Module Code - Title:
SO4083
-
INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module will introduce students to key writings and ideas on the sociology of economic life - encompassing domestic, state and market spheres of work. The purpose is to cover a range of classic texts and contemporary applications and theories within economic sociology. The module will focus on elaborating a core undercurrent in economic sociology, one which conceptualises, compares and analyses changes over time occurring at the macro, micro, and meso-level of society: changing social relations, changing market interactions, changes within households, changing valuations across economies, and structural change in society. Engaging a series of lectures, seminars and group dialogue the module aims to equip students with a thorough understanding of sociological explanations of socio-economic phenomena and the dynamic interplay between individual and institutional action in the 20th and 21st century.
Syllabus:
Economic Sociology: An introduction
Economic and Sociological theory: Connections and conflicts
Making and shaping economies: Organization, institutions, states and policies
Making and shaping economies: Labor, labor organization, and markets
Making and shaping economies: Economic activities - the rational and the less than rational
Economies, economics, and inequalities
Economic organization: Socialist and post-socialist transformations
Global economics
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
Explain the key concepts in economic sociology
Describe key findings from economic sociology that inform understanding of economic activity, markets and organisations, and policies
Analyse economic processes and how they relate to variation in life chances for individuals and social groups
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
Demonstrate an awareness of the role of economics and economic activity in shaping the lives and life chances of individuals and social groups
Demonstrate an awareness of social conditions in shaping opportunities and experiences in ways that may or may no align with contemporary moral positions
Demonstrate an awareness of the need for reflexivity in evaluating the moral and ethical dimensions of societies and people from different social contexts
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
NA
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
This module will be taught through a combination of lecturers and self directed learning. In combination, these will enhance knowledgeability of the subject area, foster a proactive stance towards research, improve ability to articulate complex statistical terms, increase creativity through engagement with data, and improve a sense of responsibility to self and society.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Jeffrey Hass (2020)
Economic Sociology: An Introduction (2nd Edition)
, Routledge
Other Relevant Texts:
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
BAULARUFA - ARTS
BAEUSTUFA - EUROPEAN STUDIES
BAPSSOUFA - PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
BSSOSCUFA - SOCIAL SCIENCES
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Spring
Module Leader:
denis.maher@ul.ie