21A.859
Social Theory and Analysis
Major theorists and theoretical schools since the late 19th century. Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Bourdieu, Levi-Strauss, Geertz, Foucault, Gramsci, and others. Key terms, concepts, and debates.
Spring 2021
This subject presents a survey of social theory from the 17th century to the present. It focuses on the historical contexts out of which theory arises, the utility and limitations of older theories for present conditions, and the creation of new theory out of contemporary circumstances.
Readings
- Mills, Charles W. The Racial Contract . Cornell University Press, 1999, pp. 62–68. ISBN: 9780801484636.
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality . Pocket Books, 1967, pp. 5–26, 46–54, 68–71.
- Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman . Edited with an introduction and notes by Miriam Brody. Penguin Classics, 2004, pp. 1–57, 79–123, 175–94, 257–69. ISBN: 9780141441252.
- Gramsci, Antonio. “State and Civil Society.” In Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. International Publishers Co., 1971, pp. 206–18, 229–76. ISBN: 9780717803972.
- Gibson-Graham, J. K. “Strategies.” Chapter 1 in The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy . University of Minnesota Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780816648054.
- Durkheim, Émile. “The Anomic Division of Labour” and “The Forced Division of Labour.” Book 3, Chapters 1–2 in The Division of Labor in Society . Palgrave MacMillan Ltd., 1984. ISBN: 9780333339817.
- — — —. “Definition of Religious Phenomena and of Religion.” Book 1, Chapter 1 in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life . Free Press, 1995, pp. 21–39. ISBN: 9780029079379.
- Hayden, Cori. “Crowding the Elements.” In Reactivating Elements: Substance, Actuality, and Practice from Chemistry to Cosmology . Edited by Dimitris Papadopoulos, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, and Natasha Myers. Duke University Press, 2022. ISBN: 9781478014362. (Forthcoming).
- Deloria, Ella Cara. “The Reservation Picture.” In Speaking of Indians . Bison Books, 1998, pp. 75–85. ISBN: 9780803266148.
- Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In Illuminations: Essays and Reflections . Edited by Hannah Arendt. Mariner Books, 2019. ISBN: 9781328470232.
- Dorfman, Ariel, and Armand Mattelart. “Introduction to the English Edition: David Kunzle,” “From the Child to the Noble Savage,” and “From the Noble Savage to the Third World.” In How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic . Pluto Press, 2020. ISBN: 9780745339788.
- Hall, Stuart. “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular’.” Chapter 29 in People’s History and Socialist Theory . Edited by Raphael Samuel. Routledge, 2018. ISBN: 9781138671317.
- — — —. “Right of Death and Power over Life.” Part 5 in The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction . Vintage, 1990. ISBN: 9780679724698.
- TallBear, Kim. “Making Love and Relations Beyond Settler Sex and Family.” Chapter 5 in Making Kin Not Population: Reconceiving Generations . Edited by Adele Clarke and Donna Haraway. Prickly Paradigm Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780996635561.
- Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches . Penguin Classics, 2020. ISBN: 9780143134442.
- Anzaldúa, Gloria E. “On the Process of Writing Borderlands/La Frontera .” In The Gloria Alzaldúa Reader . Edited by AnaLouise Keating. Duke University Press, 2009, pp. 187–97. ISBN: 9780822391272.
- Fanon, Frantz. “Concerning Violence” and “Conclusion.” In The Wretched of the Earth . Grove Press, 1963, pp. 35–95, 311–16. ISBN: 9780802141323.
- Baucom, Ian. “Of Forces and Forcings.” Chapter 1 in History 4° Celsius: Search for a Method in the Age of the Anthropocene . Duke University Press Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781478008392.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as STS.250[J] Prereq: None G (Spring) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2021
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.