Course ID:	SOC  320
Effective Date:	03/02/2023
Title:	Social Theory - WR
Career:	Undergraduate
Credit Hours:	3.00
Description:	Prerequisite: Completion of one of the following: SOC 201, SOC 202, SOC 203, SOC 206, or SOC 210. Social theory is a guide for studying social life and making sense of observations and events in social life. It provides the infrastructure for asking questions and using methods for study and informs the explanations or interpretations that follow. In other words, theory organizes our study of social life by developing concepts and languages for identifying and describing tendencies, patterns, and laws of behavior. It contributes to our knowledge of, and to the efforts at, changing or improving social life. Within sociology, there are multiple competing paradigms, or theoretical frameworks, for ordering knowledge. This course will examine these competing paradigms, as articulated by major theorists, discuss the socio-historical significance of the major sociological paradigms, and apply examples of classical and contemporary theory to the modern world. Note: Approved for the Arts & Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR).