The first two topics of my notes are essential and you have to study them well so

as to provide a good understanding of the chapters to come.

Themes to pay special attention to in the first 2 chapters:
Some basic understanding of the ways different founders consider society is
important. For example, you would have to get yourselves familiar with:
i. C. !ills" concept of #sociological imagination"
ii. !arx"s view of society and the capitalist order mar$ed by exploitation,
alienation at wor$, false class consciousness, conflicts and struggles between
the wor$ing class and the capitalist class
iii. %ur$heim"s consensual view about society & the analogy of society with a
biological mechanism, the importance of functional pre're(uites and the
interdependence of social institutions in modern societies, mechanical and
organic solidarity, suicide, anomie
iv. eber & the way modern society can be understood in term of the growth of
rationality )rational behaviour* with bureaucrati+ation and the development of
capitalism as demonstrations of such a change as well as his view about the
importance of values and ideas in shaping the development of societies.
,asic understanding of:
i. functionalist perspective: how it understand the nature of society, its emphasis
on stability and order of society ma$ing the study of how social institutions
relate to each other important
ii. conflict perspective: how it perceives the nature of society and its focus on
tensions and conflicts between social groups. -xamples include !arxism and
feminism. .ay attention to the basic arguments in !arxism and feminism
about the nature of society
iii. hat are the pros and cons for the functionalist and conflict perspectives in
understanding different sociological issues.
Important themes for the rest of the chapters:
/ow do different sociological perspectives understand and study essential topics in
sociology such as culture, family, and stratification01 2n what way a sociological
study can help us gain some insights about our own society1
hat is the conventional definition of family1 hat is the problem with such a
definition with diversities in family forms in modern society3 the validity of the
functionalist argument of the change in family form and family relations in modern
society undergoing industriali+ation )fit hypothesis*.
The functionalist argument for the universality of stratification, the similarities and
differences in the ways !arxist and eberian approach to class3 and the relative
contributions of the different perspectives to analysis of social and economic life in
society
The biomedical model to health and illness: its assumptions and features3 the factors
leading to the increasing popularity of alternative medicine. hat is a functionalist
understanding of the #sic$ role"1 /ow can this understanding be challenged1 hat is
a stigma and what is its ma4or function in society1 /ow does it wor$ in the field of
medicine1 -xplain an interactionist approach to health and illness such as #regime of
health".
%istinguish the difference in definition between the terms crime and deviance. hat
is social control and how it is related to deviance. -xplain the functionalist arguments
of the necessity of crime and deviance, as well as 5 !erton"s theory of deviance in
term of social strain and the adaptation ta$en by some members of society. /ow does
the labeling theory explain crime1 /ow does !arxists view crime1 hat are
differences in the above approaches to deviance and crime and evaluate their
usefulness for a sociological understanding of deviance and crime.