Courses
For the current listing of classes offered, go to the Registrar.
SOCIOL-101-6 Freshman Seminar
Topics vary, contact the department for more details.
SOCIOL-110-0 Introduction to Sociology
Essential characteristics of group life. Interrelations of society, culture, and personality. Basic institutions and processes.
SOCIOL-201-0 Social Inequality: Race, Class, and Power
Origins and functions of stratification. Class, prestige, and esteem. Interaction of racial and cultural groups in various settings. Black-white relationships in the United States.
SOCIOL-202-0 Social Problems: Norms and Deviance
How social norms and issues of concern emerge. Rules, rule enforcers, rule breakers; advocates, opponents, and victims of problems. Organization of blame, help, and entitlement. Current problems and systemic contradictions.
SOCIOL-203-0 Revolutions and Social Change
Causes and outcomes of large-scale social change. Role of violence and revolution in the development of the modern world.
SOCIOL-204-0 Social Interaction: The Individual and Society
Development of individual attitudes and behavior patterns through social interaction. Relation to students' everyday life and problems.
SOCIOL-205-0 American Society
How American society works as a whole. How major institutions relate and affect each other; how the different segments and strata of society experience such institutional processes. Tensions associated with differential experience of common and shared institutions.
SOCIOL-206-0 Law and Society
Introduction to role of law in American society. Relationship of law, inequality, and social change. Patterns of change in major legal institutions: the courts, the legal profession, and legal services for the poor.
SOCIOL-207-0 Problems of Contemporary American Cities
Problems of American urban communities and possible solutions. Spatial, economic, and political trends; private and public decision-making; class, race, and family needs. Consequences for adequate public services.
SOCIOL-215-0 Economy and Society
Introduction to sociological approaches to economic life. Property rights, informal and illegal markets, money, consumption, economic inequalities, direct sales organizations, boycotts, and other issues.
SOCIOL-216-0 Sociology of Gender
Social determination of gender appropriate behavior. Origins, values, and effects of sex-role stereotypes. How stereotypes fit social reality. Socialization (childhood and adult), values, economic opportunities in the United States, historically and currently.
SOCIOL-226-0 Sociological Analysis
Logic and methods of social research, qualitative and quantitative analysis of social data, ethical issues in social research, relation between social science and public policy. Provides foundation for further work in social research and for understanding reports of social scientific research. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-301-0 The City: Urbanization and Urbanism
Historical roots and theories of urbanization. United States urban structure in relation to economics and politics. Methods for studying the city and its neighborhoods. Urban reform policies. Prerequisite: 110 or 207.
SOCIOL-302-0 Sociology of Organizations
Structure and function of formal organizations, especially in business and government. Stratification, social control, and conflict. Discretion, rules, and information in achieving goals. Modes of participation. Development of informal norms. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-303-0 Analysis and Interpretation of Social Data
Introduction to quantitative methodology, emphasizing the interpretation of descriptive statistics (e.g., graphs) and relationships between variables (e.g., percentage differences, cross tabulations, correlations). How to construct and read tables; how to use data to construct social science arguments. Prerequisite: 226.
SOCIOL-305-0 Demography and Population Problems
Population and social structure. Fertility, mortality, migration. Age-sex structure, spatial distributions, and socioeconomic composition. Problems of growth, distribution, population control, and scarce resources, in developed and underdeveloped societies. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-306-0 Sociological Theory
Sociological perspective as developed by classic theorists. Elucidation and testing of sociological principles in contemporary research. Primarily for sociology majors. Open to others with consent of instructor. Prerequisite: 226.
SOCIOL-307-0 School and Society
Reciprocal influences between formal institutions of education and the broader society from different theoretical perspectives. Internal organization of schools. Relationship between education and inequality and to problems of contemporary urban education. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-308-0 Sociology of Deviance and Crime
The social organization of crime and other misdeeds, explanations of crime and deviance, creating criminal law, policing, detection and investigation, prosecution, plea bargaining, the courts, sentencing, punishment, prisons, and alternatives to criminal law. Prerequisite: 110 or 202.
SOCIOL-309-0 Political Sociology
Selected topics in political economy and sociology: revolutions, the development of the modern state, third world development, international conflict. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-310-0 The Family and Social Learning
Historical and modern relationships of families to major social institutions. Variations in marriage, divorce, and remarriage patterns under changing social and economic conditions. Role pressures in modern family systems, with changing social values and familial resources. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-312-0 Social Basis of Environmental Change
Relationship of the social organization of production and consumption to environmental degradation. Evaluation of social forces supporting and opposing environmental reform. Social welfare consideration in alternative models of reform. Prerequisite: 100 or 200–level sociology course.
SOCIOL-314-0 Sociology of Religion and Ideology
Relation of belief systems to social structure. Generation, maintenance, and decline of organizational commitment. Production of ideas. Religion, art, science, political ideology, and folk-knowledge as social products. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-315-0 Industrialism and Industrialization
Structure and culture of modern industry; consequences for status and class organization. Labor force, formal and informal organization of management and labor. Union-management interaction. Factors affecting industrial morale. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-316-0 Economic Sociology
Sociological approach to production, distribution, consumption, and markets. Classic and contemporary approaches to the economy compared among social science disciplines. Historical emergence of sociology and economics as separate disciplines. May include industrial organization, labor markets, capitalism in non-Western societies, power relations in business, the organization of professions such as law and medicine. Prerequisite: 215 or ECON 202 or equivalent.
SOCIOL-318-0 Sociology of Law
Organization of the legal order - institutions of adjudication and dispute settlement and of law enforcement. Courts, administrative agencies, police, and legal professionals. Patterning and control of discretion. Dynamics of legal participation. Prerequisite: 110 or 206.
SOCIOL-319-0 Sociology of Science
Science as a social system. Personality, social class, and cultural factors in scientific development, creativity, choice of role, simultaneous invention, and priority disputes. Social effects on objectivity and bias.
SOCIOL-321-0 Armed Forces and Society
Contemporary military instructions and sociological theory. Changing social organization of the military. Civil-military relations, military recruitment and socialization, modern warfare, and the role of the military in developing nations. Prerequisite: 100 or 200- level sociology course.
SOCIOL-323-0 American Subcultures and Ethnic Groups
Differentiation, organization, and stratification by ethnicity, race, lifestyle, and other traits. Maintenance of subgroup boundaries and distinctiveness. Development and continuity of American society as a system of subgroups. Consequences of difference: identity, political and economic participation, group solidarity. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-324-0 Social Structure in African American Communities
Institutional variation and social change. Black populations in local settings, urban and rural, contemporary and historical. Some attention to different eras and regions in United States and other New World societies. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-325-0 Sociology of Inequality
Basis of social stratification. Effects on life conditions and social organization. Theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions. Emphasis on advanced industrial societies. Prerequisite: 226.
SOCIOL-326-0 The Logic of Social Inquiry
Tensions between methodological rules and researcher judgments in the practice of social inquiry. Trade-off in various research designs. Social contexts and their resources for or restraints on social researchers. Impact of research context on forms of observation and reporting of inferences. Prerequisite: 226.
SOCIOL-327-0 Youth and Society
The ways that persons between the ages of about 10 and 15 interact with various institutions (families, schools, employers, welfare agencies, etc.), influencing these institutions and being influenced by them. Ethnic and class differences in these interactions. Prerequisite: 100 or 200- level sociology course.
SOCIOL-329-0 Field Research and Methods of Data Collection
Practicum in data collection that addresses common issues in observation, structured and unstructured interviewing, and surveys. Special attention to problems of reactivity and issues of reliability and validity. Prerequisite: 226.
SOCIOL-330-0 Basic Statistics for Social Research
First course of an advanced sequence in social statistics. For advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students not previously exposed to quantitative methods. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
SOCIOL-331-0 Markets, Hierarchies, and Democracies
The forms and social structures for making economic decisions in modern societies. Theories of what different forms are good for, the conditions under which they tend to occur, and what sorts of outcomes they tend to produce. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-332-0 Work and Occupation in Modern, Industrialized Societies
Work in modern society and its place in the moral order: workers in selection, recruitment, socialization, and stages of practice throughout their careers; the relationship of work and other responsibilities to family and the larger society. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-333-0 Law, Norms, and Power
Relations of laws and informal social rules to the exercise of power by some groups and individuals over others. Reciprocity and power, norms and market relations, gender norms and interpersonal power, social control institutions, colonial legal systems, justice and domination, alternative legalities and resistance. Prerequisite: 100 or 200-level sociology course or permission of instructor.
SOCIOL-335-0 Sociology of Rational Decision Making
Analysis of the role played by numerical and quantitative information in organizational decision making in the private and public sectors. Prerequisites: 215 and 302 or ECON 202 or consent of instructor.
SOCIOL-339-0 Comparative and Historical Sociology
Theoretical and methodological issues in the comparison of whole societies and other macro-social units. Contrast approaches that emphasize variables with those that emphasize cases (e.g., countries) and their histories. Prerequisite: 100- or 200- level sociology course.
SOCIOL-345-0 Class and Culture
The role that culture plays in the formation and reproduction of social classes. Class socialization, culture and class boundaries, class identities and class consciousness, culture and class action. Prerequisite: 100- or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-347-0 Sociology of Time and Space
Social construction of time and space. Standardization of time, maps as ideological documents, capitalist time and space, personal and social spaces and memories. Prerequisite: 100- or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-350-0 Sociology of the Arts
Art as collective activity. Conventions in artistic activities and in aesthetic responses. Training of professionals and audiences. Relation of artistic works to other aspects of culture. Prerequisite: 100- or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-355-0 Medical Sociology
Response to illness in various cultures and societies. Identification, distribution, and treatment of illness. Care systems, careers, practices. The sick role, sickness as deviant behavior. Politics of health care delivery. Prerequisite: 100- or 200-level sociology course.
SOCIOL-356-0 Sociology of Gender
Gender and issues of social reproduction and social change with sexuality and reproduction emphasized. Prerequisite: 216 or 226.
SOCIOL-376-0-20 Special Topics: Sociology of Immigration
Since the liberalization of immigration legislation in 1965, the United States has experienced a new wave of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. This course investigates the phenomenon of post-1965 American immigration through the lens of contemporary themes in the sociology of migration. In particular, we will examine theories of immigrant incorporation, the new second-generation, transnationalism, gendered migration, and religion and migration. We will also consider how migration influences the economy, immigration legislation, and race and ethnicity in the United States. An important component of this course will be investigating how course themes apply to immigrant communities in Chicago.
SOCIOL-376-0-21 Special Topics: Social Movements
SOCIOL-376-0-23 Special Topics
SOCIOL-380-7 Junior Year Tutorial
Small seminar group in conjunction with various scheduled 300-level classes.
GEN_ST-393-0 Chicago Field Studies Internship
See General Studies.
SOCIOL-398-1,2 Senior Research Seminar
Majors prepare an independent project/thesis under faculty direction. Occasionally students may collaborate on a common research topic. Prerequisite: 303 or 329.
SOCIOL-399-0 Independent Study
(1 or 2 units) Open with consent of department. Registration extension to more than one quarter.
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