Sociology of Culture
Code: 104999 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2501928 Audiovisual Communication | FB | 2 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Avraham Yehudah Astor
- Email:
- avi.astor@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course
Objectives and Contextualisation
The main objectives of this course are:
a) To learn to think sociologically about culture broadly conceived
b) To understand the main theoretical perspectives for examining processes of cultural acquisition and the role of culture in the social construction of reality
c) To acquire tools for analyzing cultural phenomena empirically, putting them into context, and understanding their meaning
Competences
- Master the key concepts and knowledge that allow modern society and politics to be interpreted.
- Rigorously apply scientific thinking.
Learning Outcomes
- Assimilate the necessary knowledge of social and political structure to understand the processes and the development of modern audiovisual phenomena.
- Define the basic concepts of political science.
- Define the basic concepts of sociological analysis.
- Rigorously apply scientific thinking.
Content
Part A. Sociological perspectives on culture: a theoretical, methodological and conceptual introduction
a.1. What do we mean when we talk about culture? Conceptual clarifications
a.2. Cultural sociology vs sociology of culture
a.3. Marxist and neo-Marxist (e.g., the Frankfurt School) perspectives on culture
a.3. Durkheim and neo-Durkheimian perspectives on culture
Part B.Interrogating culture from different angles
c.1. Embodying culture? Reflections on culture, body, and the self
c.2. Culture and the everyday: love, food and leisure
c.3. Inequalities and culture: class, gender, and race
c.4. Sensing culture: taste, emotions and symbolic boundaries
c.5. The production of culture: fields, scenes and actors
c.6. Culture and the making of the community: religions, nations and memory
c.7. Globalization and cultural transformation
The course program will be available on the first day of class. Students will find all information on the Virtual Campus: a description of activities, teaching materials, and any necessary information for completing the course.
Methodology
The course is organized around five types of activities:
a) Lectures that outline the main approach to the subject
b) Workshops where readings are discussed and / or joint work is carried out around specific issues
c) Personal and group tutorials
d) Oral group presentations
e) In-class exams
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 | |||
| Lectures | 52 | 2.08 | 1, 3, 2 |
| Tutorials scheduled with the professor | 3 | 0.12 | |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Oral group presentations | 15 | 0.6 | 4, 1 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Exams | 6 | 0.24 | 4, 1, 3, 2 |
| Readings | 36 | 1.44 | 4, 1, 3, 2 |
Assessment
Students will be evaluated on the basis of:
1) Class participation, comprehension of readings and a group presentation on a topic relevant to the course (20%)
2) A mid-term exam consisting of short essays that cover the subject matter of the course (40%)
3) A final exam consisting of short essays that cover the subject matter of the course (40%)
- Students who have not completed the course assignments will receive a grade of “Did Not Attend.”
- If a student does not pass, there is the possibility of taking a 'recovery' exam. In accordance with Article 112 ter. of the UAB Academic Regulations, to participate in the recovery exam, students must have been previously assessed in a set of activities whose evaluation comprises a minimum of two thirds of the total grade of the course. Students must also have obtained a minimum grade of 3,5.
- In accordance with article 117.2 of the UAB Academic Regulations, the assessment of repeat students may consist of a single synthesis test. Repeating students who wish to take advantage of this possibility will need to contact the professor at the beginning of the course.
Single evaluation
For those who choose to undergo a single assessment, it will consist of a comprehensive exam of greater length comprising essays on material from the entire class.
The revision of the final grade follows thesame procedure as for the continuous evaluation, and the recovery exam will be the same.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is to use the work of others as if it were your own. When using books, articles, websites or any other material, it is mandatory to reference the original work, clearly indicating within the text which references correspond to which phrases orsentences. When quoting a text word by word, it is essential to put the fragment quoted in quotation marks. Plagiarism is a serious infraction, equivalent to copying on an exam. It will result in a grade of zero.
For more information on plagiarism, you can look at the guide on "How to cite and how to avoid plagiarism": <https://www.uab.cat/doc/GuiaCitesiPlagiEstudiants>. See also: <https://www.uab.cat/web/study-and-research/how-to-cite-and-create-your-bibliography-1345738248581.html>.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class participation, readings and group presentation | 20% | 18 | 0.72 | 4, 1 |
| Final exam | 40% | 10 | 0.4 | 4, 1, 3, 2 |
| Mid-term exam | 40% | 10 | 0.4 | 4, 1, 3, 2 |
Bibliography
Austin, John Langshaw. 1975. How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Brubaker, Rogers. 2013. “Language, religion and the politics of difference.” Nations and Nationalism 19(1):1-20. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-8129.2012.00562.x
Butler, Judith. 2013. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.
Butler, Judith. 2007. El género en disputa. Barcelona: Paídos.
Cerulo, Karen A. 2018. “Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-Making, and Meaning Attribution.” American Sociological Review 83:361–89.
Durkheim, Emile. 1995. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: The Free Press.
Eliasoph, Nina and Paul Lichterman. 2003. “Culture in Interaction.” American Journal of Sociology 108:735–94.
Foucault, Michel. 2002. Vigilar y castigar. Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores.
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture 1973.” In The Interpretation of Cultures, 3–33. New York: Basic Books.
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.
Lamont, Michèle. 1992. Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lamont, Michèle. 2021. The Dignity of Working Men. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lizardo, Omar. 2017. “Improving Cultural Analysis: Considering Personal Culture in Its Declarative and Nondeclarative Modes.” American Sociological Review 82:88–115. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122416675175?journalCode=asra
Rivera, Lauren A. 2012. “Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms.” American Sociological Review 77:999–1022.
Roy, Olivier. 2013. Holy Ignorance: When Religion andCulture Part Ways. London: Oxford University Press.
Sabido Ramos, Olga (2019). Los sentidos del cuerpo: el giro sensorial en la investigación social y los estudios de género. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México / CIEG.
Schudson, Michael. 1989. “How Culture Works: Perspectives from Media Studies on the Efficacy of Symbols.” Theory and Society 18:153–80.
Sewell, William Hamilton. 2005. Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Swidler, Ann. 2001. Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Vaisey, Stephen. 2009. “Motivation and Justification: A Dual‐Process Model of Culture in Action.” American Journal of Sociology 114:1675–1715.
Weber, Max. 1992. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: Routledge.
Zerubavel, Eviatar. 2015. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Social Structure of Irrelevance. Oxford University Press.
Software
This subject does not require use of specific software.