Sociology BA

You will undertake an extended piece of investigative and synthesising work on a subject of particular interest and produce a final written dissertation of 8000 words.

This will:

• provide practice in researching a topic independently and in depth
• involve use of a range of primary and/or secondary information sources
• create coherent and sustained analysis and argument in both writing and speech.

This module examines how public policy is made within government. It provides a critical understanding of how policy is formulated, implemented and evaluated.

The module focuses on key phases of the policy process, from agenda-setting to policy impact. The module provides an applied understanding of policy analysis by examining relevant case studies (for example, child abuse, ageing population).

This module will explore the contemporary developments and debates in the provision and delivery of welfare services. It will examine theories of welfare, the funding of the welfare state and key changes in welfare policies, such as the increasing focus on markets and consumer choice, partnerships, the personalisation of service delivery, and the increasing role of the not-for-profit sector in service delivery.

This module will cover the following broad themes:

• State crime, corporate crime, state-corporate crime, harm, green crime
• State-facilitated and state-initiated corporate crime
• Capitalism, neoliberalism, austerity and indifference
• Crimes of commission and omission
• Command and control regulation vs. business self-regulation

This module serves as an introduction to the study of new religious movements (NRMs)—including groups sometimes referred to as ‘cults’—and the theoretical concepts used to understand them. A particular focus will be on the varying degrees of tension that might exist between such groups and their broader social environments, as well as how they are conceived, both in academia and in the media. It will also consider how issues discussed more broadly in sociology—such as deviance, authority, violence, modernity, and group dynamics—bear on our understanding of NRMs.  

Each week we will focus on different NRMs, and how they relate to particular themes. Lectures will cover topics such as religious innovation, group membership, and how NRMs are led and organised. Our coverage of NRMs will be motivated by questions such as what members believe, how they were formed, and what their histories have been. Seminars will give you the opportunity to explore each week's topic in more detail.

This module introduces you to the criminological study of cyber crime. It draws on key literature and current research to consider the ways in which new and emerging forms of digital media and information and communication technologies provide opportunities for a variety of deviant and criminal behaviours. The module will typically cover the following broad themes:

• Criminological definitions and theories of cyber crime
• Case studies of types of cyber crime, including, for example: fraud, identify theft, hacking, revenge porn, sexting, online harassment, trolling and cyberstalking
• Victims’ experiences of cyber crime
• Why individuals commit certain types of cyber crime
• Cyber crime in a global world
• The policing, surveillance and regulation of cyber crime
• The implication of the ‘internet of things’ for privacy and security

This module seeks to connect the historical and more contemporary debates in education to a critical understanding of society. The main focus is through a discussion of sociological, philosophical and policy based issues to explore the purpose of education in a modern globalised world. This however only becomes possible if we question more neutral and instrumental approaches to education and seek to more explicitly explore its connection to more normative values and concerns.

In this respect, the module will seek to connect ideas in education to a diversity of ways of conceiving of citizenship now and within the past. Most of the module is informed by European, North and South American traditions within sociology although it will also draw on examples and ideas from elsewhere.

Using different genres of film, this module examines contemporary theoretical and empirical debates in relation to a host of issues closely associated with the production and contestation of identity, culture, and everyday life, by underpinning the central theoretical theme of cultural production, consumption, and practices.

The module will illustrate the problematics of culture through the sociological exploration of social condition; identity; consumerism; consumption; consumer culture; slavery; choice; voluntary simplicity; intimacy; body; embodiment; sexual culture; desire; sexuality; bisexuality; transgenderism; dress; fashion; multiculturalism; human rights; and social inclusion/exclusion.

Introducing feminist approaches to social policy, this module considers how social policy and the development of the welfare state have been underpinned by ideas around gender difference and the structure and responsibilities of the family.

We will examine feminist perspectives on welfare, considering how policy might reflect and perpetuate the gendered division of labour in the family and society more broadly. For example, we will examine whether the 'male breadwinner' model has been replaced by a policy commitment to gender equality.

The module will thus examine how social policy excludes or incorporates women at the intersection of the public/private divide, problematising the terms 'justice', 'citizenship' and 'inequality' in relation to gender. Throughout, we will also consider how gender intersects with other axes of difference and inequality, such as 'race' and class.

This module examines key issues and concepts connected to the movement and settlement of people in Europe and beyond. Informed by a transnational studies perspective, the module considers migration debates and practices in a critical, comparative and historically informed manner.

The first part of the module explores the political, social and economic factors that cause people to move in an increasingly interconnected world. The second part of the module is dedicated to the examination of the different theories of integration and settlement and processes of inclusion and exclusion.

The key issues and concepts addressed will include those of transnationalism and diaspora; gender and intersectionality; transnational families and global care chains; multiculturalism, integration and assimilation; identity, home and belonging.

This module examines the intersection of three key concepts in contemporary sociology - ethnicity, 'race', and colonial modernity. It particularly considers:

• existing sociological theories of everyday life concerning its political relevance and historical specificity, as well as methodological issues as to how 'the everyday' has been researched
• sociological models of ethnicity and 'race', the construction of ethnic boundaries and identities, the relationship between 'culture' and 'ethnicity', and its relevance in the contemporary world
• a series of empirical case studies illustrating the experience and complexities of ethnic and racial identities in the realm of everyday life

Criminologists are beginning to recognise how knowledge about crime and criminal justice tends to have been produced in and for the countries of the Global North, and Western Europe and North America in particular.   

This module looks at new southern and decolonial perspectives in criminology that question the dominance of this knowledge and its application in the Global South (broadly speaking the continents of Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Oceania).  It examines southern and decolonial theories, what they have to say, how they relate to each other, and how they can help us to understand crime problems, and criminal justice institutions, policies and practices not just in the Global South but in the North as well.   

It does this by examining case studies drawn from the Global South, case studies that may involve crime problems like genocide, human trafficking and urban violence, and justice practices that involve the transfer of policies from North to South, such as community policing, or result in the over-representation of indigenous people in prison.  A central theme that runs through the module is the idea that criminology can be seen as a form of 'imperial reason' closely associated with colonialism, and that colonialism itself continues to have a profound impact on how we experience and know about the contemporary world.

In this module you will undertake a piece of empirical survey research. In small groups you will design questions for use in a questionnaire. As a class we will decide on the topic(s) which the survey will ask about, and each group will design questions on any social science-related subject that interests you. You will need to design and test draft survey questions on each other in the class using insights from the literature on cognitive interviewing.  

The lectures will teach you knowledge about developing a questionnaire, and about the design procedures that need to be followed in undertaking such work. The classes will involve some revision of how to set up and analyse a data set but will also be devoted to developing and analysing your questionnaires. 

This module will chart the evolution of the social construction of the victim and presence in criminal justice policy by examining the historical, theoretical and research material in victimology. The module will cover the following broad themes:

• Theoretical underpinnings of ‘victimology’
• The victim’s movement
• Key issues and debates in the field of victimology
• Various approaches to responding to victim needs by both governmental and non-governmental organisations

This module places an in-depth focus on the study of war, state violence and crimes against humanity. The focus is to explore explanations of current and historical examples of war, drawing on a range of criminological, philosophical and zemiological (harm) theories.  

Module content will introduce you to key theorists, such as Hannah Arendt, Zygmunt Bauman, Stanley Cohen, and Judith Butler. The module places a specific focus on injustices faced by the Global South, aiming to provide you with the tools to identify and understand colonial systems, structures, and relationships – both within the module and beyond.  

Key debates will include how the violence of war and atrocity are made possible; how war intersects with issues of ‘race’, class, and gender; and what reconciliation efforts of ‘truth’ and justice might involve after events of mass suffering. The module will also introduce emerging debates on the impact of delivering such violence for state agents (eg soldiers).