Dr Kristin Surak

This course is available on the BSc in Language, Culture and Society and BSc in Sociology. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course cannot be taken in conjunction with SO203 Political Sociology. This course has a limited number of places (it is capped).

Political sociology has traditionally focused on the nation-state and how it works as a power source and power container as both a membership unit (the nation) and a territorial unit (the state). Political sociology has also often taken the limits of the nation-state for granted.  This course addresses a number of key topics around nation-states while also considering key challenges to them, both epistemological (e.g. how fruitful is it to study the world by taking the nation-state as the natural unit of analysis) and substantive (e.g. in what ways is state sovereignty or state membership always partial or challenged). The focus, as we move across this terrain of “unravelling” nation-states, is broadly macropolitical.



In the first section, we set up the field of debate by breaking down what nation-states are and looking at how they operate as a key unit of analysis in much of traditional sociology.  The second section moves to empire and colonial legacies to examine the very recentness of the rise of nation-states and their past and present intertwinings with empire, imperialism, and hegemony.  In the third section, we look at issues around membership and exclusion, focusing on citizenship and migration. The fourth section turns to social movements and political participation to examine engagements against, with, and beyond the state.  We wrap up by examining a series of contemporary challenges to nation-states that have appeared in many parts of the world.  If SO203 is not offered, this course may be available in its place.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the WT.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and classes totalling a minimum of 20 hours in WT.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in WT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Formative Presentation

Each week from Week 2 will feature a student presentation (alone or in pairs, depending on enrolment) of no more than 15 minutes that engages the readings and applies them to one or more real-world cases.  This offers the opportunity for in-depth engagement of class materials by the presenter(s), which helps prepare for the final exam and helps other students “recharge” the readings in their minds before small-group discussion. It’s also an opportunity to creatively work with the materials, push arguments further, and incorporate different perspectives.  See the “Presentation Guidelines” on Moodle for more details on “how-to.”



Formative Mock Exam

In preparation for the summative exam, there will be a formative mock exam in which students will be given three questions and chose one to answer in a 45-minute period.

Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed.  Cambridge University Press.

Hall, Stuart.  2011. “March of the Neoliberals” The Guardian. Sept. 12, 2011.

Harvey, David. 2002. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press

McAdam, Doug et al. 1996. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements. Cambridge University Press.

Kochenov, Dimitry. 2019. Citizenship. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Rodney, Walter. 1972. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.  Verso Press

Surak, Kristin. 2023. The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires. Harvard University Press

Tufekci, Zeynep. 2017. Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. Yale University Press.

Wimmer, Andreas and Glick Schiller, Nina. 2002. “Methodological nationalism and beyond: nation-state building, migration and the social sciences.” Global Networks 2, 4: 301-334.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.