DSOC 7001 - [Historical Sociology of Modernity]

(KCM) (HA)

Fall. 3 credits.

Graduate students only.

F. Makki.

The notion of modernity as a postulated relationship between social change and institutional form, and as a conceptual schema for making sense of large-scale social transformations, supplies the deep structure for much present-day social theory. Conceived as a uniquely European phenomenon that spread to the rest of the world through the impact of colonial empires and the world market, it also provides the normative framework for contemporary theories of development. This conception of modernity, and the meta-theory that legitimates it, has increasingly been the subject of heated controversy. This course explores the distinct debates that animate this field of historical sociology, alternating between substantive historical studies and critical analysis of how these studies are shaped by the adoption of particular epistemologies.