Introduction to Sociology

This course introduces students to the systematic study of human society from the perspective of sociology. The course begins with a presentation of classical sociological thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber and discusses sociology as a particular view on society connected to the sociological method. The course debates a series of classical topics within sociology with examples and case studies from modern day societies: deviance, class, social interaction, social stratification, marriage and family, gender, age, religion and population dynamics. Why societies have divergent norms, rules, and patterns and how do these rules form and why? The last part of the course will briefly introduce contemporary theories of modernity, post-modernity, or “liquid modernity”, and will open up toward a global perspective by debating sociology’s role in understanding contemporary globalization.