Intro to Sociology

Course Description

Thinkers who want to understand our world? Join us for an amazing class introducing insights from sociology. Session 1: What is Society and How Does it Shape Us? We begin by asking the most fundamental question in sociology: how much of who we are is actually chosen? Thinkers are introduced to the sociological imagination — the ability to see personal experiences as shaped by larger social forces — and explore the key agents of socialisation including family, school, media, and peer groups. Session 2: Power, Class, and Inequality This session examines how societies are stratified and why some people end up with more than others. Thinkers explore the difference between wealth and income, the concept of social mobility, and competing explanations of class from Marx and Weber. The attainment gap in education serves as a case study, making abstract ideas about inequality immediate and local. Session 3: Race, Identity, and Representation Here we explore how societies construct categories of identity and attach meaning to them. Thinkers examine race as a social rather than biological category, and the concept of intersectionality as a tool for understanding how different aspects of identity overlap and compound one another. Media representation is used as a case study, giving thinkers a framework to critically analyse content they already consume daily. Session 4: Institutions, Deviance, and Social Change The final session pulls everything together by looking at how societies maintain order — and how that order gets challenged. Thinkers examine the role of institutions, explore who gets to define deviance and criminality, and study moral panics as a sociological phenomenon. The session ends with social movements, giving thinkers agency to choose a case study of their own and connect everything back to the question of whether individuals shape society or society shapes individuals. Session 5 - reviews the content of the course.