ASOK05246U Reconstructing Sociology - The course is cancelled

In his Foundations of Sociology, Robert Jenkinks expresses grievances concerning the current state of the discipline of Sociology and the will amongst the community of sociologists to build Sociology proper, meaning a research program with deep coordination between the theoretical composite and sociological investigations. Such ambition echoes various voices for developing Sociology into a genuine social science where efforts can be evaluated in terms of a recognizable paradigm thus displaying a theoretical cohesion that could make the huge diversity of disciplines able to communicate with each other. This course focuses on the theoretical and practical problems concerning meeting the demand for constructing Sociology as a general social science. A central question is here whether that is indeed possible. Investigating into the deeper theoretical aspects of social science, be they of the ontological aspects of the being of society or methodological hurdles concerning operationalizability, this course seeks to keep an open mind to the basic questions of demand for a general theory and the possibility for Sociology to supply solutions. Concrete solutions will be presented for discussion. The course follows Bernard Philips and Louis C. Johnston: The Invisible Crisis of Contemporary Society, London, 2007 where each chapter provides a delimited point of departure for lectures, presentations and discussions in class. Philips and Johnston will be supplemented with texts varying from classical Sociology to modern Philosophy of social sciences; from Durkheim to Martin Hollis. Participants may expect a mixture of lectures and active student participation.

Klaus Kondrup is Philosopher working on theoretical developments in the Social Sciences. He did his PhD on the development of a general political theory from Political Sociology. He runs the Global Polity Center, analyzing societal and state development in concordance with political and sociological theory using a large variety of datasets.