Multiple-choice question exercise

1 - Set exercises - 20

Essay (2500 words)

2 - Written assignment (including essay) - 80

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This module aims to contribute to a critical understanding of key theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges faced by sociologists in the 21st century. Interrogations regarding the nature of society (‘What is society?’), the history of society (‘How has society evolved?’), and the study of society (‘How can or should we make sense of society?’) have been, and continue to be, essential to the creation of conceptually informed, methodologically rigorous, and empirically substantiated research programmes in the social sciences.
Over the past years, there have been numerous disputes and controversies concerning the future of society (and, in parallel, the future of sociology). Particularly important in this respect are recent and ongoing debates on the emergence of a ‘global network society’. For many, the principal challenges faced by this (arguably unprecedented) form of society requires the construction of a ‘global sociology’, capable of accounting for the interconnectedness of social actors and social structures across space and time. This module has been designed to introduce you to these (and related) discussions, enabling you to develop a reflective approach to ‘doing’ sociology (and, more broadly, to ‘doing’ social science) in the 21st century.
 Among the themes covered are the following: the constitution of society; the development of society; the future of society; past, current, and possible future trends in the social sciences in general and in sociology in particular; key theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges faced by contemporary social scientists, notably those described in terms of ‘-isms’ – such as globalism, protectionism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, posthumanism, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, environmentalism, neoliberalism, nationalism, managerialism, imperialism, classism, ethnocentrism, racism, sexism, ageism, and ableism.

Feedback is provided in a number of ways throughout your module. This includes feedback you receive during teaching from both peers and lecturers and that provided for formative assessment. Following an assessment, you will be given your marks and feedback in line with the assessment regulations and policy. More information on the timing and type of feedback that will be provided for each assessment will be available from the module leader. <a href='https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/governance/policies/student-policies-and-regulations'>https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/about/governance/policies/student-policies-and-regulations</a>

This module will support the development of all the graduate attributes. Your module leader will provide you with information about how your learning, teaching and assessment activities support your development of these attributes. The graduate attributes are: - Always learning - Engaged in the world - Technical and digital - Connected Professional - Creating Impact

In-Person - 

Self-directed - 

Relevant journals:

Alternatives: Global, Local, Political
American Journal of Sociology
British Journal of Sociology
Current Sociology
European Journal of Political Theory
European Journal of Social Theory
Journal of Classical Sociology
Journal of Historical Sociology
Journal of Political Power
Philosophy & Social Criticism
Postcolonial Studies
Sociological Review
Sociological Theory
Sociology
Theory and Society
Theory, Culture & Society

'Shaping the Future of Sociology: The Challenge of Interdisciplinarity beyond the Social Sciences' pp: 1169-1185.

Sociology

Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide

Connected Sociologies

'Afterword: Doing Global Sociology: Issues, Problems and Challenges' 603–613.

Current Sociology 

Posthuman Knowledge

'What is Worth Defending in Sociology Today? Presentism, Historical Vision and the Uses of Sociology' pp: 99-118.

Cultural Sociology

The Sociology of Intellectuals: After ‘The Existentialist Moment’

The 'Postmodern Turn' in the Social Sciences

'Canon Formation in Late 20th-Century British Sociology' pp: 1029-1045.

Sociology in the Twenty-First Century: Key Trends, Debates, and Challenges

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference

'For a Postcolonial Sociology' pp: 25- 55.

Theory and Society

Enrichment: A Critique of Commodities, trans

The Uncontrollability of the World, trans

Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Critique of Forms of Life, trans

Southern Theory. The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science

Theorising Noumenal Power: Rainer Forst and his Critics, 

'American Sociology’s Racial Ontology: Remembering Slavery, Deconstructing Modernity, and Charting the Future of Global Historical Sociology'.  pp: 369–384.

SG3079 - Changing Ideas about Society in the 21st Century

SG3079-PRD1-PER-ALV1

Acquisition of these skills is promoted through a combination of lectures and interactive seminars. You will be encouraged to undertake extensive reading and independent study in order to understand the topics covered in the lectures and seminars and to broaden and deepen your knowledge of the subject. You will also receive feedback on your work to encourage you to reflect on what you have produced.
The module will be taught over one term. Teaching will be delivered by lectures and student-led seminar discussions. Particular emphasis is placed on directed reading, and each week you will be given selected readings for presentation and discussion in the following week. You will be expected to read, at the very least, the core texts (Essential Readings) before each session commences.

Changing Ideas about Society in the 21st Century

Analyse, and compare the theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions involved in the in-depth study of significant social and political transformations.

Knowledge

Present controversial arguments (to which you, as a student, do not necessarily subscribe) accurately and fairly.

Values and attitudes

Demonstrate a capacity for independent thinking.

Skills

Appreciate and assess the diversity of social-scientific disciplines, currents, and traditions;

Identify and critically assess the crucial challenges faced by social scientists in the 21st century;

Identify both obvious and hidden connections between past, current, and possible future developments in the social sciences in general and in sociology in particular;

Evaluate central debates in the contemporary social sciences and have a thorough understanding of different conceptions of social research;