Sociology

Course summary

Sociology asks searching questions about the world ranging from ‘how did you become you?’, ‘why do some children fail in school, and some succeed?’, ‘what causes crime, and can we ever eradicate?’, to ‘what are the global causes of the environmental crisis?’. By asking challenging questions sociology seeks to reveal that which is hidden. Paper 1: (a)Culture and Identity - You will learn how culture and subcultures have shaped the nature of society. The course also examines how identify related to socialization, how the self is seen in terms of disability, gender, nationality, sexuality and social class. You will also consider the effects of leisure and consumption upon identity. (b)Global Development - This unit is focused on the globalisation of culture and the development of societies within the global community. You will examine different theories of development, underdevelopment and global inequality. Paper 2: Education with theory and research methods - You will learn about the role of the education system and why certain groups do better or worse than each other in terms of performance. You will examine some of the hidden processes than go on in the classroom concerning roles: regulating behaviour and teacher student relationships. Paper 3: Crime and Deviance with theory and methods - Throughout this unit of the course you will examine different sociological explanations of the social distribution of crime between social class, gender, ethnicity and age. You will look at crime control, prevention, punishment and the role of the criminal justice system.