BSc Sociology with Minor in Marketing

Assessment:

Coursework - 60%, Final Exam - 40% (face-to-face)

Political Science students are asked to take this course in semester 2.

The  summer offering will depend on the students’ registration number.

This is a cross-disciplinary course. It is designed to provide a firm base for Communication courses and for courses in English for Special Purposes linked with specific disciplines. It helps students to achieve the level of competence in written language that is required of the university student in undergraduate programmes. Course content includes Language in the Caribbean, Summarizing, the Formal Essay and Methods of Organising Information.

This course is designed to develop an awareness of the main process of cultural development in Caribbean societies, highlighting the factors, the problematic and the creative output that have fed the emergence of Caribbean identities. It also develops a perception of the Caribbean as wider than island nations or linguistic blocs and stimulates students’ interest in, and commitment to Caribbean civilization and to further their self-determination.

The course is designed to introduce learners to the major aspects of management principles. It will expose them to the corpus of knowledge required to assist an organisation to achieve its objectives. It provides important information intended to expose learners to the intricacies of managing enterprises - be these private or public, corporate or small business enterprises, and government or nongovernmental organisations.

Assessment:

Coursework - 25%

Final Exam -75% (face-to-face)

This course will introduce students to classical social theory through an understanding of the work of writers such as Auguste Comte, Max Weber, Karl Marx and George H. Mead. The main focus of this studying is to understand the central ideas of these writers and to reflect on the usefulness of their theory in contemporary Caribbean societies. This reflection will support students’ further investigations of the explanations given for issues on the front line of Caribbean societies’ development agendas. At the same time, students will learn about the central ideas and perspectives of writers such as Edward Kamau Brathwaite, M.G. Smith and George Beckford. The combination of classical and Caribbean schools of social inquiry will set the tone for a synthesizing of perspectives on race, class, gender, ethnicity and the family in society. This process will assist students with developing their theoretical base in social theory, as well as independent thought on happenings in Caribbean society.

This course addresses those general philosophical questions which form a necessary grounding to the understanding of these techniques and procedures which follow. It will not be dealing with those methodological issues featured in faculty introductory courses. Some of the topics include: epistemological issues and theories of knowledge, Weberian and other perspectives, causality and association, social sciences as a science, induction and deduction, the distinction between a social problem and what is socially problematic.

Exempted if completed ASc. In Social Work

Assessment: 100% Continuous Assessment.

This course is intended to provide students with a conceptual framework and analytical skills necessary for the analysis of markets and marketing activities of firms in a dynamic environment. It will introduce students to some of the basic concepts and principles of marketing and to some real-world marketing situations. It also takes into consideration the unique business culture of the Caribbean.

This course critically examines the theoretical perspectives of 19th and early 20th century pioneers of sociology like Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Du Bois, Marx, Weber, Martineau and
Addams. The main focus is an understanding of the transition from traditional to modern society and its attendant challenges such as class, race and gender inequality. Theorists’ works would be analysed within their own specific social and historical context as they addressed the central concerns of social order and change. Specifically, the course provides an understanding of past and contemporary social issues as well as the roots of social scientific thinking and the basis for theory building. It will examine the philosophical (ontological, methodological, epistemological) bases of sociological theories. During the course concepts, related to theory building, like axiom, tautology and taxonomy will be defined.

This course aims to give students an introduction to contemporary trends in sociological theory. At its core, the course examines a range of theoretical debates that have acquired international prominence in recent years. Sociological theory unavoidably has to be approached from an international perspective. This is due to, on the one hand, the universalising claims inherent in many contemporary theoretical approaches and, on the other hand, the proliferation of sociology, sociologists, and sociology departments throughout the world. At the same time, however, questions remain as to the scope of relevance of internationally dominant theories that emanate from leading sociology departments and publishing houses in Western Europe and North America. The present course addresses this tension by introducing students to a broad range of contemporary theories and interrogating their importance to social research in the Caribbean.

This course is premised on the rationale that ethics can be learned. Ethical literacy is a critical priority in a world where some of the greatest challenges graduates will face will not be matters of fact but rather matters of value and judgement. Knowledge of the ethical rules associated with the Behavioural Sciences will equip students with the necessary tools to engage the moral self with professional rules of ethics. Included in the concept of a psychologically literate citizen, for instance, is an expectation that undergraduates will learn to behave ethically and humanely at work and in other everyday contexts. The same holds true for other Behavioural Science areas. Learners will therefore be given the opportunity to relate practical solutions to ethical dilemmas. Students will be able to distinguish ethics from ethical literacy, apply ethical skills to current situations and issues, use ethical actions to resolve conflict.

The course MGMT 2021 focuses primarily on contract law since contract law is the basis of commercial law. However, in order to situate commercial law in its broader context, this course also exposes students to elements of criminal law which deals with public wrongs as well as fundamental aspects of tort law that encompasses civil wrongs. The overarching framework however begins with an in-depth exploration of our legal system which lays the foundations for understanding the origin and sources of law, as well as the functioning of the legal infrastructure such as the court system. Finally, students are exposed to consumer law and aspects on Internet law, as these are becoming increasingly important in understanding commercial relationships in the digital age.

In this course, students will learn a variety of qualitative research methods to investigate the social world and to comprehensively understand the use of qualitative methods in sociological research. Through the exploration of the topics covered in the course, students will be introduced Academic to the various tools that scientists use to conduct research within a given society to produce knowledge. They will explore theoretical meaning and underlying principles of qualitative inquiry in sociological research. The course will address several of the basic issues of the qualitative research process, ethical dilemmas and procedures for collecting and analyzing data. The definitive goal is to provide students with practical research experiences that will allow them to critically examine the process and methods of qualitative research in their social world.

When we allow ourselves to be curious about life around us we are doing social exploration. We are discovering the substance and fabric of our social reality. Social exploration is an iterative
process of learning, reflecting and documenting our observations. Deep social exploration makes us a student of life. Sociologists must practice deep social exploration so that we will
have a body of knowledge about how we live in society. This course will help you to enjoy the art and practice of research as deep social exploration. The course is designed to give students an appreciation for conceptualizing contemporary issues from a sociological perspective and the opportunity to integrate sociological theories and research methods to investigate selected issues. The course covers the three main components involved in doing research: preparing a research proposal, completing the research, presenting the findings to the audience. Using an iterative process, learners will be supported through the steps involved in moving from a research idea to a research project. Learners will design a research study, collect and analyse information gathered and share that information with different audiences. The chosen topic has to be relevant, important, and have a sociological perspective.

This course presents students with the opportunity to comprehensively understand the nature, scope and dynamics of social development and its interplay on the lives of individuals, families, communities and groups. It interrogates the contributions of education, income, health, technology and welfare system in contributing to an egalitarian society with opportunity and mobility for all.

This course presents and examines the social and cultural forces that have implications for the formation and maintenance of social relationships. It exposes students to the concepts,
theories, and methods involved in studying the family. It provides an opportunity for students to critically examine issues associated with marriage and the family so that they can derive a
clearer understanding of marriage and the family as critical institutions in society. The course helps students to apply theoretical perspectives to go beyond personal experiences and view
the family from diverse social contexts.

SOCI 3008 Industrial Sociology 1 is concerned with the interrelationship of society and industry or industrial activity. It involves the application of sociological theory and method to the problems that arise in the process of producing goods and services in modern society. These arrangements emerged with the industrial revolution and marked the beginning of the societal form that we have come to call industrial society. The course begins by locating industrial society in the context of human development. Associated with this is the emergence of sociology as a way of understanding the profound changes in human relations and social organization associated with the industrial revolution. In the sections that follow, the course examines the sociology of work, the sociology of industrial relations, industrial and post industrial society, the sexual division of labor in the Caribbean, industrialization in the Caribbean, technology
and its effect on relations at the workplace and the impact of the technological revolution of the late twentieth century on the organization of industrial production.

This course is designed to equip students with a myriad of methods to conduct formative and summative evaluation of social programmes. In so doing, students are exposed to intervention
strategies in contextualizing treatment plans to effect desired change. The efficacy of the methods will be brought into question and their relevance to cultural context will be examined.
Special attention is placed on evaluating the extent to which social programmes address issues of social justice, ethics, diversity and empowerment across diverse populations and settings.