department of
SOCIOLOGY
UNDERGRADUATE HONOURS LEVEL MODULES
2014/2015
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Contents 2
Bodies, Property and Politics 3
Capitalism and Religion 5
Commercial Cultures in Global Capitalism 7
Dissertation 8
Economic Sociology 10
Gender, Culture and Popular Media 11
Politics of Food and Nutrition 13
Population and Social Change 14
Practice of Qualitative Research 16
Practice of Quantitative Research 17
Racism and Xenophobia 18
Sexualities and Society 20
Social Theory of Law 22
Sociology of Education 24
Sociology of Health and Illness 26
Surveys, Secondary Analysis and Social Statistics 28
Transformations: Gender, Reproduction and Contemporary Society 30
Transnationalism and New Media 33
MODULE TITLE: BODIES, PROPERTY AND POLITICS
MODULE CODE: SO239
MODULE CONVENOR: DR AMY HINTERBERGER
CONVENORS EMAIL:
CONVENORS ROOM NUMBER: R2.16
AVAILABLE TO FINALIST AND/OR NON-FINALISTS / Non-FinalistFULL/HALF MODULE / Half
NUMBER OF CATS
(15 or 30) / 15
TERM AVAILABLE
(if half module) / Spring Term
ASSESSMENT METHOD / One, 3000 word assessed essay
PRE MODULE REQUIREMENTS
(if applicable) / None
Brief Description of Module
Across the globe we are seeing the increasing entanglement of capitalism and biotechnology, such as ever widening markets in both human and animal bodies and body parts. The patenting of human cells and DNA, the use of embryos in reproductive technologies, the recruitment of humans in clinical trials and the trade in human organs are all part of emerging ‘bioeconomies’.
Drawing on a range of case studies, this course will challenge students to think through the idea of ownership of bodies, the application of markets to biological materials and why the commodification of bodies remains a problem for politics. It brings together work from economic sociology, science and technology studies and the biomedical sociology.
The course takes a distinctly global perspective, exploring how the relationship between bodies, property and politics differs across national forms of governance and regulation. In the process, we will examine the relationship between knowledge and value along with the kinds of social differences (such as race and gender), and new forms of citizenship, that are being transformed in and through such exchanges.
Preliminary/Indicative Readings
Almeling, Rene. 2011. Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm. University of California Press.
Jasanoff, Sheila. 2005. Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States. Princeton University Press.
Petryna, A. 2009. When Experiments Travel: Clinical Trials and the Global Search for Human Subjects. Princeton University Press.
Reardon, Jenny. 2005. Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics. Princeton University Press.
Rose, Nikolas. 2007. The Politics of Life Itself, Princeton University Press
Sunder Rajan, K. 2006. Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life. Duke University Press
Waldby, C. and Mitchell, R. (2006) Tissue Economies: Blood, Organs, and Cell Lines in Late Capitalism. Durham and London: Duke University Press
MODULE TITLE: CAPITALISM AND RELIGION
MODULE CODE: SO339
MODULE CONVENOR: DR CLAIRE BLENCOWE
CONVENORS EMAIL:
CONVENORS ROOM NUMBER: R2.29
AVAILABLE TO FINALIST AND/OR NON-FINALISTS / FinalistFULL/HALF MODULE / Half
NUMBER OF CATS
(15 or 30) / 15
TERM AVAILABLE
(if half module) / Spring
ASSESSMENT METHOD / 3,000 word assessed essay
PRE MODULE REQUIREMENTS
(if applicable)
Brief Description of Module
How do people’s religious beliefs, spiritual strivings and desires play into the power relations and attitudes of the contemporary world? Is religion responsible for class power, imperialism and/or economic development? What is the link between sexuality, spirituality and power? How have religious movements contributed to the making of capitalist economics and the spread of capitalism across the globe? What is the impact of modern capitalist economics on religious belief? Does capitalism destroy spirituality? Has capitalism itself become a new kind of religion? Is Money the new God?
This module takes up a series of classic debates from social theory about the relationship between modernity, capitalism, ideology and religion and brings them up to date. We will explore religious dimensions of contemporary power – including Neo-liberal economics, international development, western imperialism, explotation and dictatorship. We will engage with classic and cutting edge social theory, and apply this to examples from Africa, America and Europe. Examples will primarily relate to Christianity and capitalism, but students are welcome to incorporate their own research on other world religions.
Topics include:
· Religious dimensions of power and resistance in the making of European Modernity
· Money, Alienation and Modernist Spirituality: From the Philosophy of Money, to Money as God
· Christianity and Contemporary American Capitalism: Evangelism, Culture Wars, and Neo-Conservatism
· Christianity, Imperialism & Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa:
Preliminary Readings
Arendt, H. (1965) The Human Condition
Beard, J. (2007) The Political Economy of Desire: International Law, Development and the Nation State
Benjamin, W. (1938) ‘The Work of Art in the Era of Technological Reproducibility’
Bornstein, E. (2003) The Spirit of Development
Comaroff, J & J (1985, 1991) Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism & Consciousness in South Africa Vol I. & Vol II.
Connolly, W. (2008) Capitalism & Christianity American Style
Cooper, T. (2007) Controversies in Political Theology: Development of Liberation?
Foucault, M. (1976) Discipline & Punish
Foucault, M. (2002) ‘The Subject and Power’
Foucault, M. (2007) Security Territory Population
Goodchild, P. (2002) Capitalism and Religion: The Price of Piety
Goodchild, P. (2007) Theology of Money
Maffesoli, M. (1996) The Time of the Tribes
Mbembe, A. (2001) On the Postcolony
Simmel, G. (1997) Simmel On Culture
Simmel, G. (2004) The Philosophy of Money
Thompson, E.P. (1963) The Making of the English Working Classes
Weber, M. (1985) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
MODULE TITLE: COMMERCIAL CULTURES IN GLOBAL CAPITALISM
MODULE CODE: SO240
MODULE CONVENOR: LYNNE PETTINGER
CONVENORS EMAIL:
CONVENORS ROOM NUMBER: R3.17
AVAILABLE TO FINALIST AND/OR NON-FINALISTS / Non-FinalistsFULL/HALF MODULE / Half
NUMBER OF CATS
(15 or 30) / 15
TERM AVAILABLE
(if half module) / Autumn
ASSESSMENT METHOD / Assessed Essay
PRE MODULE REQUIREMENTS
(if applicable)
Brief Description of Module
“Life is not complete without shopping” (Chua, 2003). This module investigates globalised commercial cultures and explores the production of consumption by looking at processes of ‘cultural intermediation’. We will look at practices of humdrum and spectacular consumption, at the growth of brand cultures and at how marketing and advertising try to generate feelings in consumers. We will study consumer cultures in developed and emerging economies to critically consider the promises and seductions of the world of goods, services and experiences. Some questions we will consider include: is a globalised commercial culture homogenising? Is ethical consumption possible? Does a good commercial worker have to be an active consumer? Are we always ‘working’ as consumers to generate value in capitalism?
Preliminary Readings
Beng Huat Chua (2003) Life is not complete without shopping. Singapore, NUS.
Anne Cronin (2004) ‘Regimes of Mediation: Advertising Practitioners as Cultural Intermediaries?’, Consumption Markets & Culture, 7(4): 349–369.
Jo Entwistle, (2006) ‘The Cultural Economy of Fashion Buying’, Current Sociology, 54(5): 704–724.
Liz Moor (2007) the Rise of Brands. London and New York, Berg.
MODULE TITLE: DISSERTATION
MODULE CODE: SO301
MODULE CONVENOR: DR ALAN BRADLEY
CONVENORS EMAIL:
CONVENORS ROOM NUMBER: R2.31
AVAILABLE TO FINALIST AND/OR NON-FINALISTS / FinalistFULL/HALF MODULE / Full
NUMBER OF CATS
(15 or 30) / 30
TERM AVAILABLE
(if half module)
ASSESSMENT METHOD / 100% Assessed
PRE MODULE REQUIREMENTS
(if applicable)
Brief Description of Module
Dissertations provide an opportunity to undertake independent research. With a dissertation you will, with occasional guidance from a supervisor, design and conduct the research yourself. Rather than answering an examination question or writing an assessed essay on a pre-determined topic, with a dissertation:
- you choose the topic
- you work out how to study it
- you collect and assess relevant information
- you analyse and criticise the information
- and you write the account of how it was all done in about 10,000 words.
Ideally a dissertation should be a sustained argument. This means that it should draw upon the results of your reading, thinking and information-gathering in such a way that it persuades readers to accept your understanding of the topic. The main aim is to use a selection of concepts, theoretical ideas, observations, statistical findings and your own faculties of criticism and imagination in an attempt to reach defensible conclusions about a topic which interests, challenges or puzzles you.
As far as the choice of topic is concerned, it should be broad enough to make connections with existing sociological knowledge but also sufficiently narrow in focus to enable you to deal with questions in depth. So, while ‘The selection of sexual partners in Britain’ would be too broad, a study of ‘Some aspects of the selection of sexual partners in a sample of university students’ would be acceptable. Similarly, ‘The modern philosophy of social science’ would be too broad, but ‘Some recent developments in rational choice theories in sociology’ would be acceptable. Your choice of dissertation topic also needs to take account of the resources and time available to you.
In terms of presentation, most dissertations are divided into five or six chapters, although other formats could be appropriate for some topics. In any case, you are expected to ensure that your dissertation contains:
- an introduction explaining your choice of topic and methods of tackling it
- a review of a relevant area or areas of literature to set the context
- an explanation and justification of the research methods chosen
- an extensive analysis of the central arguments or findings
- some relevant conclusions
- a bibliography or list of references.
Preliminary Readings
Cousin, Glynis (2009) Researching Learning in Higher Education: an Introduction to Contemporary Methods and Approaches, Routledge
Berry, R. (2004) The Research Project: How to Write It, Routledge. 2nd ed.
Walliman, N. (2001) Your research Project: A step-by-step Guide for the First-time Researcher, Sage.
Blaxter, L. et al. (2001) How to Research, Open University Press. 2nd ed.
Rudestam, K.E. & R.R. Newton (2001) Surviving your dissertation: a comprehensive guide to content and process, Sage Publications. 2nd ed.
Bell, J. (1999) Doing Your Research Project: a Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education and Social Science, Open University Press. 3rd ed.
Preece, R. A. (1994) Starting Research: An Introduction to Academic Research and Dissertation Writing, Pinter.
MODULE TITLE:- ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
MODULE CODE: SO340
MODULE CONVENOR: PROFESSOR NICHOLAS GANE
CONVENORS EMAIL: [email protected]
CONVENORS ROOM NUMBER: R3.15
AVAILABLE TO FINALIST AND/OR NON-FINALISTS / Finalist and Non-finalistsFULL/HALF MODULE / Half
NUMBER OF CATS
(15 or 30) / 15
TERM AVAILABLE
(if half module) / Autumn
ASSESSMENT METHOD / Assessed 3,000 Word Essay
PRE MODULE REQUIREMENTS
(if applicable) / N/A
Brief Description of Module
This module addresses some of the key debates within the field of economic sociology. The main aims of the module are: 1). to address and explain connections between society and the economy; 2). to think sociologically about what markets are and where their limits lie; 3). to analyse money as a mediating force in social life; 4). to analyse the changing status of the economic and the social through and beyond the recent financial crisis.
Preliminary Readings
Andrew Gamble, The Spectre at the Feast. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2009.
Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008.
Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom. London: Routledge, 1944.
Friedrich Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Donald MacKenzie, Material Markets. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go To Waste. London: Verso, 2013.
Jamie Peck, Constructions of Neoliberal Reason. Oxford: Oxford, University Press, 2010.
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation. New York: Beacon, 2002.
Wolfgang Streeck, Politics in the Age of Austerity. Cambridge: Polity, 2013.
Richard Swedberg, Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Richard Swedberg, Principles of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Slavoj Zizek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. London: Verso, 2009.
MODULE TITLE: GENDER, CULTURE AND POPULAR MEDIA
MODULE CODE: SO236
MODULE CONVENOR: Professor Deborah Steinberg
CONVENORS EMAIL:
CONVENORS ROOM NUMBER: R3.29
AVAILABLE TO FINALIST AND/OR NON-FINALISTS / Finalist or non-finalistFULL/HALF MODULE / Full
NUMBER OF CATS
(15 or 30) / 30
TERM AVAILABLE
(if half module)
ASSESSMENT METHOD / 100% Assessed, or 100% examined or
50% examined/50 assessed
PRE MODULE REQUIREMENTS
(if applicable)
Gender relations have undergone radical transformations over the past 25 years, leading to an influential and diverse tradition of feminist media and cultural studies. Central to this field are debates and theory in studies of masculinity, the changing constructions of femininity and female identities and the place of feminism as a source of cultural critique, activism and also new cultural ideals.
This module will provide a lively exploration of a selection of key debates and issues within the cross-over fields of gender, culture and popular media studies. The module will explore the cultural construction of feminisms, femininities and masculinities, focusing on media representations on the one hand and a range of socio-cultural contexts on the other. Key themes and topics will include: gender transformations in the culture of work, lifestyle labours, and caring; cultures of celebrity and fandom; spectacle and pleasure; advertising; women’s and men’s magazines; new web cultures and identities; cultures of the body (reproductive bodies; body size); cultures of violence; new politics of sexuality and the questions of ‘third wave’ and ‘post’ feminisms. The module will introduce students to tools of media and cultural analysis and research methodology including: content analysis; genre studies; semiotics and ‘the gaze’ in film and television, ‘hegemony’ and ‘commonsense’, new media technologies and e-cultures; the making of ‘moral panics’ and audience studies. Of particular interest will be the ways in which the intersecting power relations of class, gender, 'race' and sexuality shape ideas and commonsenses about, for example, nation, citizenship, community, justice, the body and identity.