Sociology of Culture
Code: 104999 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Audiovisual Communication | FB | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Avraham Yehudah Astor
- Email:
- avi.astor@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
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
Learning Outcomes
- CM19 (Competence) To turn audiovisual products into tools for social transformation through the positive representation of historically marginalised groups and the ideas of inclusiveness and equality.
- CM19 (Competence) To turn audiovisual products into tools for social transformation through the positive representation of historically marginalised groups and the ideas of inclusiveness and equality.
- CM19 (Competence) To turn audiovisual products into tools for social transformation through the positive representation of historically marginalised groups and the ideas of inclusiveness and equality.
- KM24 (Knowledge) To define the basic concepts of sociological thought on culture.
- KM24 (Knowledge) To define the basic concepts of sociological thought on culture.
- KM25 (Knowledge) To select the knowledge of social structure necessary for creating contemporary audiovisual products.
- KM25 (Knowledge) To select the knowledge of social structure necessary for creating contemporary audiovisual products.
- SM26 (Skill) To determine which audiovisual products have the potential to create a fan base.
- SM27 (Skill) To explain the social effects of entertainment through audiovisual consumption.
- SM27 (Skill) To explain the social effects of entertainment through audiovisual consumption.
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.
The content of the subject will be sensitive to aspects related to the gender perspective and the use of inclusive language.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 52 | 2.08 | |
| Tutorials scheduled with the professor | 3 | 0.12 | |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Oral group presentations | 15 | 0.6 | |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Exams | 6 | 0.24 | |
| Readings | 36 | 1.44 |
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.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class participation, readings and group presentation | 20% | 18 | 0.72 | CM19, KM25, SM26 |
| Final exam | 40% | 10 | 0.4 | KM24, SM27 |
| Mid-term exam | 40% | 10 | 0.4 | KM24, SM27 |
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%)
- If a student does not pass, there is the possibility of taking a 're-take' exam. To take the re-take 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. If a student takes the re-take exame, the maximum possible grade for the class is a 5,0.
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.
Non-Assessable
Following point 9 of Article 266 of the UAB Academic Regulations, if it is determined that the student has not provided sufficient evidence to be evaluated, the subject will be classified as non-assessable.
Artificial Intelligence policy
For this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted exclusively in support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction or translations. The student must clearly identify which parts have been generated with this technology, specify the tools used and include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity. A lack of transparency in the use of AI for class activities will be considered a lack of academic honesty and may lead to a partial or total reduction in the grade of the activity, or to greater sanctions in serious cases.
Plagiarism and other irregularities
Plagiarismis 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 indicatingwithin 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. In accordance with academic regulations, any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluated activity will result in a grade of 0. In the event that several irregularities occur in evaluated activities for the same course, the final grade for this course will be 0.
For more information on plagiarism, see 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>.
Bibliography
Al-Gharbi, Musa. 2024. We Have Never Been Woke. Princeton University Press.
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. 1968 [1912]. Las formas elementales de la vida religiosa. Buenos Aires: Schapire.
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
Marx, Karl. 2014. La ideologia alemana. Akal.
Oshotse, Abraham, Yael Berda, and Amir Goldberg. 2024. “Cultural Tariffing: Appropriation and the Right to Cross Cultural Boundaries.” American Sociological Review 89(2):346–90.
Rivera, Lauren A. 2012. “Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms.” American Sociological Review 77:999–1022.
Roy, Olivier. 2010. La santa ignorancia. Barcelona: Península.
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. 1991 [1905). La ética protestante y el espíritu de capitalismo. Puebla: Premia Editora.
Zerubavel, Eviatar. 2015. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Social Structure of Irrelevance. Oxford University Press.
Zubov, Shoshana. 2020. La era del capitalismo de la vigilancia. Paidós.
Software
This subject does not require use of specific software.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 4 | Catalan/Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |