Weeks 3-4. Socialization and the Life-cycle.

Socialization as a process whereby the helpless infant gradually becomes a self-aware, knowledgeable person, skilled in the ways of the culture into which she or he is born. Examples of ‘unsocialized’ children. The early development of the infant: perceptual development, crying and smiling, infants and caretakers, the development and social responses. Concept of maternal deprivation. Theories of child development. Freud and psychoanalysis. Personality development and Oedipus complex. The theory of G.H.Mead: Symbolic interactionalism, social self and generalized others. Jean Paget’s theory on cognitive development. The stages of cognitive development (sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, formal operational). Agencies of socialization: family, peer groups, schools, mass media etc. Resocialization. The life course. Adolescence. The young adult. Mature adulthood. Old age.

Reading materials:

Giddens, Anthony. Sociology. Second edition. Polity: 2001. Chapter #3, P. 59-88.

Weeks 5-6. Sociology of deviant behaviour: conformity and deviance

Concept of ‘deviance’. Nature and reasons of deviant behaviour. Social norms and deviance. Positive and negative deviance (violation of law, terrorism etc). Deviant and Delinquent behaviour. Biological context, individual factors, social basis of deviance. Types of deviance. Structural functionalism and deviance: theory of suicide by E. Durkheim, Merton’s strain theory, deviant subculture. Analysis from the standpoint of symbolic interactionism: Labelling theory. Medicalization of deviance. Control theory. Deviance and inequality. Deviance and Power. Deviance and capitalism. Deviance and Gender. Crimes and law. Official and non-official control over deviant behaviour.

Reading materials:

Giddens, Anthony. Sociology. Second edition. Polity: 2001. Chapter #5, P. 113-159.

Week 7. Social structure of society: stratification of society

Concept of social structure. Relationships or bonds between groups of individuals (e.g. societies). 'Structure' ("the macro") and "agency"("the micro"). Social structures as an entity or groups in definite relation to each other, as relatively enduring patterns of behaviour and relationship within a society. Norms and values as basic units of social structure. Social stratification: strata (levels) of society. System of social stratification (slavery, caste, estates, class). Theories of stratification in modern societies. Karl Marx’s theory: the nature of class, the complexity of class systems. The theory of Max Weber. Status. Party. Erik Olin Wright’s theory of class. Frank Parkin: a Weberian approach. Classes in modern industrials societies (the upper class, the middle class, the working class). Gender and stratification (class divisions and gender. The debate continues). The changing class system. Social mobility. Social stratification in Kazakhstan.

Reading materials:

Giddens, Anthony. Sociology. Second edition. Polity: 2001. Chapter #7, P.211-250.