Course description
Program Requirements
Master's students in sociology are required to select and follow one of the optional program patterns below, chosen in consultation with a graduate adviser:
Thesis Program
* 3.0 credits. Under certain circumstances one of the courses may be selected from those offered at the senior undergraduate level. SOCI 5005 and SOCI 5809 are highly recommended, especially for students who at the time of registration have not decided on a thesis topic;
* A thesis equivalent to 2.0 credits; and
* An oral examination on the candidate's thesis and program.
Research Essay Program
* 4.0 credits. Under certain circumstances one of the courses may be selected from those offered at the senior undergraduate level. SOCI 5809, is highly recommended, especially for students who at the time of initial registration have not decided on a research topic;
* A research essay equivalent to 1.0 credit; and
* An oral examination on the candidate's research essay and program.
Course Work Program
* 5.0 credits excluding SOCI 5905. Under certain circumstances one of the courses may be selected from those offered at the senior undergraduate level; and
* Written and oral comprehensive examination in the candidate's area of specialization and program.
Concentration in Quantitative Methodology
Students in either the research essay or thesis program options may pursue a concentration in quantitative methodology. For a concentration in quantitative methodology, courses selected must include the following:
* SOCI 5005;
* SOCI 5809;
* At least 1.0 credit selected from: SOCI 5101, SOCI 5102, SOCI 5103 SOCI 5104, SOCI 5105, SOCI 5201 SOCI 5605; and
* At least 1.0 credit in sociology at the graduate level (not including those listed above).
SOCI 5000 [0.5 credit]
Classical Sociological Theory
Crucial sociological concepts and ideas by the founders of sociology. Attention will be given to Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto, Comte, and Husserl.
SOCI 5001 [0.5 credit]
Selected Topics in Classical Theory
Topic varies from year to year.
Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5002 [0.5 credit]
Contemporary Sociological Theory
Major theoretical perspectives in sociology, including social behaviourism; social action theories such as symbolic interactionism, phenomenological sociology, ethnomethodology; and structuralist theories such as structural functionalism, neo-Marxism and critical theory.
SOCI 5003 [0.5 credit]
Selected Topics in Contemporary Theory
Topic varies from year to year. Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5005 [0.5 credit]
Recurring Debates in Social Thought
Recurring issues and debates in the discipline. Topics such as the nature of social science; the objective world versus social construction; questions of evidence, meaning and measurement; agency versus structure; the relation between research and praxis; knowledge and power, may be considered.
Prerequisite: restricted to M.A. students in sociology. Others may be admitted by permission of the Department.
SOCI 5007 [0.5 credit]
Social Change and Economic Development
Critical examination of studies of change and development in historical and contemporary national and transnational systems.
SOCI 5009 [0.5 credit]
Philosophy of Social Science I
Philosophy of language and the basic elements of scientific method, such as the classification of the sciences, the concepts of value, cause and probability, induction and deduction, confirmation of hypotheses, and the concept of truth.
SOCI 5101 [1.0 credit]
Research Design and Data Analysis
An integrated approach to the problems involved in the analysis of quantitative data, research design and procedures.
SOCI 5102 [0.5 credit]
Statistical Methods I
A course on multiple regression analysis, with a review of basic statistical assumptions and techniques, followed by a detailed discussion of multiple regression analysis as a statistical technique.
SOCI 5103 [0.5 credit]
Statistical Methods II
The focus will be advanced research methods. Topics will include distributions, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, and non-parametric methods. There will be an introduction to multivariate techniques, including regression and loglinear models.
SOCI 5104 [0.5 credit]
Multivariate Analysis
This course provides advanced instruction in methods and statistics. Consideration will be given to multiple regression, factor analysis, canonical analysis.
SOCI 5105 [0.5 credit]
Selected Topics in Social Research
Topic varies from year to year. Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5200 [0.5 credit]
Comparative Social Systems
Perspectives and research procedures employed by sociologists in the systematic and explicit comparison of data from two or more societies.
SOCI 5201 [0.5 credit]
Comparative Methods in Social Research
Current analytical problems and applications of comparative methods in social research. Students are expected to participate in a group research project in which one or more of these methods will be applied.
SOCI 5204 [0.5 credit]
Consuming Passions: The Regulation of Consumption, Appearance and Sexuality
Examination of the rise of consumption and private pleasures and their regulation and self-regulation. (Also listed as LAWS 5008.)
SOCI 5205 [1.0 credit]
Canadian Society
A critical examination of sociological models of modern societies and their relevance to Canada.
SOCI 5206 [0.5 credit]
Sociology of Occupations and Professions
A consideration of the development of occupational recruitment patterns and manpower problems in developed and developing areas.
SOCI 5207 [0.5 credit]
Sociology of Formal Organizations
A consideration of the forms and processes of bureaucracy in modern society, government and industry.
SOCI 5209 [0.5 credit]
Sociology of Science and Technology
Study of the interaction among science, technology and change in modern societies.
SOCI 5300 [0.5 credit]
Social Institutions I
Topic varies from year to year.
Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5301 [0.5 credit]
Social Institutions II
Topic varies from year to year.
Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5302 [0.5 credit]
The Labour Process
A consideration of the organization of work and production from feudal times to the present. The purpose of the course is to analyze the labour process in advanced capitalist societies by means of the historical comparative method.
SOCI 5303 [0.5 credit]
Sociology of Education
The relations between education and other social institutions, the structure of educational opportunity, educational systems and organizations, and the sociology of learning.
SOCI 5306 [0.5 credit]
Cultural Studies
The relations between cultural practices and other social practices in definite social formations. Discussions are grounded through the choice of specific Canadian research on topics such as media, art, music, education, pedagogy, etc.
SOCI 5307 [0.5 credit]
Psychoanalysis and Cultural Studies
This course will examine the relationship between psychoanalytic and sociological theory, focussing on the work of feminist theorists.
SOCI 5308 [0.5 credit]
Feminist Analyses
Current theory and research in recent feminist analysis.
SOCI 5309 [0.5 credit]
Cultural Theory
A survey of developments in European and North American Marxist and Post-Marxist cultural theories of the past quarter century.
SOCI 5400 [0.5 credit]
Political Sociology
An examination of theoretical and empirical work on selected aspects of the state, politics and political behaviour, primarily in North America and Europe.
SOCI 5404 [0.5 credit]
Race, Ethnicity and Class in Contemporary Societies
Various theoretical approaches concerning the persistence and re-emergence of ethnic and/or racial groups are examined. Particular emphasis is given to the intersection and overlap of ethnicity and race with social class.
SOCI 5405 [0.5 credit]
Power and Stratification
An examination of theories of elite behaviour, social class, and ideology.
SOCI 5406 [0.5 credit]
Citizenship and Globalization
Examination of debates about the changing nature of citizenship in the context of globalization of capital, culture and peoples. Employing post-Marshallian, political economic, post-structuralist, post-colonial and feminist perspectives, the seminar explores the emergence of market-driven, hierarchical and cosmopolitan notions of citizenship and transnational identities.
SOCI 5407 [0.5 credit]
Governance, Power, and Politics
A survey of critical theories and concepts of governance, and recent developments in political sociology. Topics may include forms of capitalism, governmentality, sovereign power, biopolitics, and citizenship. Also listed as PSCI 5303.
SOCI 5408 [0.5 credit]
Feminism and Materialism
Recent developments of feminist materialist theory and analyses. Topics may include: the gender division of labour; family and economy; gender and class; gender, race and ethnicity; sexuality; reproduction; theory and politics.
SOCI 5409 [0.5 credit]
The Politics of Social Movements and the State
Origins, ideologies, strategies and political implications of social and popular movements in North America and Western Europe. Attention is given to the peace, feminist, gay, ecology, and anti-racist movements, and the emergence of the New Right.
SOCI 5500 [0.5 credit]
Gender Formation and State Formation
The role of states in the formation of gender relations, in the context of class and race, and the production of gender as an aspect of state formation. The various levels of the state are conceived as both a site and object of gender politics.
SOCI 5504 [0.5 credit]
Selected Problems in Political Economy I
A selected topic from current research in political economy. As the topic varies from year to year, students should check with the Department regarding the current offering. (Also listed as PECO 5501 and PSCI 5501.)
SOCI 5505 [0.5 credit]
Selected Problems in Political Economy II
A selected topic from current research in political economy. As the topic varies from year to year, students should check with the Department regarding the current offering. (Also listed as PECO 5502 and PSCI 5502.)
SOCI 5600 [0.5 credit]
Critical Discourse Analysis
Examination of the relations between discourse, social semiotics, extradiscursive semiotics and social organization.
SOCI 5605 [0.5 credit]
Demographic Analysis
Intensive study of analytical strategies and techniques employed in demographic research. Attention is also given to mathematical and statistical models used in demography, which are relevant to research in other areas of sociology.
SOCI 5606 [0.5 credit]
Selected Topics in Sociology
Topic varies from year to year.
Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5607 [0.5 credit]
Contemporary Theories of Crime and Social Regulation
Recent developments in theories of criminality and social regulation. Particular reference will be made to the regulatory mechanisms of both public and private spheres within legal institutions, corrections, economic institutions, and the family.
SOCI 5608 [0.5 credit]
Women and Work
Issues concerning women and work, such as housework, occupational segregation, part-time work, the changing economic structure of work, wage inequality, and state policies with respect to childcare, equal pay and work of equal value, and affirmative action.
SOCI 5707 [0.5 credit]
Crime, Social Control and Social Change
An examination of the role of the discourses and ideologies surrounding crime, criminal processes, and social change. Topics may include such issues as juvenile justice, victimization, corporate crime, criminalization of indigenous peoples, substance use and abuse.
SOCI 5802 [0.5 credit]
Departmental Seminar
Topic varies from year to year. Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5803 [0.5 credit]
Critical Theory
Recent developments in critical theory based upon its initial formulation by the Frankfurt School, with emphasis upon particular contemporary theories in a given year, e.g., J. Habermas, H. Willems, etc.
SOCI 5804 [0.5 credit]
Modern Marxist Theory
An examination of topics of theory and research in modern Marxist literature; the central focus is on problems of class analysis, the state, and politics in advanced capitalist societies.
SOCI 5805 [0.5 credit]
Selected Topics in Sociology
Topic varies from year to year. Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5806 [0.5 credit]
Selected Topics in Sociology
Topic varies from year to year. Students should check with the Department regarding the topic offered.
SOCI 5809 [0.5 credit]
The Logic of the Research Process
An examination of the research process, including the phases of conceptualization, choice of indicators, sampling, data collection, and analysis. Published articles will be studied as exemplars of the range of possible research strategies.
SOCI 5900 [0.5 credit]
Tutorial
SOCI 5905 [2.0 credits]
Course Work Comprehensive in Sociology
Available for students in a course work M.A. who by the third term in their M.A. program have not yet completed their written and oral examinations. Completion of this course does not reduce the formal requirement of 5.0 credits.
SOCI 5907 [0.5 credit]
Placement in Sociology
This course is required for students in the Concentration in Quantitative Methodology who have been admitted into the Cooperative Education option. This option provides an opportunity to enhance educational experience through work placement.
SOCI 5908 [1.0 credit]
M.A. Research Essay
Students may enrol in this course for a maximum of three consecutive terms of study, including one summer term. Students must enrol in this course not later than the beginning of the second full year of study.
SOCI 5909 [2.0 credits]
M.A. Thesis
