GENERAL SOCIOLOGY

General Foundation

The students are able to: - learn to think rationally about social problems, through the acquisition of knowledge and through critical discussions on different theories of social organization and social evolution - develop a "knowledge of oneself" by placing themselves, their education, the profession which they intend to practise, as well as all other social roles which they will be called upon to play in the future, within their contemporary social context and environment - acquire a precise, objective, clear and scientifically substantiated corpus of knowledge about society, its institutions and its structure, and they practise engaging in rational democratic dialogue on all these issues - they become conscientious citizens, possessing a critical, all-encompassing, interdisciplinary and at the same time analytical outlook of social issues and problems, such as the origins of modern industrial and post-industrial society, the information society, social inequalities, poverty, immigration, multiculturalism, xenophobia, social progress, work and unemployment, interpersonal relationships, nation-state relations, bureaucracy, the inversion of means and goals during the operation of many different types of organizations within the private or the public sector, the perils and challenges of globalization, etc. - through the use of specific empirical examples and case-studies, they grasp the meaning of multifaceted concepts such as deviance and marginality, functions and dysfunctions, functional alternatives, the manifest and latent functions of institutions, social conflict and social mobility, etc. - they are familiarized with the research methods of the social sciences and their many real-world applications - they develop a socially informed code of ethics for the practice of their profession.

This course approaches Sociology as a distinct scientific discipline, through references to its founder Auguste Comte and its main representatives, who identify with particular Schools of thought: Emile Durkheim and Functionalism, Karl Marx and Conflict Theory, Max Weber and Interpretive Understanding (Verstehen). More contemporary schools of thought are also presented, such as structural-functionalism and the systems approach (T. Parsons, N. Luhmann), the theories of the Frankfurt School and the work of P. Bourdieu. Reference is also made to important subfields of Sociology, such as the Sociology of Education, the Sociology of the Family, Urban Sociology, Sociology of Communication and the Mass Media, etc. The course examines fundamental principles, such as socialization, social control, and the elements of social structure (social status, roles, social groups, social stratification, networks, institutions, and a typology of societies). We further investigate social change and the potential for the development and progress of social entities through empirical knowledge. We study the relationship between the Nation and the State, as well as the concept of ethnic identity. Basic methodological problems are also discussed, starting with the distinction between quantitative and qualitative research, and between static and dynamic Sociology. In a separate session, we focus on particular social problems, such as social inequality, structural poverty and deviant behavior. At the end of the course, we take a closer look at contemporary social issues, such as the condition of minorities in the era of globalization, contemporary facets of nationalism and racism, the moral dilemmas generated by technological progress and the future of human work.

22-02-2017