Sociological Theory

Sociology of knowledge: common sense, critique and power

The course aims to introduce students to one of the key problems of sociology, namely the analysis of the circular relationship between the modes and forms of common sense knowledge, and those of social science knowledge.
The course is divided into three parts, which represent three crucial moments in the discussion of this problem.

First part (20 hours) - Weber and Schütz: the subjective meaning and the "multiple realities".
This first part is devoted to the analysis of the fundamental concepts of Max Weber's "interpretative sociology" and Alfred Schütz's "phenomenological sociology." In particular, will be addressed the Weberian invitation to explain social action on the basis of actors' intentional meaning as well as the forms of legitimation of power. Afterwards, Schütz's proposal to enrich the Weberian analysis of meaning through an investigation of the processes of constitution and sedimentation of meanings, both in the everyday life world and in the world of science, will be discussed. In fact, in Schütz, reality is not monolithic but breaks down into different "finite provinces of meaning": the transition between provinces - particularly from everyday life world to the world of scientific knowledge - will be a further topic addressed in this part.

Second part (20 hours) - The interactionist perspective
The second part of the course will present different approaches (such as Herbert Blumer's symbolic interactionism, Erving Goffman's Durkheimian structuralism, Harold Garfinkel's ethnomethodology), which have highlighted the everyday "practices" by which social actors construct reality and the negotiated nature of every everyday life situation. We will then see what common sense practices and linguistic processes construct social roles, gender, deviance, social differences and inequalities, their intersectionality, and classification processes, with their mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion.

Third part (20 hours) - Social critique and value judgments
The final part of the course aims to explore a particular form of social action, which consists of making critical judgments. The delicate balance that sociology has to maintain between critical judgments and value judgments will be addressed. On the other hand, will also be discussed how social actors, in the exercise of critical action, draw on the findings of the social sciences. These themes will be developed in relation to topical issues where actions of contestation are most evident (ecology, gender attributions, conspiracy). In this regard, the active contribution of students will be crucial, both in determining the themes to be explored and in choosing the texts to be investigated.