Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC2005: Theoretical Sociology

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

In this course, you will be introduced to a wide range of theoretical texts in social theory, classical and modern, and will develop an ability to read such texts closely. However, you will also be encouraged to think critically about the nature and purpose of social theorizing—to ask what the point of abstract theory is, and what theory is good for. We will then examine a range of theoretical perspectives and substantive topics that can be used to deepen our understanding of the social nature of personal and everyday experiences—of ourselves, and of others in our society and around the world. In assignments and exams, you will be expected to illustrate and extend the ideas they encounter, using concrete examples from their own lives and surroundings.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of a range of current perspectives in social theory 2. demonstrate an ability to critically evaluate these perspectives and to relate these perspectives to empirical studies and findings;
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. demonstrate in writing an ability to reflect upon, apply and criticise theoretical models and conjectures generally, 4. show an ability to analyse and critically engage with materials involving complex reasoning;
Personal and Key Skills	5. demonstrate an ability to critically engage in complex arguments verbally and in small groups. 6. demonstrate an ability to effectively communicate in written form complex arguments and ideas

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Critical theory; structure and agency; technology and rationality; postmodernism; practice theory; interpretivism; biopolitics; social construction of knowledge

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity	33	Lectures 22 x 90 minute lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activity	11	Tutorials
Guided independent study	163	Reading and preparation for lectures, tutorials, and exam
Guided independent study	93	Preparation for and writing of essay

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Abbot, A. (2007) Against Narrative: A Preface to Lyrical Sociology,Sociological Theory, 25, 67-99.
Bauman, Z. (2007) Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: SAGE).
DeLanda, M. (2006) A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity (London: Continuum).
Emirbayer, M. (1997) Manifesto for a Relational Sociology, American Journal of Sociology, 103, 281-317.
Foucault, M. (1979) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books).
Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Habermas, J. (1970) Toward a Rational Society: Student Protest, Science, and Politics (Boston: Beacon Press).
Haraway, D. (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press).
Heidegger, M. (1977 [1954]) The Question Concerning Technology, in D. Krell (ed.), Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings (New York: Harper & Row), pp. 287-317.
Latour, B. (1987) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Rose, N. (2007) The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).