SY2023:04
Contested Knowledge: the Development of Social Theory
Townsville, Cairns
Prerequisites: SY1001 or SY1002 or permission of HoS
Inadmissable Subject Combination: SY3023
26 lectures, 24 tutorials. Second semester.
Staff: Dr M Bendle (Townsville campus); Dr J Coughlan (Cairns campus).
Social theory is a field within which models of the nature, structure and destiny of advanced societies have been developed, communicated and contested. This subject traces the development of modern social theory from its confident Enlightenment origins to the uncertainties of the present day. It will examine the birth of sociology as a response to modernisation and industrialisation, the rise of Fascism and Communism and sociological responses to the contemporary challenges facing Western capitalist civilisation. Attention will be focussed on the enduring work of key figures such as Marx, Parsons and Foucault, placing them in their historical and intellectual contexts.
Learning Objectives:
- identify key figures, schools and themes in modern and contemporary social theory;
- understand major lines of development in social theory;
- formulate critical appraisals of arguments in social theory;
- apply concepts and arguments drawn from social theory to contemporary social issues.
Assessment by tutorial presentation (10%); written up tutorial presentation (10%); minor essay (30%); final examination (50%).