Bachelor of Arts (BA) - The University of Hong Kong

320SOCI0019.Life styles and modern culture (6 credits)This course explores the dynamics of modern society by looking at the manifold styles and life inmodern culture. It examines questions on what underlies styles, how choices in life are made, and howcultural spaces are closed and created.Assessment: 40% coursework, 60% examination.Pre-requisite: None, but SOCI0007 and SOCI0015 recommended.SOCI0020.Managing the environment: policies and issues (6 credits)This course is the study of the urban environment and the use and abuse of urban space. It deals with thesocial construction, the manipulation and negotiation of cities and urban space. The following areas willbe examined: culture and housing; public and private space; urban environment and space in relation toethnicity, class, gender and religion; environment and green politics; the pragmatic uses of space inrelation to conservation, tourism and the heritage industry. The empirical focus is on Asian cities andon Hong Kong society.SOCI0021.Marriage and the family (6 credits)Marriage and the family are viewed comparatively, using historical and cross-cultural data. Included arethe impact of industrialization and urbanization on family life, different forms of family organizationand the societal conditions under which they occur, theories of mate selection, recent changes in datingand premarital sexual involvement, parenthood, and marital adjustment.Assessment: 40% coursework, 60% examination.SOCI0023.Medical sociology (6 credits)This course will cover the main issues in the sociology of health and illness and health servicesprovision. Topics covered may include: the social definitions and indicators of health and illness;social causes of disease and 'social hygiene'; development and current patterns of health care and theirassociation with other socio-economic factors; relations between doctors, paramedics and patients;Western 'orthodox' and 'alternative', and 'Chinese traditional' forms of medical practice; the hospital asan institution and its links with other institutional forms in society; and sociological approaches tomental illness and drug abuse.SOCI0024.Modern social theory (6 credits)This course will be a critical exposition of many of the major trends in modern social theory, linkingcontemporary movements with older philosophical traditions in an attempt to trace continuities andruptures in social thought. The course will be concerned with the contributions of behaviourists andsocial exchange theorists, the efforts of contemporary interactionists and French structuralists, and thepost-structuralist enterprise.Prerequisite: None, but SOCI0001 recommended.SOCI0025.Organizations and society (6 credits)This course will introduce contemporary perspectives for analyzing organizations including resourcedependence, organizational ecology, and neo-institutionalism. It will consider how these perspectivescan be used to study organizational development, behaviour and change. The positive and negativeconsequences for individuals and society of living in a world of organizations will also be discussed.Assessment: 40% coursework, 60% examination.