BA (Hons) Sociology & Politics

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

This is an introduction to political theory and an exploration of why central political ideas and concepts influence our understanding of the world around us. Assessed by: one essay and a two-hour unseen examination.

This module looks at central questions in Sociology about how to study of society. It focuses in particular on issues of agency and structure; holism and individualism; continuity and change; public and private; structure and self; laws, observation and interpretation.

Exploring the sub-discipline of historical sociology, the module focuses on the formation of the modern state out of earlier types of political organisation, and different ways of understanding state power. It examines processes such as: revolution; the development of nationalism; the nature of imperialism; post-socialism; and the rise of fascism.

The first part of the module is primarily concerned with establishing a firm grasp of the fundamental approaches to the political sociology of democratic societies, whist the second introduces debates – over planning, ethnic cleansing, neoliberal ‘de-democratisation’ – that will allow us to think through the relevance of the classical categories of political sociology to the study of contemporary societies. 

In this module we examine the modern tradition of political thought. Students will be introduced to the major figures in this tradition – English thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke and Mill and continental thinkers such as Rousseau and Marx.

Through these thinkers, we will explore key themes and concepts such as sovereignty, justice, human nature, property, rights, liberty, democracy and equality. 

This module addresses a number of themes that relate to questions of nationalism, imperialism, identity and gender, focusing on Japan’s emergence as a modern nation state, its imperial project and its catastrophic defeat, culminating in the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and its occupation by Allied forces. The historical perspective, which the module seeks to offer, is central to an understanding of Japan’s troubled relationship with its Asian neighbours, and of its claims of uniqueness, which have their legacy in its position as both coloniser and colonised. The module approaches questions of politics through a very expansive definition of the term, treating cinema, animation, manga, and other popular cultural forms as important sites for the articulation of political anxieties and concerns, which are not necessarily reflected in more conventional forms of political activity, such as political debates, deliberations of the Diet and so on.

This is a broad, historically-based survey module of Chinese politics that takes the student from the early days of communist partisanship through to the end of the Cultural Revolution (from 1921 to 1976 or thereabouts). This module is designed to offer both an overview of and background to, contemporary Mainland Chinese political culture and an insight into a form of politics that is very different from that of liberal democracy.

This module is a lot more historically oriented than many of the other survey modules offered in the Department, but to understand this country requires an understanding of this history which is still lived very much as an on-going set of norms and values. It is difficult to understand China today without an understanding of this history and what this module offers is a survey account of this period.

This module explores the interaction between US domestic and foreign politics. It seeks to understand the way that domestic political dynamics influence foreign policy and the role of the US in the broader international arena. It introduces students to the structure of US government and the main interest groups involved in the foreign policy-making process, examining the broader ideological and political trends that have shaped the way the US acts on the global stage as the world’s only remaining superpower.

Part of the module will take a historical overview, looking at how US foreign policy has developed post-Second War, throughout the Cold War, and into today’s War on Terror, showing how different administrations have responded to perceived international threats, opportunities and challenges, as well as domestic political pressures and concerns.

The module will also examine a number of contemporary issues currently faced by the US, which are likely to shape US foreign policy and security strategy for the foreseeable future: conflict in the Middle East; the threat of Islamist terrorism; the economic rise of China; global nuclear proliferation; the challenges posed by Russia; and the broader issue of global climate change. It will look at how the US responds to these dilemmas, and how these issues figure in domestic political debates and the US’ perception of itself.

This module investigates the history of European society since 1945. This historical overview is divided into four thematic sections of several lectures each:

• Cold War and Post-Cold War Europe
• The Great Economic Boom and the Rise of Globalisation: Keynesianism, Neo-Liberalism and the Welfare State
• End of Empires West and East: Decolonisation and the Rise of Multicultural Europe
• European Integration and the Reconstruction of the European Nation-State

These themes reflect the unique changes in Europe since 1945, which still make this a valid periodisation today.

A critical and historical study of political thinking and political argument in the United Kingdom since the early twentieth century to the present day, examining liberalism, socialism, conservatism, anarchism, feminism, the rise of the modern state, the nature of politics, and the character of the political community.

The module examines the work of important thinkers from the William Morris and the Webbs through George Orwell and Virginia Woolf to the present day. 

This course introduces students to the study of international trade. Topics covered include the basics of classical and neoclassical trade theory, economies of scale, international factor mobil-ity, firms in the global economy, and the effect of trade on wages and income distribution.

We will also discuss the tools used by governments to conduct trade policy (e.g. tariffs and quo-tas) and their impact on trade volumes and welfare. Finally, we will turn our attention to the experience of developing countries in the global economy in order to examine key debates on trade and development, trade liberalisation, trade policies and development strategies.

The course is designed as a mixture of lectures, tutorials, and seminars.

*Please note that students must have taken Economics modules at level 4 in order to enrol on this module.

The purpose of the course is to provide students with a set of theoretical tools and concepts that will enable them to understand and systematically analyse the monetary side of the international economy.

Key topics covered include the balance of payments, the determination of ex-change rates, interest rates, and prices in open economies, different exchange rate regimes (fixed vs. floating), the interdependence of economies, and international macroeconomic policy.

We will also employ this theory to better understand recent issues such as the persistence of the US current account deficit; the creation of the Euro and the future of the US Dollar as the key international currency; the nature and consequences of financial crises.

Students are expected to come out of this course with a deeper understanding of international monetary theory and related economic policy issues. 

*In order to study this module you must have taken Economics modules at level 4.

With the collapse of ‘socialist’ regimes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, liberalism today is a triumphant political theory and system. Yet from the moment of its birth, liberalism has been subjected to sharp criticism, and alternatives to it have been and continue to be urged. This module is an introduction to liberal theory; to the circumstances of its historical emergence and, in particular, to the concepts and values which are central to liberal thought.

It aims to promote critical reflection upon the political and ethical values that underlie Western liberal democracies. Having examined the core values of liberalism, we proceed to consider critiques - communitarian, feminist and Marxist - of liberalism.  A second aim of this subject is to promote intellectual engagement with, and evaluation of, critiques of liberal theory and of liberal society.

This module sets out to analyse, critique and experiment with the politics of everyday life. It starts from the position that the study of daily life (or what the French call le quotidian) provides a necessary concrete specificity with which to address, engage with, or resist a range of important issues.

In the module of our investigations, the insights of de Certeau, the Situationists, the Trapese Collective, CrimethInc and many others are extended into detailed investigations of the structures and mythologies of ‘everyday life’. 

The module brings an historical perspective to key issues in British politics from 1979 to the present day.

It does that by examining themes such as rise of Thatcherism, the divisions in the main political parties, the rise and fall of New Labour, and the politics of the 2010 Coalition.

To gain a more sophisticated (and less prejudiced) knowledge of “rough politics” is particularly vital today, as the age of globalisation seems to be framed by the conflict between the rule of law represented by western democracies, and the violent disorder embodied by the Global South.

In studying this shadowy territory we will touch upon fundamental issues for today's social sciences: the afterlives of Twentieth Century revolutionary politics, the connections between political violence and religion, the nature of informal and illegal economies, the current debates on globalisation from below, the prospects for social rebellion, the construction of new political subjectivities and novel ways of representing the “other”.

We will do all of this by studying the political significance of guerrilla warfare in shaping global politics; the language of martyrdom in religious based terrorism; Al Qaeda´s dependence on mass-murder to advance a populist theology, Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea reinventing the fascination and fear caused by pirates from a bygone age, Colombian paramilitaries enforcing order and disregarding at the very same time the Rule of Law, The Mara Salvatrucha street gang dominating neighbourhoods in El Salvador and Los Angeles, and hackers disturbing the otherwise unalterable profitmaking arrangements of the Internet.

This module introduces you to various attempts to clarify and understand the links between economic and political processes which come under the banner of ‘political economy’. As a whole, the module is intended to draw out the links between the broad “school”-level approaches (such as Marxism, economic sociology, methodological individualism and institutional economics) and contemporary issues and analyses (concerning questions of resource scarcity, predation, coordination failures and trust).

To this end, the module is split into two broad parts. The first part guides you through the main thematic approaches to political economy in order to examine the principle concepts theorists have used to understand and explain economic processes. The second part seeks to apply these concepts to contemporary economic issues and questions.

It seeks to both clarify and examine the various understandings of the market and the state which have shaped the direction of economic research, so that you can finish the module with a clear understanding of the various ideas, concerns and beliefs which motivate real-world political economic arguments.

This module introduces students to the study of the political dynamics and conflicts currently affecting the Middle East.

It will provide a historical overview of the roots of these contemporary conflicts in that region throughout the twentieth century to the present day, exploring the legacy of imperialism, the rise of Arab nationalism post-Second World War, the emergence of the state of Israel and the implications of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, the Iranian Revolution, the Sunni-Shia conflict, the Arab Spring and the rise of radical Islam. It will also examine the broader implications of these dynamics for the international system.

The module is divided into three parts. The first part, Theoretical and Methodological Overview, offers an introduction to the main theories and debates about the Middle East. We will look at key approaches to the Middle East in International Relations and the Areas Studies, examining major differences and limits of these theories, as well as the effects of the so-called Orientalist debate, and its association with colonialism and state formation in the region.

The second part, Identity and Politics in the Middle East, inquires into the role of identities and ideologies in the politics of the Middle East. We will examine the ideological battle between nationalism, Arabism, tribalism, and political Islam in the twentieth century, discussing how different actors have negotiated between national, sub-national and super-national ties.

In the last part of the module, Hegemony and Political Change in the Modern Middle East, we will explore the geopolitics of the region. We will examine the interaction between the different states in the region (the Gulf monarchies, the Israeli-Palestinian setting, the Arab Republics), international actors and the overall social context of Arab countries.

This module is concerned with the visual and its discursive political effects. It starts from the premise that vision is not merely a neutral way of seeing the world, but rather is intimately bound up with the political.

As such, the module is interested in unpacking the political nature of how we code and construct the world through vision, the position that art and aesthetics play in moderating political debate and even knowledge construction itself, as well as investigating the relationship between ‘seeing’ and ‘doing’ more broadly in terms of surveillance, control and power.

In studying these issues, the module will explore topics as diverse as aesthetics, censorship, surveillance, documentary and blockbuster film making, mapping and cartography, travel writing and memory, cosmetic surgery and the visual elements of class politics. The module will consist of weekly lectures and seminars, as well as fortnightly film-screenings. The ultimate aim of this module is to provide students a ‘toolkit’ to decode the everyday politics of vision that guide and construct our lives.

‘Leisure is free time’. But is it? We need only think about the annual subscription to gymnasiums to recognise that leisure-time really isn’t ‘free-time’. ‘Leisure is a marker for time away from work’. But we need only think of the time of the harried vacation to know that the clock-time of work never ceases to operate. In critical theory, leisure-time is defined as functionally dependent on the labour market system. Indeed leisure is revealed as big business, as leisure-time becomes ever more central to consumer culture. This module examines the interconnections between leisure, culture and society. 

This module explores a selection of approaches to the sociological study of the body, as well as substantive problem-areas where the body has become an important focus of research. You address the contrast between traditions that approach the body as an object (the body we have), those that approach the body as a subject (the body we are), and those that address the body in terms of performativity (the body we become). 

The first part of the module is primarily concerned with establishing a firm grasp of the fundamental approaches to the political sociology of democratic societies, whist the second introduces debates – over planning, ethnic cleansing, neoliberal ‘de-democratisation’ – that will allow us to think through the relevance of the classical categories of political sociology to the study of contemporary societies. 

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.

With migration frequently presented as a situation of ‘crisis’, this module considers broader contexts and longer histories of migration to and within Europe, and will consider the academic field migration as an inter-disciplinary field of study.

Exploring contemporary literature from writers and theorists working in a European context, the module will present students with starting points from which to consider migration using core sociological concepts, particularly of place, ‘race’ and power.

The module will follow a migration pathway, with focus points considered through lenses of leaving, moving, arriving and staying:

• Leaving - We will examine those legal frameworks and international agreements relevant to migration, and will explore the uneasy distinction between so-called forced migration and economic migration.
• Moving - We will consider borders and immigration controls, border theories, and the differentiated legal statutes of migrating people as linked to colonial and postcolonial relationships.
• Arriving - We will reflect on notions of displacement, exile, integration strategies and policies, representations of migrants and racism, and examples of activism with and by migrants. Staying – We will look at migration and cities, and focus on experiences of young migrants in particular.

This examines how the world has changed since classical sociological theory was produced and the need for a framework for understanding the changes. Topics include:

• recent and contemporary capitalism
• developments in the economy
• technology and the future
• politics and social movements

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