LFU:online

Students acquire the ability to reproduce the essential theoretical approaches of interpretative

sociology and to explain their basic terminology. Moreover, they know how to describe current

topic areas and research perspectives of cultural social analyses. They are able to critically

discuss constructions of identity in the context of social relationships of misjudgement

and recognition based on sociological identity theories and theoretical impulses from related

fields. They know how to identify and authentically reproduce central theses and lines of

reasoning. Moreover, they are able to apply theoretical concepts to empirical phenomena.

Contemporary societies are integrated through institutions, media and communication. Individuals are prompted to navigate these often contradictory frameworks and to assume different positions and roles within and across them. While this is commonly known as socialisation, in more recent research these processes have been discussed as subjectivation. Processes of subjectivation are usually riddled by crises, insofar as becoming a subject is threatened by insecurities, a lack of appreciation, and abjections, depending on social status, especially race, class and gender.  The modern ideal of individualisation tends to obscure the significance of collectivity for the resolution of such crises: as identity options, heterotopic transgression, regressive enhancements of the self, and as fields for the achievement of recognition. In the seminar, we will get to know traditional and recent approaches in research on subjectivation and discuss them in their relevance for social theory and the analysis of contemporary societies 

Close readings, presentations, discussion

Presentation & essay

Turner, Ralph H. (1976): The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse.  American Journal of Sociology. 81, 5: 989-1016.

Rose, Nicolas (1996): Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power and Personhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pfahl, Lisa, Lena Schürmann & Boris Traue (2017): Subjektivierungsanalyse. In: Boris Traue, Leila Akremi, Nina Baur, Hubert Knoblauch (Hg.) (2015): Interpretativ Forschen. Ein Handbuch für die Sozialwissenschaften. Weinheim: Juventa.

positive completion of the compulsory module according to § 5 Para 1 No 2.