Sociology - BSc (Hons) *

Sociology is an exciting and illuminating field of study that attempts to analyse and explain the most important social, cultural and political questions of our time. This module provides you with the opportunity to develop your knowledge and understanding of a range of “problems” or “issues” that currently dominate both the social and political climate. All of these are areas of social and political policy.  

Throughout this module you will be encouraged to develop your skills as an independent learner. You will be given the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge within an assessment that gets you producing a video campaign. You will use sociological insights to analyse social problems and provide policy suggestions for a range of relevant stakeholders. 

This module introduces you to the sociological understanding of contemporary social and political events and areas in which policy is developed. It aims to provide insight into how these events can be read socially, politically and culturally; and how they can be theorised and analysed using a sociological lens. Because of the topicality of the module its content will be routinely updated contingent on specific current events and issues occurring, globally. Therefore, you will be introduced to cutting-edge understanding of the events and issues that are contemporarily present and around you in your everyday lives. You will firstly be introduced to the particular events and issues, before locating them in the existing literature and debates. Relevant sociological theory will be introduced as to provide you a conceptual base that can be applied to establish new understandings to the events and issues being examined. 

This module develops your ability to critically engage with quantitative data and data-driven knowledge as an informed sociological thinker. Rather than training you as a producer of statistical tests, the module equips you to read, interpret, question, and critique the numbers that shape contemporary social life. 

Alongside this critical engagement, you build practical data literacy: understanding key statistical concepts (e.g. averages, distribution, correlation, significance), reading and interpreting tables and graphs, and gaining introductory experience with relevant software. 

This module provides you with an opportunity to experience/reflect upon real world work and/or work-related activity in relation to one of five pathways. The five pathways are:

1. an external work-experience placement with a third sector/public/commercial organisation
2. directed use made of current and relevant work-experience as an active volunteer or as an active paid employee
3. an agreed BCU internal placement or an agreed student-initiated (desk-based) project supportive of entrepreneurial endeavour
4. a directed set of employment-relevant activities to be informed through a recounting of and reflection upon past employment/volunteering experience along with the complementary use of BCU employment-support resources
5. a variation to or a hybrid combination of the preceding forms (1 to 4) to be agreed between tutor and student with reasonable regard to situation and circumstance and with an option to include a critical account of your personal ‘placement search’ activity with a focus on skill application and experiential learning. 

It is expected that each one of the five pathways will engage students for a target of 128 hours over a semester. You will be assigned a ‘pathway’ tutor. Where external or internal placements operate, a workplace-based supervisor will be sought in addition. 

To advance/support learning, a short series of workshop sessions will be provided on module-relevant topics. As relevant and in a timely manner, you are expected to provide the module tutor with a copy of an agreed ‘work plan’ providing an indicative timetable of pathway tasks to be undertaken. All students will be supported via Moodle throughout the module. All pathways are to be agreed by the University.  

This module explores British imperialism from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. It focuses on the historic entanglements between colonial oppression and racial hierarchies, which have been made possible through citizenship regimes. The module also considers rights-based struggles that assume an anti-imperialist and anti-racist character. Learning is situated within the political sociology strand of curriculum provision. The module engages with themes of statehood, power, activism, identity, and the postcolonial. 

Over the course of the module, the modern notion of citizenship - equality, liberty, solidarity - is critically examined. These legal, political, and cultural dimensions of citizenship are probed in terms of their role in creating or undoing hierarchical differentiation between (as well as within) British metropole and colonial populations. British imperialism is then examined through post-1945 citizenship contexts. Our contemporary politics of nationality, culture, and migration is discussed in terms of its (dis)continuities with earlier imperialist discourse. 

The module develops your understanding of histories of the present, which is an integral part of the ‘sociological imagination’ (Mills, 1959) and ‘connected sociologies’ (Bhambra, 2014). In doing so, the module contributes to an intellectual and professional research craft that: prioritises conceptual and evidence-based argumentation; navigates historiographical issues; and contests anti-historical approaches to contemporary politics or policy. Workshops consist of lectures, seminars, and student-led “show and tell” presentations.   

Green and environmental issues are an emergent, and vital, area of study for sociologists and concern for wider society, with intensifying ecological collapse and climate change reported daily. This module will introduce you to the exciting and vital research agendas that exist under the rubric of Environmental Sociology. It will highlight how classical and contemporary social theorists have variously highlighted, socially constructed and marginalised the role of nature and ecology in social organisation, development, stratification and conflict. It will centre these debates in the context of an intensifying climate crisis that threatens human, animal and plant life. This will form publicly engaged focus that explores the role of power in understanding who and what is protected from the worst effects of environmental degradation and who is victimised. This will involve reflecting on how environmental degradation accelerates pre-existing inequalities and resistance along the lines of class, ethnicity, gender, and indigeneity on a local, national and planetary scale.  

The resources required will include physical and digital library resources to download reports from important commentators such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and development organisations like Oxfam. The classes will consist of lectures and discussion workshops with a multidisciplinary reading list encompassing sociology and cognate disciplines, scientific reports and global and local policymaking bodies. 

Speakers from relevant NGOs will be invited to discuss career trajectories focusing on environmental issues and sustainable development. Employability development will be a feature. Participants will gain essential skills to assist future employers with conceptualising and assessing the contemporary challenges that environmental breakdown, particularly climate change, will present for every sector of society. The Assessment will have a significant employability component as well. It will consist of a conference-ready research poster presenting a critical sociological account of a scenario of environmental injustice in the Global North or South with an accompanying 2,000 word essay. This will build your presentation, advocacy and analytical faculties around this urgent area of inquiry. 

Sport occupies a unique cultural and economic space in contemporary society, one increasingly implicated in serious organised crime, political manipulation, and the abuse of power. This module applies a critical lens to the world of sport, examining how global sporting institutions have become vehicles for money laundering, illicit financial flows, and state-sponsored sportwashing.  

You will analyse the role of gambling industries and match-fixing networks, the complicity of governing bodies such as FIFA and the IOC, and the use of sport by authoritarian regimes and populist political elites as a tool of legitimacy and soft power.  

The module also interrogates the failures of regulatory and criminal justice institutions to hold elite actors to account. Through case studies ranging from Gulf state investment in European football to doping scandals and corruption in Olympic bidding processes, students will develop a sophisticated understanding of how sport both reflects and reproduces broader structures of power, inequality, and impunity. 

Through a combination of theoretical engagement and analysis of contemporary case studies, you will develop critical thinking skills that allow them to evaluate various interpretations of people’s behaviours. The module emphasises the importance of understanding wider sociocultural factors when considering how and why people do what they do.  

You will have the opportunity to pursue an assessment on topics that align with their own interests, developing their ability to synthesise academic literature and construct well-evidenced and nuanced arguments. These skills—critical analysis of complex social issues, evaluating multiple perspectives, and presenting reasoned arguments—are highly valued in diverse professional contexts including policy development, advocacy work, education, and research. 

This module introduces you to the key debates, theories and practices within intersectional feminism, with a particular focus on how gender is shaped through interlocking systems of power. You will explore the historical development of feminist thought alongside contemporary interventions that expand, challenge and redefine what feminism means in diverse global contexts. The module examines how gender is produced, represented and contested across social, cultural and political spheres, and how experiences of gender are deeply inflected by race, class, sexuality, disability, migration, and other axes of identity and inequality. 

Throughout the module, you will engage with foundational and emerging intersectional feminist thinkers, considering how their work provides frameworks for understanding and resisting structural oppression. You will explore topics such as embodiment, reproductive justice, sexual politics, digital feminisms, and feminist responses to violence. Working with examples from popular culture, social media, activism, policy and lived experience, you will critically evaluate how feminist knowledge is produced, circulated and applied. 

The module takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on sociology, Black and postcolonial feminisms, queer studies, disability studies, and media and cultural studies. Together, we will consider how intersectional feminism challenges dominant ideologies, illuminates marginalised perspectives, and contributes to broader struggles for social justice. You will be encouraged to apply theoretical concepts to issues relevant to your own interests, communities or everyday experiences. 

Assessment for this module requires you to produce a piece of coursework that critically applies intersectional feminist theory to an example of your choice (e.g., a cultural text, social issue, political movement, organisation, or lived experience), demonstrating your ability to analyse gender as a dynamic and relational category shaped by multiple forms of power. 

Popular culture refers to the cultural form of ordinary people and is shaped by the interactions between people in their everyday activities: styles of dress, the use of slang, greeting rituals and the foods that people eat. Popular culture is also informed by the mass media and in this module, we will consider how the media and popular culture can act to confirm or resist dominant ideologies produced in society. We will explore and analyse a wide range of mass mediated and everyday culture. You will learn and apply a range of methods of cultural analysis to the study of contemporary media, culture, and the cultural sociology of everyday life.  

This module aims to develop your ability to critically analyse contemporary media and popular culture. We will examine social and cultural studies theories relevant to the study of cultural sociology, with a specific focus on topics including class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, music, ‘the body’, media, consumption, and Black popular culture. Moreover, you will consider sociological theories and concepts to understand the media in relation to the production and consumption of culture, looking at key theories of the role of media and understanding media texts (e.g., movies, TV programmes, YouTube videos, blogs, books, magazines, social media, etc.).   

This module examines the intersections of space, power, and control, emphasising how spatial organisation shapes the governance of social life. Drawing on Foucauldian perspectives on governmentality, students will explore the rationalities underpinning different spaces, the enactment of power/knowledge across environmental milieus, and their implications for the regulation and management of specific individuals and/or groups, and their comportments, habits, dispositions, routines and capacities. The module situates contemporary spatial practices within historical and institutional contexts, fostering critical reflection on the continuity and transformation of governmental logics. You will engage with core concepts including governmentality, spatial rationalities, and the geography of power/knowledge, alongside methodological approaches for analysing sites, institutions, and environments, with an emphasis on Foucault’s genealogical method enabling students to trace the emergence and evolution of different spaces as a site of government. Case studies will provide empirical grounding while supporting critical interrogation of theory in practice. 

Assessment is through a genealogical analysis of a ‘geography’ of governmentality in which you critically define, analyse, and examine the spatial rationalities underpinning the governmental logic of a chosen site, institution, or environment. By the end of the module, you will be able to critically engage with governmentality; analyse different spatial rationalities and their effects; apply Foucault’s genealogical method to a selected site, institution, or environment; and produce a clear, coherent, and well-structured analysis of the spatial rationalities underpinning their chosen site, institution or environmental milieu. This will equip you with skills to interrogate the organisation of space and the exercise of power/knowledge, with relevance to sociology, geography, philosophy, urban studies, and the broader social sciences. 

The aim of this module is to provide a framework for you to undertake a substantial disciplinary relevant project. It is founded upon the University's teaching and learning philosophy which integrates theory and practice. 

The format of the Integrated Research Project will vary, dependent on the degree pathway you are on, and the choice of project. Depending on student interest and available support, potential project formats may include: a library-based or empirical dissertation; a group-based social entrepreneurship project; a community organising project, or other projects based on the suggestion of students. 

The module provides a framework for integrating the principles, tools, theories and methods from your programme and providing students a degree of freedom to develop a project in a relevant subject of their choosing. 

The module is aligned to the programme’s aims as it pursues excellence in enabling you to specialise in a chosen field or area to develop your knowledge and your application of that knowledge and research findings. Depending upon the chose are of study the project may well be interdisciplinary or have an international scope. 

Class contact will consist of a programme of lectures/workshops, scheduled by the individual programme teams. Based on the format of project chosen there will also be a series of (independent or group) supervisory meetings to be taken over the course of the academic year. Although there is some recommended reading for devising the research project the essential reading will reflect the negotiated topic and organisation under investigation. 

This module provides a critical introduction to global sociology focusing on key concepts, theoretical debates, and the relationship between knowledge, power, and sociological theory. It adopts a connected sociologies framework to examine global society as a historically interconnected system shaped by colonialism and its enduring legacies. 

The module explores how colonialism structured global systems, shaping empire, capitalism, racial hierarchies, and global political and economic ordering. It further analyses how these colonial formations continue to influence contemporary societies through persistent inequalities, global capitalism, dependency relations, and international governance structures despite processes of formal decolonisation. 

A central concern of the module is the analysis of social inequality in a connected global context, with attention to the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and identity, alongside processes of stratification, migration, and transnational social relations. These dynamics are understood through relational and historically grounded perspectives that emphasise interdependence rather than separation between societies. 

The module also foregrounds the role of the Global South not merely as an object of sociological analysis, but as an active producer of knowledge and theory. It engages with decolonising approaches, Southern theory, and alternative modernities to critically challenge Eurocentric assumptions within sociology and to highlight inequalities in knowledge production. 

Finally, the module considers processes of resistance and transformation through anti-colonial and decolonial movements, transnational activism, cultural resistance, and contemporary debates in global sociology. By integrating theory, history, and contemporary case studies, the module enables students to critically analyse global social processes and evaluate ongoing struggles within unequal global structures. 

This module will provide you with a critical understanding of contemporary patterns and debates around intimacy, communities, and belonging. Questions such as: How has romantic and other forms of intimacy changed over time? How do people fulfil their need for community and connection with others? Why do people live the lives they do? What do their behaviours tell us about modern life? 

This module introduces key concepts and theories to help explore, understand, and critically analyse topics such as friendship, casual sex/relationships, consensual non-monogamy, fandoms, online culture, parasocial relationships, AI, nature, loneliness, the manosphere, and social media.  

Through a combination of theoretical engagement and analysis of contemporary case studies, you will develop critical thinking skills that allow them to evaluate various interpretations of people’s behaviours. The module emphasises the importance of understanding wider sociocultural factors when considering how and why people do what they do.  

You will have the opportunity to pursue an assessment on topics that align with your own interests, developing their ability to synthesise academic literature and construct well-evidenced and nuanced arguments. These skills — critical analysis of complex social issues, evaluating multiple perspectives, and presenting reasoned arguments — are highly valued in diverse professional contexts including policy development, human resources, advocacy work, education, and research. 

This module examines fascism, the far right, and forms of extremism through a sociological lens, situating them within wider processes of power, inequality, identity, and social change. It explores how extremist ideologies emerge, how they are sustained, and how they operate across historical and contemporary contexts. The module also considers genocides as extreme manifestations of social exclusion and violence, alongside their cultural representation and collective memory. 

Drawing on key sociological theories and contemporary research, the module engages with themes such as nationalism, racism, populism, authoritarianism, and political violence. It critically examines how social divisions (including race, class, gender, religion and citizenship) are mobilised within extremist movements, and how these relate to broader structures of power and inequality. 

Alongside this, the module explores resistance to fascism and extremism, including grassroots activism, cultural opposition, digital resistance, and policy responses. It also considers ethical challenges in researching and representing violence and atrocity. 

Teaching is delivered through a weekly 3-hour interactive workshop format, combining short lectures, group discussion, collaborative tasks, and engagement with visual, textual and digital sources. A weekly 1-hour optional drop-in session provides you with additional academic support and space for discussion. You are expected to undertake weekly reading, directed online activities, and independent study to support your learning. 

By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical, research-informed understanding of extremism and resistance, and will be able to apply sociological concepts and methods to complex and contested social issues. The assessment is designed to develop advanced analytical, research and communication skills.