How are political preferences formed, and is this process different for culinary preferences? What are the determinants of educational success and the functions of a diploma? Do dating sites modify the homogamy between partners? What dynamics govern the organization of geographic space, and how does this affect its inhabitants? Do scientific facts exist independently of those who attest to them?
Among others, these questions are the object of debates and social science searches. Through the study of the main answers that will be brought, this course is an introduction to the theories and practices of sociology. Thematically organized, it offers an analysis of different classical themes. The aim isn't to offer an exhaustive synthesis of each of them but to give interest to the sociological approach to thinking about these questions.
The seminar has two goals. First, it will present the debates and problematic lines that cross the social sciences: are individuals irremediably subject to the influences that the group exerts on them, or should we on the contrary grasp collectives as an emanation of the aggregation of individual actions that give them substance? To understand an individual's practices, do we need to describe them objectively, or do we also/only need to grasp the meaning the actor gives to their actions? etc.
These very general questions are often brought up while presenting great intellectual traditions which have structured the discipline and by detailing the empirical works that have given them body: the Durkheimian tradition, via the study of the division of labor, suicide and collective memory; the Weberian tradition, focused on understanding the singularities of the Western trajectory of rationalization of activities; the critical tradition, organized around a representation of class conflicts and the logics of domination, and others.
The presentation will be complemented by a presentation of the major themes addressed by the social sciences. The selection of themes is based on a dual principle: they have been worked on in-depth by the discipline, and they correspond to dominant tensions within contemporary societies. As a result, they must demonstrate how the discipline's proposals make it possible to understand the social world by relying on stabilized knowledge and methods of study. The presentation of these works will be an opportunity to introduce the main methods used by the social sciences - ethnographic surveys, interviews, questionnaires, and various quantitative methods - and discuss current changes (e.g. the massification of data).
Evaluation:
- Attendance and participation
- Presentation of a text
- Review of a book
Course language: French
- Profesor: Ollion Etienne