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Contemporary Social TheoryGraduate Course (mandatory for SocAnth MA students)Winter Semester 2019-20204 CreditsTuesdays 13:30-15:10 and 15:30-17:10N13 #516AInstructors:Alexandra Kowalski ( HYPERLINK "mailto:kowalskia@ceu.edu"kowalskia@ceu.edu)Office Hours: Wednesdays 12:00-3:30pm (register for a slot) Z14, #308Teaching Assistant: TBADescription:This class builds up on the classical theory and Logic of Social Inquiry courses of the first semester to introduce the basic notions, debates, and findings of contemporary social theory. “Contemporary Social Theory” generally refers to theory produced in the post-World War II, post-colonial era and through the present. We focus on conceptual and historical dialectics that are central to the interests of qualitative sociologists and ethnographers of the global with a special attention to the disciplinary crossovers between sociology and anthropology. This includes in particular: the mechanisms of systemic change vs. reproduction; conceptualizations of the micro-macro link; the interplay between subjectivity/individuality/ agency and social forces; the opposition between power/domination/structure and equality/ resistance/freedom. We also consider and elaborate tools for critical and reflexive meta-theoretical thinking.Teaching and learning methods:—A large part of this class, including the syllabus, will be co-curated and peer-produced. Mandatory readings in this syllabus were selected based on conversations with and suggestions from students during the first semester. They will be completed through students’ choice of presentations. This syllabus should thus be considered a work in progress.—The regular part of the class will be, on most class meetings, one session during which we’ll collectively read a contemporary classic, often a book. The entire book is assigned every time. Excerpts will be identified for close reading in class. These excerpts may be considered “priority” for at-home work if shortcuts are needed. —Themes for lectures may be decided as needed, in any direction connected to the main reading assigned that week.Learning Outcomes:--Substantive knowledge: familiarity with the main paradigms of contemporary social theory; ability to define and discuss structure, culture, agency, structuration and practice; social and political power; epistemological issues concerning the possibility and conditions of solid social-scientific accounts; historical change and social reproduction; critical thinking and reflexivity.--Portable skills: learn to face, handle (read and question), and interpret difficult conceptual works; practice academic essay writing; approach questions of knowledge production in the social sciences in an interdisciplinary way, mobilizing relevant ; think critically not just about the social but about one’s own intellectual production and one’s own place in the production of the social.Assignments:1. Attendance, preparedness and participation. Students are expected to come to class having read ALL the assigned texts, and ready to ask 2-3 questions on the texts. 20% of grade. No penalty for up to 2/24 sessions (2 individual classes, not sets of two classes) missed.2. Presentations (1YMAs). Students will co-produce the class by contributing one short presentation on a concept or a text of their choice. The choice should satisfy both the presenter’s specific interest and the audience’s diverse interest. In other words, it has to strike a balance between theme-specific and general-theoretical. The goal of these presentations is to constitute a bibliography of theory readings that can function as suggestions for others, or be directly integrated in students’ bibliography/lit reviews. A list of suggestions is provided (themes in sections below + separate bibliography). The main take-away points will be upload on Moodle. 30% of final grade. Presentations will be scheduled on a day that is theme-appropriate.2bis. Presentations (2YMAs). Individually or in small groups of 2 or 3, students will select a case from contemporary news (source: print, audio-visual, or digital media) and analyse it in light of one theory we covered in class with special attention to the relevant concepts. It will take the form of a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation that can be uploaded on Moodle. The presentation assesses the fit between case and theory, reflects on it, and draws conclusions from this reflection. 30% of grade. 3. Final paper. The final paper is a bibliographic essay that will ideally be part of your thesis literature review. The essay should engage 10-13 references, 6-7 of which at least should qualify as general social theory (will apply to your problem area but not specific to your research question) and should demonstrate familiarity with issues, debates, concepts, and authors in that field. This assignment will complement the CAW lit review assignment which will focus on the area-specific part of your literature. 50% of final grade. NB: students are responsible for keeping track of possible changes to syllabus or schedule.___________________________________________________________________________________SCHEDULE OF READINGSAND ASSIGNMENTSIntroduction of the course and syllabusIntroduction of the syllabus. Lecture introducing the readings of Week 2.Screening and discussion: Virginie Despentes, Mutantes (porn punk feminism) (documentary, 2009) Trigger warning: The film is about the economy of sex as an intersection of power relations. It is a smart and provocative think-piece about basic sociological-, anthropological-, and historical-theoretical issues (identity, practice, culture, labor, gender, domination, capitalism, patriarchy etc). It may contain explicit sexual references and extensive+graphic discussions of sexuality and sexual acts. The excerpt we'll watch (first 20 minutes) mostly (but not completely) excludes graphic material and focuses on actors’ and theorists commentaries. Some segments of pornographic footage, performed sexual violence, graphic sex talk etc. might slip in the segment we’ll watch. Feel free to opt out of the screening if any of this might pose a problem to you for any reason.2. Knowledge/powerMichel Foucault. 1984. The Will to Knowledge (History of Sexuality 1)3. Emotion/powerAnn Laura Stoler. 1995. Race and the Education of DesireScreening: De-Colonizer HYPERLINK "; DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) HYPERLINK ". Identity and performanceJudith Butler. 1990. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge.5. Self, politics, ideology and the information societyWendy Brown. 2015. Undoing the Demos. Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. MIT.6. Power: embodied or distributed?Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. 1980. A Thousand Plateaux.The Chomsky-Foucault debate (Screening) HYPERLINK ". Reading Week and Case studies presentations (2YMA Presentations)8. Space, StatePierre Bourdieu. 1998. Acts of Resistance. Against the Myths of our time.9. Capitalism, the capitalist state, and politicsNancy Fraser. 2017. “The End of Progressive Neoliberalism” Dissent Jan 20 2017. ( populism-nancy-fraser)Jacques Rancière. 2010. Dissensus. (Ten Theses on Politics; Does Democracy mean something; Who is the Subject of the rights of man? Communism: from actuality to in actuality; The people or the multitudes? Biopolitics or politics? September 11 and afterwards: a rupture in the symbolic order? Of War as the supreme form of Advanced Consensus)10. Nature Anna Tsing. 2015. The Mushroom at the end of the WorldBruno Latour. 1992. We have never been modern.11. Knowledge, actionDonna Harraway. 1985. Simians Cyborgs and Women (Cyborg Manifesto; Situated Knowledges. The Science Problem in Feminism and The Privilege of Partial Perspective)Eric Olin Wright. 2012. “Transforming Capitalism Through Real Utopias” Presidential Addressat the American Sociological Association meeting. (—%20uncorrected%20page%20proofs%20--%202012.pdf)12. Open Session**************
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