University of the Free State UFS Department of Sociology

It is our mission to strive towards quality teaching in our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, which incorporate a sociological approach. Knowledge of sociology can help us to:

• Recover our own immediate past and also to look to the future.
• Appreciate diversity of human existence in society.
• Deal with current societal problems.
• Strive for the creation of a better society for all.

The different sociological courses deal with the major components of societies, namely family, religion, education, politics, gender, population, and economics, as well as with social processes such as deviance, health, social transformation, developmental, and environmental issues.

Areas of study

The department offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses:

• General sociology
• Sociology of consumerism and consumption
• The sociology of population and the environment
• Industrial sociology
• Sociological theory
• Sociology of the family
• Research methodology

At postgraduate level there are coursework programmes on offer at honours level:

• The sociology of consumerism and consumption
• Population dynamics and environmental issues
• Research methodology
• Sociological theory