This course aims to help students develop their theoretical knowledge and analytical thinking on the debates on modernity and alternative modernities in understanding the nature of modern society and modernization process.

The topics include classical sociological theories on the nature of modern society and modernization, rise of capitalism, nation state and bourgeois culture reading through Marx, Weber and Durkheim, debates on underdevelopment, and development in non-Western Societies, critiques of Euro-centric theories of modernity and the recent debates on multiple modernities.