Postgraduate Course: Key Concepts in Global Social Change (SCIL11030)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Sociology |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course introduces students to key sociological concepts, their analytic utility, and their relevance for understanding and explaining major issues in global social change. It aims to define and interrogate fundamental concepts in sociology, while also illustrating these through timely and topical social issues of global scope in the news. While it addresses globalization, it puts this in historical perspective, and relates it to enduring ideas in sociological analysis.
The course will consist of a weekly series of lectures and discussions on key topics, complimented by student presentations on contemporary global issues. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2012/13 Semester 1, Available to all students (SV1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
Week 1, Monday, 11:10 - 13:00, Zone: Central. Seminar room 6, CMB |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students should be able to:
- Construct a sociologically informed argument, using appropriate evidence about contemporary global complexities
- Develop a clear conceptual understanding of key local and global issues
- Demonstrate sociological understanding of the relationship between individuals, groups and social institutions cross culturally and the importance of cultural and social context, social processes, social diversity and inequality around the globe
- Discuss social processes underpinning social change and social stability
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Assessment Information
Non-assessed: a short, 1200 word analysis of a key reading, due by week 5.
Assessed: One 3500-4000 word essay asking students to explore in greater depth one of the key sociological concepts they encountered in course, and issues involved in its application to a selected topic of global social change as agreed by the student and course convener.
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
1. What is 'society' in a global era?
2. Sources of social order
3. Sources of social change
4. How people connect: social groups, networks, and organizations
5. The institutional nexus: state, society, nation and civil society
6. What are social trends?
7. Ideologies, cultures, knowledges and beliefs
8. Social movements within and across borders
9. World history, society, and systems,
10.'Globality' and globalisation
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Chase-Dunn, C. and Grimes, P. (1995) ¿World-Systems Analysis¿, Annual Review of Sociology 21: 187-417
Collins, R. (1994) Four Sociological Traditions, Oxford: OUP.
Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
Held, D. and McGrew, A. (2003) The Global Transformations Reader, 2nd edn, Polity. Jenkins, R. (2002) Foundations of Sociology, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Mann, M. (2011) Power in the 21st Century: Conversations with John A. Hall, Cambridge: Polity.
O¿Byrne, D. J. and Hensby, A. (2011) Theorizing Global Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Nolan, P. and Lenski, G. (2004) Human Societies: An Introduction to Macrosociology, London: Paradigm Publishers.
Osterhammel, J. and N. P. Petersson (2003) Globalization: A Short History, Princeton University Press.
Sassen, S. (2007) A Sociology of Globalization, W. W. Norton
Scholte, Jan Aart (2008) ¿Defining Globalization¿, The World Economy 31(11): 1471-1502
Therborn, Göran (2000) ¿Globalizations: Dimensions, Historical Waves, Regional Effects, Normative Governance¿, International Sociology 15(2): 151-179
Thorn, H. (2007). ¿Social Movements, the Media and the Emergence of a Global Public Sphere¿, Current Sociology 55(6): 896-918
Turner, B.S. (2006) ¿Classical sociology and cosmopolitanism: a critical defence of the social¿, British Journal of Sociology 57(1) 133-151.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Liliana Riga
Tel: (0131 6)51 1853
Email: l.riga@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Cristyn King
Tel: (0131 6)51 3865
Email: cristyn.king@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2012 The University of Edinburgh - 31 August 2012 4:40 am
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