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Language of Instruction
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English
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Level of Course Unit
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Bachelor's Degree
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Department / Program
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POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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Type of Program
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Formal Education
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Type of Course Unit
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Compulsory
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Course Delivery Method
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Face To Face
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Objectives of the Course
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The first main objective of this class is for students to develop a sociological imagination to think relationally and critically about the world they are embedded in as opposed to taking that complex web of social relations natural and static.
The second objective is to help students develop the necessary tools, albeit at an introductory level,
The third main objective is to introduce students to the wide diversity of subjects that modern discipline of sociology covers.
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Course Content
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We are accustomed to think and frequently utter the phrase that human beings are inherently social. What does this really mean? Even more compellingly, what does the study of such all-encompassing social existence entail? Sociology is the systematic study of this social existence, but at the same time it is a claim that it exists. I say claim deliberately as one of the key challenges of this field has always been to prove that its own legitimate existence as well as its research subject: society. To back this claim, the field has grown significantly in the last two centuries focusing on its theoretical foundations (social/sociological theory), empirical depth and methodological rigor.
Though, this class is NOT a class on the history of sociology, we will frequently reference to the historicity of this field as well as the social relations we are all embedded in and studying. In doing so, we will be critically engaging with the element of time/temporality as the first tenet of our social existence. A second tenet will be the element of space, an equally critical and constitutive element of our existence. Finally, we will be assessing the relationship between the two dialectically with the third tenet of agency. Sociology is a study of this seemingly basic but extremely complex and constantly changing relationship between the three. To uphold and assure a scientific analysis of the complex interaction of the three, the discipline generated various currents of theoretical approaches (Marxian, Durkheimian, feminist, Weberian, Bourdieusian, symbolic interactionist to name a few). It also developed a unique relationship with its object (society/social relations/social facts) and fortified its empirical foundations. Even though the existence of social thought predates sociology by several millennia, we argue that the unequivocal recognition of the empirical basis of modern sociology is a founding principle. In other words, modern sociologists rely on empirical data/evidence in their claims unlike their predecessors who frequently relied on speculation, limited access to data, incoherent understanding of that data, and/or mere personal convictions.
Thirdly, modern sociology persistently claims methodological rigor as its key characteristic. A key characteristic to guide and justify the relationship with the object (society), methodology is now a subfield in and of itself in sociology. This class is an entry point to this complex world and the challenges to the study of it. It is designed specifically for the Political Science & International Relations majors with carefully chosen thematic points of emphases.
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Course Methods and Techniques
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Prerequisites and co-requisities
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None
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Course Coordinator
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Research Assist. İBRAHİM ALSANCAK ibrahim.alsancak@agu.edu.tr
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Name of Lecturers
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None
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Assistants
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None
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Work Placement(s)
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No
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Recommended or Required Reading
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