BA (Hons) Sociology with Criminology

This module is lecture and workshop based and aims to introduce students to the methods that sociologists have developed to analyse their societies and to produce sociological knowledge. You will also develop core skills in methods of research by being introduced to the practice of sociological research. Methods are introduced in relation to key sociological topics and research traditions that are closely identified with them, thus allowing students to confront methods as real practices rather than abstractions. The aim is as far as possible to build on the concepts and the issues that are being discussed in other first-year modules.

This module aims to introduce you to the ‘sociological imagination’. What is distinctive about Sociology? With a focus on knowledge and power, the module looks at how Sociology has developed, with an emphasis on the study of relations between individuals and groups in modern industrial societies.

This module will:
•introduce students to key sociological approaches to social divisions and differences
•foster students’ knowledge and understanding of the development of sociological thinking through the study of classical and contemporary accounts of social power, identity and inequality
enable students to analyse and contrast differing approaches to the study of core sociological topics, including class, gender, race, religion and nation

This module is primarily concerned with the relations between culture and social processes, and approaches these in a number of ways: by outlining various sociological uses of ‘culture’, by identifying the role of culture in examples of macrosocial phenomena (eg education, consumption, the city), and by discussing microsociological analyses of the role of culture in social interaction.

The module considers the growth and development of criminological theories and methodologies in the context of the forms of representation, policing, constraint and government of people and things and largely in the contexts of the city and the nation over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The module is divided into four parts across twenty weeks.

a) It initially considers the social pathology of the gang within the milieu of the urban. This provides an opportunity to reflect on some of the early Chicago School ethnographies and analyses of the urban (Cressey, Park and Burgess, Thrasher), questions about culture and environment, and also importantly adolescence and delinquency. This work is then contrasted with contemporary analyses of the gang (Venkatesh, Alexander, Hagedorn) in order to notice the striking continuities, but also the discontinuities with regard to understandings of gender, race and ethnicity, culture and the global.

b) Secondly, the module considers the work of Becker, Cohen, Hall. Walkowitz and others regarding the labelling and representation of crime and the work of representation in the criminalisation of populations and areas of the city.

c) Thirdly, the module looks at the role of disciplining, punishing and confining institutions and technologies through the writing of Goffman, Foucault, Wacquant, Davis, Khalili and Graham. What kind of institution is the prison? How has it developed in the form it has? What is its role now? And how has its inventiveness spilled out into wider social environments and contexts?

d) Finally, the module considers the circulation and associations of people and things in the context of technologies of security and territory. Through a consideration of cases such as the global sex trade, the circulation of images of child sexual abuse, the control of drugs, and the war on terror, the module focuses on the fundamental question of movement and security.

This module is lecture and workshop based and aims to introduce students to the methods that sociologists have developed to analyse their societies and to produce sociological knowledge. You will also develop core skills in methods of research by being introduced to the practice of sociological research. Methods are introduced in relation to key sociological topics and research traditions that are closely identified with them, thus allowing students to confront methods as real practices rather than abstractions. The aim is as far as possible to build on the concepts and the issues that are being discussed in other first-year modules.

The module considers a number of issues broadly concerning crime: both criminal acts themselves and the legal, penal, civil society and policing frameworks which address and frame them. The module explores longstanding philosophical and social theoretical questions about the relationship between crime, the law, justice and rights. It is specifically concerned with the actualisation of ideas, theory, principles and discourse into practice and lived experience.

The module is structured around guest speakers who will talk about their experiences and research concerning how things actually happen, in relation to theories and ideas about how things are said to happen.

The module explores the space between law’s conceptualisation of itself as being neutral, above and outside society, and a social critique of that conceptualisation which focuses on all the ways in which law falls short of its own ideals. Law is understood as a relationship between concepts and their actualisations by social actors; a relationship between the conceptual and the material.

The module also considers the institutions of criminal justice systems (for example, police, judiciary, legal defence and prosecution, legal support, sentencing, prison).

This module considers crimes against humanity. In terms of social theory, it asks what it might mean to say that something is a crime against humanity as a whole, or against the human condition, rather than simply a crime against a particular state or a particular national law. You will consider the meaning of key concepts such as humanity, state, universal jurisdiction, and individual responsibility.

The introduction to this module will also look at sociological theories of nationalism and the distinction between civic and ethnic nationalism. It will go on to consider totalitarianism, comparing Bauman's analysis of totalitarianism as a prototype of 'modernity' with Arendt's understanding of totalitarianism as a revolt against modern forms.

You will study what kinds of behaviour constitute crimes against humanity; how, why and by whom such crimes are committed, and consider what kinds of international legal instruments and institutions have arisen to designate crimes against humanity as such and to try to prevent or punish them. The module will also explore the difficulties of cultural representation of crimes against humanity, through movies including Shoah, Schindler's List, Ararat, Hotel Rwanda and The Act of Killing.

Throughout this module, you will develop a materialist sociological methodology: using concepts to understand case studies and case studies to shed light on concepts.

This module – which has Researching Society and Culture 1 as a prerequisite- looks in detail at the various stages in the research process: including the construction of research questions, collecting and analysing data and the political and ethical questions involved in thinking about writing for an audience. You're encouraged to work through these issues by reading particular research monographs and by developing your own research proposal.

This module aims to develop the introduction to sociological theory that you received in the first year, whilst also preparing you to engage with critiques and the most current developments in the third year. It will help you to develop your understanding of sociological analysis through considering its origins in the classical tradition as well as discussing contemporary issues.

In the first half of the module, we explore five key thinkers and their central concerns as a way of exploring distinct approaches to social analysis. In the second half of the module, we explore five key concepts as a way of thinking through how social theory is put to work as a tool to understand and illuminate the social world.

Throughout these lectures we will explore different assumptions about the nature of social order and different approaches to practice. Throughout the module, we examine the way in which different kinds of sociological explanation are grounded in different assumptions about the way the social world works.

On completing this module, you should have a good understanding of the theoretical positions that form the point of departure of current debates in social theory and in sociological research. You will have practiced thinking in different ways and will be able to make more informed choices about the tools and concepts you use to think about the central issues in sociological analysis.

The module builds on material already introduced in the first year, and will provide additional perspectives for the historical analysis of modernity. There is a growing consensus in contemporary scholarship on stressing the interdependence and complexity of the processes which contributed to the distinctiveness of modern societies, rather than assigning primacy to any one factor or process – be it economic, political, cultural or social. This module places an emphasis on historical reflexivity: it will seek to illustrate how historical processes, however multiple and complex, are not simply 'given' as historical objects but reflect the adoption of particular perspectives that are themselves historically specific.

We’re living in a time of global climate crisis. How might we, as sociologists, and as people living in this world, make sense of climate change and ecological collapse? What are our responsibilities? How are we complicit? How can we make sense of the histories which led to this moment and how might we imagine our futures? How do we stay hopeful? In this module, we will think together about how we got here and where we are going. We will explore the environmental crisis as a multiple, interconnected issue which has a long history, and highly differentiated and unequal impacts. The module takes a decolonial and anti-racist perspective to environmental issues, embedding work by indigenous, racialized and global south scholars across each week of the term, to help us reframe debates and theories. We also look at different kinds of fictional writing about the environment. In this way, we want to explore how the global climate crisis represents a challenge to ways of knowing and to ways of living and necessitates us thinking in different and more connected ways.

The module aims to introduce students to a range of contemporary debates, which relate broadly to the theorization of identity and identification. The first half of the module will examine a variety of theories concerned with the examination of social class, gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality, and the way in which wider structural concerns intersect to both enable and constrain identification. Lectures 6-8 build on the ideas presented in the first half of the module in order to examine the relationship of identity to social memory, before the final two lectures consider the importance of emotion to process of identification.

A piece of independent research, supported by classes and subject specialists, resulting in an 8,000 word dissertationon a topic of your own choice.

This module will engage with issues of privacy, surveillance and security. Recent years have seen a huge growth in demands for: certainty in the verification of identity; accountability of individual and organisational activity; and mechanisms designed to accumulate knowledge of what individuals and groups may do in the near future. First, the module will provide a background to the historical development of surveillance and the mobilizing of notions of security through specific political regimes.

Second, the module will investigate contemporary issues in privacy, surveillance and security including: the rise of CCTV and the visualization of order, airports and spaces of disciplined consumption, the management of everyday life and claims regarding the death of privacy. Third, the module will end by investigating the possibility of addressing tensions between privacy, surveillance and security issues.

In particular we will focus on technologies as solutions, market based mechanisms and the valuation of privacy, and the variety of interventions, engagements and accountabilities with regard to surveillance that have been developed in recent years.

This examines some of the conceptual and political problems that have clustered around sociological analysis of ‘race’ and racism. It is comparative in focus and encompasses both historical and theoretical material. It introduces some of the major sociological paradigms of ‘race relations’ analysis and relates them to a variety of examples. 

This module is about the relationships between vision, sensuality and the production of truth, knowledge, and identity in Euro-American cultures. It asks: how do historically and culturally specific ways of seeing and sensing shape ways of knowing (epistemology) and ways of being (ontology)? What are the relationships between vision, sensuality and power?

What are the epistemological, methodological and ethical demands that are made upon sociology in its encounters with the visual and the sensual? Through discussion of topics such as Deigo Velázquez' 1656 painting Las Meninas, the camera and photography, and the visual manipulation of identity through ‘passing’, the module will provide a forum for thinking about the pleasures, dangers and contingencies present in visualising the social world. 

Conventional ways of demarcating economic, power, and cultural relationships have long relied up notions of "North and South", "first and third", "east and west", "colonial and post-colonial." These means of envisioning the world and of tracing the intersections among diverse places, times, and peoples, while maintaining some salience, no longer seem to grasp what is really taking place.

The module, in particular, explores the emerging relationships between Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa—articulations that have been elaborated over a long history but which now take shape in new and powerful ways.

Additionally, there are a plurality of "worlds” that enjoin different actors and spaces that cannot be easily defined according to geopolitical understandings--where information infrastructure, design, telecommunications, and travel combine to create new possibilities of transaction. The module looks at how these worlds affect our understandings of sociality, actors, and collective life, in general, and the shape and operations of emerging powers in particular.

This module is concerned with the historical development of citizenship and human rights, especially in relation to the nation-state and the international states system. It is also concerned with the value of human rights, explored through consideration of any or all of the following topics: Are human rights cosmopolitan? Is there a human rights movement? Does the enforcement of human rights increase democracy? Are human rights structured so that they necessarily privilege certain groups as ‘human’?

Globalisations is both a dominant discourse of powerful actors on the world scene, as well as the main target for one of the most vibrant new social movements. This module aims to develop a critical and historical understanding of the issues which inform contemporary debates on globalisation. 

This approaches childhood as a socio-historically constructed concept, with material, technological and political dimensions and consequences. Through a mixture of theoretical readings and issue-based discussions, you explore the regulated constitution of childhood and its changing parameters. Some of the substantive areas explored include: changing household patterns from the child’s perspective, child sexual abuse, infancy and foetal life, children’s literature. 

This module takes an interdisciplinary approach in order to chart the gender dimensions of transnational migrations in the contemporary world. As a growing number of migration scholars emphasize, a gender perspective is crucial to orienting our theories and understanding of migration and global human geographies in the twenty-first century. You will be encouraged to address questions such as: Why are men and women increasingly on the move on a global scale? What do male and female migrants do in the so-called countries of destination in the Global North? How does gender help us to understand the migration trajectories of migrants? How are gendered migrations linked to processes of social reproduction?

The module will be divided in two parts. First, you will analyse the recent history and political economy of migrations through the lenses of gender, as well as ‘race’ and class theories. We will focus particularly on the notions of ‘feminisation of migrations’ and ‘crisis of social reproduction’ in order to examine their root causes and dimensions. Second, you will learn to explore the social and cultural representations of migrants in the Global North and to identify the ways these representations can be scrutinized through theories of gender, ‘race’ and class. We will thus take a critical perspective on key concepts such as ‘sexualization of racism’, ‘racialization of sexism’, ‘gendered assimilation’, ‘civic integration of migrants’ and ‘gendered colonial technologies of domination’.

Taking a case study approach throughout the course, you will also learn how to evaluate the feasibility and appropriateness of different methodologies and techniques of social research when undertaking empirical research projects involving migrants.

This module aims to explore why music matters sociologically speaking. It discusses the relationship between music - both orchestral and popular - and social life in a wide range of spheres including the economy of music, the relationship between musical taste and social divisions, the enlisting of songs politically through national anthems and state propaganda, music as self-expression and political resistance, the changing media forms and technologies of sound produciton and the therapeutic potential of music.

The module aims to explain the place of music in society. Although, what is proposed is more than merely the sociology of music ie. where sociological tools are used to unlock the codes and secrets of musical culture. Rather, the module aims to do sociology with music emphasising how developing a deeper attentiveness to music can also improve our capacities as researchers and critics.

What do humans think about animals? How does this thinking shape the ethics, politics and methods of animal-human relations? Do animals think? What are the implications if they do?

This module explores how animal-human relations have been understood in the work of Renaissance and early modern philosophers through to contemporary animal liberationists, analytic and continental philosophers, feminists and posthumanist theorists.

Topics include the role of thought and rationality in understanding animal-human relations; animal ethics; animal suffering and animal deaths; transformative relations with animals; anthropomorphism; animal cognition, emotions and morality; animal cooperation and resistance; inter-species ethics.

As incarceration rates reach record levels around the world, the use of penal power and its impact upon those subject to it are urgent areas of social inquiry. Taking perspectives from sociology and criminology, this module will introduce key debates about what prison is for, what it does, and what alternatives may be possible. We will ask how practices of imprisonment have been intertwined with other aspects of state power in historical and contemporary contexts.

Focusing primarily on Britain and the United States, we will pay particular attention to the interaction of penal policies with structures of racism, gender, class, nation and disability, examining the prison as a ‘concrete space where global inequalities play out’ (Bosworth and Kaufman 2013, 171).

We will engage with classic and contemporary research to think about the lived experiences of prisoners on the inside, as well as how regimes of imprisonment shape the social terrain and broader discourses of identity, citizenship and social order on the outside.

This wide-ranging module looks at the shifting nexus of relationships between contemporary criminality, social control and the city. The module takes a critical and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on research and theory from sociology, urban studies, cultural geography and philosophy, as well as criminology.

Topics to be covered include (but are by no means limited to):

• the 2011 riots
• pirate radio
• graffiti writing
• the militarised policing of protest
• facial recognition and “algorithmic surveillance”
• shoplifting
• the social media spectacle of illegal “urban exploration”
• anti-homeless spikes
• the Grenfell Tower fire

Students will have also the opportunity to submit course material in a range of creative formats.