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Introduction to Social Theory - SOC200 Fall 2025
Course
Ted Turnau
The goal of this course is to introduce social theory as the study of thinking about social life. Not only will students learn how to think like a social theorist, but they will also acquire intellectual capacity enabling them to unpack the social reality which human individuals both co-constitute and subjected to. They will also understand why ideas about how societies change and develop comprise crucial instruments for the comprehension of modern world.
Here is the course outline:
1. Session 1: Introduction -- Social Theory, or Teaching a Fish to See Water
Sep 3
Syllabus, introduction to the topic. |
2. Session 2: Welcome to Modernity
Sep 10
A general introduction to the concept of modernity in social theory. |
3. Session 3: Early Modern Giants 1: Durkheim and Weber
Sep 21
Durkheim & Weber - suicide, anomie; protestant ethic, iron-cage, bureaucracy |
4. Session 4: Theorising early modernity # 2: selected themes and thinkers
Sep 28
Marx & Simmel - commodity, alienation, Marx's legacy; metropolis and mental life. |
5. Session 5: Society and Capitalist Control - The Frankfurt School
Oct 5
Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Benjamin; culture industry; one-dimensional man; art in the age of mechanical reproduction; The Frankfurt School and its legacy |
6. Session 6: Society and its prisons; society as a prison?
Oct 12
Foucault, discipline, punishment, surveillance, panopticon and their contemporary exampes |
7. 7. Bourdieu: The Power of Distinction
Oct 19
An exploration of some of the seminal ideas of French anthropologist/sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. |
8. Session 8: The Female Perspective
Nov 2
Dorothy Smith and feminist Standpoint Theory. |
9. Session 9: Race and Intersectionality
Nov 9
An introduction to Critical Race Theory, "double consciousness," "white privilege," and Intersectionality. |
10. Session 10: Global Perspectives on Modern Society -- Networks, Risks, Liquids
Nov 16
contemporary social theories of Beck, Castells and Bauman |
11. Session 11: McDonaldization of society: irrationality of rationality
Nov 23
Modern society as McDonald restaurant; imperatives of efficiency, calculability, predictability/standardization and control; contemporary relevance of Weber. |
12. Session 12: 'Bitter Apple': The dark side of the iRevolution
Nov 30
economic globalisation, socio-economic realities, neoliberalism, Harvey |
13. Social Media and Social Theory: Considering the "Influencer Economy"
Dec 7
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14. For those who need help re: suicide... |
15. Midterm 1 |
16. Midterm 2 |
17. Instructions for Student Feedback Survey |
18. Final exam essay/term paper |
19. Student Presentation List! |