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SOC1001F INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
Convener: Professor J Seekings
People move through life in a set of socially structured institutions like the family, education, work and eldership. How are we shaped by the society around us? What part can we play in shaping our society? How have sociologists tried to make sense of the society around us in which our everyday experience is located? What is the sociological imagination? How does it help us to go beneath surface appearances to better understand what is happening? The course introduces students to major ways in which sociologists have grappled to make sense of historically dynamic society in an increasingly globalized context.
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SOC1005S INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY
Convener: Dr J De Wet
This is an introductory course, designed to explore key issues and activities in South African society today. It aims to assist the student to search for and identify accurate information and relevant ideas, situate these in social context, and to outline and begin to probe views around key social issues. We live in a society with deeply structured social inequalities and a range of issues and problems which people confront every day. What is actually happening to people positioned differently in society? What is changing and what is continuing? How do ordinary people deal with these issues? What forms of organisation and action do they turn to as they try to meet their needs and build lives which are fulfilling and dignified? The course examines selected social processes, structures, institutions and behaviours which help us understand these issues and ways of dealing with them.