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 8,000 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 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. We will consider how issues discussed more broadly in sociology—such as deviance, authority, violence, modernity, and group dynamics—bear on our understanding of NRMs.

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.

A key focus of the module will be on how NRMs have been presented in the media. Seminars will give students the opportunity to explore each week's topic in more detail, along with how the various groups featuring in the module have been presented in documentaries. 

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.

In this module, you will learn about human trafficking. Over the semester, you will develop an understanding of human trafficking by exploring the different forms of trafficking as well as patterns and trends in trafficking internationally, with a focus on Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

You will examine topics ranging from the causes of trafficking, different methods used to prevent trafficking and popular understandings of this transnational crime. You will be introduced to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and explore some of the issues surrounding media representations of trafficking and rescue-based approaches as you learn to think critically about human trafficking.

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.

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.

The module’s goal is to invite students to make connections between what they learn in university and the places in which they live, work and study.  The module explores some of the defining issues of contemporary urban life in the UK today, with this further reinforced through the presence of external speakers who will give students an insight into the challenges of balancing goals and deliverability.

The module considers questions posed by urban theory and research of belonging, urban policy and politics, space and place, as well as methods for studying urban areas. The module will focus on areas including particular economies, histories, policy agendas, social networks, and urban imagery, which will be supplemented with key theoretical and research developments from around the world that have shaped contemporary urban life in the UK.

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).