Politics and Sociology BSc (Hons)

Compulsory

• SC1603 - Contemporary Challenges

  This module will introduce students to applications of social and political sciences, providing students with the opportunity to practice the skills needed to communicate the results of their work accurately and reliably, and with structured and coherent arguments.

• SC1601 - Fundamentals of the Social Sciences

  This module will introduce students to key concepts, theories, thinkers and approaches in the social and political sciences and history. Students will also learn the techniques used by a range of disciplines within the social and political sciences and history for gaining and validating knowledge of the social and political world.

• SC1604 - Special Subjects A

  This module will introduce students to the underlying concepts and principles associated with their area(s) of study in relation to other areas of the social and political sciences; to provide students with the opportunity to evaluate and interpret these within the context of that area of study. It will also develop students’ ability to present, evaluate and interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data, in order to develop lines of argument and make sound judgements in accordance with basic theories and concepts of their subject(s) of study.

• SC1605 - Special Subjects B

  This module will introduce students to the underlying concepts and principles associated with their area(s) of study in relation to other areas of the social and political sciences; to provide students with the opportunity to evaluate and interpret these within the context of that area of study. It will also develop students' ability to present, evaluate and interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data, in order to develop lines of argument and make sound judgements in accordance with basic theories and concepts of their subject(s) of study.

Optional

• PP2636 - Climate Politics

  This module aims to enable students to attain a comprehensive understanding of key concepts and theories in the politics and political economy of climate change. It will provide students with resources to assist them in making informed judgments on a range of questions and debates.  

• SO2610 - Colonialism, Migration and Global Racism

  This module explores the concept, meaning and practices of ‘race’, ethnicity, racialization, and global racisms. It identifies how ‘race’ and racism have evolved over time, and in different contexts - both nationally in the contemporary UK as well as in other parts of the world. 

• SA2622 - Culture, Education and Learning

  This module explores key theoretical issues in the cross‑cultural study of education, examining how culture shapes learning and how educational practices, in turn, influence social and cultural life. It develops your ability to understand these processes ethnographically and highlights the value of a comparative approach to studying education across different contexts.

• SO2611 - Digital Culture

  This module considers the shape of new media technologies such as iPhones - has changed the basis of contemporary social life and culture. This module will examine some of the key transformations that are taking place through digital culture. Key aims of the module include:

  • an introduction to debates on digital culture and society;#
  • conceptual, analytical and practical resources to understand contemporary issues on digital culture;
  • the use of case studies to focus on debates around digital culture;
  • to consider the extent to which digital culture is changing social relations at local and global levels.
• PP2633 - Explaining Politics: Quantitative Political Science in Practice

  This modules aims to provide students with the skills to analyse political data and introduce methods for gathering and understanding data. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with the use of existing statistical data in political discourse and demonstrate the importance of quantitative analysis in domestic and international politics.

• PP2631 - From Student to Scholar: Successful Research in the Modern World

  Preparing students for their final year dissertation begins in the second year in From Student to Scholar: Successful Research in the Modern World. This module introduces students to a variety of analytical perspectives, research methods and techniques used in designing a research project in politics, international relations and international politics.

• SO2609 - Gender, Sexuality and Feminism

  This module will introduce students to core ideas in feminism via the key concepts of gender and sexuality. It will develop students’ understandings of social structures, human cultures, and economic inequalities and political relationships. The course will offer theoretical tools and historical insights into gendered, feminised, and sexualised socio-cultural worlds.

• CO2608 - Global Communication

  On this module, students will examine the ways in which the globalisation of communication has transformed social, political and economic relations. 

• PP2627 - Issues in American Politics

  This module familiarises students with contemporary issues on the American political agenda and demonstrates how politicians adapt policy stances and organisational and electoral strategies to accommodate change in political debate. Students are encouraged to adopt a more interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach to learning about American politics by examining social, moral, cultural and economic issues through a partisan political perspective.

• SA2624 - Middle East: Societies, Religion and Politics

  This module examines a particular ethnographic region, assessing in the first instance whether these regions can usefully be considered cultural areas, and going on to examine the key issues for the different parts of each region. The module covers topics such as religion, gender, economics, and local politics in the area of study. 

• PX2XXX - Military History and Strategic Thought

  This module looks at and evaluates a range of military and political thinkers and commanders who have been influential in shaping and understanding the nature of modern warfare. This will include those who have looked at war holistically (Grand Strategy, Strategy, Tactics and Operations) and through the prism of political thought and structures, as well as those who have considered certain distinct elements of it – e.g. land, sea and air warfare. Consideration will also be given to the idea of distinct national ways of warfare, for example the so-called “American way of warfare” or the “British Way of warfare”. There will also be an exploration of such concepts as asymmetric warfare, insurgency and counter-insurgency.

  During the module students will be exposed to major pieces of writing (in translation where necessary) from key military thinkers and theorists and will develop an understanding of how to approach the analysis and evaluation of such sources.

  It aims to give students coverage from the Classical period to the present, and it introduces students to strategy as a global concept, with thinkers such as Sun Tzu and Mao Zedong, and ideologies such as Focosim. It assess students summatively through the prism of document analysis of primary sources from different theories across time and space.

• PP2628 - National Security Intelligence

  This module furnishes students with an overview to the field of national security intelligence. It also examines in greater detail intelligence collection, analysis, counterintelligence, covert action, and other selected topics.

• PP26XX - Plato’s Republic
  • To explore in depth the foundational text in the history of political thought
  • To develop an understanding of some of the main ideas, themes, images and tropes in the Western tradition of political theory as they emerge from its original text.
  • To develop writing and analytical skills within political thought.
  • To develop the skill of thinking politically.
• CO2607 - Popular Culture and Creative Industries

  This module explores how meanings are developed through contemporary cultural representations, practices and processes, with a focus on creativity and the creative industries sector. It examines popular culture and the rise of the creative and cultural sector in late modernity drawing on relevant sociological, media and cultural studies debates and theories. 

• CO2605 - Researching Your World

  This module provides an advanced understanding of research methodologies, with a particular focus on data analysis. Equipping students with an understanding and appreciation of the important theoretical paradigms that underpin qualitative and quantitative social and communications research traditions. Furnishing students with the tools and skills required to conduct and evaluate their own empirical social and communications research.

• SO2614 - Sociology of Everyday Life: Issues in Contemporary Culture

  In this module you will consider the meanings of ordinary, ‘everyday’ processes and actions in society, by examining what everyday life consists of and the relevant academic debates and theories around it. The module will encourage you to reflect on your own everyday life through the lense of power, identity and gender in wider socio-cultural contexts.

• SA2625 - South Asia: Cultures, Societies and Development

  This module examines the region of South Asia, assessing whether the geographical region can usefully be considered as a cultural area, and going on to examine the key issues for the different parts of the region. The module covers topics including colonial histories, caste and class, gender, kinship, globalisation, and South Asian diasporas. It draws, in particular, on the disciplines of anthropology and history and on the field of development studies.

• PP2629 - The State and Revolution

  This module provides students with an understanding of the historical emergence of two of the central concepts of modern political thought: the state and revolution, or the constitution of political order and the process of fundamental political transformation. We study the development of these concepts in some of the major events of political modernity, from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

• PP2638 - Theories of International Relations

  This module introduces students to major theoretical approaches in the study of International Relations. These theories are employed to examine and understand contemporary actors in world politics such as states, international organisations, non-governmental actors as well as major issues and problems such as war, terrorism, climate change or nuclear proliferation. The aim is to give students a critical understanding of IR theory

Compulsory

• SC3602 - Advanced Research Skills for Social and Political Sciences

  This module introduces you to the research and writing process for your dissertation or Major Final Project, helping you build the reading, writing and analytical skills you’ll rely on throughout. It also guides you through the techniques for designing and carrying out a research project in your discipline, encouraging you to engage critically with the topic you choose.

• SC3601 - Dissertation

  To develop students’ abilities to plan, design and execute a research project in the subject area of their degree programme, to communicate their ideas and critically evaluate the success of their project. 

Optional

• SO3614 - Apocalypse! Crisis and Society

  Explore the social & political significance of representations of national and global crises, and public perceptions of controversies. Students analyse dystopian popular and scientific discourses that dwell on disorder and catastrophe. Indicative content includes risk, uncertainty, globalisation, the environment, disease, capitalism. Public understanding, perception and engagement with popular and scientific controversies and notions of crisis.

• SO3625 - Cities, Culture and Social Change

  This module introduces you to urban sociology and builds your understanding of how cities develop, how they’re lived in and how they’re represented. You’ll explore the relationship between space, culture and social life in contemporary cities, using theoretical tools and practical examples to bring those ideas to life.

• CO3617 - Digital Media, Social Movements and Change

  This module gives you an in‑depth, critical understanding of how social movements emerge, succeed or fail to create social or political change, using real‑world cases to explore media tools, leadership, collective identity and governmental or international responses. You’ll build strategic thinking by analysing how historical and contemporary movements organise, mobilise and coordinate in the digital age.

• SA3631 - Environment and Sustainability

  The aim of this module is to look at environment and sustainability from a multipronged perspective. The module will help students develop a nuanced understanding about managing our natural resources. Both top down and bottom up approaches to manage nature will be explored. 

• PP3629 - European Union Politics: Problems and Prospects

  In this module students will discuss the development and functioning of the EU from its inception to the present day and be introduced to and learn to evaluate a range of theoretical perspectives on the EU’s creation, development and functioning. Students will examine a range of political problems in the European integration process, such as legitimacy, domestic and social impact, institutional and policy reform, enlargement, and future directions.

• SO3615 - Global Migration

  Equips students with an understanding of the key concepts in global migration including the causes and consequences of migration, national and international responses to migration and the diversity of migrant flows within a global context, using cases from both Global North and Global South contexts.

• PP3xxA - Great Power Competition: Russia, China and the USA

  Students will be able to:

  • Relate the great power competition today to historical precedents.
  • Understand the motivations behind Chinese, Russian, and U.S. national security policies.
  • Define the tools that great powers use to further their interests in the world.
  • Compare the ways smaller states influence great powers in the international sphere.
  • Interpret the security risks involved with great powers competing in the political, economic, and military spheres.
• PP5628 - International Development: Politics and Policy

  This module will analyse the origins of the ‘development’ paradigm, competing theories of different development. trajectories observed globally, and contemporary scholarly perspectives on international development. It will examine and assess global and local challenges and policy solutions, drawing on a wide range of country case studies and will review empirical challenges in international development including data, measurement and evaluation methods.

• SO3617 - Lawyers, Guns and Money: Making the Modern World System

  This module will explore issues raised by historical and political sociology regarding the development of the modern world-system. In particular the course will focus upon the rise to dominance of Europe in the building of the modern world-system and the explanations offered for this.

• PP3631 - Marx and the Critique of Political Economy

  This module involves reading several key works by Marx, culminating in several weeks on Das Kapital

• PP3623 - Media, Politics & Power in America

  This module seeks to familiarise students with the contemporary issues agenda in American politics. It seeks to demonstrate the ways in which politicians and institutions adapt policy stances and organisational strategies to accommodate changes in the nature, content and direction of political debate.

• GY3610 - Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

  This module provides a ‘meta-critique’ of both the dominant and critical claims related to modern slavery and human trafficking. The module aims to introduce students to the historical debates on labour and migration that led to the current international laws on ‘human trafficking’ (and national laws on ‘modern slavery’ in the UK and Australia). Students will be able to critically analyse the geopolitics of several competing terminologies, such as ‘human trafficking’, ‘modern slavery’, ‘forced labour’, and ‘unfree labour’. They will be able to critically evaluate whether and how these terms help address labour exploitation and/or are selectively deployed to serve certain political ideologies. Not only will students develop critical lenses to analyse the dominant paradigm of ‘modern slavery’ and ‘human trafficking’, but they will also be able to critically interrogate the strengths, weaknesses, and biases of the critical literature. Overall, the module is designed to encourage students first to engage with critical perspectives and then to go beyond them to decolonise one of the most politically charged debates of the 21st century, enabling them to develop original ideas on how to address the exploitation, oppression, and rightlessness of all workers. 

• PP3621 - Parliamentary Studies

  This module aims to provide students with a detailed understanding of the UK Parliament by examining its structure, internal processes, and different committees, and to give students an understanding how to transfer the skills they have acquired when thinking about social, historical and political issues to practical ongoing issues that parliament is encountering in its committees or in legislation it is devising.

• CO3xxD - Politics and Digital Cultures
• PP3640 - Political Economy of the Changing World Order

  The module introduces students to political economy, in particular international political economy (IPE), and to geopolitics. It explores the evolution of world orders, with a focus on the current period. It examines relationships between economic forces and state strategies (economic and geopolitical) on the international stage. It will familiarise students with key concepts and topics in IPE.

• CO3xxC - Political Satire and Comedy

  This module provides students with a sophisticated and critical knowledge and understanding of the relationships between politics, satire and comedy. These relationships are explored in relation to their institutional, historical and social contexts and their textual conventions. The module explores political satire and comedy as it exists in a broad range of texts (e.g. television, cartoons, live stand-up and digital comedy). The module equips students with appreciation and understanding of the continuities and changes in political satire and comedy in national and global political systems and international relations, and its relationship with concepts of political power and hegemony. 

• PP3634 - Public Policy Analysis

  How do governments make public policy? Why do public policies vary across countries? How can public policy be analysed? These are the questions that will be explored in this module. The module will provide the participants with a strong theoretical foundation for analysing public policy and skills to communicate the analyses to non-academic stakeholders in public policy.

• PP3622 - Terrorism and Counterterrorism

  This module aims to address a series of empirical questions regarding the causes, conduct, and consequences of campaigns of terrorism in the modern world. It provides students with an understanding of a series of key debates in the social science literature.

• PX3626 - The Arab-Israeli Conflict

  We survey the Arab-Israeli conflict, covering three overarching themes: 1) Origins of the Conflict; 2) Evolution of the Conflict; and 3) Peace and its Limits. The module covers the origins of both national movements, the development of the conflict under British rule, the major Arab-Israeli wars, peace agreements, and it ends with recent events.