Objective of the course is to introduce into the theoretical, empirical, and methodical basics of social-structural developments of modern societies. The ideational and cultural background, concepts, phenomena, causes and reproduction mechanisms of social inequality in historical and international comparative perspective will be treated. The lecture is application-oriented.

Objection of the course is to introduce into basic aspects and trends of modern societies from a sociological viewpoint. Concepts will be embedded into their historical context and illustrated problem-oriented (e.g. social structure, cultural change, inequality, segregation). Furthermore, the particularities of different theories (e.g. functionalism, system theory, rational choice) will be treated