HSPS Tripos – Part 1, Soc1

Introduction to Sociology: Modern Societies I

(2023-24)

Lecturers:

Prof Patrick Baert (course organizer)

[email protected]

Dr Ned Crowley
[email protected]

Prof Sarah Franklin

[email protected]

Dr Scarlet Harris
[email protected]

Dr Matthew Sparkes
[email protected]

Dr Navid Yousefian
[email protected]

Aims and Objectives

The course has three interconnected aims and objectives:
● to introduce students to the systematic study of society and social life
● to introduce students to the central debates concerning the nature of the modern era
and its social consequences by exploring a selection of key sociological texts by Karl
Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and W.E.B. Du Bois
● to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the major institutions that
comprise, and issues that confront, modern societies

Course Content
The course introduces students to the discipline of sociology in three parts. In part I, we
discuss the movement towards modern society, including the rise of nationalism and the
nation-state and platform capitalism. In Part II, we study various aspects of power and
politics, including the formation of the nation-state, the welfare society and neoliberalism.
In Part III, we introduce key studies in relation to inequality, focusing on gender, race and
ethnicity, and class. In Part IV, we come back to the issue of contemporary society,
exploring what is distinctive about it.

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Mode of Teaching
The paper is taught through two-hour lectures per week spread over three terms. A list of
supervision topics is included in this paper guide and will also be available from the
Faculty Office. Students will be expected to supplement the material acquired in lectures
through their own reading of the literature recommended here and by supervisors.
Required reading is starred.

Mode of Assessment
There is one three-hour written examination at the end of the year. Candidates must
answer three questions from an undivided paper.

Supervision
Supervision is essential for this paper and will be arranged by Directors of Studies in the
Colleges. It is recommended to have six to eight supervisions in total for this paper
(including revision supervisions), covering six of the topics in this paper guide. A list of
qualified supervisors is provided by the paper coordinator.

Part I: THEORIES OF MODERNITY (Michaelmas

2023)
Introductory session

(Michaelmas week 1)

We are aware that, for many students, ‘sociology’ is a new subject, so we use the first
lecture to discuss what it may entail, what is distinctive about sociology and how it
relates to cognate subjects (such as political science, social anthropology and
geography). We introduce the structure of this paper, explaining what we aim to achieve
throughout this year.

Topic 1 – Theories of modernity: Karl Marx, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim and
W.E.B. Du Bois

Patrick Baert (Michaelmas weeks 1 and 2)

We compare the so-called sociological classics in how they depicted the transition from
a traditional to a modern society. For each author, we discuss how they explain this
transition, what they see as distinctive about modern society, what they regard as
problematic about it, and what are they propose as solutions. We discuss how they
suggested we should study the social world. We discuss some of their alleged omissions,
especially in relation to colonization. This will provide a stepping stone towards an
introduction to the recent questioning of the canon.

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Aron, R. 1965. Main Currents in Sociological Thought. London: Penguin (Part I,
chapter 3, and Part II, chapters 1 and 3).
Bhambra, Gurminder, and John Holmwood. 2021. Colonialism and Modern Social
Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press (chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6).
*Du Bois, W.E.B. 2007. The Souls of Black Folk. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(especially The Forethought & chapter 1)
*Durkheim, E. 1984 [1893]. The Division of Labour in Society. London: Macmillan.
Durkheim, E. 1989 [1897] Suicide; A Study in Sociology. London: Routledge. (eBook:
http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=14859)
*Marx, K. and F. Engels. 2006 [1848]. ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party’. In: Karl
Marx: Selected Writings, ed. D. McLellan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 221-
248.
Marx, Karl 1973 [1853]. ‘The Future Results of British Rule in India’. In: Karl Marx
and Frederick Engels Collected Works, Volume 12. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
*Weber, M. 1976 [1904]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London:
George Allen and Unwin.
Weber, M. 1991 [1921] ‘Bureaucracy’, in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, eds.
H.H. Gerth. and C.W. Mills. London: Routledge, pp. 196-244.

Questions:
1. In what sense is Marx a critic of capitalism but not of industrialization? Do you
agree with him?
2. Would you agree with Du Bois that racial inequality is not only a structural
issue, but also manifests itself at a psychological level?

Topic 2 – Nations and Nationalisms

Patrick Baert (Michaelmas week 2)

The first part of the lecture addresses the rise of the nations and nationalisms in Europe
and beyond. In the second part of the lecture we will discuss how and why nation as a
category maintains its relevance in relation to other social categories and social and
political transformations.
a.
*Anderson, B. 1991. Imagined Communities. Esp chps 1 and 8. London: Verso. (ebook)
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2000. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and
Historical Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (ebook) esp chp 1.
*Chatterjee, Partha. 1986. Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World. London: Zed
Books. Esp Chp 1. (ebook)
Gellner, Ernest. 2006. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hobsbawm, Benedikt. 2006. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Smith, A. 1995. Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era. Esp chps 1, 4 and 6.
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Cambridge: Polity. (ebook)

b.
*Appadurai, A., 1990. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,”
Theory, Culture & Society, 7(2), pp.295-310.
*Billig, Michael. 1995. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage. (ebook)
*Brubaker R. 2004a. Ethnicity Without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Chp 1.
Brubaker R. 2004b. ‘In the name of the nation: reflections on nationalism and
patriotism. Citizenship Studies, 8:115–27
Delanty, G. and Krishan Kumar. (eds.). 2006. The SAGE Handbook of Nations and
Nationalisms (chps. 14-17).
*Yuval-Davis, N., 2011. The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. Sage.
Esp chps 4-6. (ebook)

Questions:
a. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Benedict Anderson’s theory of the rise of
nationalisms.
b. Why does the nation remain a powerful form of categorization today?

Topic 3 – Media, social media and digital capitalism

Patrick Baert (Michaelmas week 3)

People have become highly reliant on electronic media for communication. Earlier
examples involve the telegram, the telephone, radio and film, whereas in the mid-20th
century television would play a significant role in people’s lives. With the internet and
especially the prevalence of social media, we seem to have entered a new era again, one
dominated by platform (or surveillance or digital) capitalism.

Ben Agger. 2012. Oversharing: Presentations of Self in the Internet Age. London:
Routledge. (preface and chapter 1 “Thanks for sharing” only)
Benkler, Yochai, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts. 2018. Network Propaganda:
Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalisation in American Politics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
*Fuchs, Christian. 2021. Social Media; A Critical Introduction. Third edition. London:
Sage.
Marshall McLuhan.1994. Understanding Media; The Extensions of Man. Boston: MIT
Press. (read especially Lewis Laphan’s introduction)
McCombs, Maxwell, and Sebastian Valenzuela. 2021. Setting the Agenda. Third
edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.
*Smicek, Nick. 2016. Platform Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
*Zuboff, Shoshana. 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism; The Fight for a Human
Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile Books.
Howard, Philip. 2015. Pax Technica: How the Internet of Things May Set us Free or Lock
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Us UP. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Questions:
1. What is the business model of platform capitalism?
2. What does surveillance capitalism do to us? Do you agree with Zuboff’s
critique of this industry?

PART II: POWER & SOCIETY (Michaelmas 2023)

These lectures focus on power relations among social groups and between state and
society, drawing mostly but not exclusively on cases from affluent capitalist
democracies. The lectures are organised around several core concepts in political
sociology: the state (and more specifically the welfare state); racialised and gendered
forms of political exclusion; social control and punishment; and contentious politics and
revolutions. Throughout, we will consider empirical examples, asking who has power in
a given relation, what is its form and source, and what purpose or interests does it serve.
Required readings are starred.

Topic 4: What is power and what are its sources?

Ned Crowley (Michaelmas week 4)

This lecture introduces the concept of social power and considers its multiple
dimensions. It then considers several sources of power, including economic, coercive,
and ideological resources.
• *Weber, Max.. Economy and Society Vol. 1, Part 16 “Power and Domination”
(pp53-54)
• *Jessop, Bob. 2014. ‘Marxist Approaches to Power.’ in Amenta, Nash, & Scott
(eds) Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology
• *Lukes, Steven. 1974. Power: A Radical View, Chapter 1 (pp14-59)
• *Hartsock, Nancy. 1983 “An Alternative Tradition: Women on Power.” in
Money, Sex, and Power [pp. 218-226]
• Dahl, Robert. 1957. `The Concept of Power', Behavioral Science, 2: 202.
• Allen, Amy, "Feminist Perspectives on Power", in Zalta & Nodelman (eds). The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Poggi, Gianfranco. 2001. Forms of Power. Cambridge: Polity Press. [CH1: pp.
12-14; CH2]

Questions:
1. Most sociological theories of power define it as a feature of social relations or structure,
rather than a property inhering within individuals. What does it mean to say that power
is “relational” or “structural?”
2. In any given social relation, there might be the possibility of “exit.” That is, less powerful
actors may–sometimes–be able to walk away from the situation. How would the
possibility of “exit” alter sociological conceptions of power?

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 Topic 5: The State: What is it, where did it come from, and who steers it?

Ned Crowley (Michaelmas week 5)

In this lecture, we examine the most important political institution of the modern era:
the state. We first try to arrive at a workable definition of the state, beginning with Max
Weber’s formulation. We then explore some historical and geographic variations in the
development of modern states. In the latter part of the lecture, we ask the question “who
rules the state?” We sample arguments from three theoretical camps: pluralism,
Marxism, and feminism.

I. Definitions and origins of the modern state

• *Clemens, Elisabeth. “States, Empires, Nation-States.” in What Is Political
Sociology? (pp25-44)
• *Max Weber. Basic Concepts in Sociology, “The Concept of Legitimate
Authority,” “Types of Legitimate Authority,” “The Validity of Legitimate
Authority,” “Types of Political and Religious Corporate Groups” (pp71-83 &
pp119-123)
• *Brian Nelson. The Making of the Modern State, Chapter 2 “State Formations”
(pp7-15)
• Gianfranco Poggi. “Theories of State Formation” (pp95-106)

II. The state as a site of conflict or instrument of domination? Pluralist,

Marxist, and feminist perspectives
• *David Knoke & Xi Zhu. “Interest Groups and Pluralism” (pp158-167)
• *Bob Jessop. “Developments in Marxist Theory” (pp7-16)
• *Deborah Rhode “Feminism and the State.” Harvard Law Review.
• Catherine MacKinnon. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Chapters 1 & 8

Questions:
1. The definitions of the state provided by Max Weber or in Marxist thought treat it as a
single, coherent institution. But, in reality, states are internally differentiated by branches
of government (legislative, executive, etc), ministries and agencies, and subordinate
levels of government (regions, municipalities, etc). How might this internal complexity
change our thinking about “who rules the state?”
2. What is the difference between the legitimacy of the state and the legitimacy of a
government and how do these interrelate?

Topic 6: The Welfare State, Neoliberalism, and the Politics of Exclusion

Ned Crowley (Michaelmas week 6)

This lecture looks more closely at one of the modern state’s core functions: the
provision of goods and services for public welfare. We begin by surveying some major
differences among European and North American welfare states, as well as sociological
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 explanations for this divergence. The lecture then turns to two major, interconnected
challenges that have confronted the welfare state in the 20th and 21st century:
neoliberalism and welfare chauvinism. We ask how these forces have (re)produced a
racialized, gendered, and diminished welfare state and what this signifies for social
in/exclusion.

I. Defining the welfare state and its varieties

• *Garland, David. 2016. The Welfare State: A Short Introduction. Chapter 1
“What is the Welfare State”; Chapter 3 “Birth of the Welfare State”; Chapter 4
“The Welfare State 1.0”; Chapter 5 “Varieties”
• Esping-Anderson, Gøsta. 1991. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Part 1
[pp 1- 143]

II. The welfare state under threat: Neoliberalism and “the neoliberal subject”
• *Sutcliff-Braithwaite, Florence, Aled Davies, & Ben Jackson. 2021.
“Introduction: a neoliberal age?” in Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, Davies, and Jackson
(eds). The neoliberal age? Britain since the 1970s.
• *McCarthy, Helen. 2021. “‘I don’t know how she does it!’: Feminism, family
and work in ‘neoliberal’ Britain.” in Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, Davies, and Jackson
(eds). The neoliberal age? Britain since the 1970s.
• Auyero, Javier. 2011. “Patients of the State: An Ethnographic Account of Poor
People's Waiting.”

III. The racialized welfare state and politics of exclusion

• *Dawson, Michael. 2012. “Blacks and the Racialized State.” in Bobo et al (eds).
The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1865-Present.
• *Bhattacharya, Gargi. 2015. “Austerity and Extending the Racial State.” in
Crisis, Austerity, and Everyday Life.

Questions:
1. Think back to the COVID-19 pandemic (sorry!). In what ways did the welfare state
intervene (or fail to intervene) in society during the pandemic? Describe some welfare
state programs, institutions, or principles that were activated or challenged by the
pandemic. Your answer may refer to any state you are familiar with.
2. Despite its flaws and attempts to dismantle it, the welfare state persists throughout
capitalist democracies. Why? What explains its staying power?

Topic 7: States and Social Control

Ned Crowley (Michaelmas week 7)

This lecture turns to another central project of modern states: social control. In
particular, it focuses on the exercise of law and punishment. We pay special attention to
how social control is racialized in contemporary societies, especially the United States
and United Kingdom. Relying on Stuart Hall, Loic Wacquant, and David Garland, we
explore how “cultures of control” and the exercise of criminal punishment interact with
changing social, economic, and political contexts.

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 I. Why do states punish? The penal-welfare nexus
• *Garland, David. 2001. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in
Contemporary Society. Chapter 2 “Modern Criminal Justice and the Penal-
Welfare State”; Chapter 8 “Crime Control and Social Order”
• Gottschalk, Marie. 2013. “The Carceral State and the Politics of
Punishment.” in Simon & Sparks (eds). The Sage Handbook of Punishment and
Society. [pp205-241]
• Wacquant, Loic. 2010. “Crafting the Neoliberal State: Workfare, Prisonfare, and
Social Insecurity.” Sociological Forum.

II. Punishment and control of racialized groups

• *Wacquant, Loic. 2001. “Deadly Symbiosis: When Ghetto and Prison Meet and
Mesh.” Punishment and Society.
• Wacquant, Loic. 2000 “The New `Peculiar Institution':: On the Prison as
Surrogate Ghetto”. Theoretical Criminology.

III. Case study: Policing racialized minorities in Britain since the 1970s
• *Hall, Stuart. 1978. “Racism and reaction”; “1970: Birth of the law and order
society” in Selected Political Writings.
• *Solomos, John. 2003/2022. “Policing and Criminal Justice.” in Race and
Racism in Britain.
• Gilroy, Paul. 1982. “The Myth of Black Criminality.” The Socialist Register,
Vol. 19.
• Jefferson, Tony. 2012. “Policing the riots: from Bristol and Brixton to
Tottenham, via Toxteth, Handsworth, etc.” Criminal Justice Matters.
• Jackson, Nicole M. 2015 ‘A n—-- in the new England’: ‘Sus’, the Brixton riot,
and citizenship.” African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, Vol. 8.

Questions:
1. What forms or dimensions of social power are at work in the state’s policing and penal
institutions?
2. What is the relationship between social control and state legitimacy? Consider, for
example, racialised forms of policing and punishment: How might a racially-unequal
penal system affect the legitimacy of the state?

Topic 8: Resistance, Riots, and Revolutions: Contentious Politics

Ned Crowley (Michaelmas week 8)

We conclude by considering ways in which people challenge power–especially state

power–outside the realm of formal politics. The lecture begins by introducing the
concept of social movements as an ideal typical form of collective action before turning
to “messier” instances of contentious politics, namely riots and revolutions.

I.What are social movements and how do they happen?

• *McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black
Insurgency, Chapters 1, 3-6

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 • *Weldon, Laurel. 2011. When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements
Represent Disadvantaged Groups. Introduction and Chapter 1, “Representing
Women in Democratic Policy Processes" (pp1-56)
• Piven, Francis Fox and Richard Cloward. 1977 Poor People’s Movements: Why
They Succeed, How They Fail, chapters 1, 3-4 (pp. 1-40, 96-263)

II. Political rioting: Movement or Mob?

• *Waddington, David. 2016. “Riots,” in The Oxford Handbook of Social
Movements, ed. Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani
• *Dikec, Mustafa. 2017. Urban Rage: Revolt of the Excluded. Chapter 1 “Rage in
the Urban Age”; Chapter 3 “Of Seditions and Troubles in the UK” [pp. 1-16; 55-
91]
• Wilkinson, Steven. 2009. “Riots,” Annual Review of Political Science 12: 329–
43.
• Hobsbawm, Eric. 1978. Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social
Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Manchester, UK: Manchester
University Press.
• Kawalerowicz, Juta and Michael Biggs (2015). “Anarchy in the UK: Economic
Deprivation, Social Disorganization, and Political Grievances in the London
Riot of 2011” Social Forces, 94(2).

III. Challenging the state: Revolutionary movements, civil war, and political
violence
• *Tilly, Charles. 2003. The Politics of Collective Violence. Chapter 2, “Violence
as Politics.” Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
• *Elisabeth Jean Wood. 2000 Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent
Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador. Chapter 1 “From civil war to
democracy: Improbable transitions in oligarchic societies”; Chapter 5
“Apartheid, conservative modernization, and resistance”; Chapter 6 “The
challenge to elite economic interests”; Chapter 8 “The insurgent path to
democracy in oligarchic societies”
• Davidson, Neil. 2021. “The Actuality of the Revolution.” in Barker, Colin,
Gareth Dale, and Neil Davidson (eds.) Revolutionary Rehearsals in the
Neoliberal Age. London: Haymarket Books.
• Bosi, Lorenzo, and Stefan Malthaner, 2015. 'Political Violence', in Donatella
della Porta, and Mario Diani (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements
• Wood, Elisabeth Jean, 2015. 'Social Mobilization and Violence in Civil War
and their Social Legacies', in Donatella della Porta, and Mario Diani (eds), The
Oxford Handbook of Social Movements
Questions:
1. What is the difference–if any–between a social movement and a riot?
2. Given that most societies are marked by stratification and exclusion to some degree, why
are revolutions not a ubiquitous feature of social life?

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Part III: SOCIAL INEQUALITIES (Lent 2024)

Topic 9 – The Sociology of Gender

Sarah Franklin (Lent week 1)

a. In this part of the lecture we will discuss the sociology of gender, including its history
and relationship to feminist sociology. We will consider what is ‘sociological’ about
gender, and how is gender understood as a social structure?
b. In part two of the lecture we will consider how the sociology of gender has changed
over time in relation to critiques of the category ‘woman’ from both Black feminist
thought and queer theory

Reading
a.
*Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press. Ch 1.
*Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.
London; New York: Routledge. Chapters 1 and 2.
* Connell, R.W. 2002. Gender. Cambridge: Polity. Esp. chapters 4, 5, 7.
Firestone, Shulamith. 2015. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution.
London: Verso.
*hooks, bell. 1984. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Cambridge, MA: South
End Press.
Jackson, Stevi and S. Scott.(eds). 1996. Feminism and Sexuality. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press. Esp. chapters 1.1, 1.6, 2.3, 2.7, 3.2, 3.4, 4.2
Oakley, Ann. Sex, Gender and Society. London: Routledge 2016.
Strathern, Marilyn 2016. Before and after Gender: Sexual Mythologies of Everyday
Life. Edited with an Introduction by Sarah Franklin; Afterword by Judith
Butler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

b.
*Abu-Lughod, Lila. 2002. 'Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and its Others.' American Anthropologist 104.3: 783-
790.
*Davis, Angela. 2011. Women, Race, and Class. London: Vintage.
Grewal, Kay, Landor, Lewis, Parmar, Grewal, Shabnam, Kay, Jackie, Landor, Liliane,
Lewis, Gail, and Parmar, Pratibha. 1988. Charting the Journey: Writings by Black and
Third World Women. London: Sheba Feminist Press.
Halberstam, Judith Jack. 2005. In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies,
Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press.
Lorde, Audre. 1984. ‘Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference’,
in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.
Minh-ha, Trinh T. 1989. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and
Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
*Mohanty, Chandra Talpad, J. Russo and L. Torres. Eds. 1991. Third World Women
and the Politics of Feminism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Newton, Esther. 1979. Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Chicago:
University of of Chicago Press.
*Oyerunke, Oyewumi. 1997. The Invention of Women. Minneapolis: University of
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Minnesota Press. Chapters 1 and 4.

Essays
a. Why does Judith Butler argue that gender binarism is a prescriptive social norm?
b. How has Black feminist thought challenged the category ‘woman’?

Topic 10 Gender and Intersectionality

Sarah Franklin (Lent week 2)

a. In this part of the lecture we look at the history of the concept of

intersectionality and how it has changed the sociology of gender
b. In part two of this lecture we examine how intersectionality is used in social
movements such as reproductive justice and abolition feminism

a.
*Alabanza, Travis. 2022. None of the above : Reflections on Life beyond the Binary.
London: Canongate Books.
* Collins, Patricia Hill. 1991. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and
the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge. Chapter 1.
Hill Collins, Patricia. 2019. Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Durham: Duke
University Press.
*Crenshaw, K. 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and
Violence Against Women of Color”. Stanford law review, 1241-1299.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 2019. On Intersectionality : Essential Writings. London: The New
Press..
*Davis, Angela. 2011. Women, Race, and Class. London: Vintage.
Davis, Angela Y. 2023. Angela Davis : An Autobiography. Third ed. London: Penguin.
Hooks, Bell. 2015. Talking Back : Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black / Bell
Hooks. Second ed. London: Routledge.
Hooks, Bell. 2015. Ain't I a Woman : Black Women and Feminism. London: Routledge.

b.

Davis, Angela Y. 2022. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle : Ferguson, Palestine, and the
Foundations of a Movement. Edited by Frank Barat. London: Penguin.
Davis, Angela Y, Gina Dent, Erica R Meiners, and Beth E Richie. 2021. Abolition.
Feminism. Now. La Vergne: Haymarket.
Lorde, Audre. 1984. ‘Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference’,
in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.
Luna, Zakiya, and Kristin Luker. 2013. ‘Reproductive Justice.’ Annual Review of Law
and Social Science 9, 1: 327-52.
Ross, Loretta, and Rickie Solinger. 2017. Reproductive Justice; an Introduction. Los
Angeles: University of California Press.
Zavella, Patricia. 2020. The Movement for Reproductive Justice. Vol. 5. New York:
New York University Press.

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Essay questions:

a. In what ways has the category ‘woman’ historically excluded women?

b. Explain how an intersectional approach has been important to a) the
reproductive justice movement or b) abolition feminism

Topic 11 – Class and Inequality

Matthew Sparkes (Lent week 3)

This lecture will look at class in the 21st century. We will consider the material,
symbolic, cultural, and moral dimensions of class. After providing a theoretical
grounding for understanding class, we will then consider case studies ranging from
education through to the economy, media, and stigmatisation.

*Bourdieu P (1987) What Makes a Social Class? On The Theoretical and Practical
Existence Of Groups. Berkeley Journal of Sociology 32: 1–17.
*Lamont M (2000) The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race,
Class, and Immigration. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.
*Savage M (2015) Social Class in the 21st Century. London: Pelican.
*Skeggs B (2005) The Making of Class and Gender through Visualizing Moral Subject
Formation. Sociology 39(5): 965–982. DOI: 10.1177/0038038505058381.
*Tyler I (2015) Classificatory struggles: Class, culture and inequality in neoliberal
times. The Sociological Review 63(2): 493–511. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-
954X.12296
Bryan B, Dadzie S and Scafe S (2018) Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in
Britain. London: Verso.
Crozier G, Reay D, James D, et al. (2008) White middle‐class parents, identities,
educational choice and the urban comprehensive school: dilemmas, ambivalence and
moral ambiguity. British Journal of Sociology of Education 29(3): 261–272. DOI:
10.1080/01425690801966295.
Friedman S and Laurison D (2019) The Class Ceiling: Why It Pays to Be Privileged.
Bristol: Policy Press.
Khan SR (2010) Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
King A and Smith D (2018) The Jack Wills crowd: Towards a sociology of an elite
subculture. The British Journal of Sociology 69(1): 44–66. DOI: 10.1111/1468-
4446.12254.
Lamont M (1992) Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the
American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Meghji A (2019) Encoding and Decoding Black and White Cultural Capitals: Black
Middle-Class Experiences. Cultural Sociology 13(1): 3–19. DOI:
10.1177/1749975517741999.
Meghji A (2019) Black Middle Class Britannia. Manchester: Manchester University
Press.
Moor L and Friedman S (2021) Justifying inherited wealth: Between ‘the bank of mum
and dad’ and the meritocratic ideal. Economy and Society 50(4):
https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2021.1932353

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Reay D (2007) ’Unruly Places’: Inner-city Comprehensives, Middle-class Imaginaries
and Working-class Children. Urban Studies 44(7): 1191–1201. DOI:
10.1080/00420980701302965.

Savage M, Devine F, Cunningham N, et al. (2013) A New Model of Social Class?

Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment. Sociology 47(2): 219–
250. DOI: 10.1177/0038038513481128.
Sparkes, M. (2019). Borrowed identities: Class(ification), inequality, and the role of
credit-debt in class making and struggle. The Sociological Review.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026119831563
Shildrick T (2018) Lessons from Grenfell: Poverty propaganda, stigma and class power.
The Sociological Review 66(4): 783–798. DOI: 10.1177/0038026118777424.
Shildrick T and MacDonald R (2013) Poverty Talk: How People Experiencing Poverty
Deny Their Poverty and Why They Blame ‘The Poor’. The Sociological Review 61(2):
285–303. DOI: 10.1111/1467-954X.12018.
Skeggs B (2019) The forces that shape us: The entangled vine of gender, race and class.
The Sociological Review 67(1): 28–35. DOI: 10.1177/0038026118821334.
Tyler I (2008) “Chav Mum Chav Scum”. Feminist Media Studies 8(1). Routledge: 17–
34. DOI: 10.1080/14680770701824779.
Tyler I and Bennett B (2010) ‘Celebrity chav’: Fame, femininity and social class.
European Journal of Cultural Studies 13(3): 375–393. DOI:
10.1177/1367549410363203.

Questions:
1. To what extent is class shaped by cultural and moral boundaries?
2. To what extent is class ‘cultural’?
3. What makes a social class?

Topic 12 – Race, Ethnicity and Racism

Scarlet Harris (Lent, week 4)

Race, Ethnicity and Racism

This topic will look at what it means to say that racism is ‘structural’. After providing a
grounding in critical race theory, we will consider a range of case studies – from Trump
and Brexit through to everyday interactions, the economy, austerity, the legal system,
and the media.
*Bonilla-Silva E (2015) More than Prejudice: Restatement, Reflections, and New
Directions in Critical Race Theory. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 1(1): 73–87.
DOI: 10.1177/2332649214557042.
*Bonilla-Silva E (2017) Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the
Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. 5th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield.
*Meghji, A. (2022) The Racialized Social System: Critical Race Theory as Social
Theory. Cambridge: Polity.
Anderson E (2015) “The White Space”. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 1(1): 10–21.
DOI: 10.1177/2332649214561306.

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 Bhambra GK (2017) Brexit, Trump, and ‘methodological whiteness’: on the
misrecognition of race and class. The British Journal of Sociology 68(1): 214–232.
DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12317.
Bonilla-Silva E (1997) Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation.
American
Sociological Review 62(3): 465–480. DOI: 10.2307/2657316.
Collins, P.H. (2019) Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
Crenshaw, K. et al. (eds) (1995) Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed
the Movement. The New Press.
Crenshaw KW (1988) Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation and
Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law. Harvard Law Review 101(7): 1331–1387.
Emejulu A and Bassel L (2015) Minority women, austerity and activism. Race & Class
57(2): 86–95. DOI: 10.1177/0306396815595913.
Du Bois WEB (1917) Of the Culture of White Folk. The Journal of Race Development
7(4): 434–447. DOI: 10.2307/29738213.
Hall S (1980) Race, articulation and societies structured in dominance. In: Sociological
Theories: Race and Colonialism. Paris: UNESCO, pp. 305–345.
Lamont M, Park BY and Ayala‐Hurtado E (2017) Trump’s electoral speeches and his
appeal to the American white working class. The British Journal of Sociology
68(S1): S153–S180. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12315.
Meghji A (2020) Towards a theoretical synergy: Critical race theory and decolonial thought
in Trumpamerica and Brexit Britain. Current Sociology. SAGE Publications Ltd:
0011392120969764. DOI: 10.1177/0011392120969764.
Meghji A (2021) Just what is critical race theory, and what is it doing in British sociology?
From “BritCrit” to the racialized social system approach. The British Journal of
Sociology 72(2): 347–359. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12801.
Meghji A and Niang SM (2021) Between Post-Racial Ideology and Provincial
Universalisms: Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Thought and COVID-19 in Britain.
Sociology. SAGE Publications Ltd: 00380385211011575. DOI:
10.1177/00380385211011575.
Mondon A and Winter A (2018) Whiteness, populism and the racialisation of the working
class in the United Kingdom and the United States. Identities 0(0): 1–19. DOI:
10.1080/1070289X.2018.1552440.
Mills CW (1997) The Racial Contract. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Song M (2014) Challenging a culture of racial equivalence. The British Journal of Sociology
65(1): 107–129. DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12054.
Virdee S and McGeever B (2018) Racism, Crisis, Brexit. Ethnic and Racial Studies 41(10):
1802–1819. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2017.1361544.

1. Is there a difference between racism and racial prejudice?

2. Discuss two processes through which racism is reproduced.
3. Can we have a ‘racism without racists’?

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Topic 13 – Global and transnational inequalities
Navid Yousefian (Lent, week 5)

This topic will look at the need to adopt global, historically-connected sociological
analysis. We will consider the ‘decolonial’ turn in sociology and the social science,
zooming in on the concept of modernity/coloniality. We will then consider cases
where such transnational, historical analysis is needed in the present day, including
the climate, populism, and police brutality.

*Bhambra G (2007) Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological

Imagination. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
*Du Bois WEB (1954) The status of colonialism. Special Collections and University
Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. Available at:
https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b204-i042 (accessed 11 July
2019).
*Go J (2020) The Imperial Origins of American Policing: Militarization and Imperial
Feedback in the Early 20th Century. American Journal of Sociology 125(5): 1193–
1254. DOI: 10.1086/708464.
Bhambra GK and Holmwood J (2018) Colonialism, Postcolonialism and the Liberal
Welfare State. New Political Economy23(5): 574–587. DOI:
10.1080/13563467.2017.1417369.
Connell R (2015) Meeting at the edge of fear: Theory on a world scale. Feminist Theory
16(1): 49–66. DOI: 10.1177/1464700114562531.
Desai M (2020) The United States of India: Anticolonial Literature and Transnational
Refraction. Temple University Press.
Getachew A (2019) Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-
Determination. Princeton University Press.
Grosfoguel R (2011) Decolonizing Post-Colonial Studies and Paradigms of Political-
Economy: Transmodernity, Decolonial Thinking, and Global Coloniality.
TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-
Hispanic World 1(1). Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21k6t3fq
(accessed 22 May 2019).
Grosfoguel R (2017) Decolonizing Western Universalisms: Decolonial Pluri-versalism
from Aime Cesaire to the Zapatistas. In: Paraskeva JM (ed.) Towards a Just
Curriculum Theory: The Epistemicide. New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 147–164.
Lugones M (2007) Heterosexualism and the Colonial / Modern Gender System. Hypatia
22(1): 186–209.
Maldonado-Torres N (2007) On the Coloniality of Being. Cultural Studies 21(2–3):
240–270. DOI: 10.1080/09502380601162548.
*Meghji, A., 2023. A critical synergy: race, decoloniality, and world crises. Temple
University Press, Philadelphia, PA.
Mignolo W (2002) The Geopolitics of Knowledge and the Colonial Difference. The
South Atlantic Quarterly 101(1): 57–96.

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Mignolo W (2011) Epistemic Disobedience and the Decolonial Option: A Manifesto.
TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-
Hispanic World 1(2): 44–66.
Quijano A (2007) Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality. Cultural Studies 21(2–3):
168–178. DOI: 10.1080/09502380601164353.
Whyte K (2020) Too late for indigenous climate justice: Ecological and relational
tipping points. WIREs Climate Change11(1): e603. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.603.
Wynter S (2003) Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards
the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation—An Argument. CR: The New
Centennial Review 3(3): 257–337.

1. To what extent do colonial relations continue to shape present inequalities?

2. Does history matter for understanding present inequalities?
3. Critically assess Du Bois’ comment that we are living in a ‘new phase of
colonial imperialism’

Part IV – Epilogue (Lent 2024)

Topic 14 – Late, liquid or post-modernity.

Patrick Baert (Lent week 6)

Whereas the sociological classics were mainly discussing the transition from a pre-
industrial to a complex, industrial society, more contemporary authors have focused on
the distinct features of society in the 20th Century and early 21st Centuries. Some authors
talk about a second phase of modernity, or late and high modernity; others coin new terms
such as postmodernity, McDonaldization, consumer capitalism and the society of
singularities or ‘social acceleration’.

Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer (2002) [1945] The Dialectic of Enlightenment.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 94-136. (only the chapter ‘The Culture industry:
Enlightenment as Deception’)
*Baudrillard, Jean. 1994 [1981] Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 1987. Postmodernity and its Discontents. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2000. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, Anthony. 1991. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, Ulrich. 1992 [1986]. Risk Society. London: Sage.
*Reckwitz, Andreas. 2020. Society of Singularities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
*Rosa, Hartmut. 2015. Social Acceleration; A New Theory of Modernity. New York:
Columbia University Press.
*Reckwitz, Andreas, and Hartmut Rosa. 2023. Modernity in Crisis. Cambridge: Polity

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Press.
*Ritzer, George. 2014. The McDonalidization of Society. London: Sage.

Questions:
1. What are the psychological effects of living in world of ‘accelerating change’?
2. To what extent has society more recently embraced singularity?

Part V. Revision Sessions (Easter Term 2024)

Revision 1: Theories of modernity and class

Patrick Baert (first hour) and Mathew Sparkes (second hour) (Easter week 1)

Revision 3: Power and society

Ned Crowley (Easter week 2)

Revision 2: Gender, race, ethnicity

Sarah Franklin (first hour) and Navid Yousefian (second hour) (Easter week 3)

Further information:

a) How this course relates to others

This paper provides students with grounding in some of the classic texts of social
thought, with an introduction to some of the key concepts in sociology today and with
an understanding of some of the core institutions of modern societies. The paper
provides the foundations for more advanced coursework in sociology at the IIA and IIB
levels.

b) Student Feedback
Your chance to put forward your opinions on the papers you take!

For Sociology Papers, student feedback is collected via anonymous online surveys
distributed at various points in the academic year. It is crucial that you complete these
and give feedback on your papers. Getting good feedback from students makes the
course better and shows the outside world how Cambridge degrees consider their
students’ views.

Course organisers take students' concerns and suggestions into consideration each year
when preparing their paper outlines and selecting supervisors for the year. So please
remember to fill out a form.

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