Karin D. Knorr Cetina

25401/35401 Consumption (=SOCI 20150/30150) . The modern period was associated with industrial production, class society, rationalization, disenchantment, the welfare state, and the belief in salvation by society. Current societies are characterized by a culture of consumption; consumption is central to lifestyles and identity, it is instantiated in our technological reality and the complex of advertising media, structures of wanting and shopping. Starting from the question "why do we want things" we will discuss theories and empirical studies that focus on consumption and identity formation; on shopping and the consumption of symbolic signs; on consumption as linked to the re-enchantment of modernity; as a way to create differences between groups; as a process of the globalization of frames; and as related to time and information. The course is built around approaches that complement the "productionist" focus of the social sciences. It is also the first part of a pairing of courses in economic sociology and anthropology (the second is Markets and Money).

25402/35402. Markets and Money (=SOCI 20151/30151). 'If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?' is a question economists have been asked in the past. Why isn't it easy to make money in financial areas even if one knows what economists know about money, markets and the economy? Perhaps the answer is that real markets and economies are complex social and cultural institutions to which many factors contribute, including social and economic variables and patterns. The course provides an introduction to the social and cultural dimensions of markets, money and economic behaviour. We will address the structural and cultural embeddedness of economic behaviour, the different constructions and interpretations of market aspects, the rituals participants pursue, the many meanings of money,  the global microstructures of financial markets. This course the second part of a pairing of courses in economic sociology and anthropology (the first being Consumption).

25600/35805 Technoscience and Information (= SOCI 20149/30149). Science, technology and information are the ‘racing heart' of contemporary cognitive capitalism and the engine of change of our technological culture. They are deeply relevant to the understanding of contemporary societies. But how are we to understand the highly esoteric cultures and practices of science, technology and information? This course opens the black box of scientific knowledge production and technological work. We draw on the new science and technology studies (STS) and on ethnographic work in surveying constructivist, actor-network-, cultural, historical and feminist approaches to the study of science and knowledge. A first goal of the course is to examine the theoretical concepts and empirical findings of current approaches to science and technology. A second goal is to examine how these elements extend to and are complemented by theories of information and the creative character of contemporary societies.  

25710/35710. Global Society and Global Culture: Paradigms of Social and Cultural Analysis (=SOCI 20169/30169). This course will introduce students to major theories of globalization and to core approaches to global society and global culture. We will discuss micro- and macroglobalization, cultural approaches to globalization, systems theory, discourse approaches and the strong program in globalization studies. Topics include a section on the ethnography of the global, empirical studies that illustrate the interest and feasibility of globalization studies and critical studies of dimensions of globalization.  

43400. Ethnography of the Global (=SOCI 40131). Ethnography has long and successfully been applied to local cultures and communities, to microsocial-situations and even a times to national settings. In this course, we explore the possibility of extending ethnography to global structures, processes and questions. We will first examine and discuss the kind of structures and processes that might count as elements of a global society and global culture. Course work will then be built around the design of studies that focus on particular realizations of these structures. In the process, we review different approaches to ethnography and recent discussions of methodological and other problems. Advanced undergraduates welcome with consent of the instructor.

43500. Beyond Modernity: The Future of Modern Society (= SOCI 40132). The modern period was associated with industrial production, class society, rationalization and disenchantment, the welfare state and the belief in salvation by society. This course explores answers to the question what the future of modern society will be like. We will discuss theories, concepts and themes that capture constitutive elements of recent developments and emergent new logics and that challenge but also often build on earlier social science concepts and ideas. We will focus on theories of consumption and re-enchantment, on notions of identity that point beyond Mead and Freud, on ideas about multitudes that challenge the notion of a social class, and on the renewed interest in vitalist and temporal concepts (like that of a generation or that of flow) that reflect changes in the nature of experience and of social institutions and the attempt to respond to these changes by developing new theoretical concepts and by incorporating them into empirical studies and normative social thinking.

55305 Cultural Dimensions of Markets (=SOCI 50041) What are the cultural dimensions of financial and economic institutions and behaviour? What social variables influence and shape 'real' markets and market activities? 'If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?' is a question economists have been asked in the past. Why isn’t it easy to make money in financial areas even if one knows what economists know about markets, finance and the economy? Perhaps the answer is that real markets and economies are complex social and cultural institutions to which many factors contribute, including social and economic variables and patterns.
This course provides an introduction to the social and cultural variables and patterns that play a role in economic behaviour and specifically in financial markets. We will draw on the ‘New Economic Sociology’ which emerged in the late 70's and early 80's from the work of Harrison White, Marc Granovetter, Viviana Zelizer, Wayne Baker and others. We will explore major contributions to this literature and draw on earlier work to develop an understanding of markets and economic behaviour that extends beyond specific economic variables. We will address the historical and structural embeddedness of the institutions of finance, the different constructions and interpretations of market aspects, the rituals participants pursue, differences in understandings between groups of actors, and variations in the organization of the relevant behaviour.