32611

WiSe 19/20: Reassembling Functionalism

Harald Wenzel

Kommentar

The research programs of the sociology of science have been overwhelmingly preoccupied with the processes of creating knowledge in the natural sciences. The same can be said of the philosophy of science – even when it has – unavowedly – used sociological concepts. ----- This course will, for a moment, change this emphasis. It is dedicated to the sociology of science that has been created by Bruno Latour. Latour’s approach – which is heavily indebted to Ethnomethodology. It will be used to look more closely into an important episode in the development of modern sociological theory: functionalism. Functionalism is usually seen as the sociological theory that has dominated the 1940s and 1950s (and not only in sociology, but in neighboring disciplines as well) – a dominance that has been ended particularly by “interpretive” or “interactionist” approaches in the 1960s. Functionalism might be seen as living on in more recent approaches of systems’ theory – like Niklas Luhmann. ----- The hypothesis (to be proven right or wrong) in this course is that the usual view of functionalism and its development is deeply flawed. One of the “game-changers” will be the publication of Harold Garfinkel’s book Parsons’ Primer in November. With the help of Latour’s sociology of science a thorough examination of the hypothesis should be a project that can be realized in the course. ----- Literature: Latour, Bruno; Woolgar, Steve, Laboratory Life, Princeton 1986. Latour Bruno, The Pasteurization of France, Cambridge/Mass. 1988. Schließen

16 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Do, 16:00 - 18:00 16 Termine

Do, 17.10.2019 16:00 - 18:00

Dozenten:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Wenzel