Sociology

This course examines the core vocabulary and approaches that are common in global development today. It covers strategies to stay up to date with the ever-shifting terrain of development practice, and develop the sensibilities to work effectively with a range of development partners. Students will gain critical insight into how to make development ‘inclusive’ for all people, regardless of gender, (dis)ability, sexuality, socio-economic background and so on.

In this course, students analyze and understand the connections between tourism and society and the demand of tourism and its impact on society. Topics include concepts of Tourism Sociology, interpreting social reality form a sociological perspective, and how to contextualize and explain social phenomena caused by tourism. 

Through this course, students identify the elements of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, as representations of identity; understand the value that each society places on its own culture; examine the appeal that this type of heritage holds for tourists; and develop the ability to promote it within the tourism sector. Additionally, conserving and exhibiting heritage objects in museums, as well as in current exhibition methods, whether on-site or in museum spaces is discussed. 

This course examines representaions of American society through popular Hollywood films. Issues we examine include race, gender, class, sexuality and (dis)abilities. These films show customs, traditions, values and institutions in American society. They also depict cross-cultural dilemmas that people from different background face. In this way, the class aims to develop students' understanding of and sensitivity to the influence of culture on communication in different social settings.

This course explores key issues within the sociology of family. In particular, it focuses on how perceptions and experiences of family shift over space and time. Students develop an understanding of key sociological perspectives on the role of the family in society. The course explores the social construction of family, and how the definition of it developed over time. This understanding of diverse family and household structures include topics such as same-sex parents, lone-parents, divorced/step families, adoption and reproductive rights of Irish women. It considers how these changes impact individual and family relationships.

This course examines the main cultural manifestations of the United Kingdom and the United States, focusing on the principal geographical and social features, as well as the events and processes that have shaped the social and cultural development of both these English-speaking countries since 1945.

The course introduces students to the main theoretical perspectives in a deliberate chronological order of their ‘appearance’ within the discipline. It begins with the structural functionalism of, for example, Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons, followed by the rediscovery in the early 1970s of Marxism, Weber and Critical Theory and the emergence of feminist critiques. Lastly, it introduces the various ideas associated with postmodernism and poststructuralism and education. The course builds on this introduction to explore a range of contemporary social issues, such as gender, socio-ethnic linguistics, ethnicity, inclusion and social disadvantage, as they relate to schooling and education.

This course covers the nature and analysis of organizations of the civil society sector, motivations to work emphasizing non-fiscal incentives, laws concerning non-profit organizations, fundraising and management of human resources, and other components in a development and social welfare organizations.

This course provides students with a knowledge and understanding of crimes of the powerful. It includes a wide range of crimes of the powerful with a broad focus on corporate crime and state crime. It addresses the nature of corporate crime, white collar crime, and state crime and conceptual discussions surrounding these concepts. It considers which criminological theories are most relevant when we try to explain the crimes of the powerful. 

This course discusses language in classical and contemporary sociological theory. It also provides a preliminary understanding of how language is studied in fields outside of sociology, including linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and history. It covers the role of language in social life, challenging its traditional marginalization within sociology. While language is often treated as a reflection of race, class, and gender, the course examines how it actively constructs these and other social and symbolic boundaries. It also explores why language has been largely left to fields such as linguistics and linguistic anthropology, and argues for sociology’s distinct contribution to its study. Drawing on interdisciplinary readings and recent sociological research, the course analyzes language as a key force in shaping social relations and social change. Students design a research project on an original case of their own choosing.