Course Institutional analysis: theory, method, implementation F22

Description:

It is rather usual in social sciences, that while the researcher tries to focus on the object of their study, they often lose sight of its social context. 

The outcome reminds the old Indian fairy tale about the king who asked a group of blind men to touch an elephant: each one was giving a different description, depending on whether they touched the tusk, the legs, the trunk, or the tail of the elephant. This is indeed a good allegory of what over-specialisation means for the scientific endeavour in general.

Yet, there are important theoretical contributions that enable the researcher to see the entire 'elephant', by which I mean here the socio-historical field to which their object of study is embedded (be it education, economy, politics, media, arts, family and gender roles, or justice system). 

To these contributions belong institutional theories, which are found in the work, for instance, of Weber, Durkheim, Mauss, Berger and Luckman, Castoriadis, and of Meyer, Boli and Ramirez.

As Marcel Mauss, sociologist and anthropologist, and Durkheim's student, writes :‘the science of society is the science of institutions thus defined’, which he designates as ‘customs and fashions, prejudices and superstitions, just as much as political constitutions or essential legal organisations’. In other words, society without institutions is inconceivable, since, in fact, society itself is an institution.

This 3-day doctoral course will present and elaborate on the concept of 'institution' in social sciences and explicate how to conduct institutional analysis, drawing on the work of the above mentioned authors as well as on the lecturer's own research. 

Namely, the course will discuss how institutions (and therefore the object of our research) are associated with other institutions and how they are brought together by social meanings as well as how we access these meanings. In this regard, institutional analysis will be distinguished from other established theories and methods such as structuralism, functionalism, or discourse analysis.

Aim:

Students who will attend this course will learn:

- one of the most important theoretical approaches in social sciences;
- how to identity and analyse institutions  and the social meanings which they incarnate;
- how to place their object of their study in its social-historical context.

Literature:

The following are indicative bibliographic sources. Texts will be made available one month before the actual course. 

• Berger, P.l. and Luckman, T. (1967) The Social Construction of Reality. [‘Institutionalization ’ pp. 65-109].
• Castoriadis, C. (2007) ‘First Institution of Society and Second-Order Institutions’ In: Figures of the Thinkable.
• Mauss, M. (2005[1901]) ‘Sociology’. In: The Nature of Sociology: Two Essays. Trans. by W. Jeffrey. New York: Durkheim Press/Berghahn Books.
• Meyer, H.D. and Rowan, B. (2007) ‘Institutional Analysis and the Study of Education’. In: Meyer, H.D and Rowan, B. (eds). The New Institutionalism in Education. State University of New York Press.
• Moutsios, S. (2018) Society and Education: An Outline of Comparison. London: Routledge.

Target group:

PhD students, of any stage, from social sciences and humanities, including educational studies.

Form:

Lectures, group work and student presentations.

Lecturer:

Stavros Moutsios

Venue:

Campus Emdrup, Tuborgvej 164, 2400 Copenhagen NV, room D168a

Course dates:

• 23 March 2022 10:00 - 15:00
• 24 March 2022 10:00 - 15:00
• 25 March 2022 10:00 - 15:00