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Core modules:

Doing Social Research

This module introduces students to doing social research. Students will explore this through close engagement with the ways other academic projects (including those conducted by staff in the school) have been done as well as through trying out various approaches to doing social research themselves such as designing surveys, conducting observations and carrying out interviews. Students will gain familiarity with the process of doing social research, from designing research questions, and consideration of the approach taken, to the selection of methods, the implementation of ethical research in the field and the analysis and writing up of data.

20 credits

Social divisions and inequalities: causes, patterns and change

Sociologists are driven to understand how and why material and symbolic rewards are distributed unequally within and between social groups. In this module, you will explore how these inequalities arise from social divisions such as class, gender, and 'race' and ethnicity, and how they also interact to produce unequal outcomes.Ìý

Throughout your learning, you will critically evaluate sociological research that provides evidence of structured inequality in society, as well as contemporary representations of inequalities. In doing so, you will gain an understanding of the difference between common-sense and sociological perspectives of social divisions.Ìý This will support you in developing a sociological framework to critically assess how social divisions operate in the everyday, including in your own lives, and the constraints and opportunities that you and others encounter.

A series of lectures will provide scholarly evidence of and arguments relating to the causes of social divisions, the ways in which patterns of inequality manifest, and how these have changed and/or been challenged over time. Corresponding seminars will enable you to further develop your understanding of the ways in which social inequalities operate and manifest in social life, and how a different future can be imagined. This will deepen yourÌý knowledge, develop your sociological imagination, and sharpen your study, research and communication skills

20 credits

Introduction to Social Theory

This module aims to introduce you to major interventions and advances in social theory in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on a variety of crucial theories of social relations, conditions, and processes, such as social conflict, exchange, power, and resistance, among many others

The module seeks to guide you in becoming familiar with, and in understanding the meanings of, the concepts, ideas, and arguments central to those social theories.Ìý

Moreover, you will acquire and develop the skills necessary for researching, grasping, and communicating different theoretical conceptions of the social world. For this purpose, you will be supported in studying a selection of primary texts in social theory.

The module places emphasis on socio-theoretical innovations in explaining the problems and challenges posed by social reality as well as in imagining social change.

A series of lectures will provide expositions of the concepts, ideas, and arguments in the theoretical works at issue on the module. The corresponding series of seminars will support you and your fellow students in collaboratively deepening your knowledge and investigations of the theoretical substance and in sharpening your study and research skills.

20 credits

Theories of Society

This module aims for in-depth investigations of decisive advances in sociology's theoretical inquiry into social relations, conditions, and processes. You will receive guidance in interpreting key concepts and ideas in a range of different contributions to social theory and in analysing the configurations of those concepts and ideas.

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The module will support you in developing the skills to engage closely with complex primary socio-theoretical writings in order to understand, reconstruct, and articulate their essential logical steps and arguments. Moreover, the module seeks to encourage and facilitate critical assessments and discussions of the successes and limitations of different socio-theoretical works. It aims to foster a comparative perspective on the similarities and differences between the theories of society under inspection.

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The module will enable you to recognise social theory's potential to help make sense of persistent problems and challenges posed by social relations and conditions as well as to help envisage ways of addressing those problems and transforming the social world.

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A series of lectures will set out and scrutinises the conceptual configurations, inferences, and arguments presented in socio-theoretical writings. The corresponding series of seminars will provide an environment for you and your fellow students to collaborate in in-depth interpretations, analyses, and critical discussions of the course content and in honing your skills to reconstruct and compare a variety of socio-theoretical arguments

20 credits

Understanding and challenging inequality: Sociological and policy debate

Social inequalities and social divisions are fundamental challenges and complex problems in modern societies. This module aims to develop your understanding of societal inequalities and divisions, and of societal debates and actions to challenge and transform societal discourses, relations and structures that underpin social inequalities and divisions. Drawing on multidisciplinary sociological and social policy perspectives and debates, the module will develop your understanding of the complexity of contemporary inequalities and divisions, and the range of political and collective actions required and pursued to address these. You will engage with theoretical, research and policy perspectives about the ways in which the distribution of resources, status, opportunities and life chances in society is associated with economic, social, political and cultural dimensions of inequality and division. You will learn about the ways in which collective actions, transformative social policies and societal activism seek to challenge these dimensions of inequality and division.Ìý

Three key themes will guide your module learning: inequality, justice and injustice; inclusion and exclusion; and local and global relationships. Engaging with these themes, the module will explore a range of sociological, political and social policy issues with module delivery tailored each year to the School's/Department's research expertise providing students with cutting edge learning based on the module team's specialist and current research and policy fields. Each year the module will explore several substantive topics and issues including, for instance, social welfare and social justice; childhood, family life, care and intergenerational relations; migration and transnational relations; crime and criminalisation; the digital world and risks; and decolonisation and neo-colonialism. The module builds on the Semester 1 Part 1 Social Inequalities and Division module to develop students' understandings of the causes, nature and extent of inequalities and divisions in contemporary society; and debates and actions concerned to promote equality, justice and inclusion.

20 credits

Optional modules include:

Sociology of hope, community and social justice

This module aims to introduce and develop students' understanding of the concepts of hope, community and social justice and their related theoretical contexts, challenges and debates.Ìý

Drawing on multidisciplinary sociological and social policy perspectives and debates, the module will develop students' knowledge and critical understanding of the concepts of hope, community and social justice and the range of historical and contemporary political and collective actions that have been shaped by transformative approaches and/or pursued these 'better world' ambitions.Ìý

The module will adopt a thematic approach to facilitate students' understanding of what hope, community and social justice mean and how these have been defined as well as ensuring students have familiarity and confidence in navigating the theoretical approaches, empirical studies and substantive 'real world' case studies/topic areas associated with these thematic categories.

20 credits

British Politics

You will be introduced to the key concepts and debates that have shaped British politics with an emphasis on history, institutions and culture.

Each lecture will focus on a specific element of British politics, with subsequent and linked seminars providing an opportunity to deepen this knowledge by looking at critical case studies or official reviews.

This module provides key employability skills and practice based knowledge through a focus on the theory and practice of political decision-making processes and the challenges of implementing policy.

20 credits

The World's Wicked Problems

The World's Wicked Problems serves as an introduction to International Relations as a discipline.Ìý

Throughout this module you will engage in key international relations concepts and discussions, including migration, climate change, poverty and global inequalities, sexual violence and armed conflict.

As an introductory module, you have the opportunity to develop the tools needed to understand, analyse and reflect on in-depth theoretical and empirical international relations which shall continue to support you throughout your degree.

20 credits

Gender Politics

This module aims to interrogate the role of gender and sex in shaping world politics. To do this, it asks how notions of masculinity and femininity shape our institutions, how gender might influence the political problems we prioritise and whose voices are taken seriously in developing responses to these problems.Ìý

Students will answer these questions through the study of the politicisation of sex, the relationship between gender and violence, how current practices of gender are shaped by colonialism and a range of other timely topics that shape the world today.Ìý

The module will allow students to develop an understanding of different approaches to gender, be introduced to key concepts from feminism and queer theory, learn to apply these ideas practically to a set of case studies and debate what the future of gender is in world politics.Ìý

20 credits