Sociology

This course provides an overview of working in the United Kingdom and of the current economic situation in the country. It further discusses how the economic situation affects the workplace, how students can integrate into British working life, and how they can make the most of their internship placements. Topics include current political and economic climate, national legal framework, structure and workflow, integration of immigrants into the workforce, discrimination in the workplace, and comparison between U.K. and U.S. work experiences.

The course introduces foreign students to Icelandic folk culture past and present: from the folk beliefs implied by the Icelandic sagas to the famous collection of folk tales concerning "hidden people", elves, magicians, seal-folk, ghosts, and more which was published by Jón Árnason in 1862-64; the ballads and music enjoyed by the people in the countryside; and the beliefs, behavior, and lifestyles encountered by the somewhat dumbfounded and awe-inspired early foreign travelers to Iceland during the last century.

This course introduces students to the fundamental theories and concepts of race and ethnicity. These theories and concepts enrich classic sociological canons and provide sociologists racial/ethnic lens for insightful analyses of the racialized institutions behind social phenomena. The first six weeks of this course focuses on these fundamental race/ethnicity theories and concepts. The course also investigates the role of history in the construction of race/ethnicity theories and explores how we can connect the contemporary globalized, multiracial world with these theories generated in the Western context (mostly with the White/Black divide). We then examine how race and ethnicity shape the individual’s personal, cultural, and national identity; interact with capitalist society; serve as a form of social classification, and how they are challenged or reinforced by educational systems in various cultural contexts.  

Sociology, a newer science concerned with the impact of the industrial revolution on traditional forms of communal life, beliefs, and authorities, emerged in late 19th century Europe. The pioneers of sociology (regarded as classics today) such as Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and Leonard Hobhouse, managed to establish the young discipline at the universities in France, Germany, and Great Britain. The transatlantic exchange of sociological ideas intensified during the 1920s with American scholars such as Talcott Parsons visiting Europe and especially with the large wave of emigrants (Paul Lazarsfeld, Reinhard Bendix, members of the Frankfurt School, and many others) to the United States. Modern analytical sociology was created in the United States in cooperation between European immigrants and Americans and (re-)exported to Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. Today, sociology is studied at universities all over the world with some significant regional specializations. While American sociology is best known for its strong empirical orientation (“social research”), sociology in Europe has developed further the theoretical traditions of the classics (“social theory”). Some paradigmatic questions from Weber to Simmel seem still relevant: “Why have essential elements of modern societies – from the rise of modern capitalism, to individualism, urban culture, and democracy – occurred first in the West?” Alienation from society has been a major theme from Marx to Durkheim and Bourdieu. New topics emerged in the face of new challenges: European Integration, the end of the “Iron Curtain” between Western and Eastern Europe, and the pressures of globalization on the European “social model.” And, of course, since Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1853-1840), sociologists on both sides of the Atlantic have been fascinated to compare Europe and the American Experience. The objective of the course is to portray prominent European sociologists and apply their ideas to the challenges of our time.

In the course, some key social institutions that together have come to be called the "Swedish" or "Scandinavian" Model, are presented. The course covers the historical development of the Swedish welfare state, both in relation to institutional changes and to the political project of the welfare state. It departs from an analytical and historical perspective where the internal contradictions and impetus for change of the Swedish Model are central. Therefore, the course includes recent developments such as the possible dismantling of the Swedish welfare state and emergence of a new welfare model. The emergence of social rights and social citizenship are included in this section. The course discusses welfare state policies directed towards the family, which includes a gender perspective in which feminist critique of the welfare state is introduced. The course also discusses the particularities and the development of the Swedish Model on labor market and labor relations, reviewing different theoretical perspectives on the triad state, capital, and labor.

In this course, students learn about various research tools, such as participant observation and qualitative interviewing. Students learn how to take field notes and are introduced to various forms of interviewing, such as the structured interview, the in-depth interview, focus groups, and life history interviews. Taking field notes and interviewing are practiced in and outside of the classroom. Moreover, students are guided through the process of crafting a feasible research question and the appropriate design for future studies they conduct. The research questions provide the basis for students' investigations. What is to be investigated is entirely up to the student(s). However, they are provided with guidance in the formulation of their topics. In this course, students have to conduct at least one interview, thus they need to have access to a tape recorder and/or video camera. This is a time and labor-intensive skills training, especially once the data collection has begun. Most of the required work is done outside of the class setting. Students are expected to work independently and should count on having to invest an extra two to four hours per week in interviewing, transcribing the interviews, and working on the data analysis. This course is for students with a background or sincere interest in sociology, anthropology, and/or cultural studies.