Introduction to Sociology
Code: 101275 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500256 Social and Cultural Anthropology | FB | 1 | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- María Esther Fernández Mostaza
- Email:
- mariaesther.fernandez@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- spanish (spa)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- Yes
Prerequisites
There are no specific prerequisites to take this course
Objectives and Contextualisation
The main objective of the course is to offer discursive resources (theoretical and methodological) that allow you to start in the sociological imagination, helping you to analyze and understand how the structure of human interdependencies has changed (from modernity to the present day) and which have been the effects of these variations. In this analysis and in this understanding we will pay very special attention to the different forms of governance, control and social resistance, and in the forms of "sociality", "individualization" and "subjectivity" that they entail.
It is not intended to address all the implications of this discipline, but to offer the bases of the sociological perspective in order to analyze the basic aspects of the social structure and inequalities. After a brief introduction to the sociological perspective, a mark of the discipline, the program focuses first on the process of socialization and the implications it has on the individual-society dialectic relationship. Secondly, the key aspects for understanding the social structure are addressed, linking the question of power and social control. Third, it explains how the processes linked to the social construction of identity are immersed in social structures, power and control. Finally, the great current questions about the structure of inequalities in the global world are explored: the change in the class structure and the creation of new forms of identity, considering gender as those most suggestive of being understood in the present.
Competences
- Carry out effective written work or oral presentations adapted to the appropriate register in different languages.
- Introduce changes in the methods and processes of the field of knowledge to provide innovative responses to the needs and demands of society.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse a situation and identify points for improvement.
- Analysing a contemporary fact and relating it to its historical background.
- Carrying out an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
- Describing social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way, bearing in mind the complexity of the involved factors, its causes and its effects.
- Describing the structural framework of life in society.
- Explaining the elements that affect an individual's inclusion in society: family, education, media, culture, religion and ideology.
- Express ideas with a specific vocabulary appropriate to the discipline.
- Identify main and secondary ideas and express them with linguistic correctness.
- Identify situations that require improvement or change.
- Identifying the main ideas of a subject-related text and making a diagram.
- Interpreting today's main events from physical, economic, social and cultural diversity.
Content
1. The social character of human nature: culture and society
1.1. Human animality: culture as a constellation of topoi
1.2. Culture, cognitive architecture and structure of sensibility
1.3. The human condition:
a. The articulation of fundamental social relations
b. The love of life and the fear of death
1.4. The sociological imagination
2. From Modernity to Globalization: discipline, biopower, risk management and privatization of life
2.1. Beyond Repression: The Formation of Individualized Individuals
2.2. Beyond Concealment: The Sociology of Occult Knowledge
3. Sociality, individualization and subjectivity in the global society
3.1. Space-time compression and the construction of a new social geography
3.2. Globalization as the gestation of a weightless, extraterritorial and floating power
Methodology
The teaching is articulated from two types of sessions in the classroom: lectures by the teacher and seminars, where practical exercises and readings by students are carried out.
The lectures are oriented to the presentation by the teacher of the concepts and central arguments of the subject in the different contents of the program. all classes will promote the active participation of students based on questions for the debate.
The seminars are workspaces on the contents of the subject based on readings and practical exercises that the students have to do. Thus, the training activities will be of different types:
- Attendance to class and participation in debates
- Compulsory readings
- Individual and group work
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master Class | 45 | 1.8 | 5, 4, 6, 11 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Group work | 24 | 0.96 | 2, 4, 6, 11 |
| Presentations at seminars | 6 | 0.24 | 6 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Readings | 67 | 2.68 | 2, 3, 10 |
Assessment
The evaluation will be to give an account (and realize) of what has been learned with the materials worked during the course, that is, the readings announced in this program and the audiovisuals.
My proposal is that, in the continuous assessment modality, each student commits to attend the sessions regularly -both those dedicated to theoretical and practical credits- and to have a certain "presence" in them. From here, the work for the evaluation will consist of exercising intelligence to prepare a short essay (between 2 and 4 pages on "printed paper") for the three blocks of the program; I would set and announce the topic of reflection and the delivery date (with a minimum period of one week for the preparation of the work); Because the work makes compatible the subject, the deadlines and the delivery format for the final evaluation, they must be scrupulously respected.
Keep in mind that each essay will be asked to reflect on the readings done so far, that is, they must complement each essay with the preceding readings.
- The first delivery: 25% of the final grade
- The second 25%
- And the third 30%
Remember that each essay cannot exceed 4 pages except the last one, which can be up to 6 pages long.
The remaining 20% would be based on the contribution of each one to the class group, and visual thinking exercives.
In the event that the average of the continuous assessment does not reach the grade of 5, it will be considered that the student has suspended the assessment.
At the time of carrying out each assessment activity, the teacher will inform the student (Moodle) of the procedure and date of revision of the grades.
To participate in the recovery exam, students must have previously been assessed in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade.
IMPORTANT
In the event that the student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act (such as plagiarism or similar), this assessment act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that can be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.- First essay | 25% | 1 | 0.04 | 2, 5, 4, 6 |
| 2.- Second Essay | 25% | 1 | 0.04 | 2, 5, 4, 3, 6, 10, 11 |
| Final essay | 30% | 3 | 0.12 | 2, 5, 4, 6, 11 |
| Presence and contribution of each one to the class group. | 10% | 0 | 0 | 4, 3, 6, 10, 11 |
| Visual thinking practice | 10% | 3 | 0.12 | 1, 7, 8, 9 |
Bibliography
Compulsory bibliography
BIBLIOGRAFIA BÀSICA
Bauman, Z. (2006). Modernidad y Holocausto (3ª. Ed.). Madrid. Sequitur.
Berger, P. (1986). Invitació a la sociologia: una perspectiva humanística. Barcelona. Herder.
Bourdieu, P i Wacquant L. J. (1994). Per a una sociologia reflexiva.
Cardús, S. (1999) . La mirada del sociòleg: què és, què fa, què diu la sociologia. Barcelona. Proa.
Dennis, Kingsley L. (2022), Asalto a la realidad, Barcelona, Blume.
Gracia, Carla (2022), Amb ulls de dona, Barcelona, Univers.
Marx, K i Engels, F. (1997) Manifiesto comunista. Madrid. Akal.
Porte A et al. (2006). La asimilación segmentada sobre el terreno: la nueva segunda generación al inicio de la vida adulta. Migraciones. (19):7-58
Putnam R. (1995). Bowling Alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy. 65-78
Putnam, R. (2003). El declive del capital social: un estudio internacional sobre las sociedades y el sentido comunitario. Barcelona. Galaxia Gutenberg.
Ritzer, G. (1996). La 'McDonalización' de la Sociedad: un anàlisis de la racionalización en la vida cotidiana. Barcelona. Ariel.
Roy, O. (2010). La santa ignorancia: el tiempo de la religión sin cultura. Barcelona. Ediciones Península.
Bajo Santos, N. (2007). Conceptos y teorías sobre la inmigración. Anuario jurídico y económico (40) 817-840.
Stolcke, V. i Wolfson, L. (2000). La 'naturaleza' de la nacionalidad. Desarrollo Económico, 40 (157), 23-24.
Weber, M. (1994). L’ética protestant i l’espirit del capitalisme. Barcelona. Edicions 62.
Complementary bibliography
During the class sessions, "non-compulsory"reading bibliography will be offered depending on the most specific issues for which you express curiosity and / or desire to know.
Block 1:
“Sociología crítica. Teoría y práctica de la libertad” a la revista Archipiélago, nº 53 (Nov. 2002).
Arendt, H. (1958): La condición humana, Barcelona, Paidós, 1993.
Bauman, Z.(1999): La cultura como praxis, Barcelona, Paidós, 2002.
Bourdieu, P. (1984): Cuestiones de Sociología, Madrid, Istmo, 2000
Bourdieu, P y Wacquant, L (1992): Una invitación a la sociología reflexiva, Buenos Aires, siglo xxi, 2005.
Campillo, A.(1985): Adiós al progreso. Una meditación sobre la Historia, Barcelona, Anagrama, 1995.
Castoriadis, C. (1996): El ascenso de la insignificancia, Madrid, Cátedra, 1998.
Elías, N. (1970): Sociología fundamental. Barcelona, Gedisa, 1995.
Elías, N. (1987): La sociedad de los individuos, Barcelona, Península, 1990
Sennett, R. (2006): La cultura del nuevo capitalismo, Barcelona, Anagrama, 2006.
Block 2:
Anders, G. (2002): La obsolescencia del hombre (Vol.I) Sobre el alma en la época de la segunda revolución industrial. Valencia, Pre-textos, 2011
Anders, G. (2002): La obsolescencia del hombre (Vol. II) Sobre la destrucción de la vida en la época de la tercera revolución industrial. Valencia, Pre-textos, 2011.
Bauman, Z. (1989): Modernidad y Holocausto. Madrid, Sequitur.
Colectivo Situaciones (2003): Argentina. Apuntes para el nuevo protagonismo social. Barcelona, Virus. 2003
De Giorgi, A. (2000): Tolerancia cero. Estrategias y prácticas de la sociedad de control, Barcelona, Virus, 2005.
Foucault, M:Microfísica del poder, Madrid, La piqueta, 1991.
Ibañez, T. (2005) Contra la dominación. Variaciones sobre la salvaje exigencia de libertad que brota del relativismo y de las consonancias entre Castoriadis, Foucault, Rorty y Serres. Barcelona, Gedisa (sólo la Parte II).
López Petit, S. (2009): La movilización global. Breve tratado para atacar la realidad. Madrid. Traficantes de sueños. Mapas, 2009
Morey, M.: Escritos sobre Foucault, Madrid, Sexto Piso, 2014.
Sassen, S. (2007): Una sociología de la globalización. Buenos Aires, Katz Editores, 2007.
- Block 3
Anders, G.: 2002, op. Cit., vol. I y II.
Baudrillard, J. (1997): Pantalla total, Barcelona, Anagrama, 2000.
Byung-Chul Han (2012): La sociedad de la transparencia, Barcelona, Herder, 2013.
Foucault, M.: Hermeneutica del sujeto, Madrid, La Piqueta, 1994
Lipovetsky, G. (1983): La era del vacío. Ensayos sobre el individualismo contemporáneo. Barcelona, Anagrama, 1986.
Sánchez Ferlosio, R (1993): Vendrán más años malos y nos harán más ciegos. Barcelona, Destino, 1993.
Sennett, R. (1998): La corrosión del carácter. Las consecuencias personales del trabajo en el nuevo capitalismo, Barcelona, Anagrama, 2006 (9ªed).
Sennett, R. (2003): El respeto. Sobre la dignidad del hombre en un mundo de desigualdad. Barcelona, Anagrama, 2003.
Tiqqun (2012): Primeros materiales para una teoría de la jovencita y “Hombres-máquina: modo de empleo”. Madrid, Acuarela, 2012.
Software
You do not need to use any specific software. However, a basic knowledge of a bibliographic database manager such as Mendeley, is recommended.