Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 102788

Coordinator Helena Onnudottir Opens in new window

Description This core theory subject for sociology majors introduces students to traditional and contemporary debates in social thought and provides tools for sociological analysis. The subject outlines the development of sociological thought in the context of changing social realities and relations between the individual and society, with a particular focus on the formation of the Self. A number of theorists and theoretical areas are addressed, spanning over 150 years of evolving sociological analysis. This enables students to better grasp the relation between theory and application, the diversity of sociological analysis, as well as providing the capacity to think across a number of different sociological schools of thought.

School Social Sciences

Discipline Sociology

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 4 10cp

Check your fees via the Fees page.

Level Undergraduate Level 2 subject

Incompatible Subjects HUMN 3071 - Self and Society

Restrictions

Successful completion of 80 credit points.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Describe traditional and contemporary sociological debates on the formation of the self.
2. Outline the notion of agency, and critically evaluate the relations between the individual and society.
3. Apply major theories and theorists in sociology and social thought.
4. Demonstrate a critical, reflexive stance on classical and contemporary sociology in written form.
5. Analyse a real-life social issue through a sociological lens.
6. Compare and contrast different schools of sociological thinking.

Subject Content

Introduction: Relation between the Self and Society
Classical sociologists: from Tradition to Modernity
Modernity 2: Late, Post- and Liquid Modernity
Consciousness and Identity
Values and Critical Theory: The Critique of Instrumental Reasoning and Reification
Value Freedom, Value Relevance and Political Commitment in Sociology
The Political Value Commitments of Sociologists and the Philosophical Justification
The Sociological Imagination and Civic Ethno methods
The Sociological Imagination and Political Strategy
'Key Sociological Thinkers'