Sociology 131 - How Data Shapes Social World

This course gives students a basic introduction to sociological concepts and the way in which they can be studied using data analytic methods. It introduces students to basic data analytic coding. This will focus on one form of analysis (most likely text analysis), but the course aims to give students a reading familiarity with other forms of data analysis. Along with traditional sociological concepts like structure vs. agency and stratification, this course will introduce students to the idea that numbers, data, statistics, and their graphical representations are not necessarily neutral arbiters of truth, but rather important parts of the social construction of how we understand the world.