Vorlesung

A Sociology of Modernity

Prof. Dr. Joost van Loon

Institut für Soziologie, LMU

Nottingham Trent University, U.K.

Details

• Sprechstunde: Di 10-12, • Konradstraße 6, Zi. 205• Email: joost.vanloon@soziologie.uni-muenchen.de

• NB Students on the Excellence Programme will need to write an essay (8-10 pages spaced 1.5) at the end of the lecture series. A reading list will be distributed next week. A list of essay questions (from which you need to choose one) will be made available before the Christmas break

Outline of the lecture

1. What is (wrong with) Sociology?

2. The Problem of ‘the Social‘

3. Rationale and Overview of the Lecture Series

The problem of sociology

• Sociology (a term coined by Auguste Comte in the 19th Century) is a ‘discursive space‘ within which certain sets of statements, assumptions and perspectives could be given a certain credibility (= the nature of an institutionalised discipline).

Three questions

1. What are these statements (of sociology) concerned with?

2. What is the nature of such statements?

3. What kind of credibility was sought and why?

What are these statements concerned with?

• socio-logy, the logos of the social, logos = the word, law, reason, discourse (Greek); socialis = allied, companiable, friendship (Latin).

• common use of the word:– agreeable, companiable, taking account of the other

(as opposed to a-social)– that which belongs to a collective of (human) beings

(e.g. social services)– time/space outside that of ‘work’ (e.g. a ;’social life’)

The social

• interaction, • connection/relation • bonding

• Different ‘affective‘ charge (levels of intimacy)• Sociation: Inclusion and Exclusion• ‘Common‘, Common Sense, Communion,

Community, Communication

Durkheim versus Tarde

• Tarde: the social relates to all types of connections between and among people, artefacts, technologies, procedures etc.

• Durkheim: the social is a separate sphere of action, a distinctive dimension of society (distinct from economics, politics, law, technology etc.)

Durkheim

• Social facts: human action is conditoned and structured and can therefore be studied ‘objectively‘

• Sociality becomes the establishment of morality in everyday life.

• Example: Suicide as consequence of lack of social bonding, social integration.

• Social = relationships + moral codes

What is the nature of such statements?

• The social as a distinctive field:• (Social) Needs• (Social) Power• (Social) Desire

• Sociology is rarely about ‘the pure social’. It has a lot of dealings with economics, politics, law, administration, science, literature, media, communication, psychology and even medicine and biology.

What kind of credibility was sought and why?

• To belong to an institution: to be a science (need)• To have autonomy over who can be called a sociologist

(power)• Recognition (desire)

• To obtain credibililty, sociology had to adhere to the Scientific Method

• The object of sociological research became ‘society‘• Society and human action came to be treated as things

that can be observed and/or measured

The task of sociology

• (1) identify the patterns

• (2) determine the underlying structures (causes) in its social dimensions.

The Problem of the Social

• Being social: to be open to interactions with others, being friendly, communicative, considerate to others.

• Being sociable: a specific attunement to others, a skill, an ability to engage others, facilitate friendships, set up relationships, affect others so as to increase their connectedness.

The opposite: anti-social?

• As a problem for society: (youths) hanging around in public spaces, damaging property, threatening others, engaged in petty criminal activities, using drugs and alcohol

Anti-social behaviour

• But ……their actions are in essence also social: often geared towards establishing, maintaining and enhancing social relationships (within peer-groups).

Therefore….

• Rather than referring to the violation of social relationships, the term anti-social is used to designate the violation of specific moral codes. That is, the meaning of the concept of ‘the social’ shifts from the concrete practices of interacting, connecting, relating and bonding, to a more abstract- symbolic evaluation of the appropriateness of certain ways of behaving.

The adverb ‘socially‘

• ‘acting socially’ could mean acting in consideration of others, or acting according to the dominant norms of a group.

• Both notions have a descriptive and evaluative component.

• Sociology has become a normative discipline.

The social as a distinctive field

• Not– Economics– Politics– Culture

• Also Not– Technology– Science– Law– The Military

Social versus Nature

• The social is everything the natural is not. Social sciences versus natural sciences. The social belongs to the realm of what the human being produces (with the exception of its biological functions).

• However, in this sense, the social means exactly the same as the cultural, the economic or the political.

Bruno Latour: Re-assembling the Social

• Return to Tarde: a functional use of ‘social‘ as referring to ‘associations‘;

• Sociology as an ‘empirical‘ enterprise: not general observations but concrete studies of everyday practices of association;

• Sociology as inclusive: associations between techno-science, political-economy, law, warfare, culture etc.

• Explicitation of normative evaluations, the source of which is external to a sociology of associations (e.g. morality, ethics, politics).

• Sociology as explicitation and clarification

Vorlesungsprogramme (1)

17.10.2007 Introduction: the Problem of Sociology24.10.2007 Introduction: the Birth of Modern Thought

I Origins of Modernity31.10.2007 The Protestant Revolution07.11.2007 The Industrial Revolution14.11.2007 The Birth of the Nation State

II Benevolent Modernizations21.11.2007 Health28.11.2007 Education05.12.2007 Family

Vorlesungsprogramme (2)III Decompositions of the Modern Order12.12.2007 Globalization19.12.2007 Individualization

IV Modernity in Crisis09.01.2008 Environmental Crisis 16.01.2008 The Coming of the Plagues23.01.2008 Crime and Urban Unrest30.01.2008 War and Terrorism

V Epilogue 06.02.2008 Postmodernity versus the Cosmopolitan Condition I13.02.2008 Postmodernity versus the Cosmopolitan Condition II

22.02.2008 Deadline Essay (for Excellence students only)