SOCIOLOGY

In this Introductory Course to Sociology, students become acquainted with multiple sociological perspectives on relevant issues in contemporary society. They learn to distinguish and navigate different theoretical perspectives, link and combine them properly, and get a sense of how sociological research works. This course will allow students to (a) improve their critical thinking and appreciate the advantages of taking multiple perspectives on social reality; (b) understand sociology as a scientific discipline; (c) describe the main theoretical and empirical issues within both classical and contemporary sociology; (d) be prepared to attend other, more advanced or specific sociological courses.

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Knowledge and understanding: This course will provide key theoretical and empirical knowledge relevant to the discipline of sociology, its scope, and its importance within the social sciences. Students acquire a thorough understanding of the major sociological paradigms, their key representatives and current debates. Enquiry based learning: Students will develop their own small research projects over the duration of the course. They are guided in seeing every-day phenomena sociologically and apply sociological theories and research methods to a concrete case. Making judgments: Students are encouraged to analyze the history of sociological thought and competently express their views on it. They are enabled to evaluate multiple perspectives on challenging sociological questions and to make informed judgments. Communications Skills: Students learn to communicate their standpoint using sociological concepts, appropriate terminology and logical argument. They interact with peers and instructors and improve their ability to deliver academic presentations. Learning skills: This course will allow students to improve their critical reasoning skills. It teaches them to work with reading assignments, organize their personal reading and writing schedule, plan a research project and deliver results over the course of the semester.

This course is designed to provide you with knowledge and understanding of sociology as a distinct scientific discipline. The aim of the course is to train you in taking a sociological perspective on relevant issues of contemporary society. The course offers a broad overview of the history of sociological thought and analyzes key-texts by the founders of the discipline. For every classical text from the history of sociology we also read a contemporary / non-classical text in order to valorize sociology by groups that have been marginalized in the discipline for a long time (women, minorities, scholars from the global south). The first part of the course (weeks 1-7) is dedicated to the basics of sociological theory and research methods. The second part of the course (weeks 8-12) focuses on specific topics of sociological enquiry: Institutions & Organizations, Cities and Urban Life, Environment, Migration, and Feminism, Gender and Sexuality. The course includes an empirical component of student-led enquiry. At the beginning of the term, you will be asked to form enquirer-teams of 5; each team will be assigned a small research project. As a team, you will test empirical research methods and apply different theoretical perspectives to your topic. The aim of the research project is to develop your own sociological imagination. Every week, the classroom lectures and discussions will focus on one specific author/theoretical sociological perspective from a classical-historical and a contemporary angle. During the weekly online-sessions, your team will learn how to add one building-block after the other to your research project: planning a research process, reading relevant literature, doing empirical research, analyzing data, writing up and using literature.

Course book: Giddens, Anthony & Sutton, Philip W. 2021. Sociology. 9th Edition. London: Polity. This book is available for free through the perlego-app (https://biblioteca.luiss.it/en/resources/perlego). Sociology is a book of over 1000 pages! The exact sections/pages assigned for each class will be specified in the detailed syllabus that will be made available at the beginning of the term. Primary readings by sociologists (past and present) will be made available through luiss-learn. All readings indicated in this syllabus are required readings and are relevant for the exam. The lecture-slides are an integral part of the course-readings and are also relevant for the exam. Lecture-slides are made available shortly prior to each class.

The teaching methods of this course are (1) reading, frontal lessons, interactive discussion of texts; (2) enquiry: at the beginning of the term you will be asked to form teams of 5. As a group you are assigned a topic and conduct a small research project together over the course of the semester. The project includes the application of two sociological theoretical perspectives, of one empirical method, the elaboration of a written dossier with the results and the discussion of the dossier with the instructor.

This course includes three assessments. There will be two 30-min multiple-choice exams (in presence): First MC exam in week 6 covers content of weeks 1-5, max. score 30 points. Second MC exam in week 11 covers weeks 6-10, max. score 30 points. Each enquirers-team is asked to prepare a written dossier on their topic. Precise instruction for the dossier will be given in class. The submission deadline for the written dossier is 30.11. Final oral exams will be by teams on the project and take place in the period 4.-20.12. The maximum score for the dossier & oral exam (by group) is 30 points. Your final grade is computed as follows: score from the two MC exams (max. 60) + score on the dossier and oral exam (max. 30) ÷ 3. The maximum score for this course is 30, the passing score for this course is 18. For students who (in exceptional circumstances) do not attend the course on-site and do not become part of an enquirer-team, the assessment method consists of the two Multiple Choice exams (which they will have to take in presence) and 1 comprehensive oral exam.

For those of you interested, please reach me at kstoeckl@luiss.it.