Sociology 599: Agency and Structure

Princeton University

Sociology 599: Agency and Structure in the Marxist, Durkheimian and Weberian Theoretical Traditions

Professor Nicos Mouzelis


The aim of this course is to explore some general trends in modern sociological theory by focusing on the way in which agency-structure linkages are conceptualized in three major traditions: the Marxist, Durkheimian and Weberian one.

In dealing with specific theorists, the objective is neither to give a fully comprehensive account of all their work, nor to examine in detail their precise methodological pronouncements on the issue under consideration. Rather, the emphasis will be on the type of agency-structure linkages that one can derive when an author's empirical exploration of the social world is viewed as a whole.


General References


Section One: The Marxist Tradition

1. Marx

Systemic contradictions and class conflict: the achievement of a balance between system and social integration.

Question:

Discuss Marx's theory of change by focusing on the social/system integration distinction.

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

2. Althusser

Breaking the balance: overemphasis of structural/systemic contradictions. From classes as agents of social transformation to classes as 'bearers of structures.'

Question:

"The elimination of the voluntaristic dimension of social life is a characteristic common to both Althusserian and parsonian functionalism." Do you agree?

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

3. Habermas

Redressing the balance: System and Life World

Question:

How successful is Habermas in resolving the social-system integration problem?

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:


Section Two: The Durkheimian Tradition

4. Durkheim

The transition from mechanic to organic solidarity. Underemphasis of agency leading to teleological functional explanations of social differentiation. The late work of Durkheim: rituals, the sacred/profane dichotomy and the discrepancy between 'culture' and 'morphology.'

Question:

In what sense, if at all, is Durkheim's explanation of the transition from mechanic to organic solidarity functionalist?

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

5. Parsons

Functionalism and the AGIL scheme. The five pattern variables. The cultural, social and personality systems.

Question:

In what respect has Parsonian structural-functionalism underestimated agency?

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

6. Levi-Strauss

Language and Speech. Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic rules. The "hidden" grammar of institutional orders.

Questions:

In what sense, if at all, are Levi-Strauss' explanations of social life reductionist?

Compare the notion of structure in the work of Parsons and Levi-Strauss.

Basic Reading

Additional Reading:

7. Foucault

From structuralism to post-structuralism. Decentering the subject and the transcendence of the subject/structure distinction. Discursive and non-discursive practices. Power, knowledge and technologies of subjugation.

Questions:

Discuss Foucault's notion of power/knowledge.

"The social scientist is not only the investigator but also the partial constructor of "social reality." Discuss.

"Foucault's decentering of the subject leads him to teleological forms of explanation." Discuss.

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:


Section Three: The Weberian Tradition

8. Weber

The critque of Marx's economism and the shift from relational to stratificational views of class.

Question:

Contrast Weber and Marx on the development of capitalism.

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

9. Mead

The subject as the center of social analysis. Hostility to all systemic concepts, micro and macro.

Question:

"Symbolic interactionism, unlike Pasonian functionalism, portrays human beings as producers rather than products of their social world." Discuss.

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

10. Garfinkel

Ethnomethods: from intersubjective understandings to "deep," taken-for-granted cognitive rules.

Questions:

In what ways does ethnomethodology challenge conventional sociology?

"Concerning the problem of order, Garfinkel has shifted the focus of analysis from the normative to the cognitive level." Discuss.

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:


Section Four: Attempts at Synthesis

11. Bourdieu

Habitus: Bridging "objectivist" and "subjectivist" sociologies.

Questions:

"Bourdieu rejects functionalist terminology but is unable to transcend functionalist logic." Discuss.

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:

12. Giddens

Structuration theory: bringing functionalis, interpretive and structuralism sociologies closer together.

Questions:

What does Giddens mean by "duality of structure?"

How successful is Giddens' ambitious synthesis?

Basic Reading:

Additional Reading:


blanche@pucc.princeton.edu December 1995