This introductory course provides a sociological perspective for understanding life in a digital world. With a focus on structure-agency dynamics, we will explore the complex interactions between individuals, media, and society. It helps students develop skills to critically evaluate conventional wisdom and their own assumptions about the mediated life. Topics covered include technology, ideology, inequality, […]
This introductory course explores how pleasure and trouble are created, interconnected and experienced in everyday life. For sociologists, pleasure and trouble are more than the outcome of individual psychology, biology, and biography; they arise from the cultural, economic and political conditions shaping social interaction, self-formation, and identity. Students encounter sociological approaches to knowledge production, meaning […]
This course teaches research design in qualitative sociological methods through a combination of conceptual work and empirical research. It covers a range of qualitative methods and their applicability in social and political practice. In addition to standard delivery formats, students will be expected to engage in practical exercises. The course prepares students for independent research […]
This course focuses on the role of science and technology in social life, especially examining the contributions of human agency to creating and sustaining a social-cultural world that is infused with scientific knowledge and technological know-how.
An analysis of the role of ideas in the development of social institutions and the impact of society on belief systems. The social organization of knowledge will be examined with reference to selected institutional areas such as science, politics, education, religion, the arts and the professions.
This course examines national and international organized crime issues and focuses on links between organized crime and the global economy; the relationship between organized crime and social/political environments; theoretical explanations and the evolution of commodities involved in diverse organized crime markets.
The formation of marginal or deviant communities in modern society, including such issues as underworld identities, networks and markets; legislative and judicial adaptation to current realities; unconventional lifestyles and their stability factors.
This course explores the institution of policing from an organizational, operational and legal perspective, including issues concerning police conduct and misconduct as a means of illuminating questions about the relationships between the public, the law, the media, social control agencies and social change.
This course explores violence experienced by children and violence committed by children. The course explores the ways that children and adults learn, use and experience violence (physical and sexual) in societal settings such as schools, churches, television and war.
The formation of marginal or deviant communities in modern society, including such issues as underworld identities, networks and markets; legislative and judicial adaptation to current realities; unconventional lifestyles and their stability factors.