1. Sociology - The Discipline:
- a) Modernity and social changes in Europe and emergence of sociology.
- b) Scope of the subject and comparison with other social sciences
- c) Sociology and common sense.
2. Sociology as Science:
- a) Science, scientific method and critique.
- b) Major theoretical strands of research methodology.
- c) Positivism and its critique.
- d) Fact value and objectivity.
- e) Non- positivist methodologies.
3. Research Methods and Analysis:
- a) Qualitative and quantitative methods.
- b) Techniques of data collection.
- c) Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity.
4. Sociological Thinkers:
- a) Karl Marx- Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle.
- b) Emile Durkheim- Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society.
- c) Max Weber- Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
- d) Talcolt Parsons- Social system, pattern variables.
- e) Robert K. Merton- Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups
- f) Mead - Self and identity.
5. Stratification and Mobility:
- a) Concepts- equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty and deprivation.
- b) Theories of social stratification- Structural functionalist theory, Marxist theory, Weberian theory.
- c) Dimensions – Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and race.
- d) Social mobility- open and closed systems, types of mobility, sources and causes of mobility.
6. Works and Economic Life:
- a) Social organization of work in different types of society- slave society, feudal society, industrial /capitalist society.
- b) Formal and informal organization of work.
- c) Labour and society.
7. Politics and Society:
- a) Sociological theories of power.
- b) Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties.
- c) Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology
- d) Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.
8. Religion and Society:
- a) Sociological theories of religion.
- b) Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults
- c) Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious revivalism, fundamentalism.
9. Systems of Kinship:
- a) Family, household, marriage.
- b) Types and forms of family.
- c) Lineage and descent.
- d) Patriarchy and sexual division of labour.
- e) Contemporary trends.
10. Social Change in Modern Society:
- a) Sociological theories of social change.
- b) Development and dependency
- c) Agents of social change
- d) Education and social change.
- e) Science, technology and social change.
