Curriculum Module: Modern Social Theory

Module Description

In this module on Modern Social Theory, Gurminder K Bhambra & John Holmwood focus on Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Du Bois to address what they have bequeathed to sociology and the social sciences. They look at how that legacy is structured by a failure to treat colonialism and empire as central to the development of modern society. The purpose is to ‘decolonise’ the concepts and categories they have given to us, rather than simply critique the canon itself. This requires a process of contextual understanding and reconstruction.

List of Lectures

Each lecture includes a lesson plan document, a video, and a few suggested readings.

1. Decolonising Modern Social Theory
2. Early Modern Social Theory: Europe and its ‘Others’
3. Tocqueville: America and Algeria
4. Marx: Colonialism, Class and Capitalism
5. Weber: Religion, Nation and Empire
6. Durkheim: Modernity and Community
7. Du Bois: Addressing the Colour Line
8. The Fictions of Modern Social Theory