HT 2026, Contemporary Sociological Theory, 7.5 credits
PhD course, 7,5 ECTS, given online during 10 weeks, half-time. Starts week 42, 2026.
What does it actually mean to engage in sociological theorization today? Sociology is awash with theories, labels, and frameworks, yet the question of how theory is made, how ideas emerge, travel, mutate, and get challenged, is rarely tackled explicitly. This course puts that question at its centre.
The course is organised around three interconnected themes: the logic and practice of theorization; its social and historical conditions; and contemporary theorization in motion. Seminars on key texts are paired with a strong line-up of guest lectures from scholars working at the frontier of their respective fields:
Linda Kvarnlöf — what is (contemporary) sociological theory?
Bertil Rolandsson — institutional logics and theoretical production
Torgeir Kolstø Haavik — theorizing risk and uncertainty
Michael Grothe-Hammer — development of organisation theory
Sharon Rider — the genealogy of vulnerability
Evangelia Petridou — then, now and future of policy theory
Together, the lectures show theorization not as something stored in textbooks, but as something done — in active dialogue with empirical material, disciplinary politics, and the tensions of the present.
Link to the course syllabus SOA040F
Practical information
Online format (Zoom), with synchronous seminars and lectures
7.5 ECTS, half-time over 10 weeks, starting week 42, 2026
Taught in English (unless all admitted students are Swedish-speaking)
Examination: analytical log, seminar leadership and participation, in-depth essay
Grading: Pass / Fail
Admission - Seats are limited. Priority order:
PhD students in Sociology at Mid Sweden University
PhD students in other disciplines at Mid Sweden University
PhD students in Sociology at other universities
PhD students in other disciplines at other universities
To register, email Jörgen Sparf, Professor of Sociology, at jorgen.sparf@miun.se.