Saint-Louis University - Bruxelles
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SOCA1211 - Analysis of sociological theories



Credits : 5

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

Timetable :
First term
Wednesday from 10:45 to 12:45 at 109 Marais 210

Language of instruction :
French (with the possibility of texts in English).


Learning outcomes :
This course proposes an analytical approach of the main theoretical currents of sociology.

Since there can be no question of claiming an encyclopedic exhaustiveness, the objective is to presenting guidelines and criteria allowing students to appropriate in a reasoned way a variety of conceptual resources (theoretical tools, but also postures and "gestures" sociological).

More specific learning objectives :

- Familiarization with a significant range of sociological theories.

- Put into perspective (historical and analytical) to situate the main sociological theories in relation to each other.

- Go beyond an abstract approach of theories by showing how a concept, once it has been historicized and mobilized in a situated investigation approach, becomes an operational tool whose relevance can be evaluated both from the point of view of logical coherence as in the development of hypotheses giving rise to empirical tests.

The theoretical contributions addressed in this course will be articulated to the following three concerns :

- 1. To gain a better understanding of the scope and limits of certain sociological theories by placing them in their historical context of emergence.

- 2. Realize that the conceptual tools provided by certain sociological theories do not lend themselves to any type of use, that is, that there are affinities between the questions that are raised and the theoretical resources available to them - in short that the choice of concepts and models of analysis is partly a function of the object and the interests of research.

- 3. How can one proceed from an interpretative pluralism which is at once rigorous and consistent in conceptual and methodological terms, and which does not fall into the facilities of a relativistic eclecticism.



Prerequisites :
For the Bachelor in Law :

For the Bachelor in History :

For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

For the Bachelor in French and Romance Languages and Letters : General :

For the Bachelor in Modern Languages and Letters: German, Dutch and English :

For the Bachelor in Philosophy :

For the Bachelor in Political Sciences: General :

For the Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology :


Co-requisites :
None

Course contents :
- How to situate the theories in relation to each other? (criteria, axes, oppositions, fracture lines, famous controversies ...), taking into account contexts and research orientations.

- Sociology as analytic-empirical discipline: the plan of logical consistency and the plan of empirical testing.

- The theory is (also) a question of method. Requirements, selection criteria (between anchored description and rise in generality, micro / macro, scale games, etc.).

- To better understand certain theoretical contributions by placing them in their historical context.




Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
The theoretical course is completed by readings of texts that the student must perform on his own. The knowledge of the subject of the theoretical course and that of the complementary texts are the subject of an evaluation during the same examination (see below).

During the theoretical course, the teacher exposes the subject in a way that is pedagogically effective and attractive. Students are invited to ask questions and to debate, the size of the audience allowing an interactive pedagogy.
Students have written supports (documents, texts ...).
Note that the course notes are not exhaustive.
Good note-taking is essential.

In a course of analysis of sociological theories, it is important for students to confront texts, which is why students are expected to read and appropriate a series of bibliographic resources.
The texts to read are a complement or extension of the subject taught in the theoretical course.
The main reading keys are provided by the teacher.
The texts are made available to students via Moodle.


Assessment methods and criteria :
Oral exam.
The EU evaluation has two components whose weight in the overall score is calculated as follows:

- knowledge of the subject of the theoretical course: 60% of the overall mark (12/20)
- knowledge of additional texts: 40% of the overall score (8/20).

Note that the part relating to the reading of texts will be taken into account only if the student obtains at least one third of the points for the part of the examination corresponding to the theoretical course (4/12, on basis of minimum 2 Questions). Indeed, the part of the exam on the theoretical course evaluates basic skills which, if they are not acquired, do not allow to consider to take into account the reading part of texts. In other words, it is considered that a deficiency that is too serious in terms of basic skills (less than 4/12) can not be compensated by knowledge of texts with a complement status. The principle applied here refers to a logic of learning outcomes and not an arithmetic logic. If the text reading part is not taken into account at the evaluation level, the score out of 12 is adjusted in score out of 20 according to a rule of proportionality: 1/12 = 1.66 / 20 rounded to 2/20; 2/12 = 3.33 / 20 rounded to 3/20; 3/12 = 4.99 / 20 rounded to 5/20.

The evaluation method is the same during the three exam sessions.


Recommended or required reading :
Selective bibliography :

- Jean-Michel Berthelot, L'intelligence du social. Le pluralisme explicatif en sociologie, Paris, P.U.F., 1990.
- Jean-Michel Berthelot (dir.), Sociologie. Epistémologie d'une discipline. Textes fondamentaux, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2000.
- Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Chamboredon et Jean-Claude Passeron, Le métier de sociologue, Paris, Mouton, 1968.
- Daniel Cefaï (dir.), L'enquête de terrain, Paris, La Découverte, 2003.
- Randall Collins, «Les traditions sociologiques», Enquête [En ligne], n° 2, 1995, pp. 11-38.
- Philippe Corcuff, Les nouvelles sociologies, Paris, Nathan, coll. 128, 1999 (1ère éd.).
- Jean-Pierre Durand et Robert Weil (dir.), Sociologie contemporaine, Paris, Vigot, 1989.
- Jean-Louis Fabiani, La sociologie comme elle s'écrit. De Bourdieu à Latour, Paris, EHESS, 2015.
- Anthony Giddens, Sociology, London, Polity Press, 1989.
- Johan Heilbron, Naissance de la sociologie, Marseille, Agone, 2006 (traduit du néerlandais; éd. orig. : 1990).
- Nathalie Heinich, Le bêtisier du sociologue, Paris, Klincksieck, 2009.
- Marc Joly, La révolution sociologique. De la naissance d'un régime de pensée scientifique à la crise de la philosophie (XIXe-XXe siècle), Paris, La Découverte, 2017.
- Bruno Karsenti, L'homme total. Sociologie, anthropologie et philosophie chez Marcel Mauss, Paris, P.U.F., 1997.
- Bernard Lahire, L'esprit sociologique, Paris, La Découverte, 2005.
- Michel Lallement, Histoire des idées sociologiques de Parsons aux contemporains, Paris, Armand Colin, 2007 (3ème édition).
- Cyril Lemieux (dir.), Pour les sciences sociales. 101 livres, Paris; EHESS, 2017.
- Danilo Martuccelli, Sociologies de la modernité, Paris, Gallimard, coll. Folio-essais, 1999.
- Laurent Mucchielli, La découverte du social. Naissance de la sociologie en France, Paris, La Découverte, 1998.
- Laurent Mucchielli, Mythes et histoire des sciences humaines, Paris, La Découverte, 2004.
- Jean-Claude Passeron, Le raisonnement sociologique, Paris, Albin Michel, 2006 (nouvelle édition revue et augmentée; 1ère éd. : 1991.
- Neil J. Smelser (ed.), Handbook of Sociology, London, Sage, 1988.
- Luc Van Campenhoudt et Nicolas Marquis, Cours de sociologie, Paris, Dunod, 2014.