(Name of the Program) BBA Hons.

(Academic Year of the Program) Ist year

(Name of the Course) Introduction to Sociology

(Course Code) BS-ART-120

(Name of the Semester) Spring Semester (2nd Semester)

(Name of the Instructor) Wajahat Ahmad

(Contact Details) 7082506708 /wajahatahm@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

The course seeks to enable students to develop “Sociological Imagination” by acquainting them with core
sociological concepts like social stratification, social class, intersectionality, social structure,social facts.
The course will introduce students to major sociological paradigms like conflict theories, functionalism and
symbolic interactionism and key ideas of social thinkers like Marx, Weber and Durkheim to foster
sociological thinking. While emphasizing holism, the course will help students to understand the workings
of society by examining the interconnections and interactions of its diverse social institutions. The course
aims to help students develop sociological ways of seeing the world, inculcate critical thinking and
sensitivity towards questions of human difference, social marginalities and cultural diversity. It will also
engage with anthropology’s core concern, the study of culture and cross cultural variation, to help
students foster a nuanced understanding of how culture mediates social and economic lives, which would
be realized through an engagement with diverse ethnographic works.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Students will learn key concepts and ideas in sociology.

Students will develop the sociological imagination or a way of seeing informed by sociological theory.

Students will gain an understanding of the challenges confronting our society and the workings of its
various social institutions in times of a deepening globalization.

Students will develop an academic orientation, which is gender sensitive and geared to studying social
institutions and social phenomena in a holistic framework.

Students will develop sensitivity towards cross cultural variation and an understanding of the relationship
between culture and economic life.
LEARNING GOALS

In addition to the specific course related objectives, this course is designed to achieve the following
learning goals

1. Critical and Integrative thinking: Each student will be able to identify key issues in classical social
theory develop a perspective that is supported with relevant information and integrative thinking,
to draw and assess conclusions. This learning goal will be measured through assignments and
submissions
2. Awareness of Global Issues affecting Sociological Analysis: Each student will be able to identify
key relevant global issues and be able to analyze the impact of the global environment on social
theory, as compared with domestic market related management issues. This learning goal will be
assessed through short essays. The radical redefinition of our conceptions and experiences of
space, time, sociality and flows of people, ideas, finance and trade by a deepening globalization
would figure in our approach to sociological analysis.
3. Interpersonal Awareness and Working in Teams : Each student shall demonstrate an ability to
work effectively in a team, exhibiting behavior that reflects an understanding of the importance of
individual roles and tasks and the ability to manage conflict and compromise so that team goals
are achieved.
4. Effective Presentation Skill: Each student shall be able to communicate verbally in an organized,
clear, persuasive manner and be a responsive listener. (e.g. Class participation will be used to
assess effective oral communication.

TEACHING METHOD

The course will have a judicious mix of lectures and class discussions. Given that it is an introductory
course on sociology, it will primarily be lecture driven but not purely based on lectures. Based on the
assumption that academic learning is dialogic, brief lectures would be used as starting points for
classroom discussions on a given topic/theme.

TEAMS AND TEAM WORK

You will have 3 members in your team. The final grade may be adjusted downward by 50 percent if a
person on a team has not pulled his/her weight.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Attendance to all the sessions is as per the university rules (minimum 75% excluding all leaves). The
following instances will also be treated as absence unless prior permission is taken
  Attending only part of the session, either entering or leaving during the break
 Arriving in class after the session is scheduled to begin
 Failing to display the name card

GRADING

The course grade will be determined on the basis of

Evaluation Weightage Nature Explanation

Item
Written 20% Individual One long paper, which is an autoethnography requiring
Assignments deployment of a sociological imagination and engagement
with course readings.
Class 5 Individual Will be based on active participation in the class. Active
Participation participation does not equal to mere presence in the class.
Class Quiz 10% Individual Four class quizzes for continuous assessment of students’
learning in the class. I will count two of your best
performances.
Group Work 15 % Group Students comprising groups of three will make a group
presentation on an assigned book, preferably an
ethnography.
End Term 50 % Individual Closed-Book Written Exam

TEXT BOOK, COURSE PACKAGE AND OTHER READINGS

There is no required textbook for the course. I will assume that you have done the assigned readings
when you come to the class. The lectures will take the readings as a starting point and probe deeper into
the issues- it will not regurgitate the reading material. If something in the readings is not clear to you,
please don’t hesitate to ask.

Reading material assigned for reading will be provided to you in a course pack and will be uploaded in the
e-learning platform.

CLASS SCHEDULE (Each session is of 90 minutes’ duration)

Session No-1 Title of the session: Introduction to Sociology

Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn about the rise of sociology as a
session discipline and get acquainted with key social thinkers like August Comte,
Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, who laid the foundations of the discipline.

Readings None

Pedagogy (choose Lecture

one of the following)
Session No-2 Title of the session The Sociological Imagination

Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn about the concept of sociological
session imagination as articulated by American Sociologist, C Wright Mills and in how
sociological imagination helps us to think beyond the taken for granted and
commonsense.

Readings (Book Chapter)

Mills, C Wright. (2000).The Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press,
Chapter 1(pages 3-24).
Pedagogy Lecture

Session No-3 Title of the session: Understanding Culture

Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn about the anthropological concept of
session culture and the attitudes towards culture like cultural relativism and
ethnocentrism.
Readings (Book Chapter)

Carol and Melvin Ember. “The Concept of Culture”.

Pedagogy (choose Lecture

one of the following)

Session No-4 Title of the session : Sociological Theories and Perspectives

Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn about three major sociological
session paradigms, conflict theories, exemplified by Marxism, functionalism as
reflected in Durkheim’s work and symbolic interactionism, with Max Weber as
its forerunner. You will learn about Marx’s theory of class and explanation of
social change through his method of historical materialism. You will also learn
about Weber’s idea of social stratification and rationalization. Furthermore, you
would develop an understanding of Durkheim’s view of social order, social
change and his concept of social fact. You will also learn about the structure
-agency debate in sociology, and how technological revolution is engendering
the rise of a “risk society” or increasing risk and uncertainty in social life.

Readings (Book Chapter)

“Theories and Perspectives” in Giddens, Anthony and Philip W. Sutton (eds.)
(2017) Sociology, 8th Edition, Polity.
Pedagogy Lecture
Session No-5 Title of the session: Developing an Ethnographic Sensibility.

Objective of the At the end of this session you will know the historical development of
session ethnography as a method and research process. You would also know the
fundamentals of ethnographic research.
Readings (Book Chapters)
Brewer, John D. (2005) Ethnography. Buckingham & Philadelphia : Open
University Press, Chapters 1 and 2.
Pedagogy (choose Lecture
one of the following)

Session No-6 Title of the session: Auto-ethnography

Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn about the genre of auto-ethnography
session and how to approach writing your narratives of the self by using your
sociological imagination.
Reading (Book Chapter)

Reed-Danahey, Deborah E. (ed.) (1997). Auto-Ethnography: Rewriting the Self

and The Social. Oxford &New York: Berg. (pp.1-9)

Tatum. Beverly. The Complexity of Identity: “Who Am I?”

Pedagogy Lecture

Session No-7 Title of the session: Class Stratification and Class Analysis
Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn the difference between Marxist and
session Weberian class analysis. You will know about the various class schemas
devised by sociologists to study social class and the increasing use of the
concept of intersectionality in sociology, how class intersects with other forms of
stratification like gender, ethnicity, race, caste to produce complex inequalities.
Readings (Book Chapter)

Stratification and Social Class” in Giddens, Anthony and Philip W. Sutton (eds.)
(2017) Sociology, 8th Edition, Polity.

Pedagogy Lecture

Session No-8 Title of the session: Pierre Bourdieu : Habitus, Class and Field
Objective of the At the end of this session you will learn about Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of
session Habitus, Class and Forms of Capital like Economic, Cultural, Social and
Symbolic. You will learn about how Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is not only
relevant to the study of questions of class but also to those of gender and caste.
Reading (Book Chapters)
Bourdieu,Pierre.(1986). The Forms of Capital In
Richardson, J., Handbook  of  Theory  and  Research  for  the  Sociology  of  Educati
on( pp.241-58).Westport, CT: Greenwood. 
 Maton, Carl.(2012 ). Habitus. In Michael Grenfell (ed.), Pierre Bourdieu : Key
Concepts (pp.46-64). New Delhi: Raawat Publications.

Pedagogy Lecture

Session Title of the session: Gender Stratification

No-9
Objective At the end of this session you will have learnt the concepts of gender, sex,
of the heteronormativity, patriarchy, gender order, masculinity and femininity and how sociology
session understands gender and sexuality as socially constructed. You will learn about gender
socialization theories and social constructionist approaches to the study of gender and
sexuality, including radical approaches like Queer Theory.
Readings (Book Chapter)

“Gender and Sexuality” in Giddens, Anthony and Philip W. Sutton (eds.) (2017) Sociology,
8th Edition, Polity.

Pedagog Lecture
y (choose
one of the
following)

Session Title of the session: Masculinity: Anthropological and Sociological Approaches

No-10
Objective At the end of this session you will learn about anthropological and sociological approaches
of the to the study of masculinities. You will learn about cross-cultural differences in masculinity
session and how masculinity varies with changing cultural contexts.
Reading (Articles)

1. Gutman, Mathew C. (1997).Trafficking in men: The Anthropology of Masculinity,

Annual Review of Anthropology. (26) 385.409.

2. Schrock, Douglas and Michael Schwalbe. (2009). Men, Masculinity and Manhood
Acts, Annual Review of Sociology. (35) 277–95.

Pedagog Lecture
y

Session Title of the session: Caste and Class Interactionality

No-11
Objective By the end of the session you will learn about how caste intersects with class in India to
of the provide different caste groups differential access to jobs in the service sector. The
session interaction between caste and class habitus, caste as a source of economic, cultural and
 social capital is examined to understand how caste plays a role in the job market.
Readings (Articles)

Ashwini Deshpande & Katherine Newman (2007) Where the Path Leads: The Role of Caste in
Post-University Employment Expectations. Economic and Political Weekly. 42 (41) 4133-4140.

Leela Fernandes & Patrick Heller (2006) HEGEMONIC ASPIRATIONS, Critical Asian
Studies, 38(4) 495-522

Gupta, Ashish. “Caste: Why it’s still an issue for India Inc”. Fortune India. October 14,2016,
at :
https://www.fortuneindia.com/ideas/caste-why-its-still-an-issue-for-india-inc-/100264

Pedagog Lecture
y (choose
one of the
following)

Session Presentations
No-12

Session
Readings (Article)
Pedagog Lecture
y

Group Presentations
Session
No-13

Session Group Presentations

No-14

Session No-15 Group Presentations

``````DELIVERY DEADLINES FOR PROJECTS/ASSIGNMENTS

Students are required to submit the auto-ethnography latest by the time the class meets for Session No.
15.