Sociology: a discipline that helps you navigate your life through changes and uncertainties of the 21st century
In a webinar organised by SSPS in collaboration with education consultancy Evergreen, Professor Lui Tai-lok, centre, and Professor Stephen Chiu Wing-kai, right, share their views about how undergraduate sociology education should be carried out to face various challenges of the 21st century. Ms Wang Jing, CEO of Evergreen hosts the webinar.
Starting from the 2024/25 academic year, eight public universities of Hong Kong can admit up to 40% non-local students in their first-year undergraduate openings. With this change, FLASS takes the initiative to reach out to prospective non-local students, especially those from the mainland and countries of the Belt and Road Initiative, to provide information about our courses as well as admission advice and support.
On 26 February 2024, Professor Lui Tai-lok, Director of The Academy of Hong Kong Studies, and Professor Stephen Chiu Wing-kai, Chair Professor of Sociology and Associate Programme Leader of Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Sociology and Community Studies (BSocSc(SCS)), gave an online sharing about their views on how undergraduate sociology education should be carried out in face of various challenges of the 21st century. The webinar on WeChat was organised by the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS), in collaboration with the Hong Kong-based education consultancy Evergreen (港隽). The consultancy provides mainland students with information regarding enrolling in various courses and programmes offered by universities in Hong Kong.
Professor Lui says the rapid developments of the 21st century have engendered much anxiety among humankind.
Professor Lui said the rapid developments of the 21st century have engendered much anxiety among humankind. This includes people’s fear of their role in the workplace being replaced by AI. While it is without a doubt that the rise of social media platforms has resulted in easier communications, Professor Lui reminded that sociologists have warned the public about the drawbacks associated with the rise. “The obsessive use of social media will increase people’s feeling of loneliness and make our society even more atomised and individualised instead of creating more intimate relationships,” he said.
Rapid developments in science and technology also mean that people from different generations are set to grow up in hugely different environment. They are using different communications tools, enjoying different forms of entertainment, having different expectations about career development, living in different perceptions of time and space. And as the cycle of trends becomes shorter, changes in choices, habits and lifestyles across different generations become faster and faster. Professor Lui said that under these situations, personal experiences for people growing up in different generations will become tremendously different which might cause even more communications barriers among different generations.
Professor Lui highlights that today’s sociology curriculum should provide students with opportunities to observe how people act, react and interact in real-life situations.
In the new era of social development, Professor Lui still believes sociology can help people to face the whirlwind of changes. He said sociology education needs to revisit its roots and enlighten our students as to why it is required to understand other people’s lives. Sociology should also cultivate our ability to reflect and evoke our empathy. In addition, the sociology curriculum should provide students with opportunities to learn in real-life activities, and to observe how people act, react and interact in real situations.
Sociology teaches us how to become a person of self-navigation.
“In today’s world, university education is a starting point rather than an endpoint of our lives. Humankind has entered an age of instability and uncertainty. In such a time where uncertainty is the only certainty, people have an even stronger need to find their direction. Sociology teaches us how to become a person of self-navigation: how to navigate ourselves through changes and uncertainties, and to know the destination we are heading to,” Professor Lui said.
In the second part of the webinar broadcast on WeChat, Professor Stephen Chiu Wing-kai updated the online audience on the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honour) in Sociology and Community Studies (BSocSc(SCS)) offered by SSPS. “Sociology knowledge helps people understand communities as it offers comprehensive analysis on the social dynamics and structures at play in a community. Sociology gives us a deeper understanding of community developments through the analysis of the social, cultural, economic, and political factors behind the developments,” the professor in sociology said.
He briefed the online audience that the BSocSc(SCS) programme is designed for senior-year admission where students are admitted as a third-year student to the programme. The two-year programme not only teaches students sociological concepts that are useful to community studies, but also various useful tools for conducting sociological research including qualitative and quantitative research methods. “Students are required to take up around 200 hours of internship. It provides a unique opportunity for our students to understand real-world work situations and how to apply their sociological knowledge in these situations,” the professor said.
Students who choose working on a capstone project as their final-year project need to design a community-based service learning programme. Professor Chiu says community provides an ideal experiential learning environment for them.
Professor Chiu said one of the main attractions of the BSocSc(SCS) programme is its active support for students to pursue and complete a capstone project. “Students who choose the capstone project as their final-year undertaking need to use their sociological knowledge to design a community-based service learning programme. The community provides an ideal experiential learning environment. By conducting a practical project in a communal context, students gain hands-on experience about how to apply sociological knowledge they learnt from classroom in real-world scenarios. The project also trains up their problem-solving skills as well,” Professor Chiu said.
Academic mentors will help them to develop their research skills and interests, build network, and apply funding.
Academic mentor system was another feature of the programme that Professor Chiu introduced to the audience. “Each student is assigned with an academic mentor. Mentors will spend time with their students to understand their strengths, character, and interests. With these in mind, mentors will help them to develop their research skills and interests, build network, and apply funding. Mentors may even invite students who exhibit a strong interest in particular field to co-write and co-publish papers,” Professor Chiu said, supplementing that mentors play a crucial role in helping their mentees to develop their academic goal as well as their career plans.
“Ms Joyce Chin Yuet-shan is one of my BSocSc(SCS) students. She wants to become a humanities teacher. After knowing her for some time, I discovered that she has her own ideas about how the design of a curriculum can affect whether a student can learn happily and effectively. When a local newspaper invited me and another SSPS scholar to write an article about interdisciplinary teaching and learning in local primary schools, I immediately thought of inviting Joyce to join the writing team. On the team, Joyce was responsible for the collection real-life cases, local and overseas, in which different models of interdisciplinary teaching are used,” Professor Chiu said, adding that the team co-published the article “跨課程學習在香港小學：走得多了也成了路” in the forum section of the Ming Pao Daily.
Joyce also led her classmates to design and execute a community-based exploration project where primary school students in Queen’s Hill learnt about the Lung Yeuk Tau Heritage Trail. Joyce and her group mates from the BSocSc(SCS) programme also taught the primary schoolers how to present the results of their learning through an exhibition. “Lung Yuet Tau Community Connection Project provides deep learning opportunities for our students to understand how sociological knowledge can help people understand a community, including the dynamics between different players on a community level. It is also an example of what experiential learning means,” Professor Chiu remarked.
Sociology is for those who are curious about the human world.
Professor Lui said sociology is for those who are curious about the human world. “If you are a person who enjoys discovering the differences between the places you are travelling to and your home city, and if you are sensitive about observing the differences in their governing systems, practices, and customs among different travel destinations, you are suitable for studying sociology,” he said. Professor Chiu remarked that sociology is open to different kinds of students. “You can study sociology at home. You can also learn sociology through observing the outside world. But there is a common thread between different types of sociology learners: the genuine interest in reading books and materials of all kinds, discovering problems and finding a solution that can transform the world into a better place,” Professor Chiu added.
Please click the following link to understand more about the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Sociology and Community Studies programme:
