The University of Toronto will offer one sociology course in Beijing, China, worth one full-year credit. This course has limited space and is contingent on adequate enrolment. Classes typically take place from Monday to Thursday mornings.
SOC393Y0 Selected Topics in Sociological Research: Contemporary Chinese Society
This course aims to enhance students’ understanding of Chinese politics, economy, and culture, and of the impacts of the market-oriented reforms on the lived experiences of Chinese people in China and elsewhere. With a combination of lectures, discussions, visits, and other learning activities, students will have the opportunity to learn various aspects of social, economic, and political changes in contemporary China, regarding such important issues as population, ethnicity, internal migration, stratification and inequality in education, health, employment and gender, family organization and formation, social networks, poverty, social welfare, sexuality and intimacy, and China’s future role in the new global context.
The focus of this course is to understand social change and development in contemporary Chinese society and global Chinese communities, particularly the roles of societal institutions and individual actions in social change, and how social change affects the nature of people’s lives. It will cover theoretical and methodological issues regarding state–society relations (state in society, state as society), structure and agency, context and behavior, and macro–micro linkages. We will examine how macro state policies (including market reforms, population policy, and democratic elections), mediated by societal institutions, influence individual behavior, and, on the other hand, how individual actions shape the characteristics of the society in which people live.
Prerequisites: None
Breadth requirement = 3.
2027 Course Syllabus (Tentative)
Field Trips
In addition to formal lectures, this course will also include: (tentative)
- Guest lecturers such as world-renowned scholars and local experts.
- Discussions on important topics with students from Capital University of Economics and Business
- A visit to the Great Wall of China
- A visit to Xiaomi or other companies
- A visit to Taikang Community or other senior home in Beijing
Instructors
Professor Weiguo Zhang is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto and is affiliated with the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and the Institute for Life Course and Aging. Dr. Zhang specializes in social demography, social gerontology, and the sociology of families. His work primarily focuses on social changes in China and the well-being of older Chinese immigrants in Canada. His research has covered a variety of topics including the Chinese "one child" policy and fertility, China's domestic adoption of children, the welfare of childless elderly, economic and political participation of women, marriage and family dynamics, and rural transformation in China. His current research investigates the effects of the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and migration status on intra-group dynamics and aging experiences of Chinese Canadians, the impacts of COVID-19 on Chinese communities, and anti-Asian racism in Canada. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. in Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1998.
Dr. A. Ka Tat Tsang, Ph.D. (Toronto) is a Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. His scholarship focuses on the development of a knowledge base for human services in the global context, through the active integration of theory, practice, and research. He teaches direct practice courses in the MSW program and courses on epistemology and social work research in the Ph.D. program. He has been actively promoting social work and the development of human service programs in China since the 1980s. He founded the Faculty's China Program in 1997 and has been the Director since. He is the founder of the SSLD (Strategies and Skills Learning Development) System which supports a wide range of human service applications in Canada and internationally. These applications cover personal, family, group, organizational, and community interventions.