Social science perspectives on climate change and development

University of Copenhagen

Xaquín S. Pérez-Sindín López

Category: Sociological theories

  • From Being to Society: How Philosophy Gave Birth to Sociology

    The history of sociology is often presented as the story of a new science born in nineteenth-century Europe to study industrialization, urbanization and capitalism. While this account is not wrong, it misses a deeper intellectual transformation. Sociology did not emerge from nowhere. It emerged from a long philosophical struggle over the nature of reality itself.…

  • The great current of ontology: From Heraclitus’ river to Latour’s algorithm

    The history of Western thought can be understood as the course of a mighty river that flows onward, stagnates at logical dams, and overflows again in modernity. The core of this journey is the question of being: what does it mean to exist and how do we relate to the things that surround us? To…

  • Daniel Bell and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

    Capitalism is often understood as an economic system based on markets, private property, competition, productivity, and growth. However, for the sociologist Daniel Bell, capitalism was not only an economic structure. It was also a cultural system, and this cultural dimension created one of its deepest contradictions. In his influential book The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism,…

  • Miguel Anxo Bastos — Environmental Problems, Property Rights, and State Intervention

    Environmental problems usually derive from a poor definition of property rights. Normally, when environmental policy is justified, concepts such as “externalities” are invoked. Or else people appeal to a very generic concept such as “the environment,” without defining very clearly what “the environment” actually consists of. Because, frankly, I do not know what this thing…

  • Miguel Anxo Bastos — Lecture on the Theory of the State

    transcribed and translated from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_DnIdhdrmQ When we speak about the state, we see buildings, prisons, barracks, courthouses, schools, ministries, and so on. Someone might ask: “What is all this?” Well, these are the representatives of the state on earth. But let me explain: I am a believer, and I do not know any believer who…

  • Hartmut Rosa’s Lecture: Emotions and Human Agency

    Yesterday I had the chance to attend a lecture by Hartmut Rosa in Copenhagen, invited by the Department of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen. The talk was titled The Atrophy of Discretion: A Plea for Human Agency, and it focused on a question that stayed with me long after the lecture ended: what happens…

  • Habermas and the Modern Public Sphere: Insights for Today

    Habermas was, above all, a sociologist, even if much of the press insists on presenting him simply as a philosopher. That is not a minor distinction. His work was not only a contribution to philosophy in the narrow sense; it was also a formidable set of tools for thinking about society, legitimacy, consensus, institutions, and…

  • Durkheim theory in 7 minutes video

  • PhD Course: Modern Sociological Theory, at Copenhagen University

    The course focuses on sociological theory during the period between roughly 1945 and 2000. It will discuss what is considered to be central theoretical developments and problems and also open up for discussions on what has been seen as more peripheral theoretical perspectives. The course aims both at orienting participants in different theoretical areas and…

  • Hegel`s theory of recognition: in order to be a full subject, each needs to be recognized by the other

    In Hegel you have essentially two actors encountering one another and each is a subject, but in order to be a full subject, each needs to be recognized by the other. Each affirms the other as a subject in its own right that is simultaneously equal and different from me. If both people can affirm…