Sociology

This course examines the prominent sources of labor precarity and how workers – across different institutional settings – respond to these threats. The course covers phenomena such as workplace technological change/automation, international trade, green transition, as well as their consequences, including growing inequality, the revival of the radical right, protectionism, and demand for redistributive policies.

This course explains the emergence, development, and design of social insurance systems from the industrial revolution to the modern society. The course discusses the insurance protection needs of the society as a whole, discussing many benefit programs designed to reduce economic uncertainty, including social security, health insurance, workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and disability insurance. We discuss principles, features, and policy issues related to social insurance and public assistance programs.

This course introduces a holistic approach to an exploration of normal patterns of development from infancy to old age. Social and familial conditions affecting growth at different stages in the life-cycle will be studied, together with related problems of adaptation and adjustment.

This course considers the ways that science and technology shape the relationship between humans and the environment. Students examine a number of topical historical and contemporary cases and in the process reflect on the role played by science and technology in how societies understand nature and environment. Themes to be dealt with include science and cultural uses of natural resources; sociology of climate science; science, technology, and international development; science and public understandings of environmental debates; science, knowledge, and power; and environmentalism. Students approach these themes by studying various environmental topics, often reflecting current events.

This course explores key features of Chinese society and their application to Chinese business culture from a sociological perspectives. It begins with a comparative analysis about the structural differences between the Chinese and Western societies and moves on to discuss the social, economic and cultural implications of such differences. After establishing basic analytical perspectives, focus is on Chinese business culture and exploring emerging patterns in areas like retailing and consumer behaviors, work relations and management, business negotiation. Overall, the course emphasizes contemporary issues, real world observations, and comparisons to western society and culture. Students are encouraged to draw on their direct observation, compare to their experiences in their home countries. The course includes several video sessions in class and field trips to local communities.

This course introduces students to the subject of Criminology through the lens of the Scottish Criminal Justice System. It begins with an overview of the Scottish Criminal Justice System before examining the major avenues by which the public obtain information about crime – as victims of crime and from the media and official statistics. The course examines the processes that have developed Scotland's definitions of crime and the broader social and political context in which this crime occurs.

This course introduces students to public health, a discipline which seeks to prevent disease and promote the health of populations through the organized efforts of society. Public health addresses complex health and social problems that are influenced by social, cultural, political, environmental, organizational, and economic factors. Students explore determinants that shape inequalities in health and explore how the organized efforts of communities and governments can help to ameliorate these. Students learn how different theories support public health practice and develop their skills in critically appraising evidence. They explore a breadth of public health topics – from sexual health to mental health - and include examples from low-, middle-, and high-income countries.

This course takes music in the context of pop culture as the research object, and systematically teaches music concepts, music industry and music culture. The course content will cover the rise and fall of the record industry in the music industry, the production of music variety shows, film music, musical music, rock music and other topics, in order to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of popular music course experience.

This course examines gender and sexuality in a Scottish context. As binary understandings of gender and sexuality are increasingly shown to be outdated and outmoded, developments in our understanding of gender and sexuality are making headlines and becoming a regular part of our daily discourse in both our social and working lives. This course enables students to apply their knowledge of identity politics to a dynamic range of relevant texts. The texts examine the decline of traditional, industrialist, "hard man" masculinities in Scotland. Through an exploration of dynamic, contemporary and highly acclaimed texts, this course examines broken masculinities, resistant femininities, and resurgent Scottish LGBT+ fictions. A select range of relevant secondary sources accompany this exploration of primary literature, introducing students to iconic theorists, as well as relevant contemporary critics examining Scottish literature from a gendered perspective.