BASS Social Anthropology and Data Analytics / Course details

This course will provide a basic but comprehensive introduction to some of the intellectual traditions within sociology with a focus on the origins of the discipline. The course will provide the student with the necessary conceptual tools to understand the distinctive origin and nature of sociology as an academic discipline and as a wider cultural presence within modernity. In all cases emphasis will be placed upon the specific historical context of particular writers and theories. It will be argued that the emergence of sociology and the social sciences in general represents an intellectual response to the cultural and material problems of capitalist industrial societies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The course will equip students with the concepts and information necessary to grasp the main themes of the classical sociological tradition.

This course will provide a basic but comprehensive introduction to some of the intellectual traditions within sociology with a focus on the origins of the discipline. The course will provide the student with the necessary conceptual tools to understand the distinctive origin and nature of sociology as an academic discipline and as a wider cultural presence within modernity. In all cases emphasis will be placed upon the specific historical context of particular writers and theories. It will be argued that the emergence of sociology and the social sciences in general represents an intellectual response to the cultural and material problems of capitalist industrial societies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The course will equip students with the concepts and information necessary to grasp the main themes of the classical sociological tradition. The objectives of the course are to provide students with some basic conceptual resources for tackling substantive and theoretical material in their 2nd and 3rd years.

The objectives of the course are to provide students with some basic conceptual resources for tackling substantive and theoretical material in their 2nd and 3rd years

Lecture-style material will be delivered weekly through a mix of up to one hour pre-recorded (i.e. asynchronous) content and one hour live (i.e. synchronous) lecturer-led classes. Additionally, weekly one hour small-group tutorials will be delivered on-campus as long as government guidelines allow, otherwise they will be delivered online.

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.

K. Morrison
Marx, Durkheim Weber

A. Giddens
Capitalism and Modern Social Theory

I. McIntosh (ed)
Classical Sociological Theory

J. Hughes, P.Martin & W.Sharrock
Understanding Classical Sociology

I. Craib
Classical Social Theory