Bulletin Number Two 1985

Departmental Profile Department of Sociology The Department of Sociology has its origin in the three smaller Departments of the Foundation Colleges. These smaller Departments were in existence before the establishment of the University and offered different programmes to students of their own College. Intercollegiate teaching was introduced in 1969 and complete integration of the Departments was implemented in March 1977. Before the Departments of Anthropology and Psychology became full-fledged Departments in 1979 and 1982 respectively, they were sections of the Sociology Department. Programmes of Studies The Department offers a major and a minor undergraduate programme and the courses are organized around six major areas: Social Problems, Collective Behaviour, Social Organization, Sociology of Development, Chinese Society ， and Applied Social Research. The MPhil programme, started in the early 1970s, requires the students to devote the first year to course work and the second to thesis writing. So far, about forty students have graduated from this Programme. The PhD programme, which is basically a research-oriented programme, was introduced in this academic year. In the undergraduate programme, there are currently about 230 major students and more than 320 minor and elective students. There is also a total of thirteen graduate students, twelve in the MPhil programme and one in the new PhD programme. Research Activities Staff of the Department have all along been very active in empirical research, previously under the Social Research Centre, and now under the Centre for Hong Kong Studies and the Centre for Contemporary Asian Studies. Most of the research is carried out along two different lines: one is on the study of various social phenomena in Hong Kong; the other on the study of traditional and modem China, particularly her changing commune, urbanization and small town development. These research programmes have been financially supported by both local and foreign institutions including mainly the Lottery Fund of Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong Training Council ， The Asia Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Trustees of Lingnan University, International Development Research Centre, United Nations, and, of course, the University itself. Major projects completed include the following: (1) Kwun Tong Industrial Community Study (2) People of Kwun Tong Study (3) Hawker Study Programme (4) The Impact of Industrialization on Fertility in Hong Kong (5) Chinese and Western Medical Care Systems (6) Utilitarianistic Familism and Traditional Families (7) Corruption Study (8) Chinese Commune Study (9) Participatory Urban Services Delivery in Hong Kong (10) A Study of Adolescent Mentality in Hong Kong (11) Family Life Cycle and Community Life in Shatin On-going projects include: (1) The Uses of Television and Other Mass Media in Hong Kong (2) Peer Group Integration, Leisure, and l i f e Satisfaction of Secondary School Youths in Hong Kong (3) Modernization and Family Change in Hong Kong (4) Chinese Society Programme (5) Chinese Population Study Programme Career of the Graduates Since Sociology Department does not offer 12 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS