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Lecture Notes Sociological Theory 3: Society, Social Action and (AY)
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Lecture notes of the course Sociological Theory 3
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Sociological Theory 3, Lecture 1, 05-02-2024 Topics:
o Relation between learning objectives, teaching activities, and
assessment.
Bloom’s taxonomy:
Knowledge.
Comprehension.
Application.
o Course structure and set up.
12 videos covering the content of the course.
Weekly readings (stay on track with the readings).
Two weekly lectures dedicated to a Q&A session about the
content of the week: one onsite (Monday) and one online
(Friday).
One weekly seminar meeting devoted to discussing and
applying the content of the week and presentations.
Multiple-choice practice quizzes to prepare you for the final
exam.
For each week, a list of key concepts is provided that are
relevant to the exam.
36 questions to practice for the exam.
Questions for Q&A need to be hand in before Wednesday at
17.00h.
Presentations are one week later after the content is discussed.
o Canvas.
o Focus of the course.
Offer a map for navigating the terrain of sociological theory.
Explore the philosophical foundations of various sociological
theories along two axes:
Naturalism – Constructivism.
Essentialism / Substantialism – Relationalism.
The historical approach: acknowledging that sociological
perspectives are influenced by socio-historical conditions.
Abend text today:
o About the meaning of theory.
,Week 1: Videos
Naturalism:
Content of this lecture:
o Naturalism: an example.
o Naturalism: core assumptions.
o Naturalism: four challenges.
Naturalism: an example:
o Core topic of sociology: inequality.
o Discrimination in the labour market.
o What makes these findings so solid?
The field experiments.
Golden standard of science: the experimental method.
If you want to underscore these findings (so, if you think they are
real), you need to underscore the naturalist assumptions.
X needs to cause y.
High validity when supporting causal claims.
In field experiments, the independent and dependent variables
are manipulated.
o Core assumptions:
Realism.
There is a real world out there that exists independent of
our experiences.
In the example: discrimination in the labour market is a
real thing, it is not something that we have made up.
o It exists outside us.
Empiricism.
We can get excess to that real world by observing and
thinking about it (reflection) and recording our
experiences.
o Our eyes do not deceive us.
The observable world has regularities:
Reality is patterned and structured.
The observed patterns imply causality.
o Method of choice:
Experiments.
o Strict and precise research methods:
A combination of hypotheses testing, experimental or
observational methods and the theory of correspondence of
truth.
The aim of this approach is to make causal claims about (social)
reality.
o Separation between facts and values.
Descriptive and not prescriptive.
, Facts are not good or bad, you can only make statements about
facts that are true of false.
Scientific facts are not matters of opinion!
o General statements (instead of ideographic statements).
General statements (in physics even law like statements) that
can precisely describe and predict the behaviour of individual
cases.
Naturalism: four challenges:
o 1) Are social phenomena ontologically similar to natural phenomena?
Rocks do not talk back or have motives.
Does it make sense to speak of cause and effect?
Thomas Theorem that states: “if people (original: men) define
situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
Problem naturalism: natural and social phenomena have
different qualities.
o 2) Is the structure of reality patterned?
Is there a blueprint of reality?
Is there a bigger plan that governs the universe?
Is there a “clockwork universe”?
Worked well in other centuries, because it resonated with
the almighty God and religion.
o 3) Can we directly perceive reality through our senses?
Is our mind a blank slate (Tabula Rasa)?
There is no such thing as the mind as a blank slate.
Can we make sense of our experiences without prior
knowledge?
Is not our understanding of the world not moulded by prior
(social) experiences?
Is it possible to distinguish between observation and
interpretation?
o 4) How do we address the concept of “meaning”?
People are meaning makers.
Things / gestures / symbols can mean different things in different
contexts.
Is it possible to observe without taking meaning into account?
For example, the peace sign (with two fingers) means different
things in different contexts.
Should we abandon naturalism?
o Is causality a fiction?
o Are social phenomena structureless?
o Is everything “just a social construct”?
Constructivism:
The content of this lecture:
, o 1) What is the nature of the object of study?
An example: Does “race” exist?
Race is “misrecognised as a natural category”.
o 2) What is the relation between the researcher and the object of study?
The big philosophical questions regarding epistemology in the
16th century.
David Hume’s scepticism.
Kant’s approach: Transcendental idealism.
How does this work out in sociology?
Bourdieu’s Reflexive Sociology.
Constructivism:
o General assumption is that reason or the mind plays an active role in
the creation of knowledge around the world.
We are not passive observers.
o How does this work out in sociology?
1) What is the nature of the object of study?
2) What is the relation between the researcher and the object of
study?
Does “race” exist?
o Discrimination based on race in the labour market is real.
o Is race a real thing that exists independent of our minds?
o Many sociologists point out that race is socially constructed.
o That something is socially constructed, does not imply it is not real.
o Remember the Thomas theorem: if people define things as real, they
are real in their consequences.
o Things (categories, laws, institutions, etc.) that we made up as specie,
we can experience as external to us just like natural phenomena
(weather, earthquakes, gravity, etc.).
Race is “misrecognised as a natural category”:
o Emirbayer and Desmond (2015).
o Concept and analytical tool versus object of study.
o Sociologists see that racial categories are socially constructed; at the
same time, they see that they are real to peoples’ identities.
o Race is a real social construct out there in the real world, with real life
consequences.
They are labels that people identify with.
Constructivism:
o The relationship between the researcher and the object of research.
o What did the naturalists believe?
Empiricism is the way to absolute and universal knowledge.
o Some serious problems.
General law like statements.
The big philosophical questions regarding epistemology in the 16 th century:
o How do we come to know things?
o Two positions:
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