Sociology

Year 1

Sociology of Gender

Through case studies from the gender pay gap to the politics of Christmas, this module will transform how you see gender and its impact on the world. You’ll explore the origins of gender ideas and analyse their effects on areas of social life including: language; media and popular culture; science; work; family relationships; sexuality; violence; education; politics; and feminist movements.

While gender is the focus of this module, you’ll also consider how gender connects to other dimensions of social difference and inequality, such as sexuality, race, class or disability.

Researching Society and Culture

What is society and how do you study it? Is human behaviour governed by rules similar to the natural world that you can study objectively? Or do human beings consciously act upon their environment and change the world through creativity and intelligence, driven by their own understanding and motivations.

You will be introduced to the core ideas behind sociological research and the practical tools to undertake research yourself. As well as looking at some of the key qualitative methods (e.g. interviews, ethnography, discourse analysis), you’ll also examine the political, ethical and practical issues that social research inevitably entails.

Race and the Making of the Modern World

The Haitian Revolution (1804) was the first revolution by enslaved Africans asserting their rights for liberty, equality and political self-organisation against their European colonisers. But you may not have heard of it, even though it occurs around the same time as the French and American revolutions.

This module will raise tough questions about the global processes of dispossession, genocide, enslavement and appropriation. You’ll examine:

• the emergence and development of structures of race
• the sanctioned ignorance of these processes within the usual descriptions of the modern world
• how central race is to the organisation of the world today

Class and Capitalism in the Neoliberal World

Protest and anger characterise the contemporary era – young people taking part in militant politics, protest parties gaining more votes, and even NHS doctors taking to the streets.

In this module, we’ll explore the social consequences of the economic and political transformations associated with neoliberalism that have taken place in recent decades. We will ask why these changes might be responsible for the global rise in urban unrest and dissatisfaction.

Topics will include growing inequality and elite power, militant policing, consumerism, anxiety, debt, the destruction of industrial communities, class identity, the marketisation of education, and the diminishing spaces of public life.

History of Sociological Thought

What holds societies together? How do societies change? And how is politics in the conventional sense affected by factors such as class, status, ethnicity or religion, or the state of the economy? These are some of the questions that you will engage with when you consider the history of sociological thought. You will gain skills of research, analysis and debate by considering to what extent sociology may be considered a science and how the evolution of sociological thought has been shaped by events and the cultural, economic and political problems of the day.

Introduction to Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences 1

In the age of ever-increasing data availability which is paired with a growing sophistication of statistical techniques, the opportunities for social science research are vast. This module will give you an understanding of the basic elements of core descriptive and inferential statistics which will allow you not only to critically engage with quantitative findings in existing social science research, but also conduct quantitative analysis yourself. The module covers the topics of conceptualisation, operationalisation and measurement, as well as the principles of sampling and the basics of statistical inference.

Year 2

Designing and Conducting Social Research

This module will teach you the core concepts and practical skills to undertake qualitative social research in academic and professional settings. These include research design, ethnography, in-depth interviewing, documents and discourse. As well as practical skills, you’ll investigate how social research has changed in recent decades, considering:

• ethical questions when researching life online
• how (and whether you should) study Twitter
• effects of social media on social interactions
• how to engage diverse audiences

You'll also gain analytical skills to critically evaluate previous research, and develop your ability to collect and analyse data using a range of qualitative methods.

Modern Social Theory

This module will introduce you to the main thinkers and movements in critical social theory. Topics include Marxism, post-structuralism, class and culture. The changing conceptualisation of power and class is a focus throughout the module. This helps you to see how the different theoretical approaches relate to each other, and to historical and political events.

Practice and Interpretation of Quantitative Research

Quantitative methods can help you answer questions such as:

• Is income inequality in the UK growing?
• Does marriage improve health?
• Does growing up in a poor neighbourhood affect your life chances?

Analysing representative, large-scale social surveys is crucial for sociologists to understand social processes. This module will introduce you to quantitative methods and how to analyse large data sets using SPSS Statistics software. It will help you engage with published quantitative sociological research and to undertake your own basic quantitative data analysis.

Year 3

• Dissertation

Selection of optional modules that current students are studying:Sociology of Health and Medicine; Bodies, Property and Politics; Race and the Making of the Modern World; Punishment, Justice and Control; Educational Inequalities.