Underdogs, Delinquents, Rebels: A Sociology of Transgression

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

We will explore the meaning of collective transgressive acts, from abiding to local codes of honor which prevail over the formal law, to strategies of survival, to resistance to marginalization, to performances of masculinity and femininity, and to the counter-narratives invented by those who deviate, transgression constitutes a field which cannot simply be addressed by the idea of crime and associated discussions about prevention. Adopting a sociological perspective which gives emphasis on the social construction of meanings, this course proposes to comprehend transgressive acts by taking into account both the dominant moral narratives about transgression, as well as the ways these are resisted, appropriated or reinterpreted by the deviant subjects.