Since the onset of ‘modernity’, critical social and political theorists have attempted to explicate the various forms of power that undermine or constrain the realization of freedom and individuality promised by the defenders of modern society.


Whether it is the power of class, the disenchanting nature of rationalization, the disciplining force of institutions and subjectivities or the all-encompassing control of bio-power, critical social and political theorists have determined that that modern society has failed to live up to its promises of individual liberation and collective wellbeing.


This course surveys selected works from Karl Marx, Max Weber, Friedrich Nietzsche, the Frankfurt School, and Michel Foucault and examines their legacy on the development of social and political theory in the contemporary period. In so doing, it will introduce students to current debates and interventions amongst critical theorists on the nature of power in modern society.

Course Outline

• Capitalism, Democracy and Alienation
  
• Modernity and Disenchantment
  
• The Barbarism of Reason
  
• Subjectivity, Bio-politics and the Disciplinary Society
  
• The Politics of ‘Organized Capitalism’
  
• Theories of the Modern State
  
• Post-Modernity and Advanced Capitalism
  
• Post-structuralism and the Politics of Identity
  
• Rethinking Class
  
• Biopower and Sovereignty
  
• Empire in an Age of Terror
  
• Emancipations

Key Readings

• Michel Foucault The order of things. London, Routledge, 2001.
  
  
• Michel Foucault The archaeology of knowledge. London : Routledge, 2002.
  
  
• Max Horkheimer &Theodor Adorno The Dialectic of Enlightenment. Stanford : Stanford University Press, 2002.
  
  
• Karl Marx Capital, Volume 1. Harmondsworth : Penguin Classics. 1992.
  
  
• Karl Marx ‘The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.’ in Early Writings  Harmondsworth : Penguin, 1975.
  
  
• Istvan Meszaros Marx’s Theory of Alienation. University of Michigan Press, 1970.
  
  
• Friedrich Nietzsche On the Genealogy of Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  
  
• Bertell Ollman Alienation: Marx’s Theory of Man in Capitalist Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976.
  
  
• Goran Therborn What does the ruling class do when it rules ? London : New Left Books, 1978.
  
  
• Max Weber Economy and Society. Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1978.
  
  
• Max Weber Max Weber’s Science as Vocation. London : Routledge. 1989.
  
  
• Max Weber From Max Weber : Essays in sociology. London : Routledge, 1989.
  
  
• Ellen Meiksins Wood Democracy against capitalism. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995.