Learning and Teaching Social Theory (C-SAP Monograph 8)

How do we learn and teach social and political theory in the contemporary university? What relationship, if any, is there between disciplinary theoretical canons and students’ political attitudes and practices? Should the learning and teaching of theory have an aim of teaching students to think critically—a Sociology benchmark—and if so, should it develop students’ awareness that the theories available are inevitably political and using them to understand and critique the world is therefore a political act? If such a stance is taken—and, interestingly for us, such a stance was taken by virtually all contributors—what are the implications of these questions for academic and student ‘activism’, especially in the neo-liberal marketised university as it is presently configured?