• Identify, analyse and assess at an advanced level the central assumptions of the theories covered in the curriculum
• Identify, analyse and assess the core similarities and differences in how social processes are thematised in the theories covered in the curriculum
• Make use of these theories to observe, analyse and critique phenomena of everyday, organized life

Aim of the course

The aim of this course is that the student acquires knowledge of the most important ways to conceptualise and examine the interactions between individuals, organisations and society, which are currently developing in social theory. 
 

Course description
It is widely acknowledged that modern society has undergone a series of profound transformations since World War II. The media landscape has changed, so have production patterns, modes of organization, networks of communication etc. pp. While most sociologists would agree that much has changed, there is little agreement as to how to theorise these transformations and their implications. The aim of this course is to make students acquainted with a range of influential positions that analyse how modern society has changed throughout the twentieth century, and how it is developing at the beginning of the twenty-first.
 

While the course builds on Theories of Modern Society (TMS), the theoretical perspectives it presents tend to aim more at a diagnosis of the present than at formulating grand theories of modern society and all its spheres, systems or institutions. Although the theoretical ambitions of the perspectives under scrutiny here may thus be lower than was the case in TMS, their analytical capacities may well be higher. The more targeted observations of specific societal trends and dynamics allow for more thorough discussions of key societal processes and their social, political and economic implications.

The diagnostic emphasis entails that the course is preoccupied with a processual view, i.e. with the changes that have taken place and that are taking place in the structure and the ongoing ordering and disordering of modern or ‘late modern’ society. These societal processes will be discussed with respect to their social, political and economic implications. The course is organized thematically.