VT 2026, Theory of social and cultural sciences, 7.5 credits
The faculty wide course Theory of social and cultural sciences will be offered starting in January 2026.
Course coordinator: Susan Foran
The deadline for applications is one month prior to the course start. Applicants will be informed about admission to the course after the deadline.
Schedule:
Vetenskapsteori för humanvetenskaperna/Theory of Social and Cultural Sciences, Period 1 (January–March)
The date has been changed for Seminar 1.
Seminar 1: Susan Foran, Introduction to the course: Thursday 29 January, 13.15–15.00 (Zoom)
Seminar 2: Sven Anders Johansson, Traditional versus critical theory: Wednesday 4 February, 9.15 -–11.00 (Zoom)
Traditional versus critical theory: What does “Critical Theory” really mean? The seminar will focus on the epistemological ideals of Karl Popper (positivism) and Max Horkheimer (Frankfurt school).
Literature: Horkheimer, Max, “Traditional and Critical Theory”, Critical Theory: Selected Essays, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (Continuum, 1972) pp. 188–243 and Popper, Karl, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge, 2002).
Seminar 3: Anders E. Johansson, The possibility of another science: Monday 9 February, 13.15-15.00 (Zoom)
Based on texts by science theorist Isabelle Stengers, the seminar is devoted to questions about what science is and could be against the background of the challenges our time faces in terms of knowledge.
Literature: Stengers, Isabelle, Cosmopolitics I, trans. Robert Bononno (Minn. University of Minnesota Press, 2010) (Utdrag, excerpts) and Stengers, Isabelle, Thinking with Whitehead: A Free and Wild Creation of Concepts, trans. Michael Chase (Harvard University Press, 2011) (Utdrag, excerpts) and Stengers, Isabelle, Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science, trans. Stephen Muecke (Polity Press, 2018).
Seminar 4: Samuel Edquist, Universalism and science: Thursday 19 February 10.15–12.00 (on Zoom and campus)
This seminar uses texts from different perspectives to discuss to what extent epistemological foundations of science and scholarship may or may not be shared across class divisions, between colonisers and colonised, etc.
Literature: a) relevant texts from Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies (2021) and b) selected parts from Vivek Chibber, Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (Verso, 2013).
What parts of a) and b) that are to be read, will at the latest be announced when the course starts. Possibly, some other (freely available) text will also be included in the literature to be read before the seminar.
Seminar 5: Andreas Hellerstedt, Creating knowledge in the humanities and social sciences: Tuesday 3 March 10.15–12.
Literature: Michel Foucault, Archaeology of Knowledge (Routledge, 2002) and Chris Haufe, Do the Humanities Create Knowledge? (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Seminar 6: Susan Foran, Bakhtinian Thought: Wednesday 11 March, 13:15–15.00
Discussion questions are designed to help bring all participants into a discussion of the work and relevance of Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975).
Literature: Alastair Renfrew, Mikhail Bakhtin, full book and Ken Hirschkop, The Cambridge Introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin, pages 68 (from 'The concepts and arguments') to 145.
Seminar 7: Martin Shaw, Pierre Bourdieu: Friday, 20 March, 13.15–15.00.
Literature: Bourdieu, Pierre, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Routledge, 2010).
The course may be given in English.