Core modules
What you will learn
To apply key sociological categories such as class gender and ‘race’ to analyse various social problems and imagine creative solutions to these issues
How societies have changed over time and how key institutions within these have functioned
How we might explain offending behaviours and explore the effects of crime on individuals and communities
How the criminal justice system operates and with what impacts
To search for answers to social justice issues by examining and questioning the role of the police courts prisons and civil society
To critically engage with theoretical and methodological debates in contemporary Criminology and Criminal Justice as well as in Sociology
To develop theoretical and conceptual knowledge and enhance your understanding of empirical research
This degree covers topics such as
Culture and ethnic identities
Geo-political conflict
Gender
Environmentalism
Social movements
Sexuality
Class and capitalism
Social theory
State crime
Terrorism and issues of security in global context
Punishment and community justice
Youth crime and youth justice
Policing
Prisons
Inequalities
Discrimination racism xenophobia
Health and illness in society
Year One
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 with which you will engage with when you consider the history of sociological thought You will gain skills of research analysis and debate by considering the extent to which 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
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Criminology Theories and Concepts
This module will develop your understanding of key criminological perspectives and will encourage you to reflect on different assumptions and ideologies behind these different perspectives It will equip you to be able to apply criminological theory to a broad range of contemporary problems of crime social inequality disorder and social harm
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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? These are some of the questions that this module will explore
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 (for example interviews ethnography and discourse analysis) you will also examine the political ethical and practical issues that social research inevitably entails
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Crime and Society
This module will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between crime its social context and current issues in the socio-political global context of crime and punishment You will explore the sociological approaches to crime victimisation and punishment through categories such as class gender ethnicity mobility and space You will develop the necessary analytical theoretical and critical skills to examine contemporary problems and debates in the fields of criminalisation and justice
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Introduction to Social Analytics in Social Inequalities Research
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 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 research design You will be introduced to the process of social science research and quantitative methods in one hour lectures and then explore these in extended seminars (2h) both through readings and the statistical software SPSS We will be working on real data sets such as the European Social Survey
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Year Two
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 will 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 will also gain analytical skills to critically evaluate previous research and develop your ability to collect and analyse data using a range of qualitative methods
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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
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Gender Race and Sexualities in the Criminal Justice System Policy and Practice
This module will develop the necessary analytical theoretical and critical skills to analyse the complex relationship between gender race and sexualities in criminal justice institutions You will be presented with contemporary conceptual issues around the categories of race gender and sexualities and will be invited to consider how these are essential to unpacking current problems in policing courts sentencing prisons and community justice settings The module will unpack criminalisation and victimisation in relation to contemporary problems linked to misogyny sexism racism and homophobia In this module you’ll have the chance to engage with key readings in feminist criminology queer criminology and in post-colonial southern criminologies and will be invited to consider practical and policy-informed solutions to some of the most enduring problems of contemporary criminal justice systems
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Policing and Society
The institution of the police is one of the state’s most important and yet most scrutinised and challenged institutions Questions around policing and justice are arguably some of the most urgent in contemporary criminological scholarship and need theoretical as well as practical examination In this module we sociologically and criminologically unpack the purpose of the police and consider different approaches to policing We also examine the impact of policing on different communities and explore current debates around racism discrimination and excessive force in policing practices Taking an international as well as critical perspective we consider the evolution efficacy and viability of the police and of policing in the 21st Century
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Year Three
Dissertation
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Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from to Example optional modules may include
Year One
Sociology of Race
Sociology of Gender
Life of Media Past Present and Future
Sociology of Education
Class and Capitalism in the Neoliberal World
International Perspectives on Gender
Year Two
Commercial Cultures in Global Capitalism
Educational Inequalities
Relationship and Family Change Demographic and Sociological Perspectives
Becoming Yourself The Construction of the Self in Contemporary Western Societies
Media Audiences and Social Change
Practice and Interpretation of Quantitative Research
Multivariate Secondary Analysis of Social Data
Political Sociology
Gender and Violence
Surveillance and Society Race Gender Class
Beyond the Binary Trans-forming Gender
War Memory and Society
Social Theory of Law
Year Three
Social Movements and Political Action
Racism and Xenophobia
Ethnography and the Anthropological Tradition
Transnational Media Ecologies
Race Resistance and Modernity
Sociology of Knowledge Science and Intellectuals
Punishment Justice and Control
Feminist Pedagogy Feminist Activism
Postcolonial Theory and Politics
Queering Sociology
State Crime Human Rights and Global Wrongs
Applying Quantitative Methods to Social Research
Experiments in the Social Sciences and Humanities Sociology of End Times
Global South and Indigenous Feminisms
Social Data Science
Sociology of Green Transformations
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