Programme: MSocSci Industrial Sociology and Labour Studies (Coursework)

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Code Faculty Department
01253030 Faculty of Humanities Department: Sociology
Credits Duration NQF level
Minimum duration of study: 2 years Total credits: 180 NQF level:  09

Admission requirements

  • An honours degree in Sociology, Industrial Sociology or a directly related social science is required.
  • An average of at least 70% for this degree is required.

Additional requirements

  • SOC 751 and SOC 756 or similar modules in research methodology and theory are required.
  • Prospective students may be required to submit an admissions essay or to sit for an examination or to do additional modules to enable them to reach the desired level of study.
  • An acceptable level of proficiency in English or Afrikaans is required.
  • Students with an average between 68% and 70% could be considered for admission under special conditions. Apply to the programme manager.

Other programme-specific information

  • Choose either SOC 830 or SOC 862 as core modules.
  • Choose one elective module.
  • SOC 830 and SOC 862 can only be chosen as an elective when not already selected as a core module.
  • Not all modules are offered in any given year. Contact the programme manager in this regard.

Core modules
SOC 812  Advanced research methodology

Select One of the following:
SOC 830  Conflict management in the workplace

SOC 862  Sociology of work and organisations

Elective modules
Select One of the following:
SOC 830  Conflict management in the workplace**

SOC 862  Sociology of work and organisations**

SOC 857  Globalisation and development
SOC 858  The sociology of South Africa
SOC 859  Identity, culture and society
SOC 860  Civil society and the state

**If not already selected as a core module.

Core modules

  • Module content:

    This module aims to build upon students’ prior training (at honours level) in research methods to interrogate the methodological and epistemological debates of social science research. The module provides students with a deep understanding of research concepts, ethics, and approaches as well as the key elements of the research process within qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.  During the semester students will develop the skills and background knowledge needed to plan, organise and disseminate their own sound research projects. Assessments will include tasks linked to the seminars as well as an exam.

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  • Module content:

    This module focuses on reviewing and interrogating sociological theories of and explanations for conflict in the workplace, with specific emphasis on issues such as strike violence.

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  • Module content:

    The module will allow students to engage with the theoretical framework/s and concepts of the sociology of organisations. Themes that will be covered include the changing nature of organisations, how the latter has been structured by different forms of capitalist accumulation and labour processes, changing organisational forms, organisational cultures, gender, power, conflict and leadership.

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Elective modules

  • Module content:

    This module examines theoretical explanations of globalisation. In doing so its primary goal is to explore ways in which capital in the era of the end of history is compelling us to rethink sociology as a science of the present. The module begins with theoretical discussions in order to lay the ground for talk about development as a process of incorporating (in this case) Africa into the global world system. The module further studies changes brought about by globalisation to the nation-state system, work and gender relations. It also examines nationalism and ethnicity as specific features of capitalism in the era of the end of history. 

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  • Module content:

    This module takes a sociological approach to understanding and interrogating South African society. It begins by looking at some of the debates and discussions about Sociology in South Africa. It then reviews and debates key issues in order to understand the political economy of Apartheid. Finally it looks at some key debates associated with post-apartheid South Africa.

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  • Module content:

    This module focuses on the relationship between the personal and social and how these two domains are intricately related, simultaneously implying sameness and difference in the process of identification. It considers how societal structures and institutions shape and construct identities historically, whilst being shaped by individual agency, in turn. Human experience reveals a range of cross-cutting affiliations, based on ethnicity, race, religion, gender, sexuality and generation, amongst others, implying a multiplicity in belonging, suggesting a relational process, rather than an essence. The social, contingent and constructed nature of identities is highlighted against experiences of dislocation within a context of globalisation.

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  • Module content:

    This module explores critical perspectives and current debates on world order and global development. Specifically, it focuses on the rise of emerging powers in the global South in general and Asia in particular and what this entails for the politics and political economy of global development. Central issues explored in the module are inequality, precarity, multipolarity, authoritarian/right-wing populism, poverty, work and working classes in middle-income countries, neo liberalization, and hegemonic transitions in the world system.

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Core modules
SOC 812  Advanced research methodology

Select One of the following:
SOC 830  Conflict management in the workplace

SOC 862  Sociology of work and organisations
SOC 857  Globalisation and development

Elective modules
Select One of the following:
SOC 830  Conflict management in the workplace**

SOC 862  Sociology of work and organisations**

SOC 857  Globalisation and development
SOC 858  The sociology of South Africa
SOC 859  Identity, culture and society
SOC 860  Civil society and the state
 

**If not already selected as a core module.

Core modules


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The faculty regulations, information on and requirements for the degrees published here are subject to change and may be amended after the publication of this information.

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