Faculty
LPF

Course Coordinator
Ester Barinaga

Students with a BA or BSc (or equivalent) degree can attend. Yet, the course is not open to students enrolled in the Cand.Soc. PKL program.

The course will encourage analysis of civil society initiatives as well as of other projects for bringing about cultural and social change. Thus, diverse backgrounds are welcome. Case discussions will provide opportunities for students to draw from what they have learned in other courses, as well as from their own experiences.

There is today a lively discussion on the role played by civil society organizations in contemporary societies. Through their direct work with communities, it has been pointed out, civil society organizations play an increasingly important role in the development and maintenance of social welfare, political stability, economic development and governmental performance.

Yet, civil society organizations are no longer alone in working at the community level. Within the frame of corporate social responsibility policies, more and more companies are getting involved in community life. Accordingly, policy-makers and researchers agree on the need to further our understanding of the intersection between the civil society, the state and the market. Further, practitioners and social entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly aware of the need to balance the logics and interests of these three actors when designing the organizational strategy and governing their organizations.

The course aims at offering conceptual tools for understanding the form taken by and the management techniques used in organizations working at the intersection of civil society, the state and the market. Further, the course applies these conceptual tools to the analysis of cases and real life situations. When putting theories at work in the course, the focus will be in their practical relevance for the design and strengthening of social entrepreneurial initiatives.

Intellectual tools from three theoretical approaches will be mobilized in class:

- social capital approach

- frame analysis approach

- governmentality studies approach

By the end of the course, course participants should be able to:

- Demonstrate an ability to analyze initiatives working at the intersection of civil society, the state and the market

- Use sociological theories to identify the elements that need to be considered to develop and strengthen such initiatives

- Persuasively explain and defend a position on issues concerning organizational strategy and governance of social entrepreneurial initiatives

- Demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical perspectives discussed in the course as a means of deciding questions involved in initiatives at the intersection of civil society, the state and the market

Oral exam on the basis of a mini project (individual or group).

The course will combine a variety of teaching methods, such as traditional lectures, group work and group presentations, cases, as well as study visits. Class attendance, preparation and participation will be important.

- Luc Boltanski & Eve Chiapello, 2005, The New Spirit of Capitalism. London: Verso. Introduction, pp. 1-55. (Number of pages: 55)

- Peter Fleming & André Spicer, 2008, “Beyond power and resistance: New approaches to organizational politics” Management Communication Quarterly, 21(3):301-309. (Number of pages: 8)

- Nicolas Rose & Peter Miller, 1992, “Political power beyond the State: problematics of government” British Journal of Sociology, 43(2): 173-205. (Number of pages: 29)

- Foucault, Michel, Security, Territory, Population – Lectures at the Collège de France 1977-1978. Ch. 13, pp. 333-361. (Number of pages: 28)

- Foucault, 2002, “What is critique?” In Ingram Blackwell (ed.) The political, pp. 191- 211. (Number of pages: 20)

- Ed Barratt, 2002, “Foucault, Foucauldianism and human resource management”. In Personnel Review, vol.31, issue 2, pp. 189-204. (Number of pages: 15)

- Snow, David A. et al, 1986. ”Frame Alignment Processes, Micro-mobilization, and Movements Participation” in American Sociological Review, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 464-481. (Number of pages: 15)

- Goffman, Erving, Frame analysis – An essay on the Organization of Experience, University Press of New England. Ch. 1 & 3, pp. 1-20 & 40-82. (Number of pages: 43)

- Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson, 2003/1980, Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. Ch. 1-3, 5, 13, 23-25 & 30, pp. 3-13, 22-24, 61-68, 156-194 & 229-237. (Number of pages: 70)

- Alejandro Portes, 1998, “Social Capital: its origins and applications in modern sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology, 24: 1-24. (Number of pages: 22)

- Mark Granovetter, 1973, “The strength of weak ties.” American Journal of Sociology, 78: 1360-1380. (Number of pages: 20)

- Pierre Bourdieu, 1986, “The Forms of Capital.” In John G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research in the Sociology of Education, New York, Greenwald Press, pp. 241-258. (Number of pages: 18)

- Robert Putnam and Kristin Goss, 2004, Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Ch.: Introduction, pp. 3-20. (Number of pages: 17)

- Staf Callewaert, 2006, “Bourdieu, Critc of Foucault – The case of empirical social science against double-game-philosophy.” Theory, Culture & Society, 23 (6): 73-98. (Number of pages: 24)

- Ian Hacking, 2004, “Between Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman: between discourse in the abstract and face-to-face interaction” Economy and Society, 33(3): 277-302. (Number of pages: 25)