Undergraduate Course: Sociology 1A: The Sociological Imagination: Individuals and Society (SCIL08004)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course introduces some of the key ideas of the discipline by examining the relationship between 'individuals' and 'societies'. Among the topics will be the social nature of the self, the influence of groups, gender identities, nationalism and the city. |
| Course description |
a. Academic Description
This course introduces you to the key ideas of sociology by examining the relationship between individuals and societies. The course explores how social processes shape individual lives, and how changes that occur around us influence our sense of self. It draws on C. Wright Mills¿ idea of the ¿sociological imagination¿. Mills makes three claims: that individuals live within society, that they live a biography or a personal history, and that this takes place within a distinct historical sequence. It is the sociological imagination that provides a means of mapping and understanding the relationships among these three elements, and allows us as individuals to relate our personal lives to the often impersonal social world around us. That is the promise of sociology.
b. Outline content
The course has four units which each cover an aspect of sociology.
UNIT 1: No Such Thing as Society?
Sociology is the discipline that studies ¿society¿. But what is society? Does it really exist? Is it not simply a collection of individuals? Unit 1 examines five answers to the question ¿what is society?¿
a. That what we call ¿society¿ is simply a collection of individuals, each rationally seeking the maximum personal benefit;
b. That ¿society¿ is a set of roles (for example, ¿doctor¿, ¿mother¿, ¿student¿), with associated ¿norms¿ (the do¿s and don¿ts of social life) and values (e.g. ¿put your children first¿);
c. That ¿society¿ is our susceptibility to each other, in particular our anticipation of how we will look in others¿ eyes;
d. That ¿society¿ is a network of relationships amongst people who know each other personally;
e. That ¿society¿ is imitation, the way in which we do what others do and learn to like what they like.
We shall touch on how to apply these ideas to some of life¿s practical problems: for instance, how to be happy; how to be healthy; and why as a country we are putting on weight (but some people are nonetheless dying of eating disorders). You will learn a means of predicting whether a marriage or other long-term relationship will last, and even a ¿ scientifically-tested ¿ tip for making yourself more attractive to others, including your preferred sex! Through matters such as this, we¿ll explore the famous maxim from Aristotle¿s Politics ¿ ¿man is a social animal¿ ¿ and take a literal approach to the animal nature of human beings. We will have some fun, for example playing a game (for real money, which you can really take away with you) in the first lecture of the unit, and a further game ¿ not, alas, for real money ¿ in the first tutorial.
UNIT 2: Identity and Diversity
The first unit has already given you the idea that individuals and societies are mutually constructed. In other words, the sort of person that you are is shaped by the society or societies you inhabit but at the same time you participate in making that society or societies. Another way of saying this is that we are all products of our time since all social worlds are historically specific, even although we all participate in making history. As Karl Marx put it ¿Men [we would now use the more gender neutral language, people] make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.¿
Being influenced by the societies we inhabit does not make us all the same. This is not just about whatever genetic differences we inherit but because, even at one time, societies are made up of distinct social worlds in which people inhabit more or less advantaged circumstances. Differences might be subtle or they might involve very distinct social divisions and inequalities. In some historical periods and places systems of gender, caste, social class, religious and ethnic division have created very separate, distinctive and hierarchically-ordered social worlds within the same society. In this unit, we look at the interaction between social worlds and an individual¿s identity or sense of self. An overarching question is: how much freedom do we have in a liberal democratic society like the one we inhabit here and now to be whatever kind of person we want to be?
The readings you have done for the first unit are also helpful with this one. In addition to the classic theorist some of whom featured in unit 1 (Emile Durkheim, Karl Mark, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud and George Herbert Mead), the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is introduced.
UNIT 3: Violence in Social Life
This unit will take its cue from Norbert Elias¿ important work on the ¿civilizing process¿. Elias¿ historical sociology shows how our understanding of what constitutes desirable and pleasurable behaviour transforms over time. His account shows how societies in Western Europe underwent a process of ¿civilisation¿ through which they came to shun the enjoyment of violence in everyday life. He argues that battle-lust and aggressiveness now find a regulated outlet in sports and the media. Crucially, he did not see ¿civilisation¿ as a linear form of progress.
UNIT 4: Transnationalism, Culture and Global Society
We begin Sociology 1a with the ¿little¿, with the individual and society. We end it with the ¿big¿, with global processes: indeed, in the final session we turn to the very large scale, examining the thesis put forward by the American sociologist John Meyer that in an important sense ¿global society¿ is the level at which sociologists should be looking.
We will discover, however, that the basic sociological ideas introduced in unit 1 remain useful on this bigger canvas. (The themes discussed in units 2 and 3 can also be explored at this level too.) We will, however, find that we also need another idea, largely implicit earlier in the course: the idea of ¿culture¿.
c. Student Learning experience
The course is taught through lectures and tutorials. Tutorials are your chance to discuss the ideas you learn in the course with other students, test them out and have feedback on them from your tutor. We encourage you to participate fully in the tutorials so you get as much out of the course as possible. We give you tasks to complete outside of class which you discuss with other students in the tutorials.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 511 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
164 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Contribution to tutorial virtual wall: 10%
Mid-semester essay: 40%
Final essay: 50%.
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| Feedback |
Assessment will be by tutorial participation task (10%), a mid-semester essay (40% of the overall mark), and a final essay (50% of the overall mark). Essay questions are set in the handbook. A tutorial is set aside for essay preparation.
Formative assessment: the mid-semester essay is the formative assessment for the course.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Students will be introduced to the discipline and study of sociology using several different in-depth units which apply sociology to contemporary social life and social problems
- Students will gain a broad knowledge of key sociological concepts and the concept of 'society'
- Students will understand the relationship between sociological argument and evidence and be able to develop their own arguments drawing on sociological evidence
- Students will be able to analyse the behaviour of individuals in groups and the influences on individual experience and action
- Students will be able to analyse contemporary issues sociologically. They will be able to apply a critical perspective to social problems and personal experiences discussed in the course
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Additional Information
| Course URL |
http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/ug/soc1/index.html |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Tutorials: One hour tutorials over ten weeks and starting in week two. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Lisa Mccormick
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Joanne Blair
Tel: (0131 6)50 4457
Email: |
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