soci0008 culture and society - Department of Sociology - The ...

THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
SOCI0008 Culture and Society
2012 - 2013 First Semester
Lecturer: Dr Amy Sim
Office: Room 903, 9/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus
Email: asim@hkucc.hku.hk
Phone: 3917 2058
Lecture Room: PO242, Centennial Campus
Time: Monday, 12:30pm – 2:20pm
Course Description
This course will enable students to engage theory with the practices of culture and empirical
debates that inform political and cultural logic in contemporary life. It provides a framework for
the understanding of the role of culture in socio-political arguments and intellectual perspectives
to explore contestations over issues of heritage, tradition, identity, community, belonging and
secular/religious rights discourses in both personal and public life.
Learning Outcomes
1. Identify the role that culture plays in contemporary life and contexts.
2. Understand the ways by which culture shapes human thought and action in relationships
and in communities.
3. Explain how cultural changes take place, define the factors involved and the processes by
which transformations occur.
4. Assess cultural values and claims to cultural hegemonies based on secular/religious rights
in local and global cultural regimes.
5. Reflect on comparative cultural systems and the consequences or implications of culture
in different places.
6. Locate local cultural politics within global discourses and historical developments.

Study load
Activities
No. of hours
Lectures 22
Tutorials 10
Reading/Self-study/Preparation for tutorial 72
Assessment: Short essay 10
Assessment: Research Essay 44
Total 158
Students are expected to attend all lectures and tutorials, and to complete some assigned readings
before each tutorial. The late submission of written coursework will be penalized.
Coursework includes:
• Tutorial presentation and participation.
• Short essay of 1,000 words.
• Research project/Term essay: documentation and analysis of 3,000 words.
Assessment
Coursework: 100%
Required Readings
Benn, S. I. and Gaus G. F. 1983. Public and Private in Social Life. London and Canberra:
Croom Helm.
Duranti, Alessandro. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Malden, Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing.
Fischler, Claude. 1988. Food, Self and Identity, in Social Science Information, Vol.27,
No.2: 275-92.
Hendry, Joy. 1999. An Introduction to Social Anthropology. London: Macmillan.
Hobsbawn, E. and T Ranger. 1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pages 1-14.
Meillassoux, Claude. 1991. Maidens, Meal and Money. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Shore, Bradd. 1996. Culture in Mind. Oxford University Press.
Stein, Rebecca L and Philip L Stein. 2005. The Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and
Witchcraft.
Zaretsky, Eli. 1976. Capitalism, The Family and Personal Life. New York: Harper and
Row Books.