Critical Social Theory: The Predicament of Modernity

Semester and Year	SP 2012
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1306
Section	001
Instructor	Ali Mirsepassi
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	SOC

Description

The central theme of this course is modernity as a social and intellectual project. We will read a number of critical social theory texts which deal with modernity as their central theoretical subjects. The goal of this class is to introduce various theoretical perspectives about modernity and to examine different aspects of the current debate on modernity and its fate in our time. In the first few weeks of the class we will study original works by “classical” social theorists (Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber). We will then read two modernist texts (Habermas’ Transformation of Public Sphere and Berman’s All That Is Solid Melts Into Air ), a text critical of modernity (Foucault’s Knowledge and Power ), and a text which deals with modernity and the non-western world (Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom ). This is a relatively advanced social theory course and student participation in the course requires some knowledge of classical or contemporary social theory.

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)