SSCI 328 Social Science Theory Module

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  SSCI 328
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: These affordable learning resources are being utilized in a Social Science Theory course for undergraduate students by Professor Frederik Vermote at California State University Monterey Bay. The affordable resources chosen for this course provides no-cost reading materials (main book + three additional books) for the entire course which focuses on theory regarding economic (in)equality from a historical viewpoint. The title of the main book, Thomas Piketty’s Brief History of Equality emphasizes the movements and variables that have created (in)equality in our modern world through the growth of capitalism, revolutions, imperialism, slavery, wars and the building of the welfare state since (roughly) the fifteenth century. The main motivation to adopt affordable resources is to offer a course that fits in the California State University system’s larger role of being an engine for social upward mobility for our majority of first-generation student body. Students can access this resource via the CSUMB library website.

SSCI 328 Social Science Theory Module 
Brief Description:  Emphasizes in-depth theory-based analyses of topics and themes shared across the social sciences, but within special theoretical frameworks and paradigms of two disciplines. Specific disciplinary frameworks vary based on the disciplines of faculty teaching the course.  Prerequisite(s)/Corequisite(s): [Prereq: (GE Area 1A and 1B and 1C with a C- or better) and (STAT 100 with a C- or better)]

Additional Description:  More precise description of this course, from the syllabus:  From my esteemed colleague Dr. Tezcan:  “Give me the facts! Who needs theory?”  Theory has a bad reputation. The words “in theory” are often used to point out “the reality” which is expectedly different from what we experience in our daily lives. People who use their common sense may tell us that theories may not work and do not correspond to everyday life anymore. It is a widespread assumption that the best knowledge can be produced by systematic observations and some statistics. What this assumption may be missing is, however, that empirical observations are also the direct interpretations of preexisting categories, that is, “theories.” In short, theories are embedded in the practice itself.

Theories are systematic ideas about social life, the way it is organized and how it changes; they enable us to see things in a different way; and they may encourage us to pay more attention to something we had ignored. Theory is vital to making sense of social life which can be perplexing and complex. We will attempt to recognize and understand the complexities of social life, broadly including but not limited to the nature of capitalism, the basis of social order, the role of authority in social life, and the nature of the self.

My own words:  Historians, perhaps more so than other disciplines such as sociology and anthropology, don’t like theory. Historians read primary sources, for years, accumulating a sense of understanding the historical context and zeitgeist of the period/people they study. However, theory, inevitably, does mold the larger shapes in which one pours data. As such, in direct cooperation with my sociology colleagues, let’s investigate social theory together, from as much of an interdisciplinary perspective as possible.  Rather than struggling through an exhaustive list of theories and isms, this course will focus on a few major concepts, such as equality, capitalism, democracy, nationalism, and globalism, to analyze how theory can be applied to analyze the sociopolitical and economic trajectories and transformations since 1990 until now.  

This particular course, anno Fall 2026, focuses on Equality (and Inequality): The CSU system claims to be an engine of social mobility for its students. As in: students who graduate with a CSU degree will experience economic upward mobility… in a world and a society that is increasingly economically polarized, in an area (Carmel, Pacific Grove, Monterey, …) where generational wealth often dictates whether one can buy a house, in a time when salaries for workers under 30 have stagnated … that is a bold claim. Is it true? Will you find your bucket of gold at the end of this rainbow (after first incurring copious amounts of debt to pay for said degree)?

Thomas Piketty is one of the leading scholars on global (in)equality, who, with an impressive data-driven approach, has studied the long-term ebbs and flows of capital accumulation. Most of his books are hefty and thick. The one we’re reading isn’t (244 vs 650 pages).  In this class, students analyze the theoretical, historical, cultural, and economic creation of capitalism, the variables that drive equality and inequality over generations, and the cultural and economic theories that lay behind the political choices of the 1% or dominant class, the workers’ class, and the-soon-to-be-extinct (or not?) middle class.

We will reach Piketty’s book in its entirety:
Piketty, Thomas. A Brief History of Equality. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2022. https://csu-mb.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=01CALS_UMB:01CALS_UMB&search_scope=DN_and_CI&tab=Everything&lang=en&docid=alma991074327958502901 

Immanuel Wallerstein’s World Systems Analysis: An Introduction, 2004. https://csu-mb.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_UMB/1i01t4c/alma99772003402923
Kenneth Pomeranz’ The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, 2009. https://csu-mb.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_UMB/q4mn75/cdi_walterdegruyter_marc_9781400823499 

Sven Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History, 2025. https://csu-mb.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_UMB/1i01t4c/alma993864102602923 

Student population:  This is an undergraduate required course for Social Science students; prerequisites

Learning or student outcomes:  Specifically to how I teach the course:
1. Explore the relationship between Social Theory and History
2. Understand a range of Social Theories and how they relate to each other
3. Present research placing a Theory and Theorist in Historical Context
4. Acquire critical skills to establish relevant links between sociological concepts and theories to everyday life.
5.  Challenge various forms of assumptions, beliefs, and biases, and learn how sociology analyzes the “roots” of those.

Course Outcomes:  Historiography: You will engage in evaluation and gathering of secondary historical literature. You will write a literature review and you will assess how a historical topic and/or debate has developed through various scholarly theoretical paradigms.  Using Archives and Online databases: You will learn how sociologists/historians interact with archivists and librarians. You will also evaluate and use online databases.

Capstone Preparation: For SBS majors, this course meets MLO2 and will give you the foundation for your methods section of your Capstone Project. For all majors, this course will give you a foundation in how to gather and interpret evidence and show you how social theory relates to your specific studies.

Research: You will be doing research by understanding how theorists combine the analysis of primary and secondary sources to build an argument that seeks to answer a historical question. How do social theorists do what they do?

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option.  The main motivation to adopt affordable resources is to offer a course that fits in the California State University system’s larger role of being an engine for social upward mobility for our majority of first-generation student body. Save students money.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course?  Found a few that happen to be no-cost, and expanded this further with the help of librarians.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned.  It was wonderful to have the support of the librarian who pointed out resources I hadn’t checked myself yet. I tend to encourage students to find free versions of class resources in combination with free open resource materials but this time every book was covered thanks to official library-licensed resources.  As an instructor who received all his training and degrees outside of the United States and whose bachelor and two master's degrees were (almost) fully sponsored by the Belgian government/society (just like everyone else’s), affordability of education is a value I grew up with and hold onto dearly. Assigning affordable learning resources is a no-brainer and a moral imperative in my home country. 

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: A Brief History of Equality. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2022.  + Fragments from other books.   https://csu-mb.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CALS_UMB/1i01t4c/alma991074327958502901 

Brief Description: Piketty is probably one of the most important voices in economic theory/scholarship on historical capitalism. His earlier books are New York Times bestsellers such as Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Capital and Ideology; they also run longer than a thousand pages and are incredibly detailed. This book is shorter and more accessible. In the acknowledgements Piketty highlights that this book is written for (undergraduate) students and aims to take “economic questions [that] are too important to be left to a small class of specialists and managers” and make them accessible to engaged citizens without extensive training in economic theory.

Authors:  Thomas Piketty

Student access:  CSUMB library.  Free library resource - unlimited user ebook license.

Supplemental resources:  Students are provided with weekly reading guidelines + guidelines on how to read as a social scientist.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  Traditional textbook cost: $180-$250.  Here: $25.69 for the main text + additional readings $50 Cost with use of library-licensed content: $0

License*: Copyrighted with an unlimited use license through the CSUMB Library

Instructor Name - Frederik Vermote
I am an associate professor at California State University Monterey Bay. I teach Global History, Asian History, Social Theory, and Anthropology.
Please provide a link to your university page.
https://csumb.edu/directory/?keywords=Frederik%20Vermote&department=&=

Please describe the courses/course numbers that you teach.  I teach Global History, Asian History, Social Theory, and Anthropology.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.   I am thankful to teach classes directly aligned with my training and research, which are simultaneously compatible with the needs of both SBS and GS students so that they can graduate from their respective programs in a timely fashion. CSUMB colleagues have motivated me to make great use of TLA’s workshops as I sought to self-reflect on how historians read and write, and what my own blind spots or unchallenged assumptions are when it comes to learning and teaching. CSUMB’s and SBGS’s interdisciplinary nature and the students' interdisciplinary skill set were the most impactful variables of how I have adjusted my teaching and learning. Reading Apprenticeship workshops organized by the CSUMB Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment have been particularly helpful. I attended the introduction workshop and the six deepening reading apprenticeship sessions with Nelson Graff and Rebecca Kersnar, and I sought Nelson’s and Rebecca’s advice on a very regular base; I incorporated the reading exercises (such as Capturing the Reading Process Notetaker, Think Aloud, Talking to the Text, Mapping the structure of the Argument, and Thinking Out Loud in Pairs) in all my courses. I also videotaped my execution of these exercises and shared these videos with Nelson and Rebecca to improve and deepen my teaching practices.  

In line with CSUMB’s vision statement that seeks to emphasize the students’ multilingual, multicultural, and cross-disciplinary competence, all my courses highlight the processes of globalization – political, economic, cultural, and religious/intellectual – from a historical perspective. When it comes to content, all my history courses investigate the historical roots of the modern world by untangling the complex factors that have increasingly integrated the world since the Mongols connected both ends of the Eurasian continent. Pedagogically, the learning processes in all my courses are geared towards a diverse student population, with particular attention to students from a working class, historically undereducated and/or low-income background. My teaching philosophy is built around encouraging first-generation students to take control of their learning (and their futures).

A final element of my teaching philosophy is a collaborative learning approach. Building on the theory that students learn significantly from each other in an in-class environment, I teach how to use a shared Google Drive platform to make students write, present, and edit each other’s work. Via shared Google Drive folders, students compare reading notes, improve reading strategies, provide feedback on drafts, rewrite assignments based on peer edits, build group presentations, and post reflections in video format (which they can record on their phone and then upload to Google Drive). As such, they mimic many of the processes that professional historians practice regularly. By composing reading notes collaboratively, students hold each other responsible for reading with comprehension. As they work through multiple drafts, they also learn that writing is a process.

Research Interests: My research focuses on logistic and financial networks between Europe and Asia in the early modern period (1400-1800). Most recently I’ve published these three peer-reviewed articles and book chapters:

Vermote, Frederik. 2026 “The Accounting of Jesuit Missions in China: Fighting over French Financial Assets in Beijing, 1773-1782.” Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction. Leiden/Cambridge - coming out this month.

Vermote, Frederik. 2025. “Jesuit Procurators, Traveling between China and Europe, and Dutch East India Employees during the Turbulent Period from the 1640s to the 1680s,” Early Modern Overseas Careers: East-Central Europeans as Jesuit Missionaries and Dutch East India employees, edited by Igor Chabrowski and Natalia Krolikowska-Jedlinska. 139-176. Budapest: Central European University Press.

Vermote, Frederik. 2025. “The Challenges and Goals of Procurators Traveling between Europe and China,” edited by Alexandre Coelle de la Rosa and Fabian Fechner. 197-223. Leiden: Brill.