Social Theories
Exam overview Part 1
Lecture 1: Introduction Social Theories in Global Perspective
Social theory = explanations of how social actors interpret their society and their role in it, act in their
society and change their society.
(But there are many different definitions of social theories.)
Social imaginaries = shared ideas, stories, beliefs that people in a society use to understand how the
world works and how they fit into it. It is not rules or facts, but more how people imagine their
everyday life, relationships and how society should be.
Example: The notion of "community" in different societies, influencing how individuals view their
responsibilities and relationships with others.
Social theory studies social imaginaries. The ideas of a social imaginary can influence the
development of social theory.
So social theory analyses how people thinks about society and those thoughts shape social theory.
Idiom = in social theories, idioms are phrases or expressions that simplify and communicate larger
social ideas. (linguistic tools to express and communicate specific ideas or emotions in a concise way.)
Example: "Bite the bullet," meaning to face a difficult situation with courage.
Idioms are specific expressions that communicate particular meanings, while social imaginaries are
broader cultural frameworks that shape collective beliefs and understandings in society.
This course:
- Explains how social theories differ in assumptions about societal structures and individual
agency (they course shows how different social theories make different assumptions about
the relation between individuals and society)
- How is society defined in different social theories?
- Which categories are used in social theories to define the role of individuals in society?
- How is this related to social inequalities (first part of the course)
- How does it relate to the identities of individuals and to what it means to belong, in different
societies?
Part 1: focuses on structural characteristics of social life (labour, inequality and hegemony)
First part focus on labour, wage, slavery, work of peasants.
- Division of labour, and work organization, are shaped by social inequalities, as well as by ways of
living together, which are different in different societies.
- Work is a perfect topic to reflect because:
A) work is important for defining who we are as a person
B) the organisation of work defines structures of (unequal) social relations
1
,Part 2: characteristics of interpersonal relations (culture and personality, identity formation,
responsibility)
The danger of a single story
Video: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) She is novelist, not social theorist!
She set in post-colonial Nigeria, under military regime during the Biafra/Nigerian civil war.
She explains that a lot of people have only one story about a country, nation, culture or individual.
Sometimes the story people see in the media or the story people tell them about someone and think
this one story is the only one (for example the idea that every African is poor, and can’t speak English
and won’t drive cars, or the idea that every Mexican is an immigrant.). But there are always more
stories. So in order not to be biased and close-minded it is important to know more stories or at least
be aware of an one-story-view.
You can also put the idea of ‘the danger of a single story’ in social theory.
- Social theories canons mainly focus on modern societies . (Classic ‘sociological’ perspective:
any modern society, anywhere, should work like this)
- Problem: the universalism is actually Euro-American-centrism
- Ideological emphasis drawn from the authors’ societies (focus on individual freedom)
CADS’s approach: global, world-historical-approach Placing social theories within broader
histories (colonialism, slavery, traditional and totalitarian regimes) And we look at thinkers
from different parts of the globe.
The thinkers offers theories specific in their historic and socially perspective. They were
looking at things that were happening in their time and shape that in their own theories.
2
,Lecture 2: What are social theories? What are key themes in contemporary
social theory?
What are social theories?
= a social theory focusses on specific aspects of society to describe and explain how people function
in societies.
Like all theories, they always contain assumptions:
- focusing on the structural characteristics of societies
OR
-Focusing on individual agency and the modality of interpersonal relationship
But Structure and Agency are also connected:
- Structural characteristics of societies influence identities
- Cultural modes of interpersonal relationships influence broader social processes, and the role of
individuals in it.
Structure oriented theories (Part 1 of the course)
-Theories about political structure of society (attention to relationship between state and citizen)
-Theories about economic connections (the origin of capitalism)
Individual agency – oriented theories (Part 2 of the course)
-Typically focussing on interpersonal relationships in small-scale social interactions (within families,
schools, organizations)
-Elaborating hypotheses about identity formation (learning processes, role-play imitation)
Why is work a good topic to reflect on the structural or the individual agency relation?
1. Work shapes identity
2. The organization of work defines structures of (unequal) societal relations.
Cannon – social theories
There are multiple definition of cannon but here are examples:
= works, texts, or ideas that are considered foundational or authoritative within a specific academic
discipline, field, or intellectual tradition
= the core set of influential ideas and works that shape the intellectual framework of a discipline,
though it can be subject to revision and critique over time
(e.g. the canon of the Netherlands shows
the most important things in the history of
the country who should be taught at
school. But this is not a fact. This is also a
collection some people have made.)
3
, Article Working out personhood’ by ALBERTO CORSÍN JIMÉNEZ
The article is about the relationship between work and personhood. How people see their work and
how they relate to their work.
Important notes:
In the article Lucia overworks. She likes her job but feels drained and dislikes the fact that she
could not spent much time with family and friends.
She measures her capacities as a human not in terms of what she can do at work, but what
work can do for her: she uses knowledge of her workplace to working out her own life. She
works out her own personhood through her labour.
She have concerns because responsibilities and obligations bind her to a situation, she not
entirely likes. But she accepts the tasks in her job she dislikes because she values her high
person relationship so well and is willing to make sacrifices. But the sacrifice is productive. It
creates hope, expectations and relationships.
Her work isn’t about economic matters, but reflects her acknowledgement of the importance
of relationships. He work becomes an extension of her care for others, rather than just a
productive or economic activity.
She comes up with theories how people think. “the well-furnished head” (= smart, analytical)
and “Bullshitter” (not smart, or analytical, but slow)
She makes theories by herself, from the way she works out personhood. She projects a social
theory of herself and about others.
Life has come to be measured in working terms. Our sense of worth as human agents has
come to rely on the value of our work and our accomplishments as labourers. This idea also
integrates with other private parts of our life: how women see their bodies as machines, and
giving birth is the “labouring pain”.
Even the words we use, are intertwined with labour: value, capacity, efficacy, will power
In most theories, agency is about people acting on the world and making changes. But here,
the author introduces non-contributive agency.
non-contributive agency = which is the ability to absorb or endure the world, not necessarily to
change it. This form of agency is about coping, resisting, and surviving, rather than visibly
contributing or producing something. It shows that human experience is more complex than just
action or productivity, and this has often been ignored in social theory, which usually focuses on
people’s capacity to labour or create.
Is Lucia alienated from her work?
Lucia overworks a lot, and therefore has little time for her family and friends. Her mixed feelings
come from two main aspects: the demands of her work, which often feel "draining" and limit her
personal time, and her active pursuit of purpose and fulfilment through her career.
Rather than feeling disconnected from her job, Lucia views it as a core part of who she is and how she
achieves a "good life." She even incorporates ideas from her work into her personal life, striving to
balance her career with relationships. While the demands of her job sometimes weigh on her, she
sees them as sacrifices necessary for personal and professional growth, not as a loss of her true self.
In this point of view she is not alienated because she has the space for her own potential as a
creative, human being.
4
Exam overview Part 1
Lecture 1: Introduction Social Theories in Global Perspective
Social theory = explanations of how social actors interpret their society and their role in it, act in their
society and change their society.
(But there are many different definitions of social theories.)
Social imaginaries = shared ideas, stories, beliefs that people in a society use to understand how the
world works and how they fit into it. It is not rules or facts, but more how people imagine their
everyday life, relationships and how society should be.
Example: The notion of "community" in different societies, influencing how individuals view their
responsibilities and relationships with others.
Social theory studies social imaginaries. The ideas of a social imaginary can influence the
development of social theory.
So social theory analyses how people thinks about society and those thoughts shape social theory.
Idiom = in social theories, idioms are phrases or expressions that simplify and communicate larger
social ideas. (linguistic tools to express and communicate specific ideas or emotions in a concise way.)
Example: "Bite the bullet," meaning to face a difficult situation with courage.
Idioms are specific expressions that communicate particular meanings, while social imaginaries are
broader cultural frameworks that shape collective beliefs and understandings in society.
This course:
- Explains how social theories differ in assumptions about societal structures and individual
agency (they course shows how different social theories make different assumptions about
the relation between individuals and society)
- How is society defined in different social theories?
- Which categories are used in social theories to define the role of individuals in society?
- How is this related to social inequalities (first part of the course)
- How does it relate to the identities of individuals and to what it means to belong, in different
societies?
Part 1: focuses on structural characteristics of social life (labour, inequality and hegemony)
First part focus on labour, wage, slavery, work of peasants.
- Division of labour, and work organization, are shaped by social inequalities, as well as by ways of
living together, which are different in different societies.
- Work is a perfect topic to reflect because:
A) work is important for defining who we are as a person
B) the organisation of work defines structures of (unequal) social relations
1
,Part 2: characteristics of interpersonal relations (culture and personality, identity formation,
responsibility)
The danger of a single story
Video: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) She is novelist, not social theorist!
She set in post-colonial Nigeria, under military regime during the Biafra/Nigerian civil war.
She explains that a lot of people have only one story about a country, nation, culture or individual.
Sometimes the story people see in the media or the story people tell them about someone and think
this one story is the only one (for example the idea that every African is poor, and can’t speak English
and won’t drive cars, or the idea that every Mexican is an immigrant.). But there are always more
stories. So in order not to be biased and close-minded it is important to know more stories or at least
be aware of an one-story-view.
You can also put the idea of ‘the danger of a single story’ in social theory.
- Social theories canons mainly focus on modern societies . (Classic ‘sociological’ perspective:
any modern society, anywhere, should work like this)
- Problem: the universalism is actually Euro-American-centrism
- Ideological emphasis drawn from the authors’ societies (focus on individual freedom)
CADS’s approach: global, world-historical-approach Placing social theories within broader
histories (colonialism, slavery, traditional and totalitarian regimes) And we look at thinkers
from different parts of the globe.
The thinkers offers theories specific in their historic and socially perspective. They were
looking at things that were happening in their time and shape that in their own theories.
2
,Lecture 2: What are social theories? What are key themes in contemporary
social theory?
What are social theories?
= a social theory focusses on specific aspects of society to describe and explain how people function
in societies.
Like all theories, they always contain assumptions:
- focusing on the structural characteristics of societies
OR
-Focusing on individual agency and the modality of interpersonal relationship
But Structure and Agency are also connected:
- Structural characteristics of societies influence identities
- Cultural modes of interpersonal relationships influence broader social processes, and the role of
individuals in it.
Structure oriented theories (Part 1 of the course)
-Theories about political structure of society (attention to relationship between state and citizen)
-Theories about economic connections (the origin of capitalism)
Individual agency – oriented theories (Part 2 of the course)
-Typically focussing on interpersonal relationships in small-scale social interactions (within families,
schools, organizations)
-Elaborating hypotheses about identity formation (learning processes, role-play imitation)
Why is work a good topic to reflect on the structural or the individual agency relation?
1. Work shapes identity
2. The organization of work defines structures of (unequal) societal relations.
Cannon – social theories
There are multiple definition of cannon but here are examples:
= works, texts, or ideas that are considered foundational or authoritative within a specific academic
discipline, field, or intellectual tradition
= the core set of influential ideas and works that shape the intellectual framework of a discipline,
though it can be subject to revision and critique over time
(e.g. the canon of the Netherlands shows
the most important things in the history of
the country who should be taught at
school. But this is not a fact. This is also a
collection some people have made.)
3
, Article Working out personhood’ by ALBERTO CORSÍN JIMÉNEZ
The article is about the relationship between work and personhood. How people see their work and
how they relate to their work.
Important notes:
In the article Lucia overworks. She likes her job but feels drained and dislikes the fact that she
could not spent much time with family and friends.
She measures her capacities as a human not in terms of what she can do at work, but what
work can do for her: she uses knowledge of her workplace to working out her own life. She
works out her own personhood through her labour.
She have concerns because responsibilities and obligations bind her to a situation, she not
entirely likes. But she accepts the tasks in her job she dislikes because she values her high
person relationship so well and is willing to make sacrifices. But the sacrifice is productive. It
creates hope, expectations and relationships.
Her work isn’t about economic matters, but reflects her acknowledgement of the importance
of relationships. He work becomes an extension of her care for others, rather than just a
productive or economic activity.
She comes up with theories how people think. “the well-furnished head” (= smart, analytical)
and “Bullshitter” (not smart, or analytical, but slow)
She makes theories by herself, from the way she works out personhood. She projects a social
theory of herself and about others.
Life has come to be measured in working terms. Our sense of worth as human agents has
come to rely on the value of our work and our accomplishments as labourers. This idea also
integrates with other private parts of our life: how women see their bodies as machines, and
giving birth is the “labouring pain”.
Even the words we use, are intertwined with labour: value, capacity, efficacy, will power
In most theories, agency is about people acting on the world and making changes. But here,
the author introduces non-contributive agency.
non-contributive agency = which is the ability to absorb or endure the world, not necessarily to
change it. This form of agency is about coping, resisting, and surviving, rather than visibly
contributing or producing something. It shows that human experience is more complex than just
action or productivity, and this has often been ignored in social theory, which usually focuses on
people’s capacity to labour or create.
Is Lucia alienated from her work?
Lucia overworks a lot, and therefore has little time for her family and friends. Her mixed feelings
come from two main aspects: the demands of her work, which often feel "draining" and limit her
personal time, and her active pursuit of purpose and fulfilment through her career.
Rather than feeling disconnected from her job, Lucia views it as a core part of who she is and how she
achieves a "good life." She even incorporates ideas from her work into her personal life, striving to
balance her career with relationships. While the demands of her job sometimes weigh on her, she
sees them as sacrifices necessary for personal and professional growth, not as a loss of her true self.
In this point of view she is not alienated because she has the space for her own potential as a
creative, human being.
4
