SEC Final State Examination

The Final State Examination has two consecutive steps. The first is written and consists of answering one question from the Sociology themes and one from the Social Research Methodology themes. In the second step, which takes place a week later, students defend orally their Master Thesis and discuss the outcomes of the previous written part with their  examiners. 

THE THEMES AND RECOMMENDED LITERATURE

SOCIOLOGY THEMES 

1. Postmodern social theory. 

Lyotard, J. F. (1996). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

Seidman, S. (1991). The End of Sociological Theory: The Postmodern Hope. Sociological Theory 9 (2): 131–146.

Matthewman, S., Hoey, D. (2006) What Happened to Postmodernism?. Sociology 40 (3): 529–547.

Eagleton, T. (1995). „Where do Postmodernists Come From.“ Monthly Review 47 (3): 59–70.

2. Theories of globalization.

Martell, L. (2010). Sociology of Globalization. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Beck, U. (1999). What is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dirlik, A. (2003). Global Modernity: Modernity in an Age of Global Capitalism. European Journal of Social Theory 6 (3): 275–292.

Roudometof, V. (2009). Gusts of Change: The Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions for the Study of Globalization. European Journal of Social Theory 12 (3): 409–424.

3. The culture of the new capitalism. 

Boltanski, L., & Chiapello, E.. (2005). The New Spirit of Capitalism. London: Verso (General Introduction, pp. 1–55).

Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Slaughter, & Rhoades, S.G. (2004). Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Kemple, T. M.  (2009). Spirits of Late Capitalism. Theory, Culture & Society 24 (3): 147–159.

4. Recent trends in social theory (postcommunism, postcolonialism and multiculturalism). 

Hall, S. (1996). „When was the “Post-Colonial”? Thinking at the Limit‟ in I. Chambers and L. Curti (eds.) The Post-Colonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons‟, London: Routledge, pp. 242–260.

Ray, L. (2009).  “At the End of the Post-Communist Transformation? Normalization or Imagining Utopia?” European Journal of Social Theory 12 (3): 321–336.

Bhambra, K. G. (2007). „European Modernity and the Sociological Imagination.‟ In Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination, Palgrave: Houndmills.

Glazer, N. (1993). We Are All Multiculturalists Now. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

5. Political Sociology of Europe

Favell, Adrian and Virginie Guiraurdon (2009), ‘The Sociology of the European Union : An Agenda’, in: European Union Politics, 10, pp. 550-77.

Georgakakis, Didier and Julien Weisbein (2010), ‘From above and from below: A political sociology of European actors’, in: Comparative European Politics, 8, pp. 93–109.

Saurugger, S. (2016). Sociological Approaches to the European Union in Times of Turmoil. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 54(1), 70-86.

Q: What different types of sociological analysis of the European integration process can we distinguish? How is society concetpualized in the different approaches? And why is a sociological approach important?

6. European democracy

Blokker, P. (2013), ’A Political Sociology of European ‘Anti-Politics’ and Dissent’, in: Cambio. Rivista sulla Trasformazioni Sociali, II/4.

Rumford, C. (2002), ‘Europe and Democracy’, in: The European Union. A Political Sociology, Blackwell, pp. 209-236.

Della Porta, D. and M. Giugni (2009)’ Democracy from Below: activists and institutions’, in: D. Della Porta (ed.), Another Europe. Conceptions and Practices of democracy in the European social forums, London/New York: Routledge, pp. 86-108.

Oberhuber, F. et al. (2005), ‘Debating the European Constitution. On representations of Europe/the EU in the press’, in: Journal of Language and Politics 4:2, pp. 227–27.

Q: What is the ‘democratic deficit’ of the European Union, how does it relate to a European society, and what do different theories of democracy propose in order to diminish the democratic deficit?

7. The EU and civil society

Kohler-Koch, B. (2010), ‘Civil society and EU democracy: ‘astroturf’ representation?, in: Journal of European Public Policy, 17:1, pp. 100-116.

Rumford, C. (2003), ‘European Civil Society or Transnational Social Space? Conceptions of Society in Discourses of EU Citizenship, Governance and the Democratic Deficit: An Emerging Agenda’, in: European Journal of Social Theory 6(1), pp. 25–43.

Q: What are the relations between a European civil society (or societies) and the European Union? How are civil society demands taken into account by European institutions? Give an example of – and eleaborate on - a European social movement that makes claims on the European Union?     

8. International migration and networks of mobility.

O‟Reilly, K. (2012). International Migration and Social Theory. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Bubaker, R. (2010). Migration, Membership, and the Modern Nation State: Internal and External Dimensions of the Politics of Belonging. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xli:1 (Summer): 61-78.

Massey, D. et al. (1993). Theories of International Migration: A Review and Appraisal. Population and Developmen Review 19(3): 431-466.

9. State, culture, and politics of place. 

Donnan, Hastings, & Wilson, T. (1999). Frontiers of Identity, Nation and State. London: Berg.  Gupta, A. & Ferguson, J. (1992). Beyond „Culture“: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference. Cultural Anthropology, 7(1):6-23.

Wimmer, A. & Glick Schiller, N. (2002). Methodological nationalism and beyond: nation state-building, migration, and the social sciences. Global Networks 2(4): 301-334.

10. State borders and mobile bodies.

Bigo, D., & Guild, E. (2005). Controlling Frontiers: Free Movement Into And Within Europe. Aledershot: Ashgate.

de Geneva, N. (2002). Migrant “Illegality” and deportability in everyday life. Annual Review of Anthropology (31): 419-447.

Adey, P. (2009). Facing airport security: affects, biopolitics, and the preemptive securisation of the mobile body. Environment and Planing D: Society and Space (27): 274-295.

SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY THEMES

Students are supposed to both explain the methods and use them in practice within the examination.

A. Quantitative Research Methodology  

1. Setting the research design; research problem, hypotheses, objects, concepts, variables, attributes, levels of measurement.

2. Sampling techniques.

3. Data collection methods; qualitative and quantitative methods,

4. Preparing the research instruments (questionnaires).

Andrews R. (2003). Research Questions. London: Continuum.

Creswell, J.W., &  Plano Clark, V.L. (2007). Designing and Conducting. Mixed methods research. California: SAGE Publications.

Gliner, J.A., & Morgan, G.A. (2000). Research Methods in Applied Settings. New Jersey: LEA Publishing.

Schutt, R.K. (2005). Investigating the Social World. The Process and Practice of Research. Boston: SAGE.

Singleton Jr., R.A., & Straits, & B.C., Straits, M.M. (1993). Approaches to Social Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

B. Statistics in SPSS

5. Descriptive statistics - usage in social science data analysis, examples.

6. Comparison of means and medians - usage in social science data analysis, examples.

7. Analysis of categorical data in social science data analysis, examples.

8. Regression and correlation analysis in social science data analysis, examples.

Feld, A. (2000). Discovering statistics using SPSS for Windows: advanced techniques for the beginners. London: Sage.

Norusis, M.J. (2005). SPSS 13.0: statistical procedures companion. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 

De Vaus, D. (2002). Survey in social research. London: Routledge – Taylor & Francis Group.

SPSS Base manual

C. Qualitative Research Methodology

9. Analysis of texts in sociological research – basic concepts (text, discourse, reader), levels of analysis and approaches.

10. Analysis of discourse and narrative analysis – principles and use in sociological research.

Andrews, M., Squire, C., & Tamboukou, M. (Eds.). (2013). Doing narrative research. Sage

Titscher, S., &  Jenner, B. (Eds.). (2000). Methods of text and discourse analysis: In search of meaning. London: Sage.

Wodak, R. & Krzyżanowski, M. (Eds.). (2008). Qualitative discourse analysis in the social sciences. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.