ITB 203E - Sociology

Course Objectives

Learning the emergence and development of sociology as a discipline
To gain knowledge of basic approaches in social sciences and developing a sociological imagination that helps understand social phenomena in their own contexts
To be familiar with the works and theories of classical sociologists
To acquire knowledge about the main concepts and debates in social sciences
To internalize the principles of universal and scientific ethics

Course Description

This course is based on a close and critical reading and discussion of the writings of the principal founders of modern sociology, particularly Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber. Their views on methodology, society, economy, religion, history and social change will be examined by locating them in their historical context (19th and early 20th-century Western Europe), and by comparing them with those of an earlier "sociologist," Ibn Khaldun, who lived five hundred years before the classical European sociologists. An important part of our discussion will be on the relevance of these dead sociologists for the contemporary society and sociology, and on problematizing Eurocentrism in social theory.