practices”, Pp. 52-65 in The Logic of Practice, Stanford University
Press.
MARCH 27 – NO CLASS (SPRING BREAK)
PART III. BRINGING HISTORY BACK IN
9. ELIAS (1897-1990). THE RISE OF SELF-CONSTRAINT. (APR 3)
• Sigmund Freud, 1989, Civilization and its Discontents. Pp737-742 in Peter Gay, ed.
The Freud reader. W.W. Norton.
• Norbert Elias, 2000, The Civilizing Process, Preface, Part II, Part IV, Postscript.
• Neil Gong, 2015, “How to Fight Without Rules: On Civilized Violence in “DeCivilized” Spaces.” Social Problems 0: 1-18.
Recommended
Philip Gorski. 2003. The Disciplinary Revolution. Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe.
University of Chicago Press.
Reaction paper #3 due in class
10. FOUCAULT (1926-1984). DISCIPLINARY POWER. (APR 10)
• Michel Foucault, 1995, Discipline and Punish. Vintage. Entire.
• Tania Bucher, 2012, “Want to be on the top? Algorithmic power and the threat of
invisibility on Facebook,“ New Media and Society 14(7) 1164–1180.
Recommended
François Ewald. 1990. “Norms, Discipline, and the Law,” Representations, 30: 138-161.
Stuart Hall. 2001. "Foucault: Power Knowledge and Discourse." In M. Wetherell et al. Discourse Theory and
Practice: A Reader. Sage.
Paul Rabinow, ed., 1984, Pp3-29 in The Foucault Reader. Pantheon Books.
11. FOUCAULT. BIOPOWER. (APR 17)
• Michel Foucault, 1978, History of Sexuality Vol I. Part I. Skim Part II. Part V.
Pantheon Books.
• Natasha Dow-Schüll, 2016, “Data for Life: Wearable Technology and the Design
of Self-Care." BioSocieties 1-17.
Recommended
Judith Butler, 1988, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist
Theory,” Theatre Journal, 40(4): 519-531
Michel Foucault, 1982, “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry 8(4): 777-795.
Ian Hacking, 2006, “Making up People.” London Review of Books, August 17.
Maurizio Lazzarato, 2002, “From Biopower to Biopolitics." Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy 13: 99-113.
Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose. 2006. “Biopower today.“ BioSocieties 1(2): 195-217.
12. LIBERATION (APR 24)
• Simone De Beauvoir, 1989, Second Sex. Vintage. Pp673-687.
• Franz Fanon, 1963, “On Violence.” Pp 1-62 in The Wretched of the Earth. University
of Chicago Press.
• Gayle Rubin, 1975, “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of
Sex,” Pp157-210 in Rayna Reiter, ed. Toward an Anthropology of Women. Monthly
Review Press.
• Judith Butler, 1999, “Conclusion: From Parody to Politics.” Pp181-190 in Gender
Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge.
Recommended
Homi Bhaba, "Framing Fanon", Foreword to The Wretched of the Earth.
Dipesh Chakrabarty, 1992. “Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History: Who Speaks for "Indian" Pasts?”
Representations 37.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 1988, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Cary Nelson and Lawrence Goldberg,
Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. University of Illinois Press.
Julian Go, 2016, Postcolonialism and Social Theory. Oxford University Press.
Judith Butler, 2004, Undoing Gender. Routledge.
Reaction paper #4 due in class
13. CONCLUSION & BRIEF PRESENTATION OF YOUR FINAL PAPER TOPIC (MAY 1)