Download SOS 101 Introduction to Sociology I (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory

SOS 101 Introduction to Sociology I (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory)
This course provides the fundamentals of sociological concepts and theories along with its
methodology and its reasoning. It covers political, economic and cultural aspects of societies.
It analyses the relation between individuals and the society they are in. The course also
addresses how social and historical conditions have shaped sociology itself: how the
discipline has evolved spatially, temporally as well as hierarchically. In view of all this, social
lives in Turkey and in other exemplary countries are compared.
SOS 102 Introduction to Sociology II (3 C/H 8 ECTS – Compulsory)
The course touches on several aspects of social life such as daily interactions and practices,
stages of human life (childhood, adulthood and aging bodies), poverty and affluence, the
“Other” question, globalization and localization, religion, media, education, social deviation,
urban and environmental issues. Theories and concepts around these will be discussed and
evaluated with regard to Turkey.
SOS105 History of Humanity and Culture I (3 K/S 5 ECTS – Compulsory)
This course aims to open a way to fruitful discussion on the basis of these two interrelated
questions: “How did human being come into existence?”; and “How did human being turn
into ‘human’ in real meaning of the term?” Of these two questions, the first tries to conceive
us, the human beings, in relation to their natural (biological) realm of existence. The second
question on the other hand focuses on culture that is a unique capacity for human and
addresses to the question as to how culture as an activity which makes humans “superorganic” beings emerged and evolved.
SOS 106 History of Humanity and Culture II (3 K/S 5 ECTS – Compulsory)
As a continuation of SOS 105, this course addresses human nature that is formed through the
tensious interaction between human biological and cultural existence, aiming at the same time
to provide an historical background and discussion on a wider techno-cultural spectrum from
industrial revolution to electronic revolution and postmodern global capitalism.
SOS 201 Classical Sociological Theories (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory) This course follows the early trajectories of sociological thought and its historical progression,
within which the background of concepts such as modernity, class, government, social norms,
democracy, Enlightenment, positivism are evaluated. They are investigated in their own
historical conditions and tied to contemporary debates. Founding sociological theories of
social contract, empiricism, materialism, idealism, functionalism and evolutionism are
introduced with prominent theoreticians of early sociology.
SOS 202 Sociology of Family (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory) The course explores families and types of families that have been transformed with
industrialization. It examines social relations within families (authority and power; horizontal
and vertical communication) with regard to gender and the status of children. It compares
families across different societies as well as across time. Inequality in families, domestic
violence, sexual abuse, divorce, single-parenting, step-dads/mothers, choice of partners etc.
will be discussed and examined
SOS 203 Research Methods in Social Sciences (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory) This course examines how social sciences could be positioned within positive sciences in
general. The course takes a scientific approach from the point of view of sociology. Different
methodologies of different social theories are taught in order to show different ways of
knowing and examining the social subjects and agents. The root paradigms of positivist,
realist, critical and feminist theories will be analyzed.
SOS 204 Statistics in Social Sciences (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory)
Descriptive statistics, probability, statistical decision, population, sample and statistical
inference, ratios, percent, frequency distribution, measures of central tendency and variability
(summation notation, arithmetic mean, median, mode, standard deviation), meanings and
sources of probabilities, statistical decision analysis, normal distribution and other continuous
probability distributions, sampling methods and sampling distributions, estimation, hypothesis
testing, simple linear regression and correlation, analysis of variance (T-test, one way and two
way ANOVA, MANOVA)
SOS 205 History of Turkish Sociology I (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory) This course focuses on a specific period, II. Constitutionalism, in which sociology in Turkey
is considered to be established. It will review prominent journals from the period such as
Ulum-i İktisadiye (Economic Science) and İçtimaiye (Society), which were published by
Ahmet Şuayıp Bedi Nuri and Satı Bey. The question of nationalism, Republican reforms and
the emergence of a new society will be tackled around the teachings of Ziya Gökalp and Prens
Sabahaddin. Finally, Ziyaeddin Fahri Fındıkoğlu’s work that aims transforming the Turkish
culture will be analyzed.
206 Sociology of Organizations
This course provides a sociological perspective on institutions and organizations. Topics
covered within this class are (but not limited to): the characteristics of organizations; the uses
of power by organizations; the effectiveness of organizations; and the impact of organizations
on societal change.This course will give you a perspective on how people operate in
institutions and organizations with an emphasis on the world of employment and work.
SOS 207 Social Structure of the Ottoman Era (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory)
Legal, governmental, educational Institutions that made up the Ottoman society will be
studied along with the economic infrastructure of the Ottoman Empire – an economic system,
which will be tied to the recruitment of Janissaries. The course will focus on the period
between the Reformations (Tanzimat-1839) and the establishment of the Republic (1923).
The multi-ethnic composition of the Ottoman society, which affected the political streams
towards the end of the 19th Century, will be investigated at length.
SOS 208 Social Structure of Turkey (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory) This course is an examination of the definition of the “Turkish culture”. What and whom does
it include? It questions the relation between the national identity and other cultures. It draws
on the literature of “cultural studies” that spans from the late-Ottoman period until now. It
focuses on the associations of the Turkish culture, and their transformations in time. Besides
readings, the course utilizes visual materials such as movies and documentaries.
SOS 210 Cultural Anthropology (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory)
In the light of anthropological principles and processes, this course explores different aspects
of culture, which leads to diversification among human societies. It looks at cultural and
social structures in order to understand the essential institutions of human life, such as
kinship, economy, politics and religion, which are all seen from an intercultural point of view.
SOS 212 Sociology of Space and Time (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Compulsory)
Students will gain a sociological understanding of space and time: how temporal and spatial
formations have an impact on social life; how they change; and how they are connected to
social, economic and cultural structures. The course will critically unearth the synchrony
between individual conducts and the construction of spatiality and temporality, along with
discrepancies in that synchrony. There will be analytical readings of a number of places such
as ‘hamam’s, fountains, coffee shops, sweet shops, eating houses, grill houses, public
vehicles, pubs and discos in the light of the course material.
SOS 301 Contemporary Sociological Theory (3 C/H 7 ECTS – Compulsory)
In this course contemporary sociology theories that prevail from 1970s onwards are discussed.
Sociologists such as Nobert Elias, Michel Foucault, Erving Goffman, Alain Touraine, Jürgen
Habermas, Jean Baudrillard, Thomas Luckmann, Edward Paul Thompson and Pierre
Bourdieu, and their contribution to social thought are analyzed. Main themes in sociologic
thoughT such as “modern individual and rising individuality”, “regulatory societies”, “new
social…”, “social construction of reality”, “analysis of cultural fields” and “media” are
discussed and analyzed
SOS 302 Industrial Sociology (3 C/H 7 ECTS – Compulsory)
This course tackles industrial organizations and institutions from a sociological point of view,
which leads to the discussions revolving around major theoretical conceptualizations about
the management of industrial organizations. Changing and advancing technology, global
production, new trends in working life, anxieties generated by employment termination are
among the topics discussed. The other sociological issues, which will be explored in the
course within the context of world-wide knowledge economy, are knowledge-based work,
contemporary manager, mind as capital, human resources, establishment performance,
establishment culture, new strategies, total quality management, quality circles, towards zerodefect management and Frederick Taylor’s studies, “Principle of Scientific Management” and
“On time.”
SOS 303 Social Stratification (3 C/H 7 ECTS – Compulsory)
The critical issues such as social inequality, racial and religious relationships, gender
(discrimination) and sexual differences, and vertical and/or hierarchal classes and social
groups that are created by these concepts in social structure are explored with a historical
scope. Besides the analysis of the works of social scientists like Plato and Wallerstein,
relevant daily and ordinary documents and visual materials (a newspaper report, newspaper
additions, commercials and a P. Bruegel painting) are utilized in the course in order to
elaborate on power relations in feudal and Ottoman or contemporary societies.
SOS 305 Urban Sociology (3 C/H 7 ECTS – Compulsory)
The aim of the course is to make students think critically about city life and its problems. The
course examines definitions of city, its influence on personal relationships among city
members, and sociologically analyzes the place of education, health, trade, religion and
political institutions in the city. Via the course students can sociologically analyze various
social relationships that are developed in the cities, learn about city and urban processes and
acknowledge the issue of urbanization and the problems that it bears.
SOS 308 Society and Gender (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Elective)
The construction of gender and sexual identities through body on historical, national and
international levels; intra-family violence, violence towards woman, sex labor, global and
local construction of gender and bodily problematics; the different positioning mechanisms
(reciprocally with each other, against each other and despite each other) of women and men
are examined in relation to concepts, such as honor, virginity and chastity, and are studied
with reference to human (women, men, elder, disabled and children) rights.
SOS 309 Race and Ethnicity: Political Belonging and Identity (3 C/H 6 ECTS – Elective)
In this course concepts of “nation state” and “citizenship” and the unequal, gendered, colonial
and national aspects of race and ethnicity” are studied. Issues of “us and the other”, social
construction of national ethnic identities in specific historical and political contexts and the
birth and the development of different nationalisms are main themes of the course. Concepts
such as diaspora, denationalization are analyzed by case studies from World and from Turkey.
SOC 310 Society and Narratives of İstanbul (3 C/H 6 ECTS - Elective)
The aim of the course is to learn about a city that is at the intersection of two continents,
where local meets global; analyze its place in world and understand its historical dynamics.
Over Istanbul which is a European capital, students will tackle issues such as gentrification,
mediatic and artistic city.
SOS 320 Society and Politics (3 K/S 6 ECTS – Elective)
This course focuses on the relations and interactions between political structure and culture
(i.e., lifestyle). It opens up the following questions into discussion: “What kinds of strategies
do human communities develop to produce political order and what kinds of practices they
apply for this purpose?”, “How does power, authority and legitimacy occur in different
societies?” “Does what is political overlap with what is social, or are they different, but
complementary areas in human groupings?”
SOS 401 Contemporary Debates in Sociology I (3 C/H 7 ECTS - Compulsory)
The aim of this course is to equip students with conceptual tools that is needed to grasp
critical sociological thought and to be able to include them in the contemporary theoretical
discussions while increasing their abilities to express themselves. The focus of the course is
on presenting micro-sociological issues- such as provinciality, locality etc. - and to show in
which problematic framework these issues are configured.
SOS 402 Contemporary Debates in Sociology II (3 C/H 7 ECTS – Compulsory)
This course is designed to provide some of the analytical tools that should be useful in
developing and formulating a critical stance towards existing theories. Our focus is on
identifying subjects of inquiry and formulating their problematic. With this objective in mind,
we will be looking at different types of problematics throughout the semester and the ways for
approaching them. The course lends itself open to active interpretation of students. It is an
advanced course for those who are willing to excel in critical thinking.
SOS 409 Society And Literature (3 K/S 6 ECTS – Elective)
This course is about sociology that is conducted about literature. The course covers issues
such as; the history and topic of society of literature, the relation between life and society,
reflection of societal and cultural structure on literary works, the relation of society and
novelist. Over literary texts, sociological analyses are made. Through a focus on different
strands of literary critiques and social theories such as Marxism, Feminism, Post-colonialism,
Poststructuralism and Realism, the relationship between society and literary works are to be
analyzed.
SOS 412 Society and Body (3 C/H 6 ECTS - Elective)
This course focuses on the processes whereby bodies, which are generally seen as natural and
biologic, are socially and historically constructed. In this context body regimes, body politics
and topics such as bio-power will be studied. Civilized body, gender, sexuality, health and
beauty discourses which create regulatory regimes, control and disciplining mechanisms as
well as possibilities to resist them will be discussed.
SOS 414 Society and Everyday Life Practices (3 C/H 6 ECTS - Elective)
This course analyzes daily life practices by examining places which are familiar to all, such as
house, street, neighborhood. By reading theoretical works as well as case studies students will
learn how societal processes influence the lives of students themselves.
SOS 415 Society And Religion (3 K/S 6 ECTS – Elective)
The purpose of this course is to analyze and discuss the social and cultural diversity of
religious discourses and practices comperatively in time and space, and by focusing on the
particularity of historical and social contexts. Besides, it aims to clearify confusions related to
the popular polemics on religion by applying a wider analytical and critical sociological
approach. Also, thoughts and ideas of leading scholars in social sciences and humanities on
religion will be discussed.