Sociology

This module is designed to introduce students to the opportunities for working as a sociologist and continuing their sociological journey beyond university. The module assists students to identify their existing employability skills and develop a personal development plan to take with them through their university journey, with a view to becoming an in-demand graduate. Students will benefit from contributions from Careers staff and practitioners to understand the opportunities for employment in fields that use sociological knowledge and skills. By working individually and in groups, students will develop presentation, IT, and writing skills that will enable them to progress in their degree and intended careers.

This module explores the topic of social policy. It is a topic that is wide in scope, and you will become familiar with how significant it is to meeting our basic human needs (welfare/wellbeing).

As we progress through the module, you will learn about the welfare state along with some of the key areas of social policy.  We are going to cover areas such as: income maintenance, housing, and crime, justice and punishment.

In addition to developing your knowledge and understanding of important social-policy issues, you will learn how to work in a group effectively as well as becoming familiar with an innovative way of disseminating information that academics use at conferences – the poster presentation. At the end of the module, you will realise how social policies affect all of our lives.        

This module explores the nature of family membership and how this has changed over time. It will examine what families actually do, focusing on emotional intimacy, caring and economic exchange. We will look at the trends in marriage, cohabitation and divorce since the 1970s. You will explore the nature and extent of inequality within families. In addition, we will explore the dark side of the family, looking at domestic abuse, forced marriages and ‘honour’ killings.                       

This module introduces students to the discipline of sociology and outlines its core principles and approaches. It considers the dominant narrative of our subject, as the product of European Enlightenment rationalism, and reflects on what that story misses out and overlooks. Students will be introduced to conflict, functionalist, and expressionist theories and key elements of sociological thinking such as structure and agency, the public and the private, and the micro and the macro. In doing so they will develop their critical thinking skills. The sociological concern with power and its operations in society will be explored, and students will learn to evaluate the contributions of different traditions of sociological thought. Through a focus on learning to think sociologically, this module is designed to develop students’ academic skills of reading, researching, referencing and writing.

Health is an important aspect of an individual as well as a society as a whole. In this module, you will gain an insight into the concepts of health and illness, but also learn about the social aspects of health inequality.

Despite the advent of globalisation that has seen improvements in social and economic conditions, there is still an unequal pattern of ill health (including mental health) in the UK and across the globe. You will also examine the theoretical theories to help explain the existence of health inequality (artefact, natural and social selection, material/structural and cultural explanations) as well as how medicine constructs illness categories. In addition, you will become familiar with healthcare systems and issues to do with accessing them both in the UK and from a global perspective.

In this module, you will learn about a range of different sociological perspectives on the origins and development of consumption as a significant area of social and cultural life. You will learn about how consumption, fashion and culture are used in the production of social identities in relation to age, class, gender, race and sexuality, and in turn, how these social identities influence cultural practices of consumption and fashion. You will critically assess the degree of ‘free choice’ that consumerism offers individual men and women in their everyday lives, and learn to critically reflect on your own consumption practices.        

This module is designed to help you engage with concepts of identity, equality and diversity, which are terms often used within contemporary society. Using different settings and examples the module aims to explore the key issues of diversity within communities. Why do we as a society, feel that issues of equality and diversity matter? This module will explore this subject from a range of theoretical perspectives. The module will also tackle the issue of rights and responsibilities, and confidentiality of information.   

Criminology is considered as a ‘rendezvous’ but specialist discipline; a study of crime and criminal activity that serves as a meeting point for Social Science disciplines.

This module introduces and explores the various disciplinary approaches to the study of crime. However, it will have as its starting point an exploration of common-sense and everyday perceptions and the social construction of crime, as well as the representation of crime and the criminal justice system. The module will also begin to introduce and explore the range and scope of issues and topics examined by the specialist discipline of Criminology.

The module will conclude by introducing students to some of the Criminology related initiatives and interventions currently at the University, such as the ‘Innocence Project’, ‘ Prison Theatre productions’ and community based initiatives. This will also introduce students to the notion and opportunities for volunteering as part of the University wide initiative and policy.

In this module we will consider how societal and ‘natural’ environments interact. Global environmental problems such as climate change, industrial disasters and the decline of ecological habitats have led to calls for urgent changes to the dominant understanding of social, economic and human development. Particular aspects of globalisation are mediated expressions of the world-spanning conditions under which accounts of environmental concerns are produced. Concepts such as sustainable development and environmental injustice depict alternative environmental approaches to human-societal development. The module provides an overview of sociological approaches to the current issues from classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives, such as Risk Society (Beck 1992) and Social Constructionism (Hannigan 2014). It enables the development of critical thinking about a number of topics concerned with the interface between the environment, climate change, globalisation, society and our everyday life. 

This module will provide an overview of the major issues of aging in society. In this module, we will discuss age as a social division, understanding age as a social construct and the implications of ageing populations. The main aim of this module is to understand human aging in a broad context including the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, culture, and other factors as they impact the life course and the aging experience. This module will give you an insight into different sociological theories on the different life stages and inequalities that come with them, starting with the study of youth. The module takes an interdisciplinary approach and will cover the process of ageing in contemporary societies in global, national and local contexts.

This module introduces students to a comparative sociological study of race, racism, ethnicity, and migration. It traces the origins and development of the concept of race by exploring the importance of slavery and European colonialism in producing modern understandings of race and racial difference. It explores the role of race as a major source of social divisions and aims to show the significance of racism in the reproduction of structural inequalities and exclusions.

Race/ethnic categories vary significantly across time and place and it is crucial to explore national and global empirical examples to gain a critical understanding.  Therefore, an important aspect of this course is its focus on the global dimensions and manifestations of racism, ethnicity and migration. The module will address a range of contemporary debates related to ‘race’ and ethnicity such as racism, multiculturalism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, nationalism and national identity.

This module explores the various ways that social scientists understand and investigate the social world. It offers you an insight into the various ways of conducting research. You will learn about the importance of ethics and how to become an ethically-responsible researcher. As well, you will learn about the various techniques used to collect and analyse information. By the end of the module, you will have the knowledge and skills to produce a research proposal for your third-year dissertation.

This module takes a contemporary look into gender and sexuality. It examines the biological and social constructionist explanations of sex, sexuality and gender. There is a focus on masculine and feminine identities, along with how they differ across cultures.

The module also looks at forms of sexuality and how ideas about human sexuality have undergone some significant changes over the last few decades, especially within western societies. There has, for example, been a relaxing of attitudes towards gay and lesbian couples in relation to marriage (civil partnerships). Some other areas covered within the module are sex work and the global sex industry.

As the study of people, whether individually or as part of groups and organisations, sociology is rooted in an empirical tradition of research that identifies patters and trends in otherwise seemingly random phenomena. In doing so it generates and tests theories that help us to explain how society works. This module introduces students to the key principles of social research as they apply to sociology. It familiarises students with the relationship between sociological theory and sociological research and helps them to understand how the ideas they encounter in academic books and journal articles come into being. Students will learn what makes good social research, how different traditions of research produce different kinds of data, and how to design research projects to answer pressing sociological questions.

• Religion and Spirituality in Contemporary Society 15 Credits
• Understanding Urban and Rural Societies 15 Credits
• Work Placement for Sociology 15 Credits

This module represents the culmination of your sociology degree and provides the opportunity for you to undertake a research project of your own. You will identify a sociologically-relevant topic of interest, and devise appropriate research questions to answer. On the basis of your topic and research questions, and with the guidance of your supervisor, you will design, conduct, and write up a primary or secondary research project. Drawing on sociological literature, theories, and concepts you will present an analysis of your chosen topic and present your data and findings in a professional and academic written format.

This module explores the use and misuse of tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs and other substances from sociological, cultural, criminological, and policy perspectives. With a particular focus on the ‘context of use’ such as capitalism and social structure, the module will critically examine the use and misuse of different substances. We engage with diverse theoretical perspectives (e.g. the Culture of Intoxication and Calculated Hedonism; Social Conflict; Sub-culture) and debates related to substance use such as: dependency and addiction; education and treatment (e.g. zero-tolerance vs. harm reduction); decriminalisation, legalisation and social control. We explore evidence for the negative consequences of substance use for individuals and societies. We also consider the social meaning of tobacco, alcohol, illegal drugs and other substances and their consumption as part of recreational ‘lifestyle’ choices linked to rave and club culture and other leisure activities.

• Globalisation, Beauty and the Media  15 credits
• Conflict and Humanitarian Crises  15 credits
• Social Movements and Collective Action in the Internet Age  15 credits
• Disability and Society  15 credits
• Sociology Independent Project  15 credits
• Global Spaces of Education  15 credits
• Work Placement for Sociology  15 credits
• Identity, Equality and Crime  15 credits
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