Modern Sociological Theories
Word limit: 4,000 – 5,000 words
- Explain and critically assess the main features of Marx’s historical materialism
- Critically assess Marx’s account of the alienating effects of capitalism and how it would be overcome under communism
- Explain and critically assess Durkheim’s account of ‘social facts’, using his study of Suicide to illustrate your answer
- Explain and critically assess Durkheim’s account of the transition from ‘mechanical’ to ‘organic’ solidarity
- Outline the main contributions to sociology made by W. E. B. Du Bois and critically assess his frequent absence from the sociological canon
- Critically assess the contemporary relevance of ONE or TWO of the theorists studied during the module. To what extent can their works be used to understand contemporary societies?
- How and why has the concept of ‘the social’ presented by the ‘founding fathers’ of Sociology (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) been criticised by feminist scholars?
- To what extent – if any – does symbolic interactionism explain how individuals might change shared norms?
- Explain and critically assess Goffman’s arguments about power and agency being a skilled performance
- What, according to Adorno, is the impact of the culture industry on the political life of late-capitalist society?
- Compare and contrast the evaluations of popular culture made by the Frankfurt School and the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies