Modern Social Theory
In this module on Modern Social Theory, our focus on Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Du Bois addresses what they have bequeathed to sociology and the social sciences. We look at how that legacy is structured by a failure to treat colonialism and empire as central to the development of modern society. As such, our purpose is to ‘decolonise’ the concepts and categories they have given to us, rather than simply critique the canon itself. This requires a process of contextual understanding and reconstruction.