Sociology

This challenging programme explores the relationships between people and the institutions they create to help them organise their lives. Sociologists are increasingly sought out in both the public and private sectors for their skills in information gathering and analysis.

First Year

You are introduced to the subject through modules such as:

• Sociology: From the Personal to the Global
• Theory I: The Sociological Tradition
• Sociology and Everyday Life
• Politics and Policy

Second Year

You further develop your skills as a sociologist through core modules in sociological theory and methods, plus modules exploring contemporary urban life and self-identity. You also have the option of taking modules from related programmes, such as Childhood and Society, and Human Rights.

Third Year

There are opportunities for independent study and placements in voluntary organisations. You also choose from optional modules such as Understanding Globalisation, and Sociology of Death.

Sample modules:

• Sociology and Everyday Life
• Sociology of Power and Politics
• Food and Society
• Sociology of Health and Illness

Teaching methods

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Group workshops

Assessment methods

• Examinations
• Essays
• Planning small-scale research projects
• Gathering source material

Each assessment method relates directly to the work you have been doing in the various modules and also helps develop many skills useful for employment.

Objectives

This programme aims to:

• Introduce students to the study of Sociology as a discipline, through an engagement with its theoretical and methodological underpinnings and its applications to a range of social phenomena.
• Familiarise students with the history of Sociology as a discipline, with its key contributors and with the diverse range of theoretical and methodological literature that forms part of that history.
• Activate in students their own sociological imagination, such that they are confident in their ability to do Sociology as well as learn about it.
• Develop in students an effective ability to interpret, debate, discuss and critique situations and events in the world around them, and to support their interpretations through written and oral work.
• Develop in students an ability to engage reflexively with their own interests and biographies, to locate these interests and biographies within broader social, historical and spatial processes and institutions, and to recognise the interplay between their lives inside and outside of academia.