Sociology

This course introduces students to social theory in medical sociology. It does this by exploring sociological factors that impinge on health status, health chances and health care. It looks at concepts of health and illness, the social context of health and illness as well as changing patterns of health and illness, and the social organization of both formal and informal health care. This also includes a critical analysis of formal Western biomedical approaches to health and health care. A number of theoretical positions are considered ranging from Functionalist, Marxist and neo-Marxist perspectives through to Postmodern, Realist and Critical Realist perspectives and the relevance of these in medicine and health care. These are applied to key substantive areas covered in the course.

This course examines different historical models for explaining the shocking rise and ultimate decline of witchcraft as a crime with dramatic social repercussions. It covers accused female and male witches of all ages and all social levels, as well as inquisitors, judges, torturers, accusers and victims. It assess the social, political, religious, legal, environmental and cultural underpinnings of witchcraft panics in locations including Germany, France, England, Scotland, Spain and Italy. It looks at European anxieties about non-European diabolical magic, and the notorious New England Salem witch trials of 1692 in North America. 

This course explores the origins and history of global citizenship and global citizenship education. We examine various approaches to global citizenship education and discuss theoretical frameworks for understanding its worldwide diffusion. The course critically investigates the Western-centered nature of global citizenship education through the concept of epistemic injustice and considers whether global citizenship education is a notion accessible only to the privileged few or whether it can function as a mechanism for equality. Finally, students review the current status and practices of global citizenship education in different countries, including South Korea. 

Emphasizing and incorporating students' needs and experiences, the course creates a critical space where they can share, debate, network, and construct viable curricula, practices, and pedagogies for the implementation of citizenship education inside and outside the school settings. 

Language Requirements: This course is taught in both Korean and English and the group discussion in both Korean and English. Group project needs to be delivered in English. Students are required to have upper intermediate and advanced levels of English fluency. 

This course examines the relationship between terror, fear, and the exercise of social and political power. It explores themes of genocide, torture, war, terrorism, and violence, analyzing the production of the abject and victims as well as the symbolism and use of the body in the exercise and experience of power. 

This course explores sociocultural, legal and political framings and debates around what constitutes drugs -licit (e.g., alcohol, caffeine) and illicit substances- (e.g., cannabis, cocaine), factors that facilitate drug availability and use in society, drug policies, policing and control, drug-related intoxication and pleasure, drug use and crime, etc., situating these and other related themes within the local and broader societal contexts. It critically examines the nature, extent and impact of drug supply and drug taking and intoxication in Irish society and internationally and how each society responds and reacts to alcohol and other drug taking and those who take legal and illegal drugs/substances.

This course examines the major concepts and methodological approaches within cultural criminology. It considers the broader contexts of crime, how powerful groups and media influence criminal justice policies, and the relationship between popular discourses and the nature of social control.

People seem to be increasingly concerned with security. There is a marked perception that insecurity is on the rise, and that the world has become an extremely unsafe place. Security policies like predictive policing, urban surveillance, border control, and antiterrorism have grown in technological sophistication and legitimacy, and are increasingly debated in electoral campaigns, among policy makers, and in the press. And yet, crime statistics show unequivocally that we have never been safer. How do we explain this discrepancy, and how do we analyse critically society’s concern with security and surveillance, as well as the solutions proposed by different actors to solve such concerns? This course explores what security and surveillance teach us about our society, its fears, and the way different categories of people think about and act on (in)security both online and offline. It discusses case studies such as urban insecurity, digital surveillance, border control, and citizen initiatives to increase security, and explore the causes and consequences of such practices in our society. It reflects on whose (in)security matters and why, and assesses whether practices such as predictive policing, CCTV cameras, face recognition technologies really work, for whom, and how. Students think about what it means to live in a Big Brother society – where a lot of what we do is subjected to surveillance – and explore sociological insights on surveillance and security.

This course introduces students to theoretical debates about the complex and multi-dimensional nature of crime, and conceptual frameworks that have been developed to explain and understand it.

This course provides introductory theoretical constructs regarding society, organizations, groups, families, and individuals which enable human service professionals to understand and to interact professionally within the context in which professionals work. The content is anchored around the South African Constitution and uses a human rights approach as the overarching theoretical framework.