SOCL19064  Understanding Social Life

This course outlines social theories from the classical to the postmodern era. Basically, it revolves around the competing explanations of what makes us do things the way we do them, and how some of our very personal choices are shaped by external (social) settings. In everyday life, almost unknowingly, we all use theories to explain things we do, see, and encounter. For example, we theorise why there is high unemployment in regional Australia; we give our opinion on the high suicide rate in rural Australia and so on. Sociological theories and imagination provide more comprehensive and intellectual ways of understanding these questions.