Description
A course intended to foster the student's "sociological imagination", provide the student with exposure to the basics of the academic discipline and emphasize examination of: 1) the "ultimate meaning of life" through analysis and evaluation of the social construction of reality, socialization processes, and institutions, cultural (including value, linguistic, belief, and normative systems), and structural processes/components which provide the "meat and bones" of social life; 2) "one's place in the world" through the analysis and evaluation of cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, multiculturalism, population demographics, and various other social problems; and 3) "one's social and ethical" responsibility to others through the analysis and evaluation of stratification systems (particularly class, race, and gender), class, racial, ethnic, and gender relations, the role of social movement and activism in fostering social awareness and change, and the relationship of critical sociology to