Shows
Exploring Sociological Theory(Fromm) The Illusion of IndividualityThe last chapter of Fromm's analysis of individuality of modern man. Fromm addresses the repressive nature of modern culture and socialization, pointing to helplessless, a lack of automony and freedom, to be fertile ground for authoritarianism, fascism.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2022-10-1329 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Tarde) Laws of SociologyThis is epic. Love his trichotomy, and the discussion he concludes with. I.e. the emergence of the seemingly infinite from the infinitesimal, across all the natural and social sciences. Sounds like a call to the study of the heterogeneous and differentiated, outside the coordinated reduction of similarities (science).
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-12-0520 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Simmel) Fashionat times thought-provoking, contradictory, and offensive
wish I could've read the rest of the article, but was getting tired of it o.o
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-11-1229 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Bhaskar) Emergent Properties of Social SystemsHis sentences are long, his words true. Seems I need to read more Roy Bhaskar.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-11-0425 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Comte) The three stages of knowingPrinted in 1842, Comte's universal law of mental development, and why it provides such a strong impetus for his new idea, "sociology" (translated as social physics in this reading).
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Giddens) The Adequacy of Explanatory AccountsFrom New Rules of Sociological Method, this section addresses the connection between art and the social sciences, in that they both attempt cross-cultural communication for self-expansion.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Luhmann) Implications of Systems Theory for EpistemologyCan you predict this will lead to sociology in particular? I didn't...
Super dense, packed with insight, and justifies sociology of sociology (my focus).
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-07-2029 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Douglas) Institutions Remember and ForgetGreat analysis, moving from the mnemonic structures which keep ancestry in the Nuer and the dynamics of remembering and forgetting in scientific discovery.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Simmel) The Negative Character of Collective BehaviorAn interesting little essay, directly adjacent in The Sociology of Georg Simmel to his famous essay The Stranger.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-07-0411 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Garfinkel) What is ethnomethodology?Garfinkel has a wordy, rather technical-sounding description of the study of the taken-for-granted, the made-practical, the reasonable, etc. It's those unseen practices for making actions, events, etc. normal-ish, that he wants to study. And because it is so normal, and so intentionally ignored, by the 60s it still had not been a subject of rigorous sociological work.
It's a classic, but also a headache. Good luck!
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Knorr Cetina) Epistemic CulturesThe introductory chapter to the book, published in 1999. It's great, a reassuring & pleasant vision for science studies! The cases sound interesting as well.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-06-0131 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Friedrichs) The Calling of SociologyThe last chapter of an epic & forgotten book in sociology.
It's a bit wordy, but also a bit epic & deep.
Curious if anyone (including me) will ever make it to the end.
Enjoy!
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2021-05-311h 44
Exploring Sociological Theory(Simmel) SociabilitySociability refers to different forms of social interaction and human association. The concept, in both descriptive and normative senses, can be found in many branches of study. In sociology the concept occupied a central place in the work of Georg Simmel, who developed and presented it as a sociological ideal type.
This was published in AJS in 1949 "The Sociology of Sociability," original from 1910
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Bernal) The Social Function of SciencePublished in 1939, when this guy was just 38 years old, the book as a whole gives a sweeping defense of science in light of popular critiques at the time. But the last chapter I read here gives a beautiful and comprehensive vision of science as a scaffolding for all future human action, and a program for its merging with culture, history, etc. and its morphing and supporting humanity's quest towards the future. Great read.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Goffman) The Interaction OrderErving Goffman’s posthumously published essay, ‘The interaction order’, which was to have been presented as a presidential address at an annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, is usually taken to be an attempt at a systematic summary by Goffman of his key ideas. (This) address can also be understood as a profoundly personal and deeply scornful critique by Goffman of the varieties of mainstream sociology and the pretensions of its practitioners. Incorporated into that critique is a simulacrum in which Goffman demonstrated what a systematic treatment of his work might look like had he actually been inclined to generate on...2021-01-091h 31
Exploring Sociological Theory(Mills) The Sociological ImaginationOne publisher's description
The excerpt that follows is from Mills' acclaimed book, The Sociological Imagination. Since its original publication in 1959, this text has been a required reading for most introductory sociology students around the world. Mills' sociological imagination perspective not only cornpels Lhe besl sociological analyses but also enables the sociologist and the individual to distinguish between "personal troubles" and "public issues." By separating these phenomena, we can better comprehend the sources of and solutions to social problems.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Sacks) Rules of conversational exchangeThe first of his famous lectures
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Goffman) Primary Frameworksfrom Frame Analysis
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis -- Chapter 1.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Tumin) Critique of Davis & MooreTumin challenged the Davis–Moore hypothesis of social stratification with his paper "Some principles of stratification: a critical analysis".[5][6] Tumin took Davis–Moore to imply that social stratification was mostly inevitable and provided a positive function for society. He analyzed the arguments of Davis and Moore and found them wanting in a number of respects.[6] In a reply to Tumin's paper, Davis stated that his ideas seek to explain inequality, rather than justify it. Davis also accused Tumin of a number of errors.[7] Tumin's 1967 book Social Stratification: The Forms and Functions of Inequality was widely used as a textbook and was re-is...2020-09-2434 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Davis and Moore) Some Principles of StratificationThe Davis–Moore hypothesis, sometimes referred to as the Davis–Moore theory, is a central claim within the structural functionalist paradigm of sociological theory, and was advanced by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore in a paper published in 1945.[1] The hypothesis is an attempt to explain social stratification. As a structural functionalist theory, it is also associated with Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton. [from Wiki, Davis-Moore hypothesis]
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Marx) Manifesto - SelectionThe Communist Manifesto, originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is an 1848 political document by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London just as the Revolutions of 1848 began to erupt, the Manifesto was later recognised as one of the world's most influential political documents. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and then-present) and the conflicts of capitalism and the capitalist mode of production, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Calhoun) Cultural Difference and Historical SpecificityCh. 3 of Critical Social Theory
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Durkheim) On Cohesion and SuicideFrom Durkheim's seminal work Suicide, which explores suicide rates in the context of Durkheim's theory of social cohesion is an integral feature of the structure of human society, and as an individual necessity which protects us from self-harm.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Vygotsky) The Role of Play in Developmentfrom Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.
1978
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Holzner) The Social Organization of Ideological KnowledgeReality Construction in Society -- Holzner, Ch 10
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Holzner) Networks of Cognitive Acts and Epistemic CommunitiesReality Construction and Society Ch 4
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Bauman) Utopia and RealityBauman delivers on a more useful definition of Utopia.
A focus on the creative abilities of humans to choose from among multiple threads from now into the future. That we are not determined by our circumstance, at least not if we (humans) are thinking critically about it!
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2020-07-0822 min
Exploring Sociological Theory(Simmel) The StrangerA classic. Short and sweet. I aspire to be the benevolent stranger, but in Simmel's sense. You would call us friends :)
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Scheff) Human Nature and the Social BondScheff _ Microsociology _ Ch 1
Emotions as central to understanding social interaction, on a micro level. And implicitly an argument that this micro-interaction is crucial in understanding the macro.
There's a lot of repeats in this chapter. Wasn't the most well-put-together reading, but there are some really beautiful ideas here. I hope you enjoy.
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Mannheim) The Attitude, Subject Matter and Method of Sociology -- a ReopeningMannheim _ Sociology as Political Ideology _ Lec 10
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Mannheim) Immobile and Dynamic Thinking: Orthodoxy and the IntellectualsMannheim _ Sociology as Political Education _ Lec 9
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Mannheim) The Subject Matter, Method and Attitude of SociologyMannheim _ Ideology as Political Education _ Lec 1
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Sorokin) Quack [Economic] Cures for War and Impotent Plans for Peacefrom the Reconstruction of Humanity
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Exploring Sociological Theory(Sorokin) Quack [Political] Cures for War and Impotent Plans for Peacefrom the Reconstruction of Humanity
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support2020-06-3042 min