Analysis of sociological theories

Teacher(s)

Delchambre Jean-Pierre;

Language

French

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

This course offers an analytical approach to the main theoretical currents of sociology, as well as a reflection on the constitution and the object of sociology ("to think the social or the society"). Since there can be no question of claiming an encyclopedic exhaustiveness, the objective is to presenting guidelines and criteria allowing students to appropriate in a reasoned way a variety of conceptual resources (theoretical tools, but also postures and "gestures" sociological). More specific learning objectives : - Familiarization with a significant range of sociological theories. - Put into perspective (historical and analytical) to situate the main sociological theories in relation to each other. - Go beyond an abstract approach of theories by showing how a concept, once it has been historicized and mobilized in a situated investigation approach, becomes an operational tool whose relevance can be evaluated both from the point of view of logical coherence as in the development of hypotheses giving rise to empirical tests. - Reflect on some constitutive concepts of sociological thought. The theoretical contributions addressed in this course will be articulated to the following three concerns : - 1. To gain a better understanding of the scope and limits of certain sociological theories by placing them in their historical context of emergence. - 2. Realize that the conceptual tools provided by certain sociological theories do not lend themselves to any type of use, that is, that there are affinities between the questions that are raised and the theoretical resources available to them – in short that the choice of concepts and models of analysis is partly a function of the object and the interests of research. - 3. How can one proceed from an interpretative pluralism which is at once rigorous and consistent in conceptual and methodological terms, and which does not fall into the facilities of a relativistic eclecticism.

Content

The course will consist of an introduction, a few chapters (probably four), and a return to a few issues and threads as a provisional conclusion. In the introduction, three points will be addressed: 1°) the birth of sociology (as a scientific discipline institutionalized at the university and in the field of research); 2°) an overview of the main sociological theories from the end of the 19th century to the present day, by identifying a few principles of intelligibility allowing these theories to be situated (e.g. the "roots" referring to the founding contributions, the " trunk" in the form of attempts at synthesis around the middle of the 20th century, and the diverse and even heterogeneous "branches" resulting from the decomposition of functionalist synthesis from the 1950s; or even the pendulum movements between macro and micro , the actor and the system, description and criticism, etc.); 3°) some considerations on the current situation of sociology (risk of bursting or fragmentation of the field? between deconstruction and reconstruction; rethinking the relationship between the individual and society in the perspective of a sociological holism distinguishing itself from methodological individualism; or even thinking of “individualism” as a form of social life, assuming social and institutional resources, with “autonomy” conceived as a capacity referring to learning, etc.). In each chapter, it will be a question of starting from a classic author, then gradually making the link with more recent authors as well as with contemporary questions and issues; in this way, we aim, on the one hand, to show what is alive and current in certain authors who have laid the foundations of sociological knowledge, and on the other hand, to promote a work of contextualization historical (this aspect will be taken up and developed within the framework of the involving activity).

Teaching methods

The theoretical course is completed by readings of texts that the student must perform on his own. The knowledge of the subject of the theoretical course and that of the complementary texts are the subject of an evaluation during the same examination (see below).

During the theoretical course, the teacher exposes the subject in a way that is pedagogically effective and attractive. Students are invited to ask questions and to debate, the size of the audience allowing an interactive pedagogy.
Students have written supports (documents, texts ...).
Note that the course notes are not exhaustive.
Good note-taking is essential.

In a course of analysis of sociological theories, it is important for students to confront texts, which is why students are expected to read and appropriate a series of bibliographic resources.
The texts to read are a complement or extension of the subject taught in the theoretical course.
The main reading keys are provided by the teacher.
The texts are made available to students via Moodle.
 

Evaluation methods

Oral exam.
The EU evaluation has two components whose weight in the overall score is calculated as follows:

- knowledge of the subject of the theoretical course: 60% of the overall mark (12/20)
- knowledge of additional texts: 40% of the overall score (8/20).
The language of evaluation is French.

Note that the part relating to the reading of texts will be taken into account only if the student obtains at least one third of the points for the part of the examination corresponding to the theoretical course (4/12, on basis of minimum 2 Questions). Indeed, the part of the exam on the theoretical course evaluates basic skills which, if they are not acquired, do not allow to consider to take into account the reading part of texts. In other words, it is considered that a deficiency that is too serious in terms of basic skills (less than 4/12) can not be compensated by knowledge of texts with a complement status. The principle applied here refers to a logic of learning outcomes and not an arithmetic logic. If the text reading part is not taken into account at the evaluation level, the score out of 12 is adjusted in score out of 20 according to a rule of proportionality: 1/12 = 1.66 / 20 rounded to 2/20; 2/12 = 3.33 / 20 rounded to 3/20; 3/12 = 4.99 / 20 rounded to 5/20.
This formula corresponds to a cascade evaluation. Students answer questions on their mastery of the essential learning outcomes (= theoretical course). Only those who have obtained 1/3 of the points in these questions are invited to answer the questions referring to the implied activity. 

The evaluation method is the same during the two exam sessions.

Bibliography

Bibliographie sélective

- Jean-Michel Berthelot, L'intelligence du social. Le pluralisme explicatif en sociologie, Paris, P.U.F., 1990.
- Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Chamboredon et Jean-Claude Passeron, Le métier de sociologue, Paris, Mouton, 1968.
- Daniel Cefaï (dir.), L'enquête de terrain, Paris, La Découverte, 2003.
- Philippe Corcuff, Les nouvelles sociologies, Paris, Nathan, coll. 128, 1999 (1ère éd.).
- Jean-Pierre Durand et Robert Weil (dir.), Sociologie contemporaine, Paris, Vigot, 1989.
- Jean-Louis Fabiani, La sociologie comme elle s'écrit. De Bourdieu à Latour, Paris, EHESS, 2015.
- Anthony Giddens, Sociology, London, Polity Press, 1989.
- Johan Heilbron, Naissance de la sociologie, Marseille, Agone, 2006 (traduit du néerlandais; éd. orig. : 1990).
- Marc Joly, La révolution sociologique. De la naissance d'un régime de pensée scientifique à la crise de la philosophie (XIXe-XXe siècle), Paris, La Découverte, 2017.
- Bruno Karsenti, L'homme total. Sociologie, anthropologie et philosophie chez Marcel Mauss, Paris, P.U.F., 1997.
- Bernard Lahire, L'esprit sociologique, Paris, La Découverte, 2005.
- Michel Lallement, Histoire des idées sociologiques de Parsons aux contemporains, Paris, Armand Colin, 2007 (3ème édition).
- Cyril Lemieux (dir.), Pour les sciences sociales. 101 livres, Paris; EHESS, 2017.
- Danilo Martuccelli, Sociologies de la modernité, Paris, Gallimard, coll. Folio-essais, 1999.
- Laurent Mucchielli, La découverte du social. Naissance de la sociologie en France, Paris, La Découverte, 1998.
- Jean-Claude Passeron, Le raisonnement sociologique, Paris, Albin Michel, 2006 (nouvelle édition revue et augmentée; 1ère éd. : 1991.
- Neil J. Smelser (ed.), Handbook of Sociology, London, Sage, 1988.
- Luc Van Campenhoudt et Nicolas Marquis, Cours de sociologie, Paris, Dunod, 2014.

Faculty or entity

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