Overview
The Sociology of War & Armed Conflict is a three-credit, senior-level course. The focus of this course is the study of war as a social process involving social institutions, social structures, and the socially learned behaviour of individual social actors. By adopting and adapting concepts, theoretical perspectives, and research methods already successfully employed in other branches of sociological research—such as crime, deviance, stratification, demography, and ethnic and race relations, the sociology of war offers new opportunities to study those aspects of warfare and organized violence that have previously been neglected and overlooked in earlier historical, biological, anthropological, military, or geopolitical studies.
Outline
Sociology of War and Armed Conflict is organized around several broad criteria and comprises the ten units as outlined below:
- Unit 1 Studying War
- Unit 2 Theories of War
- Unit 3 Sociology of War
- Unit 4 Pre-Modern War
- Unit 5 Modern War
- Unit 6 Women in War
- Unit 7 The Media and War
- Unit 8 Civilians in War
- Unit 9 Humanitarian Military Interventions
- Unit 10 Rehumanizing the Enemy
Evaluation
To receive credit for SOCI 339, will be based on the grades you achieve on three written assignments, an on-line test, and a final examination. The weighting of each assignment, the mid-course test, and the exam are indicated in the chart below.
| Activity | Weight |
| 3 Written Assignments (20% each) | 60% |
| On-Line Quizzes | 10% |
| Final Exam | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Each of the three written exercises for credit is worth 20 per cent of your grade, for a total of 60 per cent. The on-line test is worth 10 per cent, and the remaining 30 per cent is determined by the final examination.
To receive credit for the course, you must obtain a grade of 60 per cent or better on the final exam and an overall course grade of at least 60 per cent. Should you obtain less than the required grade on the final exam, you may write a supplemental final exam. A passing grade of 60 per cent is also required for the supplemental exam.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Streaming Video, Restrepo, National Geographic
Physical course materials
The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:
The Sociology of War and Violence by Siniša Malešević, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
War: The New Edition, by Gwynne Dyer, Vintage Canada, 2016 (2nd revised edition).
War by Sebastian Junger, Harper, 2010.
Challenge for credit
Overview
The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.
Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.
Evaluation
To receive credit for the SOCI 339 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least C- (60 percent) on the challenge examination. The two parts of the exam must be written on the same day.
Challenge for credit course registration form