Sociology is a multi-paradigmatic discipline unified by its view of individual actions and representations as embedded in collective and historically-bounded configurations. The course intends to make sense of this unity in diversity of meta-theoretical (the ‘traditions') and epistemological (the ‘methods') approaches of sociology. Its aim is to make students aware of the evolution of the discipline over time, its main concepts, debates and research fields, as well as endowing them with an enriched reflexivity on their own position in society. Classes will span over the main areas of sociological inquiry, introducing both classical theories and recent research results. Students will be invited to face basic sociological questions and train themselves to a value-free (that is, non-normative and non-judgmental) take on social facts, as sociology does not express what society should be, but tries to describe and explain how society is and works.
List of sessions and compulsory readings
1. What is Sociology? The Traditions of a Plural Discipline
Mills, C.W. (1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, chapter 1. Berger, P. (1963) Invitation to Sociology. A Humanistic Perspective. New York: Doubleday, chapter 2.
2. Social Integration (I): Norms, Socialization and Institutionalization
Durkheim, E. (1982) The Rules of Sociological Method, New York: Free Press, chapter 1. Durkheim, E. (1997) Suicide. A Study in Sociology, New York: Free Press, chapter 2.
3. Social Integration (II): Interactions and Deviance
Blumer, H. (1969) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, chapter 3.
Goffman, E. (1963) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, New York: Simon & Schuster, chapter 1.
4. Class, Status and Power
Marx, K. (1977) Manifesto of the Communist Party (excerpts), in Tucker, R., The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: Norton, pp. 473-483.
Chan, T. W. & Goldthorpe, J. H. (2007) Class and status: The conceptual distinction and its empirical relevance. American Sociological Review, 72(4), 512-532.
5. Social Differentiation and Stratification (I): Occupation, Education and Lifestyles
Bourdieu, P. (1979) Distinction. A Social Critique of Judgment. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, pp. 114-135.
Hout, M. (2012) Social and economic returns to college education in the United States. Annual review of sociology, 38, 379-400.
6. Social Differentiation and Stratification (II): Gender and Ethnicity
Hochschild, A. (1989) The Second Shift. New York: Penguin, chapter 1 (pp. 1-10) and chapter 10 (pp. 149-166).
Wright, E.O. and Rogers, J. (2010) Racial Inequality, in American Society: How it Really Works. New York: Norton, chapter 14.
7. The Social Organization of Space: Segregation and Mobility
Massey, D. and Denton, N. (1993) American Apartheid. Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-16 and 83-114.
Recchi, E. (2016) Space, Mobility and Legitimacy, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, online: https:
//oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-97801902286 37-e-11.
8. The Social Organization of the Economy: Capitalism and its Alternatives
Polanyi, K. (2001) The Self Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land and Money, in The great transformation. The political and economic origins of our time. Boston, Beacon Press.
Milanovic, B. (2019) The Interaction of Capitalism and Globalization, in Capitalism Alone. Harvard: Harvard University Press (pp. 129-159).
9. The Social Organization of Power: The State and its Alternatives
Elias, N. (1982) On the monopoly mechanism, in The Civilizing Process: State Formation and Civilization. Oxford: Blackwell (pp. 104-116), and On blowing one's nose, in The Civilizing Process, The History of Manners. Oxford: Blackwell (pp. 143-152).
Wimmer, A. (2018) Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart,
Survival, 60(4): 151-164.
10. The Social Organization of Beliefs: Religions and Ideologies
Weber, M, (2001) The Capitalist Spirit, in The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. London: Routledge, pp. 13-20.
Inglehart, R. (2018) Cultural Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapters 1-4.
11. Social Change: Movements, Trends and Unintended Consequences
McAdam, D., Tarrow, S., & Tilly, C. (2009) Comparative perspectives on contentious politics, in M.I. Litchbach and A.S. Zuckerman (eds) Comparative politics: Rationality, culture, and structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 260-90.
Boudon, R. (1983) Why Theories of Social Change Fail: Some Methodological Thought. Public Opinion Quarterly, 47(2), 143-160.
12. Contemporary Sociology as Scientific Practice: Methods and Evidence
Small, M. L. (2009) ‘How Many Cases Do I Need?' On Science and the Logic of Case Selection in Field-Based Research. Ethnography 10(1): 5-38.
Goldthorpe, J. (2015) Sociology as a population science: The central idea, in Sociology as a Population Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 7-16.
Ettore RECCHI,Ioannis KOLIOPANOS
Cours magistral et conférences
English
Students are required to do the readings of each class and will be asked to discuss them during the course. Please note that each session will start with a discussion of the readings listed under the previous class (eg: readings of class 1 will be debated in class 2).
None.
Autumn 2025-2026
Class participation will form 10 per cent of the. final grade. 60 per cent will be assessed through a mid-term (30 per cent) and a final exam (30 per cent). Exams will include open-ended questions based on readings and class materials. Finally, 30 per cent will depend on work in the conférence de méthodes.
Lecture with class discussion.
A Google Drive with the coursepack will be made available to class participants.