Society - Madness - Crime

Choose one theme from: Authority and Power, Authority in Childhood, Childhood, Community, Crime and Punishment, Deviance and Response, Family, History, Imagination, Interrelate. Madness, Madness and Crime, Knowledge and truth, Knowledge and Power Organism, Political Perspective, Positive Science, Prison, Science, Philosophy, Theology, Self and Body, Sex, Self, body, sex and society, Situated Knowledge Surveillance, Statistics, Symbols, Theatre, Total Institution.

Choose one, two or three theorists to explore, in relation to the theme, from the list attached to the theme. Theme and theorists must be discussed with Andrew Roberts and agreed by him. You should also agree the texts you will use.

Authority and Power

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the work of two or three of the following: Ashley - Edmund Burke - Bentham - Robert Dahl - Geoff Dench - Emile Durkheim - Federalist Papers - Robert Filmer - Foucault - Godwin - Anthony Giddens - Hegel - Hobbes - Kant - Machiavelli - James Mill - John Stuart Mill - John Locke, - Macionis and Plummer - Thomas Paine - Rousseau - Schumpeter - Scruton - Max Weber - Wollstonecraft.

You need to distinguish authority and power. They are not just two words for the same thing and the quality of your essay will partly depend on the effort you put into examining their difference and how they relate in the theories of your authors. The word legitimacy is often related to authority.

Examples

Including Max Weber gives you clear definitions of authority and power.
Build on what others have done on Weber - See also what others have done respecting Talcot Parsons' translation of Weber's work. There is a need to draft an outline of Weber's life and works as it relates to authority and power.

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the work of Max Weber to the perspective of Thomas Hobbes

You could begin by reading the comparison of Hobbes and Weber in Social Science History and the extracts from Max Weber

Build on what others have done on Weber and Hobbes

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the work of Max Weber to the perspectives of Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill

Build on what others have done on Weber - Hobbes - and Mill

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the work of Max Weber to the perspectives of Emile Rousseau and Emile Durkheim.

Compare the perspective on authority and power in Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan with that of Michel Foucault in the Power/Knowledge collection.

Explore Emile Rousseau's concepts of authority and power. Show how he differed from Thomas Hobbes

Essential primary text: Rousseau's The Social Contract

Essential secondary text: Chapter four in Social Science History

Build on what others have done

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the work of John Locke and the writers of the Federalist Papers.

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the theories of Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham, with special reference to morality and punishment.

Compare the perspective on authority and power in the work Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft

Also check any biographical literature reviews for authors
Build on what others have done - Example: Durkheim - Weber

useful combinations include:
two or three of: Mary Wollstonecraft, Godwin (her husband), Rousseau (who both admired), Burke (who criticised)

two or three of Locke, Federalist Papers, John Stuart Mill, Dahl
Dahl will allow you to link modern political sociology back to its origins and (if you choose Mill) to contrast USA with British theory.

two or three of Filmer, Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Ashley, Scruton

two or three of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Weber, Durkheim, Foucault, Dench

If you choose Locke and Durkheim, you should choose someone like Filmer or Rousseau or Scruton to give you a link. Filmer contrasts with Locke, but there are some similarities with Durkheim. Rousseau can be viewed as a link between Locke and Durkheim. On Scruton's analysis, Locke is a liberal theorist and Durkheim a conservative one. Frank Pearce disagrees about Durkheim

Foucault with Bentham and one other

Authority in childhood and society

Analyse, compare and discuss what (if anything) two or three of the following theorists say about authority and power in the family, the school, in society and in politics.

Black links go directly to the biographical literature review page

Ashley - Durkheim - Robert Filmer - Macionis and Plummer - Mill -

Examples

Analyse and discuss what Durkheim says about authority and power in the family, the school, society and politics

You could begin by making notes and collecting quotes on how Durkheim's Moral Education relates to the terms in the question.

Build on what others have written about Durkheim

How what Durkheim says about authority and power in family, the school and in politics relates to my experience of bringing up children.

Analyse, compare and discuss what Sir Robert Filmer and Emile Durkheim say about authority and power in the family, the school, society and politics.

Analyse, compare and discuss what John Stuart Mill and Emile Durkheim say about authority and power in the family, the school, society and politics

Childhood

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in two or three of the following theorists: Ashley Cooper, William Blake, John Dewey, Filmer, Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud, Locke - John Stuart Mill, William Morris, Talcott Parsons, Owen, Pavlov, Rousseau, Skinner, Watson, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wordsworth,

Examples

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in John Locke and Robert Filmer. Does this relate to both European and African societies?

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience

Think about childhood in William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. How does it relate to his ideas on education and society, and how do his ideas relate to those of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Build on what others have written on this subject

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in Rousseau's Emile

Build on what others have done

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in Rousseau to the poetry of William Wordsworth and William Blake

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in Rousseau and Freud

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in John Stuart Mill and Sigmund Freud.

Start by thinking about what Freud said about Mill

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in Freud, Watson and Skinner.

Examine the theories of Sigmund Freud, John Watson and Burrhus Skinner in relation to their perception of childhood and how it relates to education and society.

Essential primary texts:

Freud's 1909 lectures

Watson and Rayner's 1920 article: "Conditioned Emotional Reactions"

Skinner's 1948 novel: Walden Two

This question enables you to compare psychoanalytic and (two different) behaviourist views of childhood and how they relate to education and society. Build on what others have done: Freud - Watson - Skinner - These links will lead you to much of your reading. As core texts I suggest Freud's 1909 lectures - Watson and Rayner's 1920 article and Skinner's 1948 novel Walden Two

Compare the treatment of childhood, education and society in the work of Talcott Parsons to their treatment in the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth.

Build on what others have done about Parsons and Blake

Begin by loking at Parsons and Bales 1955 Family, Socialisation and Interaction Process and Parsons 1964 Social Structure and Personality

Relate the treatment of childhood, education and society in a [specified] 21st century textbook of Sociology to the treatment by one or two of the following theorists: Robert Filmer, John Stuart Mill, William Morris, Sigmund Freud, Talcott Parsons.

Community

Explore the idea of community in the work of one, two or three of the following: Thomas Carlyle, Charles Crook, John Dewey, Emile Durkheim, Dennis Hardy, Friedrich Hayek, Hegel, Adolf Hitler, Suzy Johnston , Marx and/or Engels, William Morris, Sorokin Tonnies, Weber, Willmott and Young,

Examples

Suggestion: The classical theorists, Marx/Engels, Durkheim and Weber, make a useful combination. (or Tonnies could replace one of them)

Suggestion: Combining Carlyle, Marx/Engels and Morris would enable you to study the development of marxist theory in an unusual and interesting, way.

Explore the idea of community in Engel's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in relation to family based and state based societies.

See lecture notes

Explore the idea of community in Engel's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in relation to family based and state based societies. Does this help us analyse the problems of post-colonial Africa?

You should acquaint yourself with material about Africa (See subject index for Africa), so that you know where you are going. However, this first task is to analyse what Engels says about community, pre-state family based political organisation, and the development of the state.

Explore the idea of community in Engel's The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in relation to family based and state based societies. Illustrate with examples from Somalia

Compare the concept of "morality in community life" in the works of John Dewey and Emile Durkheim

Build on what others have done on this topic -

Explore the idea of community in the work of Adolph Hitler, Karl Marx, Friederich Engels and Ferdinand Tonnies

Explore the idea of community in the theories of Adolf Hitler and sociologists of his time. [One student used Weber, Arthur de Gobineau and Ludwig Gumplowicz as her comparisons].

Build on what others have done on Hitler and Weber

Particularly useful combinations with Hitler include Hegel, Tonnies or Weber, and Sorokin. This allows you to compare and contrast the Nazi ideas of community with more coherent previous German social theory and contemporary sociological theory. See the Social Science History Timeline 1942 for some other useful reading.

Build on what others have done on Durkheim and Owen

Crime and Punishment
Deviance and Response

Make sure you follow the links on crime, deviance and punishment below. You must, deal with both crime (or deviance) and punishment (or the response to deviance) in your essay.

Explore the themes of crime and punishment in two or three of the following: OR

Explore the themes of deviance and the response to deviance in one two or three of the following:

Beccaria - Jeremy Bentham - Jack Douglas - Emile Durkheim - Eysenck - Foucault - Kant - Macionis and Plummer - Robert Merton - Jock Young

Go to Durkheim questions - Merton questions

Examples

Beccaria - Bentham - Foucault

Make sure you follow the links to the authors above. Read carefully and follow the links within the articles on the authors. You should make full use of these resources.

Explain Cesare Beccaria's ideas on crime and punishment. [This is a simple question for starting - although explaining is not so simple. It can be expanded in different ways later - as below]. Build on what others have done about Beccaria

Essential primary text: Cesare Beccaria's Of Crimes and Punishments (1764)

Explain Cesare Beccaria's ideas on crime and punishment. Relate these to the discussion of classical criminology in Taylor, Walton and Young's The New Criminology

Essential primary texts: Cesare Beccaria's Of Crimes and Punishments (1764) and Taylor, Walton and Young's The New Criminology

Explain Bentham's ideas on crime and punishment. [This is a simple question for starting - although explaining is not so simple. It can be expanded in different ways later - as below]. Build on what others have done about Bentham

You could start with the Bentham entry. Follow the links from this. Look at the intellectual biography that we are developing. Look at the extracts from his work. Follow the links through to the full texts.

Explore the thories of crime and punishment in the work of Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault

Start with Beccaria. Make notes and quotes separating his theory of crime and his theory of punishment. Build on what others have done.

Explore the theories of crime and punishment in the work of Beccaria and Bentham and relate this to the codes of the criminal law in France after the French Revolution

Explore the utiitarian approach to crime and punishment in the work of Beccaria and Bentham and discuss the criticisms of Immanuel Kant

Explore the themes of crime and punishment in the work of Bentham and Foucault

You could start by reading Bentham. Following links from the Bentham entry should suggest to you what to read. - And have a look at previous work

You could start by reading Foucault, M. 1977 Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison - And have a look at previous work

Explain Bentham's ideas on crime and punishment and contrast with Shariah law.

Build on what others have done about Bentham
Read Bentham extracts - see works by and about Bentham

When you have drafted something about Bentham's theories of both crime and punishment, find your sources for Shariah and compare and contrast. If you find other sources for Shariah (not listed) we will add them to the list.

You could consider Sharia as a theological theory of law and relate it to the discussions in Social Science History chapter two.

The association of Shariah with "medieval punishments" (BBC website) could be related to Foucault's contrast between "torture" and "punishment" in Discipline and Punish

Explain Bentham's ideas on crime and punishment and relate to the behaviourism of J.B. Watson.

Durkheim Life and works

Make sure you follow the link to Durkheim above. Read carefully and follow the links from the Durkheim article. You should make full use of these resources. The History of Social Ideas essay on Durkheim (and Merton) may help you. Also read Social Science History, Essay Six: "Durkheim and Weber's Contrasting Imaginations".

Explore the themes of crime and punishment in the work of Emile Durkheim OR Explore the themes of crime and other forms of deviance and punishment and other responses to deviance in the work of Emile Durkheim

Essential primary texts: Emile Durkheim's The Division of Labour in Society (1893) and The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) (1895).

Start with the extracts. There is an index that lists crime and punishment. Read the entry on the crime timeline about Durkheim and crime. Notice how his theories of crime and punishment are inextricably linked to one another and to his theories of society. You will get an overview of these interconnections from the Durkheim and Merton page that was constructed by other students. The two main books you will be using are The Division of Labour in Society (1893) and The Rules of Sociological Method (1895). James Moody's online notes on The Division of Labour in Society should help you.

Suicide
Make sure you follow the link to Suicide above. Read carefully and follow the links from the Suicide article. You should make full use of these resources.

Explore the themes of deviance and the response to deviance in the work of Emile Durkheim, with respect to suicide.

Explore the theme of suicide and the response to deviance in the work of Emile Durkheim.

Essential primary text: Emile Durkheim's Durkeim's Suicide. A Study in Sociology (1897)

Begin with Durkeim's Suicide. A Study in Sociology - There are online extracts. Also read "Durkheim and Weber's Contrasting Imaginations" in Social Science History. Suicide is discussed as a "social fact". Also read the lecture on Durkheim: Suicide and Social Solidarity

You may want to read Jack Douglas's criticism. In which case, you could make your question:

"Explore the theme of suicide and the response to deviance in the work of Emile Durkheim and Jack Douglas".

You could also consider the statistics question.

Merton

Explore the theme of deviance and the response to deviance in the work of Robert Merton.

Essential primary text: Robert Merton's "Social Structure and Anomie" American Sociological Review 3, pp 672-682. 1938 (Preferable), or the chapter on "Social Structure and Anomie" in later books.

Begin with the extracts from Merton. You will need to discuss his concepts of conformity, deviance and crime.

Durkheim and Merton

Explore the themes of crime and other forms of deviance and punishment and other responses to deviance in the work of Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton

Follow the relevant advive for Durkheim and Merton

Prison as Punishment

Examine Bentham's theory of the prison as punishment as described by Foucault in Discipline and Punish

You may want to start by drafting a description of those aspects of Bentham's life and works that relate to the Panopticon. You can develop this from what others have done on Bentham. Your basic reading is Foucault's Discipline and Punish. You will need to provide a properly referenced analysis of relevant parts, in your own words. Start with the extracts on Bentham and the Panopticon. Build on what others have done on Foucault. You will also want to read the article on Surveillance.

Also see Foucault on the origin of the prison

See subject index on Prison

Were docile bodies essential for the development of punishment in an organised way? Examine with respect Bentham's theory of the prison as punishment as described by Foucault in Discipline and Punish

Family

Discuss the family in relation to society in the work of one, two or three of the following: Aristotle - Robert Filmer - John Locke - The 1611 Bible - Jean Jacques Rousseau - Adam Smith - Olympe de Gauges - Marx and/or Engels - John Stuart Mill - Emile Durkheim - Friedrich Hayek - Roger Scruton - Zygmunt Bauman.

Examples

Discuss the family in relation to society in the work of Robert Filmer and John Locke and how it relates to the 1611 Bible. How does this relate to modern times?

You could start by reading Hobbes, Filmer and Locke - 17th Century Models for a Science of Society

Discuss the family in relation to society in the work of Jean Jaques Rousseau

Essential primary text: Rousseau's Emile or On Education 1762

Discuss the family in relation to society in the work of Emile Durkheim

You could begin by making notes and collecting quotes on how Durkheim's Moral Education relates to the terms in the question.

Build on what others have written about Durkheim

Discuss the family in relation to society in the work of Talcott Parsons

Build on what others have done about Parsons

Discuss the family in relation to society in the work of Talcott Parsons and compare this to the image of the family in William Blake's poetry.

Build on what others have done about Parsons and Blake

Begin by loking at Parsons and Bales 1955 Family, Socialisation and Interaction Process and Parsons 1964 Social Structure and Personality

History

Explore the significance of history in the work of one, two or three of the following: Aristotle, Edmund Burke, J.B. Bury, Mary Beard, Gordon Childe, Auguste Comte, Charles Darwin, Simone de Beauvoir, Emile Durkheim, Friedrich Engels, Ronald Fletcher, Foucault, Hegel, Friedrich Hayek, Adolph Hitler, Leonard Hobhouse, Karl Marx, Thomas Babington Macaulay, John Stuart Mill, Karl Popper, Sheila Rowbotham, Henri Saint-Simon, Adam Smith, R.H. Tawney, Max Weber, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wilhelm Wundt

Examples

Suggestion: Explore the significance of history in the work of Henri Saint-Simon and relate it to the development of social science.

This question develops themes raised in the first lecture. See the Saint Simon chart.

Explore the significance of history in the work of Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels and relate it to the development of social science.

Begin by analysing what The Communist Manifesto says about history. Begin with "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" - Study the article Marx and Engels: Scientific Socialism and Summary of Historical Materialism

Essential primary text: The Communist Manifesto
Essential secondary text: Marx and Engels: Scientific Socialism

Suggestion: Explore the significance of history in the work of John Stuart Mill and relate it to the development of social science.

See History as research method: The Survivors History Group

Compare the significance of history in the work of Charles Darwin to its significance in the writing of Adolf Hitler

Analysis two key texts: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925-1927) with respect to the significance of history

Imagination

Examine the part played by imagination in the work of one, two or three of the following and relate this to the study of society and/or science: William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Emile Durkheim, Julie Ford, Sigmund Freud, Suzy Johnston , Mary Lamb, John Locke, Charlotte Mew, Juliet Mitchell, William Morris, Frank Pearce, Karl Popper, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Mary Warnock, Max Weber Oscar Wilde.

Examples

Investigate the role of imagination in Mary Wollstonecraft's view of science. Look at the inter-play of imagination and observation in the creation of another human by Frankenstein (in Mary Shelley's novel), and relate this to Karl Popper's theory of the role of imagination in science.

Explore the imagination of Mary Shelley and William Morris in their novels Frankenstein, The Last Man and News from Nowhere. Relate this to the study of society and/or science.

The first thing to do is, probably, to enjoy reading one or more of the novels. See Mary Shelley and William Morris for electronic and printed texts. With both authors there are discussions of the social content on this site. Follow the timeline links from Mary Shelley and William Morris - and see what happens in 2073

Build on what others have done. The work on Mary Shelley may suggest other useful combinations to you. Mary Wollstonecraft was the mother of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. You could compare them with John Locke or Karl Popper on science, Mary Warnock on imagination, or Oscar Wilde on science and art.

Suggestion: You could compare Sigmund Freud (Interpretation of Dreams) with Mary Shelley and William Morris, both of whom structured books around a dream. Shelley enables you to relate dreaming to science and Morris enables you to involve interpretations of marxism.

Interelate

Explore the interrelationship between the ideas of:

Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault

Madness

Explore reason and unreason in the work of one, two or three of the following: Bentham, Anthony Clare, Eysenck, William and Mrs Ellis Foucault, Freud, Goffman, Susan Tyler Hitchcock Hume, Suzy Johnston , Laing, Charlotte Mew , Juliet Mitchell, Sedgwick, Scruton, Szasz, William Tuke,

Examples

Explore reason and unreason in the work of Foucault, William Tuke and William and Mrs Ellis.

Foucault discusses William Tuke and you could consider Foucault's arguments about moral management in comparison with those of Tuke and/or William and Mrs Ellis. Dr and Mrs Ellis developed moral management in a larger asylum than Tuke. Build on what others have done: Foucault - Tuke - Ellis -

Explore reason and unreason in the work of Sigmund Freud

As a start on Freud's approach to reason and unreason, you could consider the explanation he developed for certain "abnormal psychic formations". in Interpretation of Dreams. Alternatively, you could consider the contrast he makes between religion and science in "The question of a Weltanschauung"

Examine Susan Tyler Hitchcock's explanations for the madness and recovery in the life of Mary Lamb.

Essential primary text: Mad Mary Lamb: Lunacy and murder in literary London by Susan Tyler Hitchcock

Link to resources

Examine the explanations for mental illness and recovery in the life of Suzy Johnston.

Suggestion: Using my mental health and civil liberties article as a start, you could consider Peter Sedgwick's ideas in comparison with one or two of Anthony Clare, Ronald Laing, Michel Foucault, Erving Goffman, and/or Thomas Szasz.

Suggestion: Freud, Eysenck and Goffman allow you to make a comparison of psychoanalytic, behaviourist and symbolic interactionist approaches to reason and unreason.

Suggestion: With a Bentham, Foucault and Eysenck combination, you could use Bentham's utilitarianism to define reason (for him) as the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of pain. Then use Foucault to show how this was applied to prisons and asylums. Then look at the refinement of the utilitarian position by Eysenck.

Madness and crime

Examples

Explore the relation between madness and crime in the work of Cesare Lombroso

Essential primary text: Cesare Lombroso's Criminal Man (1876) Passages in Gibson and Rafter (below) pages 43 to 93 - Or text arranged with Andrew.

Start by reading Lombroso Criminal Man. Using the translation by Mary Gibson and Nicole Hahn Rafter, you could start by studying the (first) 1876 edition. This is pages 43 to 93 of Gibson and Rafter. (Pages 39 to 41 are Gibson and Rafter's introduction to the edition). See Contents list and brief extracts. You could also consult the 1911 English summary by his daughter, which is available online. See partial Contents list and extracts

OR Start by reading Lombroso Criminal Woman

Build on what others have done: See essay by Cristina Garcia

Explore the relation between madness and crime in the work of Eysenck and Jock Young.

Explore the relation between madness and crime in the work of Eysenck as explained by Taylor, Walton and Young in The New Criminology.

Passages from Taylor, Walton and Young relating to Eysenck are online.

Compare Foucault's approaches to the control of madness and crime

Knowledge and truth

Compare two or three of these author's theories of knowledge and truth: John Dewey - Mary Douglas - Emile Durkheim - Michel Foucault - Immanuel Kant

Examples

See the entry on knowledge

Compare the theories of knowledge and truth of Kant and Durkheim

Kant's What is Enlightenment as a relevant text. Also Durkheim passages such as those in Elementary Forms of Religious Knowledge

Compare the theories of knowledge and truth of Immanuel Kant, Emile Durkheim, and Michel Foucault

The people and ideas entries for Kant - Durkheim and Foucault should be useful. Also try student work on Kant - Durkheim and Foucault

Compare the theories of knowledge and truth of Immanuel Kant, Emile Durkheim, and Mary Douglas

Knowledge and power

Investigate Michel Foucault's concepts of power and knowledge and how they inter-relate

Suggestion: Read and view the You Tube clip

You can approach this question in many different ways. For example, you could consider medicine, psychiatry, gynaecology, penology, or education from the perspectives of knowledge and power. The books by Foucault that you use will depend on the way you approach the question. It would be a good idea to study some of the essays in Power/Knowledge Selected interviews and other writings, 1972-1977 by Michel Foucault

Organism

Analyse and compare the images of organism and system in the work of one or two of the following: Auguste Comte - Charles Darwin - Adolph Hitler - Bronislaw Malinowski - Radcliffe- Brown - Talcott Parsons - John Rex - Herbert Spencer

Also check any biographical literature reviews for authors
Build on what others have done

Examples

Analyse and compare the images of organism and system in the work of Talcott Parsons

Political Perspective

With respect to one, two or three of the following EITHER Examine the relation of their theories to politics OR Examine the relationship between their theories and their political objectives Emile Durkheim, Rousseau, Weber, Wollstonecraft,

Examples:

Examine the relation of the theories of Jean Jacques Rousseau to politics

How does Rousseau's political theory relate to the French Revolution?

You could start by reading "Can theory redesign society?
Rousseau, the French Revolution, Women and Slaves and following the links to Rousseau's work. You could also look at the lecture on the French Revolution and Human Rights

Examine the relation of the theories of Jeremy Bentham and Robert Owen to politics

The theory that Bentham share in common is utilitarianism. The intellectual relationship between Bentham and Owen is discussed in my article on Radicals, Socialists and Early Feminists, which draws on the research of Jackie Lugg. The relation between ideas and welfare politics is discussed in Social Science and the 1834 Poor Law - The Theories that Smith, Bentham, Malthus and Owen made:

Positive Science

Compare and contrast the treatment of "positivism" in two or three of the following: Auguste Comte, Michel Foucault, Leszek Kolakowski, Bertrand Russell, Jock Young,

Examples

Compare and contrast the treatment of "positivism" in the work of Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim and Jock Young.

Science, Philosophy, Theology

Examine the relation of science, philosophy and theology in one, two or three of the following: Thomas Aquinas, Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Bertrand Russell, Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft

Examples

Examine the relation of science, philosophy and theology in the work of Thomas Aquinas, Auguste Comte and Bertrand Russell.

Build on what others have done: Aquinas - Comte - Russell

Useful combinations include:

Comte with Thomas Aquinas and Durkheim
If you try this, I would suggest you use Comte as your key author

Mary Wollstonecraft with Mary Shelley and Comte

Self anb Body

Examine the relationship of self and body in one, two or three of the following. Some of these links go directly to work that other students have done - Follow links from there

Plato - Rene Descartes - John Stuart Mill - Sigmund Freud - George Herbert Mead - Erving Goffman - Christine Battersby - Elizabeth Grosz - Jana Sawicki

Examples

Examine the relationship of self and body in relation to John Stuart Mill and Sigmund Freud

I suggest that you begin this topic by reading what Freud wrote about Mill

Analyse Freud on aspects of body (brain) and self (mind) using the excavation tool.

Read Mill's Subjection of Women and his Autobiography and consider if you agree with Freud.

Use what others have done: Freud - Mill

Examine the relationship of self and body in the work of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman

Build on what others have done on Mead with respect to both self and its relationship to body. Use the extracts from Mead. There are index links for self and body to help you.

Build on what others have done on Goffman. The section on theatre is a good point to start. Use the extracts from Goffman. A copy of his book on Stigma could be particularly helpful.

A variation on this question
Examine the relationship of mind and body and society in the work of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman

Examine the relationship of self and body in the theories of George Herbert Mead and Christine Battersby

Essential primary texts: George Herbert Mead's Mind, Self and Society, from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviourist (1934) and Christine Battersby's "Her Body/Her Boundaries" article (1998/1999)

Examine the relationship of self and body in the theories of Jana Sawicki

Build on what others have done

Sex

Compare the social significance of sex in the theories of two or three of the following: Friederich Engels. Shulamith Firestone, Anna Freud, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm, Malthus, Macionis and Plummer , Juliet Mitchell, William Morris, Plato, Wilhelm Reich, Rousseau, Roger Scruton, Wollstonecraft,

Do not confuse sex and gender

You are advised to take Freud as your key author.
Brown, J.A.C.1961/1964 discusses Anna Freud, Reich and Fromm.
Mitchell, J. 1974 discusses Reich and Laing

Examples

Examine the relationship of sex and society in the work of Sigmund Freud

Build on what others have done - The life and works outline does not successfully relate Freud and sex, or relate that to its social significance. A serious effort to do this would make an excellent start.

Compare the social significance of sex in the work of Plato and Sigmund Freud

Essential primary texts: Plato's Republic and Freud's Outline of Psychoanalysis.

Freud saw a distinction between male and female (personalities) as having a central effect on the content of our minds. He disagreed with theorists such as Plato, Wollstonecraft, Taylor and Mill who had argued that, in almost everything except physical organs and ability to bear and breast feed children, men and women are essentially the same. (Read Sigmund Freud on personality and society The scientific study of unreason)

I suggest you use Plato's Republic and Freud's Outline of Psychoanalysis, and compare them. The exercise in excavating Freud should help you.

Compare the social significance of sex in the theories Sigmund Freud and Erich Fromm

Build on what others have done

Situated Knowledge

Discuss the relevance of situated knowledge to social theory with respect to two or three of the following:

AWAITING ENTRY

Surveillance

Examine the importance of looking (observation) in the writings of one, two or three of the following: Bentham, Connolly, Foucault, Goffman, Owen

Examples

Examine the importance of looking (observation) in the writings of Bentham and Foucault.

Build on what others have done

Relate the treatment of looking (observation) in the writings of Bentham and Foucault to issues of surveillance in the 21st century.

21st century links: Fulcher and Scott - David Lyon - Richard Jones in Hale Hayward Wahidin and Wincup

Compare surveillance observation or inspection in the factory/community of New Lanark in the work of Owen, with the prison as a place of observation described by Foucault and the asylum as a place with an underlife, away from observation, as analysed by Goffman.

Build on what others have done - Owen - Goffman - Foucault

Examine the importance of looking (observation) in Erving Goffman's theory of asylums

Build on what others have done: Goffman

Statistics

Examine the contribution made by statistics to the study of society in the work of one, two or three of the following: Ashley, Durkheim, Jack Douglas, Engels, William Farr, Francis Galton, Thomas Malthus, Quetelet, Jock Young, Peter Townsend,

Examples

Use the statistical writings of Adolphe Quetelet and William Farr to look at the way the historical construction of the normal person was used to evaluate mental hospitals.

Examine the contribution made by statistics to the study of society in the work of Emile Durkheim and his critic, Jack Douglas.

Symbols

Relate the treatment of symbols in one, two or three of the following theorists to their concepts of mind and society: Durkheim, Freud, Hobbes, Hume, Locke, Mead, Juliet Mitchell, Parsons,

Examples

Relate the treatment of symbols in Talcott Parsons and George Herbert Mead to their concepts of mind and society

Build on what others have done: - Mead - Parsons

Examine the formation of symbols in the work of George Herbert Mead. Does this help us understand the public sphere use of symbols? Relate to the work of one of the following, Theodor Adorno - Stuart Hall - Jürgen Habermas - Zygmunt Bauman.

Examples

Examine the formation of symbols in the work of George Herbert Mead. Does this help us understand the public sphere use of symbols? Relate to the work of Jürgen Habermas

Examine the formation of symbols in the work of George Herbert Mead. Does this help us understand the media and consumption in the work of Zygmunt Bauman?

Theatre

Examine the theatrical imagery in the theories of one, two or three of the following: Erving Goffman, Macionis and Plummer , George Herbert Mead, Peter Morea, Talcott Parsons

This question could be adapted by considering the issues in relation to the work of a dramatist: Shakespeare for example.

Examples

Examine the theatrical imagery in the theories of George Herbert Mead and Erving Goffman.

Build on what others have done with Mead and Goffman

Total Institution

Compare the analysis of the asylum, workhouse, alternative community, factory/community, family, and/or prison in the work of two or three of the following theorists: Bentham, Cohen and Taylor, Connolly, Donnelly, Foucault, Goffman, Dennis Hardy, Suzy Johnston , Kathleen Jones, Laing, Owen, Thompson and Wheeler, Peter Townsend, Rothman

Goffman's concept of a total institution could provide you with a useful conceptual framework - so consider including him. Build on what others have done about Goffman. - Alternatively, you could focus on Goffman

If you choose to include family, you should use Owen and/or Thompson and Wheeler and/or Laing amongst your authors.

If you choose to include alternative communities, you should use Dennis Hardy's book on them. This combines well with Owen.

Workhouses (poor-houses) are best considered with asylums. Foucault provides a link between the two in that he argues that the lunatic asylum (mental hospital) developed from institutions for general confinement of the poor. Rothman would combine well with Foucault. Gothman's studies of total institutions were based on a mental hospital.

Examples

How might a total institution alter the characteristics of an individual (if at all)? Examine in relation to Erving Goffman's concept of the moral career of a mental patient and compare to Lombroso's ideas about the need for criminal lunatic asylums.

Start with a careful analysis of the essays in Goffman's 1961 book Asylums. Build on what others have done with Goffman

Essential primary text for first part of the question: Goffman's Asylums, essays "On the Characteristics of Total Institutions" and on "The Moral Career of the Mental Patient"

Compare the analysis of the asylum and alternative community, in the work Erving Goffman, Dennis Hardy and Robert Owen.

Build on what others have done with Goffman and Owen

Relate Goffman's concept of total institution to his concept of the moral career and underlife.

Start with a careful analysis of the essays in Goffman's 1961 book Asylums. The question could later be related to Kathleen Jones or to Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. One student used Goffman's concepts to analyse Nelson Mandela's argument that prison is a crucible that "tests a man's character".

Build on what others have done: Goffman

Relate Goffman's ideas on total institution to Beccaria and Bentham's ideas on punishment

If you want to join the picture gallery - Let Andrew have your picture!

Study Link
Andrew Roberts' web Study Guide
Top of Page Take a Break - Read a Poem
Click coloured words to go where you want

Andrew Roberts likes to hear from users:
To contact him, please use the Communication Form

Home

Printable introduction

Books
Study Guide

Some authors and subjects:
Aquinas: - Theology and science -
(Christine) Battersby: Self
Beccaria: Crime - Total Institution
Bentham: Authority - Crime - Madness - Surveillance - Total Institution -
Blake: Childhood - Imagination -
Comte: History - Organism - Positive Science -
Dewey: Community - Knowledge - Childhood -
(Jack) Douglas - Deviance - Statistics
Durkheim: Authority - Community - Deviance - History - Imagination - Knowledge - Political Perspective - Theology - Statistics - Symbols -
Engels: Community - History - Sex - Statistics -
Eysenck: Crime - Madness -
Filmer: Authority - Childhood -
Foucault Authority - Crime - History - Madness - Knowledge - Positive Science - Sex - Surveillance - Total Institution -
(Julie) Ford: Imagination -
Freud: Childhood - Imagination - Madness - Self - Sex - Symbols
Goffman: Self - Madness - Surveillance - Theatre - Total Institution -
Hamilton: Authority -
Hitler: Community - History - Organism -
Hobbes: Authority -
(Mary) Lamb: Imagination - Madness
Locke: Authority - Imagination - Symbols -
Lombroso: Madness and crime
Madison: Authority -
Marx: Community - History -
Mill: Authority - Self - Childhood - History -
Mead: Self - Symbols - Theatre -
Morris: Childhood - Coomunity - Imagination - Sex
Owen: Community - Surveillance - Total Institution -
Parsons: Childhood - Organism - Symbols - Theatre -
Pre-history - Engels on community
Quetelet: Statistics
Revolutions links
England:
1640 Hobbes goes to France
1688 Locke comes back from Holland
1776 USA and the Federalist Papers
France 1789 - 1968
Rousseau: Authority - Childhood - Political Perspective - Sex -
Shariah
Skinner: Childhood -
(Mary) Shelley: Imagination - Science -
Watson: Childhood -
Weber: Authority - Community - History - Imagination - Political Perspective -
Wollstonecraft: Authority - Childhood - History - Imagination - Political Perspective - Sex - Theology and science -

Literature links

Finding your own resources This article is being written to guide you. Keep going back to it.
Writing a Literature Review
Copac and other library catalogues
Referencing
Referencing web pages
Biographical literature reviews should be in your own words and focused on the question. Material should not be copied from websites or other sources. See Plagiarism. The only exception is the use of parts of an existing biographical literary review from our collective website when you are developing it.
If you find a relevant biography or literature review on the web or in a book, consider writing a précis of its salient points and then basing what you write (in your own words) on the ones that are most relevant to your question.

Biography links

what is a Biographical Literature Review?
sources of biographical information:
People and ideas
General study links Social science history links
Wikipedia and other encyclopedias

Thinking links

Generating ideas
Methods include the creativity ball game
Words to help with thinking and learning
These include key words, which are as important for creativity as they are for literature searching and analysis.

Autonomous learning links

Be in control

Group work links

Groups
Action Learning
I would like us to try these ideas, which were develop for postgraduate work, to see how they can be adapted to our project.