Saint-Louis University - Bruxelles
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ESPO1160 - Sociology



Credits : 5

Lecturer :
Teaching assistant :
Mode of delivery :
Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory.

Timetable :
First term
Friday from 08:30 to 10:30 at Ommegang Om10

Language of instruction :
French.

Learning outcomes :
The course is an in-depth introduction to sociology. Rather than surveying the field, it explores some of the field's classics and key-authors. So doing, it aims at raising the students' awareness about the stakes at play in each sociological undertaking. These stakes are theoretical, practical, but also political and even existential. Debates and divergences amongst sociologists will thus be emphasized. More generally, the course aims at giving the students the necessary reference points and overall understanding of sociology for their future orientation in the social and human sciences.

Prerequisites :
None

Co-requisites :
None

Course contents :
The course is divided into three parts. The first part presents the founders of the discipline i.e. those that are referred to today (Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and the Chicago School). The second part presents the main theories and quoted authors that are at play on today's academic scene: critical sociology (Pierre Bourdieu, Loïc Wacquant, and others); symbolic interactionism (Howard Becker, Goffman, and others) and the actor-network-theory (Antoine Hennion, Bruno Latour, and others). The third part is made of documentary screenings which will be actively commented on during class so as to reveal the connections that exists between current documentary investigations and the overall know-how and knowledge developed in social sciences. In all three parts, an effort will be made to open up the discourse to recent events, so as to show the relevance of all theories and authors involved.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Lectures during which students must take note & extra developments made by the lecturer in order to tackle issues and questions raised by the students & back-and-forth movement between theory and classics on the one hand and news and documentaries on the other hand.

Assessment methods and criteria :
Written closed-book exam. The exam assesses the student's capacity to render the course's material with nuance and attention for detail, as well as an understanding of the contents of the documentaries and the comments thereupon.

Recommended or required reading :
Bibliography of the course (this is not required reading) :
Anderson, Nels, 1923. The Hobo. The Sociology of the Homeless Man. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Réédité en 1961. (traduction disponible)

Becker, Howard, 1963. Outsiders: Studies in Sociology of Deviance. New York & London: The Free Press & Collier-MacMillan Limited. (traduction disponible)

Bourdieu, Pierre, 1979. La Distinction: critique sociale du jugement, Paris: Les éditions de Minuit.

Bourdieu, Pierre & Jean-Claude Passeron, 1964, Les héritiers: les étudiants et la culture. Paris: Les éditions de Minuit.

Durkheim, Emile, 1897. Le Suicide. Paris: Alcan (récemment réédité).

Durkheim, 1895, Les règles de la méthode sociologique, Paris: Alcan. (récemment réédité).

Goffman, Erving, 1968. Asiles: études sur la condition sociale des malades mentaux. Paris: Les éditions de Minuit.

Latour, Bruno, 1991. Nous n'avons jamais été modernes. Paris: La Découverte.

Latour, Bruno, 1996. Petite réflexion sur le culte moderne des dieux faitiches. Paris: éditions Synthélabo.

Park, Robert & Ernest Burgess, 1921, ed. Introduction to the Science of Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Park, Robert & Ernest Burgess & Roderick McKenzie, 1925, The City, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Réédité en 1967.

Wacquant, Loïc, 1999. Prisons de la misère. Paris: Raisons d'agir.

Weber, Max, 2000 (1904). L'Éthique protestante et l'esprit du capitalisme, Paris, Flammarion.



Other information :
Lectures, first term, 30 hours