Semester I Winter Examinations 2009/2010 for Political Science & Sociology, Exams of Culture & Society

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Semester I Winter Examinations 2009/ 20010

Exam Code(s) 3BA1, 3BA5, 4BA4, 4BA8, 1EM1, 1OM Exam(s) Module Code(s) SP Module(s) Contemporary Social Thought Paper No. Repeat Paper External Examiner(s) Dr. Paul Mitchell Dr. Piers Beirne Internal Examiner(s) Professor Chris Curtin Dr. Kate Kenny Mr. Jonathan Heaney

Instructions: Answer^ TWO^ Questions

Duration (^) Two Hours No. of Pages School Political Science & Sociology Course Co-ordinator(s) Dr. Kate Kenny Requirements : MCQ Handout Statistical Tables Graph Paper Log Graph Paper Other Material

SP405 Contemporary Social Thought STUDENTS HAVE 2 HOURS TO ANSWER 2 QUESTIONS

1. “The denser the web of interdependence becomes in which the individual is enmeshed with the advancing division of functions, the larger the social spaces over which this network extends…the more threatened is the social existence of the individual who gives way to spontaneous impulses and emotions, the greater is the social advantage of those able to moderate their affects, and the more is each individual constrained from an early age to take account of the effects of his or her own or other peoples actions on a whole series of links in the social chain” (Elias, 2000, p.370). Explain the above quotation with reference to the work of Norbert Elias, with particular reference to his conception of power and its role in the ‘civilizing process’. How useful is this concept today, in your opinion?
2. For Gramsci, the development of an organic ideology involves the "Passage from knowing to understanding and to feeling and vice versa: from feeling to understanding and to knowing” (Gramsci, 1971: p.418) Describe Gramsci’s conception of an organic ideology. Critically evaluate this concept, drawing on an example of social change of your choosing.
3. “Indeed, is it not the supreme exercise of power to get another or others to have the desires- that is, to secure their compliance by controlling their thoughts and desires” (Lukes, 1974: p.23) Lukes’ work represented a new departure in debates on power. Discuss this statement in relation to the above quote.
4. “…habitus produces practices and representations which are available for classification, which are objectively differentiated; however they are immediately perceived as such only by those agents who possess the code, the classificatory schemes necessary to understand their social meaning. Habitus thus implies ‘a sense of one’s place but also a ‘sense of the place of others’” (Bourdieu, 1989: p.19) Describe Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. Discuss Bourdieu’s notion that habitus plays an important role in the operation of social power.
5. An “agent-centred” view of the world assumes that individuals have the ability to intervene in the world and change it through their actions. In contrast, a “structure- centred” perspective sees individuals as merely an effect of social order, whose actions are determined by social structures. Discuss how Giddens’ Theory of Structuration aims to bridge these contrasting perspectives on social life. P.T.O.

6. a) What does Foucault mean by an episteme? Critically discuss this concept in detail with reference to his archaeological works. Critically evaluate his treatment of agency in these works. OR b) We must cease, once and for all to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it ‘excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘abstracts’, it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’. In fact, power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production (Foucault, 1979, p.194). Discuss Foucault’s conception of ‘positive power’ in light of this quotation, with reference to his genealogical works.