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Sociology BA (L300)

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Learn more about our Sociology degree at Warwick

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L300

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Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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3 years full-time

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26 September 2022

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Department of Sociology

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University of Warwick

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Why is there inequality in wealthy societies? Does surveillance benefit society? If these questions fascinate you, our Sociology degree is a great fit.

Learn how to think critically about contemporary society in the UK and beyond. Study at Warwick and enrich your understanding of concepts such as such as gender, race, class and the state.

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The BA Sociology degree will provide you with a strong base to understand how society and people have changed over time.

With the study of social life at its heart, the scope of sociology is almost limitless. This course will introduce you to its broad subject matter, which encompasses family life, education, crime, work, war, religion, capitalism, power, love, the self, the media, to name just a few. You will also gain skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods that can be applied across a range of different subject areas.

Sociology also has an abiding concern with the main markers of social difference in modern society – class, gender, race or ethnicity, age, sexuality and (dis)ability. You will explore how these often intersect in shaping the life chances and experiences of individuals. In addition to lectures, interactive seminars will add depth to your learning.

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Choose from a range of modules to create a general degree or a degree with a specialism.

You also have the option to add a year of study abroad at a partner University. In your final year, you will be ready to conduct your own independent research on a topic of your choice.

This degree covers topics such as:

Media
Gender
Race
Identity
Capitalism
Research methods
How society has changed over time
The relationship between individuals and society
How techniques, perspectives, and traditions develop
Ideologies, technologies, and issues that affect society
Comparing interactions between countries and global societies

The final year includes a choice of optional specialisms:

BA Sociology with Specialism in Social and Political Thought
BA Sociology with Specialism in Research Methods
BA Sociology with Specialism in Gender Studies
BA Sociology with Specialism in Race and Global Politics
BA Sociology with Specialism in Social Inequalities and Public Policy
BA Sociology with Specialism in Technologies and Markets

If you choose to specialise, you will receive a degree certificate with the relevant specialism.

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Lectures and Seminars

Most modules are taught using a combination of weekly lectures and seminars. Lectures give an introduction to a topic to help prepare you for discussions in seminars. In seminars, you can engage in debates and share your views.

Learning support

You will have a personal tutor who you can speak to about any questions you may have. There are also regular feedback sessions and opportunities to speak to module directors and seminar tutors.

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Seminars have between 15 to 17 students each. Lecture sizes vary.

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There are 10 to 11 hours of formal contact time available per week in Year One, to help you settle into University life. After then, 8 hours of contact time is available per week.

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You will be assessed through a combination of essays, reports, podcasts, reflective writing, and unseen exams.

In the final year, there is a 10,000-word dissertation on a sociological topic of your choice.

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Study abroad

You have the option of studying abroad which will add one year to your degree, as you will spend your third year abroad.

Immerse yourself in life in another country and grow as a global citizen. Explore other cultures, languages, and understand global connections and inequalities.

Countries Sociology students have visited Please note countries and institutions are subject to change.

Europe

École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, France
Charles University Prague, Czech Republic
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Germany
Goteborg University, Sweden
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain U
niversitat Autōnoma de Barcelona, Spain
Universitat Bremen, Germany
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
University of Iceland

Worldwide

Monash University, Australia and/or Malaysia
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Western University, Canada
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Sun Yat-sen University, China
Tsinghua University, China
Xiamen University, China
Hokkaido University, Japan
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia

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A level typical offer

ABB. You must also achieve grade B or 6 in GCSE English Language.

A level contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is BBB. See if you’re eligible.

General GCSE requirements

Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept. We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.

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IB typical offer

34. You must also achieve grade B or 6 in GCSE English Language.

IB contextual offer

General GCSE requirements

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We welcome applications from students taking BTEC qualifications, either alone or in combination with A levels. Our typical BTEC offers are as follows:

BTEC Level 3 Extended Certificate plus 2 A-Levels: D plus AB.
BTEC Level 3 National Diploma plus 1 A-Level: DD plus A.
BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma: D*DD.

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Year One

Sociology of Gender

Through case studies from the gender pay gap to the politics of Christmas, this module will transform how you see gender and its impact on the world. You will explore the origins of gender ideas and analyse their effects on areas of social life including: language; media and popular culture; science; work; family relationships; sexuality; violence; education; politics; and feminist movements.

While gender is the focus of this module, you will also consider how gender connects to other dimensions of social difference and inequality, such as sexuality, race, class or disability.

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.

Sociology of Race

What is 'race' and why does it matter? This module answers these questions by drawing on the wealth of expertise within Warwick Sociology, and is taught by experts who research and write about race and racism from a range of perspectives. Students will learn about both theoretical concepts and real-world examples that will help them to understand how race and racism shape the social world.

Class and Capitalism in the Neoliberal World

Protest and anger characterise the contemporary era – young people taking part in militant politics, protest parties gaining more votes, and even NHS doctors taking to the streets.

In this module, we will explore the social consequences of the economic and political transformations associated with neoliberalism that have taken place in recent decades. We will ask why these changes might be responsible for the global rise in urban unrest and dissatisfaction.

Topics will include growing inequality and elite power, militant policing, consumerism, anxiety, debt, the destruction of industrial communities, class identity, the marketisation of education, and the diminishing spaces of public life.

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.

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.

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.

Practice and Interpretation of Quantitative Research

Quantitative methods can help you answer questions such as:

• Is income inequality in the UK growing?

• Does marriage improve health?

• Does growing up in a poor neighbourhood affect your life chances?

Analysing representative, large-scale social surveys is crucial for sociologists to understand social processes. This module will introduce you to quantitative methods and how to analyse large data sets using SPSS Statistics software. It will help you engage with published quantitative sociological research and to undertake your own basic quantitative data analysis.

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.

Year Three

Dissertation

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Year One

Life of Media: Past, Present and Future
Sociology of Education
Crime and Society
Criminology: Theories and Concepts
International Perspectives on Gender

Explore our modules in more detail.

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
Political Sociology
Gender and Violence
Surveillance and Society: Race, Gender, Class
Multivariate Secondary Analysis of Social Data
Advanced Theory in Criminology and Social Justice
Beyond the Binary: Trans-forming Gender
War, Memory and Society
Social Theory of Law
Policing and Society
Gender, Race and Sexualities in the Criminal Justice System: Policy and Practice

Explore our modules in more detail.

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

Explore our modules in more detail.

Optional specialisms

In your third year, you can pursue a 'Sociology with Specialism' degree. This allows you to follow a particular interest or career path that interests you.

BA Sociology with Specialism in Technologies and Markets

Dissertation - specific to specialism
Life of Media: Past, Present and Future
Media, Audiences and Social Change
Commercial Cultures in Global Capitalism
Capitalism and Religion
Economic Sociology
Sociology of Knowledge
Science and Intellectuals
Beastly Sociology
Transnational Media Ecologies
How Sociology Can Save the Environment

BA Sociology with Specialism in Race and Global Politics

Dissertation - specific to specialism
War, Memory and Society
Surveillance and Security: Race, Gender, Class
Racism and Xenophobia
Capitalism and Religion
Race, Resistance and Modernity
Transnational Media Ecologies
Feminist Pedagogy/Feminist Activism
Postcolonial Theory and Politics
State Crime, Human Rights and Global Wrongs

BA Sociology with Specialism in Social Inequalities and Public Policy

Dissertation - specific to specialism
Sociology of Education
Educational Inequalities
Relationship and Family Change: Demographic and Sociological Perspectives
Disability, Inequality and the Life Course
Social Movements and Political Action
Economic Sociology
Multivariate Secondary Analysis of Data
Punishment, Justice and Control
The Sociology of Urban Life

BA Sociology with Specialism in Social and Political Thought

Dissertation - specific to specialism
Life of Media: Past, Present and Future
Political Sociology
Becoming Yourself: The Construction of the Self in Contemporary Western Societies
Racism and Xenophobia
Capitalism and Religion
Economic Sociology
Race, Resistance and Modernity
Sociology of Knowledge, Science and Intellectuals
Transnational Media Ecologies
Postcolonial Theory and Politics
Queering Sociology
Sociology of End Times

BA Sociology with Specialism in Gender

Dissertation - specific to specialism
Becoming Yourself: The Construction of the Self in Contemporary Western Societies
Gender, Race and Sexualities in the Criminal Justice System: Policy and Practice
Beyond the Binary: Trans-forming Gender
Gender and Violence
Transnational Media Ecologies
Feminist Pedagogy/Feminist Activism
Queering Sociology

BA Sociology with Specialism in Research Methods

Dissertation - specific to specialism
Media, Audiences and Social Change
Relationship and Family Change: Demographic and Sociological Perspectives
Ethnography and the Anthropological Tradition
Multivariate Secondary Analysis of Social Data
Applying Quantitative Methods to Social Research
Experiments in the Social Sciences and Humanities
Social Data Science

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Where a Sociology or Sociology and Criminology degree can take you:

Professional roles in various national and international NGOs, civil society and charity organisations
Civil service careers
Researchers and research analysts for state and independent bodies
Media and communication industry
Advertising and Marketing
Accounting and Finance careers
Academic careers and doctoral scholarships for further study
Teaching Careers
Social Work
Careers and Employability Assistants
Customer Representatives and HR Graduates
Directorate Administrators
Event Administrators
Resident Tutors
Management Trainees
Marketing and Development Coordinators
Senior Sales Consultants

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Our department has a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant to support you. They offer impartial advice and guidance, together with workshops and events throughout the year. Find out more about careers support at Warwick.

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