MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Published by Monash University
Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia

Caution Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1320-6222

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

Comparative sociology

Comparative sociology (COS) subjects examine not just contemporary industrial societies but all the very varied ways in which human beings have organised their lives together, now and in the past. They are crosscultural and historical, focusing on processes of social development and comparing the ways of life found in societies of all kinds: modern and premodern, agrarian and industrial, capitalist and socialist, Eastern and Western. Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged, and debates in this area cut across literary theory, history, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and sociology.

Comparative sociology begins its specialisation at second year. Students normally use two first-year subjects in ANY and/or SCY as the basis for a minor or major in COS but other subjects may be allowed. Second-year subjects deal with the rise of capitalist societies, with the study of culture, with understanding prejudice and discrimination in its many guises, and with the impact of scientific rationality on our view of the world and our place in it. In the third year students can choose among options including the sociology of literature; the consumer society; bodily representations; nationalism; the sociology of disabilities; Japanese society; Marxist, critical, structuralist and post structuralist theories.

An honours program is also available for students wishing to specialise further and who may want to proceed to postgraduate research. The department offers a general MA by coursework within which specialised subjects are available in social theory, comparative sociology, gender and feminism, and anthropology; postgraduate research degrees are also available.

Pass courses

Major sequence

At the first-year level a major sequence in comparative sociology consists of two subjects from ANY1010, ANY1020, SCY1010, or SCY1020 or one of these plus a subject from a cognate discipline.

At the second-year level a major sequence consists of a minimum of sixteen points, which must include one of COS2110, COS2130 or SCY2230, together with either another subject from the above list or an appropriate second-year level ANY or SCY course chosen with the advice of the department.

At the third-year level a major sequence consists of a minimum of sixteen points from the list of third year COS subjects or from the following additional list: ANY3470, ANY3490, COS3810, COS3710, COS2230, COS3630 and with a minimum of an additional eight points at second or third-year level.

Minor sequence

A minor sequence in comparative sociology may consist of either (i) appropriate subjects at the first-year level worth twelve points plus appropriate COS subjects at the second-year level worth sixteen points or (ii) appropriate sequences of COS subjects at the second-year level worth sixteen points plus appropriate sequences of COS subjects at the third-year level worth a minimum of twelve points.

Honours

Students may enrol for honours at the completion of their pass degree, after completing a major in comparative sociology or in sociology or anthropology. There are no prerequisite subjects. A credit level in subjects to the value of twenty-four points must be gained at second and third-year level in the major sequence; sixteen points must be gained at third-year level.

Details of the fourth year are set out under `Fourth-year level.'

Combined honours may be taken in comparative sociology and another discipline, provided that all honours requirements have been met in both disciplines and subject to approval of the heads of both departments/centres.

Clayton campus

Second-year level

Prerequisite: Two subjects from ANY1010, ANY1020, SCY1010 or SCY1020, or one of these plus a subject from a cognate discipline.

+ COS2110 Comparative social structures

+ COS2130 Culture and society: introduction to cultural theory (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS2160 Understanding prejudice and discrimination

+ COS2230 Race and sexual politics

Third-year level

Prerequisite: Second-year level COS, or appropriate ANY or SCY subjects carrying a total of at least sixteen points.

Options available

+ COS3030 Advanced comparative sociology, part I

+ COS3040 Advanced comparative sociology, part II

+ COS3060 Japanese society

+ COS3070 Bodily representations

+ COS3080 Literature and society (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS3110 Cultural studies: the consumer society (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS3350 Nationalism: an anthropological perspective

+ COS3370 Comparative sociology of `development' (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS3430 The third world

+ COS3440 Civilisation and its malcontents

+ COS3470 Structuralisms and poststructuralisms (proposed to be offered next in 1998)

+ COS3480 Social theory and social history

+ COS3490 State, society and nation (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS3500 The social construction of disabilities (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS3630 Feminism cross-culturally

+ COS3710 Sexed media, media-ted sex

+ COS3810 Australia-Japan social relations (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

Fourth-year level

Prerequisite: Students are admitted to honours at the end of third year and must have obtained at least credit grades in comparative sociology subjects (or other appropriate subjects in anthropology or sociology) to the value of twenty-four points at second and third-year level combined of which sixteen points must be at third-year level. Students are required to take:

+ COS4010 Thesis in comparative sociology

+ for twenty-four points plus two other subjects of twelve points each including one at least from existing honours subjects in comparative sociology, anthropology or sociology:

+ COS4209 Re-thinking human studies: after postmodernity (proposed to be offered next in 1997)

+ COS4540 Asia and the West

+ COS4480 Social theory and social history

+ ANY4400 Ethics, theory and method in anthropological research

+ SCY4540 Theory and practice of sociology

+ SCY4560 Substantive issues in sociology

The due date for the submission of final coursework and the thesis by students to the department is the last day of the final semester of the honours program (Friday 7 June in first semester 1996 and Friday 1 November in second semester 1996). Any request for an extension of time of more than one week must be submitted to the Committee for Undergraduate Studies no later than two weeks before the end of the final semester.

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