In sociology, a few theories provide broad perspectives that help explain many different aspects of social life, and these are called paradigms. Paradigms are philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and experiments performed in support of them. Three paradigms dominate sociological thinking because they provide useful explanations: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. The course is mainly designed to keep future scholars of sociology abreast with different sociological paradigms that affect on the thinking process of sociologists and finally let scholars choose broader line of interest. The course will not enable the students to think sociologically only rather will give a foundation on which students can form up their thinking. By the end of this section, scholars will be able to: Explain what sociological theories are and how they are used to understand the similarities and differences between structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.

Recommended Texts

1. Ritzer, G. (2010). Contemporary sociological theory. (8thed.). New York: Mc Graw Hills.
2. Coser, L. A. (2004). Master of sociological thought: Ideas in a historical social context. New York: Harcourt Brace.