BAEcon Economics and Finance / Course details

Displacing Vulgar Marxism: The Frankfurt School / Functionalism and Talcott Parsons / RAT and G.H. Mead's Symbolic Interactionism / Feminism / Foucault / Postmodernism / Habermas / Bourdieu.

This course aims to introduce students to a range of some of the most important modern social theorists, and to encourage them to explore some of the key debates and issues which the work of these theorists has raised. It prepares them for some of the theoretical frameworks they will encounter later on in their degree and, at the same time, affords them an opportunity to see how the theories discussed in sociological thought have been extended and developed.

Students who have completed the course should be able to write competently about a number of the key theorists/issues of modern social theory, and should have a solid grasp of some of the key debates that structure contemporary social thought. They should be adequately prepared for engaging with the substantive theoretical content of whatever sociology courses they pursue later in their degree.

Weekly lectures
Fortnightly tutorials

• 1 non-assessed assignment (essay plan) - 5 mark deduction for non-submission
• 1 assessed coursework essay, 1500 words; 50% of mark
• 1 traditional format or online open book exam (1 hr / 1 answer, 1500 words as guidance if online); 50% of mark. 

All sociology courses include both formative feedback – which lets you know how you’re getting on and what you could do to improve – and summative feedback – which gives you a mark for your assessed work.

I Craib (1992) Modern Social Theory