ClassInfo

Content: Knowledge will be explored from diverse theoretical perspectives. We will consider the relationship between knowledge and related terms such as ideology, stereotype, prejudice, belief, and truth, different ways of thinking about knowledge with a focus on comparisons between groups, categories (e.g., gender, race, class, generation, nationality), institutions (family, politics, law, science), and societies across time and space, the relationship between power and knowledge and the role of rituals for knowledge, knowledge about the past (collective memory), and the genealogy of theories of knowledge. In addition to a core of common readings, each student will adopt a specific area of knowledge or topic (e.g., terrorism, war, race, gender roles, technology, crime, punishment, law, welfare, family, management, democracy), examine the form and content knowledge about this issue takes in different social contexts, and consider how different sociological theories help us make sense of these patterns.

Organization of class: We will read and discuss literature along the lines of different theoretical ideas or substantive topics. Our sessions are, for the most part, organized along a number of schools of thought that favor different concepts and ways of thinking about knowledge. In most weeks, each school will be represented by one exemplary book. Yet, each student will begin with a topic of his or her choice, ideally related to a dissertation theme or to some other theme in which you have a profound interest (examples may be: a group's knowledge about opportunities and ideals in America [American Dream], other racial groups, management strategies, the state of (post-) modernity; ideas about the state of education and students, sexuality and human reproduction, crime and punishment, past evils [e.g., slavery, genocide, Holocaust] or past regimes [e.g., Communism in Eastern Europe; the Cultural Revolution in the PRC], the government and how it works). You may be interested in one of these areas of knowledge (or others) as held by "people in the street" or by professional groups or by social scientists or by other categories of actors in which you have a specific interest). Maybe you have a book, a paper or some other source that shows empirical patterns or trends in the area of knowledge you are interested in. Any such pattern may serve as a baseline. As we go through the course you may then explore how the different theoretical approaches "work" if you were to apply them to your theme.