96358 - APPLIED POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

Learning outcomes

The course introduces the student to the sociological-empirical analysis of societal phenomena, such as integration, acceleration, polarization, fragmentation and social action, such as conflict, protest, critique, social mobilization, and claims-making. The course introduces the students to a range of methodological approaches to the study of society/social actors in interaction with politics, law, and the economy. The course enhances the student's capacity and skills to analyze society, social actors, and social problems by using sociological and interdisciplinary instruments.

Course contents

In the first part, the course provides an introduction to political sociology, its main sociological theories, concepts, and forms of analysis. Political sociology will be explored through main themes including power and authority, conflict in society, forms of mobilization, societal actors and civil society, and interaction with state (and international/transnational) institutions as well as economic actors.

In the second part, the course will provide a specific (and critical) attention to forms of (innovative) data gathering, measurement, ranking, the usage of big data, and the potential downsides to the collection and uses of big data. The course will critically discuss formatting, codification, quantification, measurement, rankings, forms of surveillance and control, performance indicators and auditing.

In the third part, we will explore specific case-studies around four themes: Rule of law and democracy; Human rights, crime, surveillance, and justice; Market economy, the digital world.

 

1. Introduction to Political Sociology (14 hrs)

The introduction of sociology and political sociology will discuss the sociologial approach to studying political and related (e.g. legal) phenomena. A core intention is to problematize concepts and phenomena we tend to take for granted, including in relatio to the following key theories and concepts:

power, authority,

political culture, legitimacy,

the state,

citizenship,

societal integration and unity,

conflict and polariztaion in society,

societal acceleration,

societal mobilization, actors, civil society, social movements, protest

 

2. Political sociology, datafication, and data analysis (10 hrs)

Much of sociology, including political sociology, attempts to empirically (and critically) analyze social and political phenomena (such as those discussed in the first part) and engages with data-gathering as well as data analysis, forms of categorization, measurement and ranking of data. Data elaboration is frequently understood as a methodological matter, but may be equally critically observed as a distinctive set of practices that may significantly shape the capacities of political sociology to make claims and come up with meaningful research results.

 

3. Observing sociological analysis in distinct case-studies (16 hrs)

a. Rule of law and democracy (6 hrs)

The rule of law is often considered in crisis, due to the rise of populist and authoritarian political forces, but also as a result of malgovernance (and the application of AI) more generally. A core way of addressing this crisis is to by means of monitoring the rule of law (on the basis of multi-dimensional indicators and measurements, such as in the Rule of Law index of the World Justice project). Quantitative technologies of measurement are evermore frequently used, but face a number of distinct problems, such as in-built bias, definitional problems, simplification, and reification.

 

b. Human rights, crime, surveillance, and justice (6 hrs)

In the areas of international human rights and justice, evermore frequently digital technologies, AI, big data and open source investigation are being used to fight crime and injustice. Open source information opens possibilities of public participation in data gathering and analysis, and investigative journalism, but it also raises important questions for empirical sociology in terms of challenges to existing methods. The usage of digital means and bulk surveillance further create significant tensions with basic human rights, such as those to privacy, freedom of speech, and non-discrimination.

 

c. Market economy, the digital world (4 hrs)

Big data raises questions of who controls, owns, and has access to data infrastructures. A predominance of market actors, and specific countries such as the US and China, in controlling data and data systems may significantly forms of inequality, discrimination, and exclusion, while public monitoring and control might be largely absent. One example is the field of health, where on one hand the quality of care may be increasing and costs reduced, on the other social inquealities and access to health care may be declining.

Readings/Bibliography

Outhwaite, W. and S.P. Turner (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Political Sociology, SAGE. Various chapters.

Janoski, T., de Leon, C., Misra, J., & Martin, I. W. (Eds.). (2020). The new handbook of political sociology. Cambridge University Press. Various chapters.

Mennicken, A., & Salais, R. (2022). The new politics of numbers: Utopia, evidence and democracy. Springer Nature. Excerpts.

Merry, S. E. (2016). The Seductions of Quantification. UChicago Press. Excerpts.

Diaz-Bone, R., Horvath, K., & Cappel, V. (2020). Social research in times of big data. The challenges of new data worlds and the need for a sociology of social research. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 45(3), 314-341.

Boswell, J., & Corbett, J. (2021). Democracy, interpretation, and the “Problem” of conceptual ambiguity: Reflections on the V-Dem project’s struggles with operationalizing deliberative democracy. Polity, 53(2), 239-263.

Witzleb, N., Paterson, M., & Richardson, J. (Eds.). (2019). Big data, political campaigning and the law: Democracy and privacy in the age of micro-targeting. Routledge. Excerpts.

 

 

Assessment methods

The examination consists in a midterm and a final exam.

 

Midterm

The midterm exam consists in an exploratory assignment in which the student identifies a research problem (in the context of political sociology). The problem is to be subsequently related to key concepts, which are to be operationalized so they can be further studied, analyzed, and/or measured. Finally, the student needs to indicate which method(-s) are best used to study the problem.

The student can choose from two formats:

1. A written essay or blog of minimally 1500 words;
2. A podcast of at least 5 minutes of discussion.
   

 

Final exam

The final exam consists in a written essay of minimally 3.000 words and a relevant and utilized bibliography of minimally 10 academic sources (5 need to come from the syllabus/the Virtuale platform). The written essay needs to develop a small research project in political sociology, based on a research question and the identification of key concepts, and turning those key concepts into operationalized dimensions, which will then be applied in empirical research.

The essay needs to be submitted not later than 1 week before the exam date. The paper will be evaluated on the basis of 5 criteria (introduction, main argument/design, conclusions, references, and written language).

Office hours

See the website of Paulus Albertus Blokker