Core modules
Politics and Social Theory
This module examines some of the core debates within social and political thought. We will read and discuss extracts from the ‘classics’ of enlightenment political thought juxtaposed alongside poststructuralist, (post) colonial/decolonial and Indigenous texts. Through these juxtaposed readings, we will examine the lively debates and ‘politics’ of social theory. This endeavour will demonstrate the ways in which an enlightenment legacy underpins social theory and its relation to contemporary normative political rationalities and practices of sovereignty, law, democracy, religion, race, gender, and sexuality. Contestations of this legacy from the perspectives of decolonial, postcolonial, poststructural, and queer thought reveals the significance of grappling with social theory towards the praxis of social justice.
Capitalism, State and Market
This module analyses the changing character of capitalism and looks in detail at the rise of ‘neoliberal’, libertarian and populist forms of politics that confront and oppose the welfare state, and which seek to marketise and/or fincancialise all things ‘social’. The module addresses the role of crisis in making social and political change possible through consideration of two key examples: the 2008 global financial crisis and the recent Covid pandemic. The module draws on a wide-range of literature to place these developments in historical and sociological context, including the writings of Stuart Hall, Wendy Brown, Michel Foucault, and Anthony Giddens. It invites students to examine state/market configurations within different national contexts, and to ask how sociology can be used to realise different political futures to those that currently appear possible.
Dissertation
The dissertation module gives you the opportunity to complete an independent piece of research on a topic of your own choice with the support of your dissertation supervisor, plenary teaching, and other online resources. The aim is for you to creatively use the substantive and methodological training acquired in the earlier part of your course to critically analyse a research topic of sociological relevance.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Postcolonial Theory & Politics
- Feminist Theories and Epistemologies: Debates and Dilemmas
- Indigenous and Global South Feminisms
- Critical Readings in Social Theory
- Transnational Media Ecologies
- Religion and the Planetary Crises
- Sociology of End Times
- Decolonising Ecology: Race, Coloniality and the Climate Crisis
- Key Problems in Criminal Justice
- Gender, Imperialism and International Development
- Gender Analysis and Development Practice
- Market Life: Wealth and Poverty in Global Capitalism
- Social Research for Social Change
- State of the Art of Sociology
- Understanding Social Science
- Feminist & Queer Thinking: Contemporary Challenges
- Queering Sociology
- Sexualities
- Reproductive Justice
- Archival Encounters
- Ethnography and the Anthropological Tradition
- Social Data Science
- Researching Inequality: Race, Class, Gender in Global Perspective
- Creative Research Methods
- Qualitative Methods in Social Research
- Quantitative Methods in Social Research
