Course Descriptions
Courses are listed numerically according to the codes. 500 level courses are theory-based required and elective courses. 600 level courses are methodology courses and the 700 level courses are courses related to writing and conducting master’s thesis.
First year students are required to take all required courses and to select two elective courses. It is suggested that the selection of the elective courses is done with the academic adviser selected by the student. The school reserves the right to add additional classes or to cancel a course according to the number of students enrolled.
ASPP 500 Modern Sociological Theories
Prerequisite: none.
This course serves as an introduction to more advanced contemporary sociological theories. Students will discuss some of the major concepts in micro-sociological analysis (Berger, Goffman), symbolic interactionism (Blumer), functionalism (Parsons), and in social theories stemming from exchange processes and rationality (Homans, Blau), as well as analyze principal theories that shaped research in inequality, social stratification, and mobility.
ASPP 501 Public Policy in Knowledge-Based Society
Prerequisite: none.
The course examines the relevance of political science, economics and social theory to the design and implementation of public policy. It reviews analytical models typically utilized in examining the adequacy of public policies. It addresses public and private goods paying attention to state failure and market failure. Particular attention will be paid to a number of public sector problems such as health care, pensions, welfare, employment, unemployment, environment and public works. Case studies will be examined in order to assess the various costs and benefits of policy outcomes. The course will address the impact of public bureaucracies and special interests upon the design and implementation of public policies.
ASPP 502 Economic Sociology and Sociology of Labor Market
Prerequisite: none.
This course is focused on creating a link between political economy, sociology and economics. Special emphasis is put on principal theories of economic sociology, institutionalism, and modern political economy. The students will discuss recent theories of institutional reforms, labor market development, economic growth and its driving forces, wage and income differentiation, various approaches to poverty and corresponding policies, ageing and pension reforms. Both, the theoretical perspective and the views of the international institutions (OECD, ILO, World Bank, IMF) will be applied to the explanation and evaluation of the socio-economic transformation currently under way in East-Central Europe
ASPP 503 Human Resources Management
Prerequisite: none.
This course examines systems, policies, and practices related to human resources management. Students will learn how to link employees’ human capital to the accomplishment of organizational goals, select desired employees and assign appropriate responsibilities, design an effective incentives to appropriate levels of productivity and pay plans, as well as to identify an appropriate labor/management program and review key pension models.
ASPP 504 Institutions of the EU
Prerequisite: none.
This course introduces students into the policy and decision-making processes of the EU institution. The students will understand a variety of institutional arrangements, competencies and procedures used within the EU institutions. Students will also be given the possibility to interpret the treaties, legal acts of the EU Council and Parliament through simulating Council workgroup negotiations on a directive text.
ASPP 540 Seminar on Deleuze and Guattari
This seminar will be an exploration and exegesis of Mille Plateaux/A Thousand Plateaus, a key 20th Century philosophical text by the French post-structuralist philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, reading through the book chapter by chapter (plateau by plateau). We will be paying special attention to thinkers who were precursors to their work (Kant, Spinoza, Freud, Bergson, Nietzsche, Lacan) and writers whose work embodies their theories (Hölderlin, von Kleist, Rimbaud, Melville, Whitman, James, Woolf, Proust, Artaud, Kafka, Fitzgerald, Lawrence, Beckett, Lowry, and others).
ASPP 541 Psychology of Management
The course will focus on the study of psychology of organizations, the study of human behavior within organizations and the function and nature of groups and leadership in organizations. Creativity with self and others will be emphasized. The class will involve lecture, discussion and a variety of experiential exercises (individual and group) and the written blog.
ASPP 542 Public Policy and Multinational Corporations
Prerequisite: ECO 110, ECO 120
This course will help students to understand the process of unification of the three main elements in society: politics, economics/business, and the social sector. The ambiguous role of multinational corporations, seen as a driver of economic development on one side, and contributor to negative externalities on the other side, is critically scrutinized. The course explains the role of local public institutions in building regional capacities in order to absorb international investments. Students learn about global manufacturing, managing value-adding chains, export/import strategies, international delivery modes, global financing issues, foreign direct investments and strategic alliances.
ASPP 550 Theories of Globalization
Prerequisite: none.
This reading-intensive course analyzes different approaches social scientists have taken towards conceptualizing globalization in its economic, social, and political manifestations. It will first focus on such models as systems theory and theories of development. Second, it will examine the social dimensions of globalization, such as the formation of “global cities,” networking, the internationalization of civil society and global migration flows. Finally, the course will focus on theories and models of global political institutions and processes (i.e., models of cosmopolitan democracy, human rights regimes, regionalization of political power, and the crisis of the nation-state). In this course, students will be able to critically assess global economic and political trends.
ASPP 551 Knowledge Formats and Knowledge Production
Prerequisite: none.
This course is introduces students to the concept of knowledge-based societies and economies as driven by continuous knowledge and innovation production. The course distinguishes knowledge from information and data, focusing on national and international developments occurring along basic and applied knowledge paths. Students will understand the trends of commodification of knowledge. They will learn different models of knowledge production, such as national innovation systems, Mode 2, Triple Helix, and their effectiveness in increasing a nation’s innovative capital. In addition, students will demonstrate their practical understanding of these concepts by designing their own model of knowledge production.
ASPP 552 Inequality: Class, Race, Gender, and Ethnicity
Prerequisite: none.
This course examines the sources of inequality and its intergenerational reproduction in modern stratified societies. The main analytical framework includes class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Students will discuss main dimensions of inequality (education, occupation, income), the processes of their intergenerational transmission (educational and class mobility), as well as the ways in which they interact with each other (status consistency). They will also examine the differences in inequality in different types of societies with particular emphasis to post-communist societies.
ASPP 553 Minorities in Europe
Prerequisite: none.
This course discusses and analyzes major ethnic, religious, and national minorities in contemporary Europe from a sociological, anthropological, historical, legal, and political perspective. It will look at a broad range of topics such as citizenship, identity, conflict and persecution, genocide, migration, minority rights, and international law. By using case studies, students will deepen their understanding of the status and condition of minorities in Europe, the roots of and solutions to ethnic conflict, and the changing European conceptions of citizenship and the multi-cultural state.
ASPP 554 Public Opinion and Mass Survey Research
Prerequisite: none.
This course will introduce students to the study of public opinion and the methods of mass survey research. As public opinion is typically measured using opinion polls this course will have two components. The methodological component will outline the theory and practice of opinion poll research and will demonstrate how mass surveys are constructed and the criteria used for assessing the quality of opinion poll data. The second component will involve a substantive examination of a variety of topics such as: Does public opinion influence government? Are there some issues, such as reported sexual behaviour, which are inappropriate for opinion polling because respondents to not tell the truth? If the public has little interest in politics, does this undermine the legitimacy of opinion polling because the results are based on little or no knowledge? What to opinion polls tell us about public support for government decisions to go to war? The goal of this course is to cultivate in participants skills associated with the commissioning and interpreting of surveys (of all types) within their future careers.
ASPP 555 Sociology of Education and Social Stratification
Prerequisite: none.
This course examines the main topics in the sociology of education, such as the role of education in social mobility and the reproduction of social class. More specifically, it analyzes different educational processes and structures, and their effects on a variety of social groups. Students will learn how such social forces and categories shape educational achievement by applying them to the Czech context.
ASPP 556 On the Margins of Sociology: Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault
Prerequisite: none.
This seminar will explore the thought of Georges Bataille (1897–1962) and that of the post-structuralist social theorist Michel Foucault (1926–1984). Whereas sociology has largely been concerned with the study of normative social behavior via the identification of its margins, borders, and limits, the work of Georges Bataille was concerned with transgression–that which lay beyond those margins, borders, and limits: sexuality and death, the sacred and sacrifice, madness and criminality, excess and loss. Although his thought was partially inspired by the sociology of Durkheim, through a ‘genealogical’ method inspired by Nietzsche it ultimately transgressed the boundaries between sociology and the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, political science, religious studies, history and even molecular biology, and was a fundamental precursor to and influence upon the interdisciplinary work of one of the most important social thinkers of the 20th Century, Michel Foucault, who was similarly influenced by Nietzsche’s genealogical method. After exploring the development of Bataille’s thought in the first half of the seminar, we will spend the second half exploring how Foucault’s work incorporated, extended, and diverged from Bataille’s work into examinations of marginality and exclusion, discourse and disciplinization, surveillance and control, subjectivity and sexuality, and the relations between knowledge and power.
ASPP 557 Knowledge, Culture and Leadership in the Era of Globalization
Prerequisite: none.
This course focuses on the changing managerial/leadership role in the public and private sector and has two major objectives. First, the course is designed to help build a better understanding of leadership theories. Second, the course will guide students in assessing your own leadership skills and competencies. To meet that objective, much of the class time will be devoted to experiential learning activities. Course readings will focus on the shifting environment of knowledge, culture and change at all levels of organizational hierarchy, the latest thinking in leadership, and concrete ideas to enhance your managerial/leadership abilities. Finally, the course seeks to prepare students to be keener analyzers of leadership situations and better prepared to meet them.
ASPP 558 Sociology of Aesthetics
Prerequisite: none.
What is art, and what is its relation to society? In this seminar we will be exploring the inter-section between sociology/social theory and aesthetics. Traditionally a domain of philosophy, the study of aesthetics initially encompassed judgments about beauty and form, evolved into a study of the nature of aesthetic judgments, and then widened into a series of subcategories ranging from questions of art and ethics, art and history, art and psychology, art and culture, art and perception, art and ontology, art and politics, art and society, and art and gender.
ASPP 559 Innovation, Knowledge Formats and Knowledge Production
Prerequisite: none.
Knowledge innovation and production are complex social and cultural processes as the content and context becomes more cultural in character and where societies and markets become more highly differentiated with globalization. What is described as the convergence between arts, technologies and sciences are actually the breakdown of modern classifications of knowledge and the institutions, which have regulated and reproduced them. It is also the consequence of the increasing importance of culture, innovation and creativity as a component in economic production, and the diffusion of scientific and technological knowledge throughout society. This course introduces students to the concept of knowledge-based societies and economies as driven by continuous knowledge, production, and creativity. Students will be expected to develop and demonstrate practical skills to build upon the convergence between scientific (innovative), artistic (creative) and humanistic (critical-interpretive) modes of knowledge creation. They will foster these concepts by designing their own innovative model of knowledge production.
ASPP 600 Advanced Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, Evaluation and Forecasting
Prerequisite: SOC 290/A or B or instructor’s approval.
This course is designed as a “pillar” of the understanding of advanced concepts and procedures involved in designing, and conducting research in the fields of applied sociology and public policy. This course will provide students with theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to develop and conduct qualitative and quantitative research projects, as well as to forecast or evaluate public policy. Students will develop their skills in critically evaluating different methodologies, understand benefits and limitations of each of them, and demonstrate their practical knowledge of procedures involved.
ASPP 601 Advanced Statistical Data and Analysis with SPSS
Prerequisite: ASPP 600
This course will teach students how to apply advanced statistical methods using SPSS statistical package. Some of the important multivariate methods will be explained and demonstrated at the real data (analysis of multidimensional tables, hierarchical log-linear models, analysis of variance, linear regression, logistic regression, factor analysis, path-analysis, etc.). Students will learn what analytical method (statistical model) should be chosen to answer particular research questions by testing corresponding hypotheses on a particular data set and types of variables.
ASPP 700 Critical Analysis Seminar: Reading and Analyzing Research Papers
Prerequisite: none.
In this course students will learn how to critically examine research and scholarship. They will become familiar with the most typical mistakes and problems occurring in social research, as well as discuss major logical fallacies and hidden assumptions in both qualitative and quantitative research designs.
ASPP 701 Research Practicum for M.A. in Public Policy / Internship
Prerequisite: ASPP 600
The Research Practicum will have as its primary objective the development of actual research competency among the M.A. students in Public Policy. The means to build such competency will focus upon a semester long research project. Each student will select a research topic; articulate the research question and issues; provide a theoretical base for the research design; select a methodological approach followed by construction of the necessary research measures whether questionnaire, interview, archival records, original documents, or other; gather the primary data; utilize the necessary social science statistical method (qualitative/quantitative); analyze the data; and, produce findings and conclusions regarding the original research question. While secondary data need not be entirely excluded, the intent of the project and of the course is for students to conceptualize, design and analyze their own primary data.
Internship: All students are required to obtain relevant work experiences that enable them to apply theoretical and practical knowledge and skills gained during the course of their graduate studies. Students will be offered a variety of private, public, and other organizations to select from, but can also find their own working places. The place of internship, however, has to be approved by the academic adviser.
ASPP 702 Thesis Seminar I
Prerequisite: ASPP 700
This seminar is oriented towards a critical analysis of students‘ thesis proposals and thesis drafts. The seminar focuses on proposal design and writing, research design, and analysis of methodological approaches to given subjects. Students will present their own thesis proposals, as well as analyze and critique each other work. Students will not pass until their thesis drafts satisfy basic methodological, analytic, and stylistic standards in the field of social sciences.
ASPP 703 Thesis Seminar II
Prerequisite: ASPP 702
This research seminar will be a capstone for masters’ students in the Applied Sociology and Public Policy. In this course, students will examine a variety of topics and theoretical issues that are central to writing their theses. The class will cover all essential topics to designing and conducting research, such as the Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Data Analysis and Findings, and Conclusion. Students will not pass until their thesis is finished in a satisfactory manner and ready to be defended in front of the academic committee.
COM 550 Propaganda and Information
Prerequisite: SOC 100, COM 101
Since the end of the Cold War and the rise of the internet, there is a widespread belief that we are all better informed than ever, and that propaganda is a notion of the past which died with Totalitarian regimes. On the contrary, propaganda has never been so active in our modern societies. Propaganda is a neutral term yet has acquired along the years a negative tone. Nevertheless, as a paradox, no organized human societies could function without propaganda. This course intends to provide students with an approach to Propaganda and Information/communication systems. This course also intends to provide students with different points of view, including some from developing countries such as Lebanon or former Communist countries. Audiovisual materials will be used and current issues will be examined in a way to understand how propaganda shapes everyday information.
ENV 501 Environmental Trade
Prerequisite: LEG 101, POL 102, & POL 251
Most of this course will focus on trade and environment as a single subject matter, including discussion of the leading environmental WTO cases, and multilateral environmental agreements and the role of public participation in trade law. Students in this course will also undertake a survey of critical contexts including energy and climate change, environmental taxes as an alternative to traditional ' command and control' environmental regulation, land use and conservation, and environmental insurance.
POL 545 Chinese Film and Culture
Prerequisite: HIS 103 & HIS 104
This course has two main objectives: to introduce students to film theory and writing about film; to help students navigate Chinese history and culture through their various film representations in different genres and periods. Globalization will be a special topic in this class, as well as public spectacles (in China) like the Olympics ceremonies.
POL 553 Global Migration
Prerequisite: none.
This course approaches migration from an interdisciplinary perspective, by discussioning the major theories of migration and their limitations. We will try to understand the variability of motives in order to explain different strategies adopted by immigrants to settle down in the host country. The most widespread course - economic necessity and political sanctuary - will be discussed at length. The issue of human rights in the context of asylum seekers and war refugees will be of special interest. We look at immigration policies and law in the United States, the European Union, and the Czech Republic, with a focus on the individual and social consequences of illegal immigration. In this context we will look at methodologies of monitoring illegal immigration and controversies about the legalization or amnesty for these individuals. This course is aimed to provide students with the solid general overview of trends and issues related to people's mobility across national borders. It should also enhance students' interest in themes like minority rights, multiculturalism, or globalization.
POL 580 International Political Economy
Prerequisite: none.
This is a master’s level course designed for students who have had prior courses in social science. The course will explore political economy from a theoretical and empirical perspective. It will examine substantive elements and their mixture with process dynamics. Emphasis will be directed toward macro and micro impacts. The focus will be on domestic political economy particularly as it affects public policy. Significant interest will be directed toward questions arising from market failure, state failure, transition economies, externalities, inequality, social safety nets, quality of life, labor markets and various market models.
POL 601 Public Administration
Prerequisite: none.
The course addresses the interactive effects of public administration models, law and political systems. It reviews the principles of public administration and its linkage to law. It reviews legal concepts that apply to public administration, particularly as they apply to post-Soviet countries. It will examine and analyze causation factors and probable outcomes as they are pertinent to public administration.
POL 604 Comparative European Public Policies
Prerequisite: POL 102
This course examines the interaction of European and multilevel influences such the European Union and World Trade Organization upon independent states, particularly the EU members. Individual European states are directly or indirectly (non-EU members) influenced by coordinative effects of regional and supranational decisions impacting state law, norms and public policies. Integrative mechanisms affect state policies of protection, individual choice, as well as expansion and cross border activity. Harmonizing pressures challenge state individuality particularly those that resound strongly with domestic voting populations. Individual states have responded idiosyncratically particularly in view of emigration and immigration as demographic pressures intersect state labor markets and socioeconomic structures.
POL 605 Comparative Political Systems and Strategic Governance
Prerequisite: none.
Course examines governance through the lens of comparative political systems. It focuses on public policy questions as they are conceived, debated and resolved by political systems. Political systems act as the primary source of discussion and debate attempting to reconcile opposing interests in furtherance of a collective or general will. The course examines numerous societal ills exemplified by demands for public services vs. competition processes in a globalized world; national vs. local, regional and supranational agendas; interaction of state, market and civic capacities, to address pathologies such as corruption, clientelism, organized crime; poverty; exclusion vs. inclusion; unemployment; hierarchic traditions of administration vs. information and communication networks and technologies. Strategies will be evaluated such as collective/collaboration; unified economic, political and civic engagement; knowledge construction; networking; increasing social capital; competition tempered by equity, dignity, respect and care for the individual; equal opportunity; resolution of scientific, technological and traditional values; and sustainable development.
PSY 581 Psychology of Leadership
This course aims to broaden the approach to leadership in organizations, disciplines and cultures, connecting fields that may seem unrelated. This includes leadership variations across cultures and their impact on the personal, the political and the organizational. New attitudes, research, thinking patterns and behavior will be analyzed in the course through current motivational trends and cross-cultural communication. This includes motivating, inspiring and guiding groups and people; initiating or managing change; and intrapersonal intelligence and competence. International dimensions found in cross-cultural psychology studies will be adapted and discussed as it relates to leadership.
This class is an upper-level elective for PS and HSC majors, and open to all other majors as an elective.
SOC 473 Modern Social Theories: Love, Sexuality and Society
This seminar will be a survey of modern social theories. After a brief introduction to 19th and early 20th century social theories, the thought of the following key social theorists will be considered: Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Pierre Bourdieu, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Anthony Elliott, Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, and Niklas Luhmann. To facilitate this exploration, a single theme will be examined through the works of all these theorists: love, sexuality, and society.
SOC 551 Anthropological Knowledge and Modern Civilization
Prerequisite: SOC 280
This course will be focused on the introduction and application of modern anthropological knowledge and the dominant themes for understanding some fundamental problems and challenges in contemporary society including international relations, the emergence of the world-system, urbanization and modernization, modern political culture, class of civilizations, economical and social development and multiculturalism.
SOC 581 Sociology of the Family
Prerequisite: none.
This course examines one of the most important social institutions in our society, the family - a basic unit of society.
The main goal of this course is to introduce students to the basic understanding of the institution of family and marriage, its historical development and the internal dynamics of family life from a sociological perspective.
It’s a study of social and cultural foundations of family, its historical development, changing structures and functions and the interaction of marriage & parenthood.
Course will cover an overview of social theories in the field of family study; relationships within the family; marital roles; mate selection; parent-child relations; family patterns in various cultures; family dissolution and reorganization; the interplay between family and society across time and cultures.
The course aims to enable students to understand and deal with different life situations and new challenges that are shaping the family and marriage issues in the contemporary society.
SOC 582 Employment, Pensions, Health Care and Welfare
Prerequisite: none.
Aim of this course will be to take a holistic approach with emphases on the connections between different aspects of people's lives, in terms of the effects of income and material circumstances on health and social well-being.
It will examine the fuller understanding of these connections in an individual‘s life.
Ageing being an area of increasing policy concern, stimulated by recognition of the growth in the older population, focus of the course will be on areas such as the projected costs of pensions and health care, changing patterns of consumer behavior in later life and the opportunities afforded by increased leisure.
Focus will to consolidate and extend sociological understanding of the way employment interacts with pension, health care and welfare systems and how this relationship is changing, with an aim to improve understanding of the differing and changing implications of ageing, family roles and generation, according to gender and class.
SOC 584 Sociology of Intercultural Communication
Prerequisite: none.
The study, from an interdisciplinary perspective, of interaction of people from different cultures with a focus on the interaction of two or more cultures and addresses the main question of what happens when two or more cultures interact (at the interpersonal level, group or international level). Socio-cultural institutions in selected societies are compared using the dominant theoretical orientations as a focus.