Examination procedure
<p>Presentation: 50% or 25%; class participation: 50% or 25%; optional paper (5-6,000 w): 50%</p>
Syllabus
The aim of the course is to address the themes and approaches that have developed in social theory to account for late modernity, understood as the social order emerging as a result of the systems’ crisis that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In particular, we will be focusing on the broad implications of epistemological turns in the social sciences such as the crisis of grand narratives and the rise of post-foundational discourses such as post-structuralism, standpoint theory and the politics of difference. Furthermore, we will be interrogating the implications of what Ulrich Back has called the risk society and Zygmunt Bauman liquid modernity for the social and political sciences. What is the impact of neoliberal governmentality—which is based on a diminished role of the state and an encouragement of personal initiative and entrepreneurialism—on political participation and democratic representation? What happens when individuals are left on their own to navigate the risks caused by environmental disasters, health hazards, and economic crises? In a context of social fragmentation and rising inequalities, do digital media expand the contexts and channels for democratic participation or are they just a surveillance apparatus for reinforcing the power of those who govern? How is the so-called ontological turn in social theory to be read in the context of late capitalism and new social struggles? And how to interpret the crisis of the science-society relationship in the context of the growing societal impact of techno-science? Through an approach open to critical and collective inquiry, the course will try to answer these questions with the goal of providing students with a general understanding of key issues and perspectives that have been shaping the social sciences over the past half century.