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Exploring Sociological Theory

Science Podcasts

I read some classics in sociological theory, trying to release them from the dusty shelves. For more, see my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/AlecMcGail/ If you want to see me live, follow me @ https://www.twitch.tv/bergeront I recommend listening at 1.5x speed Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Location:

United States

Description:

I read some classics in sociological theory, trying to release them from the dusty shelves. For more, see my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/AlecMcGail/ If you want to see me live, follow me @ https://www.twitch.tv/bergeront I recommend listening at 1.5x speed Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Language:

English


Episodes
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(Fromm) The Illusion of Individuality

10/13/2022
The last chapter of Fromm's analysis of individuality of modern man. Fromm addresses the repressive nature of modern culture and socialization, pointing to helplessless, a lack of automony and freedom, to be fertile ground for authoritarianism, fascism. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:29:29

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(Tarde) Laws of Sociology

12/5/2021
This is epic. Love his trichotomy, and the discussion he concludes with. I.e. the emergence of the seemingly infinite from the infinitesimal, across all the natural and social sciences. Sounds like a call to the study of the heterogeneous and differentiated, outside the coordinated reduction of similarities (science). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:20:46

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(Simmel) Fashion

11/12/2021
at times thought-provoking, contradictory, and offensive wish I could've read the rest of the article, but was getting tired of it o.o --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:29:26

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(Bhaskar) Emergent Properties of Social Systems

11/4/2021
His sentences are long, his words true. Seems I need to read more Roy Bhaskar. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:25:03

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(Comte) The three stages of knowing

10/13/2021
Printed in 1842, Comte's universal law of mental development, and why it provides such a strong impetus for his new idea, "sociology" (translated as social physics in this reading). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:29:41

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(Giddens) The Adequacy of Explanatory Accounts

10/7/2021
From New Rules of Sociological Method, this section addresses the connection between art and the social sciences, in that they both attempt cross-cultural communication for self-expansion. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:18:26

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(Luhmann) Implications of Systems Theory for Epistemology

7/20/2021
Can you predict this will lead to sociology in particular? I didn't... Super dense, packed with insight, and justifies sociology of sociology (my focus). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:29:58

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(Douglas) Institutions Remember and Forget

7/19/2021
Great analysis, moving from the mnemonic structures which keep ancestry in the Nuer and the dynamics of remembering and forgetting in scientific discovery. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:31:07

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(Simmel) The Negative Character of Collective Behavior

7/4/2021
An interesting little essay, directly adjacent in The Sociology of Georg Simmel to his famous essay The Stranger. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:11:43

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(Garfinkel) What is ethnomethodology?

7/3/2021
Garfinkel has a wordy, rather technical-sounding description of the study of the taken-for-granted, the made-practical, the reasonable, etc. It's those unseen practices for making actions, events, etc. normal-ish, that he wants to study. And because it is so normal, and so intentionally ignored, by the 60s it still had not been a subject of rigorous sociological work. It's a classic, but also a headache. Good luck! --- Support this podcast:...

Duration:00:27:14

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(Knorr Cetina) Epistemic Cultures

6/1/2021
The introductory chapter to the book, published in 1999. It's great, a reassuring & pleasant vision for science studies! The cases sound interesting as well. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:31:59

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(Friedrichs) The Calling of Sociology

5/31/2021
The last chapter of an epic & forgotten book in sociology. It's a bit wordy, but also a bit epic & deep. Curious if anyone (including me) will ever make it to the end. Enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:01:44:11

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(Simmel) Sociability

5/13/2021
Sociability refers to different forms of social interaction and human association. The concept, in both descriptive and normative senses, can be found in many branches of study. In sociology the concept occupied a central place in the work of Georg Simmel, who developed and presented it as a sociological ideal type. This was published in AJS in 1949 "The Sociology of Sociability," original from 1910 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:39:52

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(Bernal) The Social Function of Science

3/23/2021
Published in 1939, when this guy was just 38 years old, the book as a whole gives a sweeping defense of science in light of popular critiques at the time. But the last chapter I read here gives a beautiful and comprehensive vision of science as a scaffolding for all future human action, and a program for its merging with culture, history, etc. and its morphing and supporting humanity's quest towards the future. Great read. --- Support this podcast:...

Duration:00:22:50

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(Goffman) The Interaction Order

1/9/2021
Erving Goffman’s posthumously published essay, ‘The interaction order’, which was to have been presented as a presidential address at an annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, is usually taken to be an attempt at a systematic summary by Goffman of his key ideas. (This) address can also be understood as a profoundly personal and deeply scornful critique by Goffman of the varieties of mainstream sociology and the pretensions of its practitioners. Incorporated into that...

Duration:01:31:06

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(Mills) The Sociological Imagination

12/9/2020
One publisher's description The excerpt that follows is from Mills' acclaimed book, The Sociological Imagination. Since its original publication in 1959, this text has been a required reading for most introductory sociology students around the world. Mills' sociological imagination perspective not only cornpels Lhe besl sociological analyses but also enables the sociologist and the individual to distinguish between "personal troubles" and "public issues." By separating these phenomena, we...

Duration:00:13:52

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(Sacks) Rules of conversational exchange

11/13/2020
The first of his famous lectures --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:19:18

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(Goffman) Primary Frameworks

11/6/2020
from Frame Analysis --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:28:55

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(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis

11/5/2020
(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis -- Chapter 1. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

Duration:00:25:29

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(Tumin) Critique of Davis & Moore

9/24/2020
Tumin challenged the Davis–Moore hypothesis of social stratification with his paper "Some principles of stratification: a critical analysis".[5][6] Tumin took Davis–Moore to imply that social stratification was mostly inevitable and provided a positive function for society. He analyzed the arguments of Davis and Moore and found them wanting in a number of respects.[6] In a reply to Tumin's paper, Davis stated that his ideas seek to explain inequality, rather than justify it. Davis also...

Duration:00:34:36