Syllabus
1. introduction - about the course, its objectives and technical issues
2. an attempt to form a general theory of action (T.Parsons - The Structure of Social Action)
3. revision of functionalism - function, conflict, neofunctionalism (Merton, Coser, Alexander)
4. behaviour, exchange and rationality (Homans, Blau, Coleman, Olson)
5. structuralism - assumptions and applications (Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Bourdieu)
6. the habitus as a structured and structuring structure (Bourdieu)
7. a duality of structure and the theory of structuration (Giddens)
8. poststructuralism - discourse, dispositive, forms of power and symbolic exchange (Foucault, Baudrillard)
9. the theory of figuration - civilising process and rules of the soccer (Elias)
10. system theory of society (Luhmann)
11. social constructivism (Berger + Luckmann, Kabele)
Annotation
The aim of the course is to discuss selected topic (and authors) of important post-war sociological theories. The syllabus is focused on the analysis of antinomical concepts of "action" and "structure" in modern sociological thinking and various attempts to solve this theoretical "dilemma".
In this frame, the main attention will be paid to the scale of interpretations and forms of argumentations of production and reproduction of social order.