The last chapter of Fromm's analysis of individuality of modern man. Fromm addresses the repressive nature of modern culture and socialization, pointing to helplessless, a lack of automony and freedom, to be fertile ground for authoritarianism,

(Tarde) Laws of Sociology

Dec 5th, 2021 20m 46s

This is epic. Love his trichotomy, and the discussion he concludes with. I.e. the emergence of the seemingly infinite from the infinitesimal, across all the natural and social sciences. Sounds like a call to the study of the heterogeneous and d

(Simmel) Fashion

Nov 12th, 2021 29m 26s

at times thought-provoking, contradictory, and offensivewish I could've read the rest of the article, but was getting tired of it o.o --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Bhaskar) Emergent Properties of Social Systems

Nov 4th, 2021 25m 3s

His sentences are long, his words true. Seems I need to read more Roy Bhaskar.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Comte) The three stages of knowing

Oct 13th, 2021 29m 41s

Printed in 1842, Comte's universal law of mental development, and why it provides such a strong impetus for his new idea, "sociology" (translated as social physics in this reading).--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/po

(Giddens) The Adequacy of Explanatory Accounts

Oct 7th, 2021 18m 26s

From New Rules of Sociological Method, this section addresses the connection between art and the social sciences, in that they both attempt cross-cultural communication for self-expansion.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify

(Luhmann) Implications of Systems Theory for Epistemology

Jul 20th, 2021 29m 58s

Can you predict this will lead to sociology in particular? I didn't...Super dense, packed with insight, and justifies sociology of sociology (my focus).--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Douglas) Institutions Remember and Forget

Jul 19th, 2021 31m 7s

Great analysis, moving from the mnemonic structures which keep ancestry in the Nuer and the dynamics of remembering and forgetting in scientific discovery.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Simmel) The Negative Character of Collective Behavior

Jul 4th, 2021 11m 43s

An interesting little essay, directly adjacent in The Sociology of Georg Simmel to his famous essay The Stranger.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Garfinkel) What is ethnomethodology?

Jul 3rd, 2021 27m 14s

Garfinkel has a wordy, rather technical-sounding description of the study of the taken-for-granted, the made-practical, the reasonable, etc. It's those unseen practices for making actions, events, etc. normal-ish, that he wants to study. And be

(Knorr Cetina) Epistemic Cultures

Jun 1st, 2021 31m 59s

The introductory chapter to the book, published in 1999. It's great, a reassuring & pleasant vision for science studies! The cases sound interesting as well.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/suppo

(Friedrichs) The Calling of Sociology

May 31st, 2021 1h 44m

The last chapter of an epic & forgotten book in sociology.It's a bit wordy, but also a bit epic & deep.Curious if anyone (including me) will ever make it to the end.Enjoy!--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/

(Simmel) Sociability

May 13th, 2021 39m 52s

Sociability refers to different forms of social interaction and human association. The concept, in both descriptive and normative senses, can be found in many branches of study. In sociology the concept occupied a central place in the work

(Bernal) The Social Function of Science

Mar 23rd, 2021 22m 50s

Published in 1939, when this guy was just 38 years old, the book as a whole gives a sweeping defense of science in light of popular critiques at the time. But the last chapter I read here gives a beautiful and comprehensive vision of science as

(Goffman) The Interaction Order

Jan 9th, 2021 1h 31m

Erving Goffman’s posthumously published essay, ‘The interaction order’, which was to have been presented as a presidential address at an annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, is usually taken to be an attempt at a systemat

(Mills) The Sociological Imagination

Dec 9th, 2020 13m 52s

One publisher's descriptionThe excerpt that follows is from Mills' acclaimed book, The Sociological Imagination. Since its original publication in 1959, this text has been a required reading for most introductory sociology students around the

(Sacks) Rules of conversational exchange

Nov 13th, 2020 19m 18s

The first of his famous lectures--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Goffman) Primary Frameworks

Nov 6th, 2020 28m 55s

from Frame Analysis--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis

Nov 5th, 2020 25m 29s

(Goffman) Intro to frame analysis -- Chapter 1.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Tumin) Critique of Davis & Moore

Sep 24th, 2020 34m 36s

Tumin challenged the Davis–Moore hypothesis of social stratification with his paper "Some principles of stratification: a critical analysis".[5][6] Tumin took Davis–Moore to imply that social stratification was mostly inevitable and provided

(Davis and Moore) Some Principles of Stratification

Sep 23rd, 2020 31m 17s

The Davis–Moore hypothesis, sometimes referred to as the Davis–Moore theory, is a central claim within the structural functionalist paradigm of sociological theory, and was advanced by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore in a paper published

(Marx) Manifesto - Selection

Sep 23rd, 2020 19m 14s

The Communist Manifesto, originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is an 1848 political document by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Communist League an

(Calhoun) Cultural Difference and Historical Specificity

Sep 21st, 2020 1h 10m

Ch. 3 of Critical Social Theory--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support

(Durkheim) On Cohesion and Suicide

Sep 21st, 2020 30m 15s

From Durkheim's seminal work Suicide, which explores suicide rates in the context of Durkheim's theory of social cohesion is an integral feature of the structure of human society, and as an individual necessity which protects us from self-harm.

(Vygotsky) The Role of Play in Development

Jul 22nd, 2020 35m 31s

from Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.1978--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alec-mcgail/support