DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AT UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AT UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SOCI 101/121 Principles of Social Organization
Man as social animal and the basis social life; Social interaction and the constitution of society; The
sociological perspective on society; Building blocks of social organization; Concepts for analyzing
social structure and culture: norms, folkways, mores, mores, values, status and role, ethnocentrism,
cultural relativity, assimilation and multiculturalism, etc.; Social hierarchy and differential rewards;
groups and organizations; Cultural background of personality; Socialization; Social institutions: the
family, etc.; Social order and social conflict, Deviance and social control; Social change; Major
founders of Sociology; Careers in Sociology.
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SOCI 102/122 Diversity of Peoples and Cultures
Evolution and diversity of humanity; Unities and diversities in social organizations; Ecology,
economy and society; Modes of subsistence and adaptation: hunters and gatherers/foraging,
horticulture, agriculture, pastoralism, modern industrialized economies – capitalism, communism/
socialism, mixed economies; Exchange systems; Marriage, family and kinship; Religious beliefs,
values, and practices; Political organizations; Health, disease and culture; Imperialism, colonialism,
development and underdevelopment.
SOCI 201/221 Basic Concepts in Sociology
Context and origin of sociology; Major founders of Sociology; Sociology and other social
sciences; Sociological imagination/mindfulness; Importance of social research and sociological
methods for investigating the social world: social surveys and field studies, tools for gathering
data: questionnaires, participant and non-participant observation; interviews, focus- group
discussions, uses of documentary sources and historical materials, ethical issues etc.; Sociological
concepts and terms for analyzing society and culture: social structure, institutions; social
functions; social system, social change etc.; Socialization; Social and gender stratification; Family
and other social institutions; Deviance and social control; Population, communities and
urbanization; Uses of sociological knowledge and careers in Sociology.
SOCI 202/222 Comparative Social Institutions
Nature and functions of social institutions; Social institutions in comparative perspective; Marriage,
family and kinship systems; Religion and modes of religious expression; Political Organizations: the
maintenance of law and order in contrasting political systems; Formal organizations and
bureaucracy; Contemporary social issues: population and development, ethnicity, bribery and
corruption, problems of the urban and rural environments.
SOCI 203/223 Traditional Ghanaian Social Institutions
The Social Structure of Ghana; The land, people and their spatial distribution; Traditional world
view; Family, kinship and lineage system; Population trends in traditional societies; Traditional
religious beliefs and their social functions; Witchcraft, magic, sorcery and divination; Traditional
Economy: land tenure system, modes of production and distribution; Chieftaincy: structure and
function; Modes of socialization: Rites of passage; Crime and crime Control in traditional
Societies.
SOCI 204/224 Social Structure of Modern Ghana
Concept of social structure; Social change: transition from tradition to modernity: impact of
colonialism; Demographic changes: rural-urban migration; Political institution in transition:
democratic governance, local government structure (District Assemblies); Religious institution in
transition: the impact of Christianity and Islam; Family and functions, family in transition; new
marriage markets: inheritance and interstate succession law; Economic modernization, Formal
education and new elites; Social stratification, Health institutions in transition; Contemporary
social issues and problems: urbanization and urban life, bribery and corruption, ethnicity, etc.
SOCI 301/321 Foundations of Social Thought
Nature of social thought and social theory; Context and development of Sociology; Founders of
Sociology: Comte, social context, major ideas and evaluation of Comte’s contribution to social
theory; Herbert Spencer, social context, major ideas and evaluation of Spencer’s contribution to
social theory; Emile Durkheim, social context, major ideas and evaluation of Durkheim’s
contribution to social thought; Karl Marx, the context, major ideas: the notion of dialectics;
historical materialism, social classes and their transformation, vision of a new society, Marx’s
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analyses of political economy and Marx’s contribution to social theory; Max Weber: context and
major ideas: definition of sociology; methodology of the social science: categories of social action;
patterns of authority, rationality and bureaucracy; the protestant ethic thesis and its critics and
Weber’s contribution to social theory; Vilfredo Pareto: elite theory; George Simmel- formal
sociology and analysis of conflict; Sigmund Freud and the significance of his ideas for social
analysis.
SOCI 302/322 Perspectives in Social Theory
Meaning of perspectives in social theory; Structuralism versus agency/action debate in Sociology;
Philosophies of positivism and phenomenology and their influence on sociological theories and
research methods; Structural functionalism: from Durkheim, Parsons, Merton to Alexander;
Marxism and Conflict Theory: from Marx, Neo-Marxism (Althusser, Lukacs, Gramsci) to Critical
Theory; “Non-Marxist” Conflict theory: Dahrendorf and Coser.; Historically-Oriented Marxism
(Dependency and World System Theory) Symbolic Interactionism: Mead, Blummer and Goffman;
Ethnomethodology: the works of Garfinkel, etc., Feminist Theory.
SOCI 303/323 Social Psychology
The field and definitional issues; Strategies of enquiry: problems with social psychological
research; Social learning: the humanizing process; Social perception: impression formation, social
attribution; Social motivation: the achievement motive and its practical implications; Social
cognition: cognitive consistency theories; Interpersonal attraction; Social attitudes: attitude
measurement: attitude formation and attitude change; communication: persuasive communication;
Dissonance: concept, nature, effects: Prejudice its causes, consequences and cure or prevention;
Aggression: frustration aggression hypothesis: modeling of aggressive behaviour; Prosocial
behaviour: bystander intervention in emergencies: effects of altruism.
SOCI 304/324 Groups, Organizations and the Individual
Group dynamics from a social psychological perspective: intra-group process; the dimension of
group structure; communication; role; influence and power structure; collective influence on
individual behaviour; de-individuation and the spread of group effects; intra-group and inter-group
conflict and its resolution; organizational behaviour; social influence processes and social
exchange; environmental influence on social behaviour and the social developmental implications
of social psychology.
SOCI 305/325 Research Methods
Importance of social research in the Social Sciences and Sociology; Proposal writing: statement of
the problem, objectives, hypotheses, operationalization of key concepts, Literature Review; Types of
research; quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, research design/plan; Sampling
Procedures; Sources of data: primary and secondary; Methods of data collection: questionnaires and
interview guides design, observation participant, observation, use of key informants, content
analysis, focus-group discussions, advantages and disadvantages of the methods for data gathering,
etc. Ethical considerations; Techniques for data presentation and analysis; Report writing: abstracts
and executive summaries, referencing, sectioning, formatting, editing, etc.
SOCI 306/326 Quantitative Methods in Social Research
Populations and samples; frequency tables and graphs; measures of central tendency (mode,
median, mean); describing the variability of distributions; Introduction to inference: the normal
Curve; distribution of sampling means; standard error of estimates; Inference with the Normal
Curve: hypothesis testing and interval estimation; confidence interval using the normal
distribution; hypothesis testing with the normal curve; Inference with the ‘t’ Distribution: the ‘ts’
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distribution and unbiased estimates; relationship between the normal and ‘t’ distribution; degrees
of freedom when estimating parameters; when to use the ‘t’ distribution; confidence interval using
the ‘t’ distribution; Inference with the Chi-Square Distribution: the chi-square test for goodness of
fit; the chi-square test for independence; Predictive Techniques: the regression model; criterion of
best fit; calculating the slope; calculating the Y intercept; estimating the regression line; using the
regression equation for prediction; Correlation: correlation as a descriptive technique; correlation
as an inferential statistics.
SOCI 307/337 Rural Sociology
Historical overview of Rural Sociology; Conceptual problems in Rural Sociology; Basic structure
of rural societies; Settlement patterns; Family arrangements; Politics; Religion; Health; Education;
Economy; Migration and rural communities; Social change and rural communities; Agents of rural
transformation: District Assemblies, NGOs/Civil Society Organizations, Faith Based
Organizations, Community Based Organizations; Conducting research in rural communities;
linkages between rural and urban communities.
SOCI 308/338 Poverty and Rural Development
Imperatives of African rural development; Development and underdevelopment theory and
comparative perspectives; Globalization and the political economy of rural poverty; Rural poverty
indicators; The roles of the state in rural development; Social infrastructure and rural
development; Women, children and rural poverty alleviation; The land question and rural
development; NGOs and local initiatives in the rural sector; Environmental issues in rural
development; A critique of selected rural development projects.
SOCI 309/339 Urban Sociology
Concept of sociology as applied to the urban society; theoretical perspectives; basic structure of
urban life; Development of the city; Industrialization and urbanization; Urbanism as a way of life;
Urbanism and Politics, Religion; Economics, Family; Education, Health; urban growth and the
development of shanty towns; Urban social relations and associational lives and their integrative
functions; Urban social problems: crime; juvenile delinquency, drug abuse, prostitution, over
crowing, waste management, etc.
SOCI 310/340 Culture and Development
The nexus between Culture and Development; Definition of culture, its attributes and components;
Cultural values, attitudes and development in comparative perspectives; Kinship systems and
development; Land tenure systems; Intangible assets in development; Gender and development;
Concept of time, trust, property rights, institutional support and enabling environments for
development; Dynamics of global cultural industries; Governance and human rights; culture and
health; Education culture and social capital, etc.
SOCI 312/342 Population Studies
The scope of population studies; History of world population, its growth and relation to
development; Elements of demography; Population: composition, structure and characteristics;
Population Theories: Malthusian Population Theory, Demographic Transition Theory, etc.;
Population and development debate; Fertility and Reproductive Health, Family Planning and
HIV/AIDS; Mortality; Urbanization, migration and its impact, Population growth and
development in Ghana; Population policies.
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SOCI 313/343 Sociology of Religion
Nature and field of the sociology of religion; Sociological, anthropological and psychological
perspectives in religious phenomena; Mutual interaction of religion and other social institutions;
Theoretical and substantive content of the sociology of religion. Theories of religious behaviour:
Comte, Tylor, Frazer, Durkhein, Malinowski, Marx and Max Weber; Types of religious activity
and modes of expression and organization in historical and comparative situations; religion in
simple societies: totemism; ancestral veneration, magic, sorcery and witchcraft, myths and rituals;
Religion in complex societies; Religious pluralism; Sectarianism, religious conflicts and
accommodation; Traditional religion; Islam; Christianity and Asiatic religions; Scientific and
technological development and secularization; ‘Post-modern’ religious expressions.
SOCI 314/344 Sociology of Deviant Behaviour
Deviance as a universal phenomenon; Definitions; Development and scope of Sociology of
Deviant Behaviour; Historical trends; Predisposition of individuals to deviate from social norms;
“Causal” theories: biological, psychological and sociological explanations (Functionalism,
Marxism, etc. ), the positivists, measurement of crime, crime statistics, twins studies,
somatotypes, theory of anomie, differential association, sub-cultural theories, principles of
criminal law (concept of crime); white collar crime, victimless crime, etc.
SOCI 315/345 Political Sociology
Development and scope of political sociology; Power, domination and legitimacy; Authority
patterns in society; Social stratification and political domination; Theories for analyzing the state
and power: Structural Functionalism, Pluralism, Marxism, Neo-Marxism, and Weberian, Elite
theory; Political socialization and participation; Politics in Africa: traditional political institutions,
past and present; Colonialism and origin of the African state; Nationalism and postcolonial
politics, political authoritarianism, corruption, military in politics; Economic and political elites in
Africa; Economic liberalism and democratic governance in Africa; Class, ethnicity and political
behaviour; Political parties, civil society organizations and the media.
SOCI 316/346 Medical Sociology
Health as a human value; Medical Sociology: Rationale and Scope; Culture, Health and Illness;
Medical pluralism and hierarchy of resort; The doctor – patient encounter; Pharmaceuticals in the
Developing World; Socio-cultural aspects of women’s Health; The hospital as a social system;
Technology and the Sociology of health care; The socio-cultural context of nursing in Ghana;
Theoretical Perspectives in Medical Sociology/Anthropology
SOCI 317/347 Sociology of the Family
Family as basic social institution; the nexus between marriage, family and kinship; Importance of
kinship, descent groups, descent systems; Inheritance and succession; Marriage: processes and
forms; Marital stability, divorce and its implications; Types of extended family in comparative
perspective with reference to sub-Saharan Africa; Family in theoretical perspective: functionalist
and conflict perspectives; Major key studies of the family; Social change and the family:
emergence of the nuclear family and its implications for authority, power and interpersonal
relations, decision-making, inheritance, welfare of members. Alternative family life-styles in
marriage of contemporary societies: singled; unmarried, cohabitation; single parenthood, blended
families, gay couples, etc.
SOCI 401/421 Social Anthropology
Anthropology and its sub-fields; Nature, scope and methodology of social/cultural anthropology;
Evolution and diversity of humans; Culture; Environments and modes of making a
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living/Adaptive Strategies; Marriage, family, kinship and descent; Economic production,
distribution and exchange; Political systems, Religion; Motivations for and impact of Colonialism,
the Evolution of the World System; Cultural Exchange: Contact and Domination, adaptation and
resistances of the weak; Contemporary Development in social anthropology; Applied
social/cultural anthropology.
SOCI 402/422 Societies and Cultures of Africa
Defining Africans and tracing their origin; The African environment and diversity and similarities
of its people; Worldviews of Africans; Religious belief systems: the supernatural, witchcraft,
sorcery, magic, etc.; Cultural norms, values and practices; Marriage practices, family, lineage and
clan systems, kinship and descents; Land tenure systems and modes of economic production,
distribution and exchange; Traditional political institutions; Law, religion and social control in
African societies; European contact: impact of mercantilism, evangelism, slavery and colonialism
on African peoples and cultures; Nationalism and independence; Westernization and domination
of Africa and Africa’s adaptations and responses. Illustrations of African societies and cultures
from specific case studies of selected groups/societies in Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern
African regions.
SOCI 403/423 Theories of Social Development
Inequalities among nations; Affluence and socio-economic deprivations; The Three Worlds: their
characteristics, emergence and dynamism; European contact and colonialism in the world,
Nationalism; Post-World War II context and origins of development as planned change; Meanings
and measurement of development: socioeconomic indicators, human development indicators, human
poverty indicators, etc; Theories of development and sociological approaches to social change:
evolutionism, neo-evolutionism, modernization theory, theory of underdevelopment or dependency
theory, Political economy of international relations: ideologies of development:
liberalism/capitalism, economic nationalism, Marxism, socialism/communism; Neo-liberalism and
democracy.
SOCI 404/424 The Context of Development and Underdevelopment
Development as ideology and comparative study of conditions facilitating or impeding
development in Third World countries (Africa, Asia and Latin America): State and postcolonial
development policies/strategies and impacts; IMF and World Bank policies; Aid and
Development; Population, urbanization and education; Agriculture and rural development in
different contexts; Women and Development; Science, technology and industrialization; Culture,
attitudes and development in different contexts; Quality of life and happiness, Environment and
sustainable development. Illustrations from comparative case studies of selected countries on
selected topics in development.
SOCI 405/425 Industrial Sociology I
The nature, history and scope of Industrial Sociology; Nature of work and its centrality in human
lives; Growth of formal organizations and bureaucracy; Sociological theories of formal
organizations: classical and human relations schools; Management in formal organizations: the
various levels, functions, managerial philosophies and styles of management; Industry and society;
Sociology of worker participation in management and worker self-management.
SOCI 406/426 Industrial Sociology II
Theories of industrial relations: the systems theory, Marxist model, social action model, human
relations model, etc; Forces influencing patterns of industrial relations; Sources of conflicts and
conflict management; Trade Unions: their aims and objectives, growth and development; Structure
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of Unions; Government and unions; Trade unions in the developing world especially Africa;
Differences in social characteristics, growth and roles of trade unions in the developing world and
the developed world; Trade unions in Ghana: an analysis of the various industrial relations Acts
e.g. Acts 1958, 1965, 1971 etc.; The urban African industrial worker: a discussion of the earlier
image and the later image of the urban African industrial worker; Trade Unions in a globalizing
World: problems and challenges.
SOCI 407/437 Globalization and Society
Conceptualizing globalization; Historical analysis of globalization; Forces of globalization: neoliberalism—
market and democracy, multinationals, international organizations and financial
institutions, ICTs, etc.; Issues of globalization— westernization and imperialism; Globalization
and the transformation in the global economy, impact on employment within nation-states and
state capacities; Impact of globalization on Third World Societies: the state, economic productive
systems, consumption patterns and culture; International migration and its implications, labour
activity and power in the Third World; Globalization and the Ghanaian Society: opportunities,
constraints and contending issues.
SOCI 408/438 Demographic Analysis
Definition, nature and scope of demography; Sources, uses and limitations of population data:
Population census; sample surveys; vital registration; population registers; non-traditional sources
(parish registers, baptismal records; administrative records); international sources; Population data in
sub-Sahara Africa; Major