THIRD YEAR BOOKLET 2015-2016
SOCIOLOGY MODULES 2015-2016
Term
Module Number
Module
Autumn
SOC00002H
Analysing Doctor-Patient Interaction
2015
SOC00009H
Paranormal in Society
SOC00023H
Birth, Marriage & Death
SOC00032H
Advanced Social Theory
SOC00034H
Crime, Gender & Sexuality
SOC00035H
Cinema, Cities & Crime
SOC00040H
Morbidity, Culture & Corpses
WOM00001H
Sexuality, Technology, Culture
SOC00003H
Body, Identity & Society
SOC00007H
Humans & Other Animals
SOC00013H
Art, Tastes and Stratification
SOC00036H
Migration & Tourism
SOC00039H
The Racial State
SOC00041H
The Global Transformation of Health
SOC00042H
Emotions in the Social World
Spring
2016
Summer
No taught modules
2016
DISCLAIMER
Whilst the University tries to ensure that information contained in this document is accurate when published, the University does
not accept liability for any inaccuracies contained within it. Where circumstances occur or change outside the reasonable control
of the University, the University reserves the right to change or cancel parts of, or entire, programmes of study or services at any
time without liability, before or after students have registered at the University. Circumstances outside the University’s
reasonable control include: industrial action, over or under-demand from students, staff illness, lack of funding, severe weather,
fire, civil disorder, political unrest, government restrictions and concern regarding risk of transmission of serious illness. The
University’s contract with its students does not confer third party benefits under the Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
MODULE NO. SOC00002H
Module Organiser
ANALYSING DR-PATIENT INTERACTION
Dr Merran Toerien
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: Completion of the second year module “Social Interaction and Conversation Analysis” would be an
advantage but is not a pre-requisite for taking this module.
Compulsory for Degree: No
AIM
To give you a thorough grounding in the application of conversation analysis (CA) to the study of doctor-patient
interaction.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
 An understanding of the significant role that language plays in the work of health professionals
 A knowledge of the key conversation analytic findings regarding interaction in medical settings
 A sound grasp of the perspectives and methods of applied CA (i.e. applied to institutional settings)
 Experience of using the methodological skills of CA to analyse recordings of real-world doctor-patient
interactions
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through two sessions per week: one one-hour lecture and one two-hour practical
workshop. We will work with original data and there will be independent work/preparation for the sessions. Some
work in small groups will be required.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4,000 word essay, in which you will be required to substantiate your arguments with analysis of interactions
from real medical consultations (data will be provided).
DESCRIPTION
Interaction is at the heart of all forms of social life, including medical consultations. Although doctors might use
physical practices to diagnose and cure (such as listening to the heart, giving an injection, writing a prescription), the
consultation is intrinsically interactional – and the nature of the interaction has significant effects, not only on patient
satisfaction but on real-world health outcomes. Doctor-patient interaction has received substantial attention from
conversation analysts, who have investigated the practices whereby both parties pursue the tasks of the medical
consultation. For example, how do doctors design their questions to patients when taking a medical history; how do
patients propose their own theories of what’s wrong; how do doctors deliver diagnoses; how do patients resist a
treatment plan or request a test; how do doctors elicit patients’ additional concerns? In this module, we consider some
of the social, moral and technical tasks facing doctors and patients and explore in close detail the interactional
resources they use to solve them.
INDICATIVE READING
Heritage, J. and Maynard, D. (eds) (2006) Communication in Medical Care: Interaction between Primary Care Physicians and
Patients. Cambridge: CUP.
Peräkylä, A. (1998) Authority and Accountability: The Delivery of Diagnosis in Primary Health Care, Social Psychology
Quarterly 61(4): 301-320.
Stivers, T. (2007) Prescribing Under Pressure: Parent-Physician Conversations and Antibiotics. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
MODULE No. SOC00009H
Module Organiser
PARANORMAL IN SOCIETY
Prof Robin Wooffitt
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: None.
AIM
To introduce students to the key substantive and methodological issues in the study of anomalous or exceptional
human experiences.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module students should have
 developed a knowledge of the range, incidence and characteristics of what are known as anomalous or
paranormal phenomena;
 a critical appreciation of some of the conceptual and methodological issues which inform social science
responses to these kinds of experiences;
 an overview of the relationship between sociology and scientific attempts to understand anomalous
experiences.
ORGANISATION
This module will be taught in a weekly two hour lecture/workshop session and a weekly one hour seminar/workshop.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4000 word essay on a question chosen from a short list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
In this module we will explore social scientific approaches to paranormal or anomalous experiences. We will consider
issues such as the extent to which cultural tradition can shape experiences, and we examine the argument that reports
of paranormal experiences are a response to social disadvantage. We will also consider contemporary psychic
practitioners, and explore the performative and discursive aspects of psychic demonstrations.
INDICATIVE READING
Adorno, T. W. (2002) The Stars Down to Earth and other essays on the Irrational in Culture. London: Routledge
Hufford, D. J. (1982) The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centred Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Cardena, E., Lynn, S. J. and Krippner, S. (eds.) (2000) Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific
Evidence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
Wooffitt, R. (2006) The Language of Mediums and Psychics: the Social Organisation of Everyday Miracles. Aldershot:
Ashgate
MODULE No. SOC00023H
Module Organiser: Celia Kitzinger
BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Spring Term
Prerequisite: No
Compulsory for Degree: No
AIM
This module will provide a research-based understanding of birth, marriage and death as fundamentally social
phenomena, profoundly influenced by law and social policy. It will unsettle taken-for-granted lay understandings of
them as purely personal experiences and locate them in their socio-legal contexts. Students will also be involved in a
small-scale research project that runs throughout the module.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module students will have engaged with the sociological, socio-legal, and related disciplinary
literatures on birth, marriage and death and developed an understanding of the intersections between these three
domains. They will be able to articulate connections between the experiences we consider ‘intimate’ and ‘private’ and
the socio-legal and political contexts that construct them. They will also have developed an understanding of the role
of empirical research in investigating these domains.
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through a mixture of lectures, student-led presentations, research activities and group
discussions/debates.
ASSESSMENT
To be confirmed.
DESCRIPTION
This module will focus on the way in which our personal experiences of birth, marriage and death are shaped by
social, legal, political and technological contexts. We will explore historical and anthropological accounts of birth,
marriage and death to understand how these experiences are socially constructed, legally organised, and contingent
on time and place. We will engage with contemporary socio-legal contestations in all three terrains (e.g. advocacy for
homebirth, same-sex marriage, assisted dying) and consider a range of ethical and scientific perspectives and their
media representation. We will consider the application of key sociological themes across all three domains (of birth,
marriage and death), e.g. risk, medicalisation, ritual, religion, gender and race and participate in a small-scale
empirical research project.
Please be aware that this module is both intellectually and emotionally challenging, deals with sensitive issues, and
may raise strong personal emotions.
INDICATIVE READING
Davis-Floyd, R. 2004. Birth as an American Rite of Passage. (Revised edition). University of California Press.
Earle, S. et al. 2009. Death and Dying: A Reader. London: Sage/Open University Press.
Graff, E.J. 2004. What is Marriage for: The strange social history of our most intimate institution. Boston: Beacon Press.
Seale, C. 1998. Constructing Death: The sociology of dying and bereavement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sullivan, A. 2004. Same sex marriage: pro and con - A reader. New York: New York Vintage Books.
Teman, E. 2010. Birthing a mother: The surrogate body and the pregnant self. Berkeley: University of California Press.
MODULE No. SOC00032H
ADVANCED SOCIAL THEORY
Module Organiser:
Dr. Nathan Manning
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: None
Compulsory for Degree: None
AIM
To introduce students to some of the key ideas, concepts and debates in contemporary social theory.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module students should have acquired:
 knowledge of key debates in contemporary sociological theory
 a detailed understanding of contemporary writings on agency and structure
 an ability to apply concepts like agency and structure to different life stages and different aspects of social life
ORGANIZATION
The module will be taught through a two hour lecture and a one hour seminar each week.
ASSESSMENT
A 4000 word essay on a question chosen from a list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
This module will build on the introduction to sociological theory offered in the first year of the degree by exploring in
detail a number of key debates in contemporary social theory. The module will draw upon the work of thinkers such
as Margaret Archer, Ulrich Beck, Pierre Bourdieu, and Anthony Giddens. Particular attention will be paid to
understandings of structure and agency in contemporary sociological theory. Core questions to be addressed include:
What is agency? Have we now entered a period of modernity wherein our lives are shaped by freedom and choice or
does social structure continue to play a role in moulding experience in particular ways? What role might our internal
dialogues and reflexivity play in decision making? To what extent does agency characterise periods of life like ‘youth’
and realms of experience like intimate and personal life?
INDICATIVE READING
Archer, M. 2003 Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation, Cambridge University Press.
Bauman, Z. (2001) The Individualized Society, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (1995) The Normal Chaos of Love, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002) Individualization, London: Sage.
Furlong, A., and F. Cartmel (2007) Young People and Social Change: New Perspectives, Buckingham: Open University
Press.
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Smart, C. (2007) Personal Life, Cambridge: Polity Press.
MODULE No. SOC00034H
CRIME, GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Module Organiser:
Dr Paul Johnson
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: None
AIMS
The aims of this module are to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Provide a theoretically informed understanding of a range of criminal offences that relate to gender and sexuality;
Outline historical and contemporary responses to these offences in the form of different strategies of social
control;
Consider the effectiveness of various forms of social control;
Understand how the formal regulation of sex contributes to the broader social construction of gender and
sexuality in contemporary societies.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Having completed the module, students should:



Have an understanding of sociological and criminological approaches to sexuality and gender;
Be able to apply sociological theories and concepts to a number of different substantive issues around sexuality
and sexual offences;
Have a critical awareness of both formal and informal social responses to crimes related to gender and sexuality.
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through a two-hour lecture, and one-hour seminar each week.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4000 word essay selected from a short list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
Sexual offences may not be as common as other forms of crime but they provoke high levels of anxiety and concern. This
module will explore crime and deviance in relation to a number of substantive areas related to sexuality. It will consider
how different types of offences are structured in relation to sexuality and gender and how this, in turn, organizes
responses to them. The module will begin by considering how gender and sexuality have been theorized by a number of
criminologists, sociologists and legal scholars and then examine a number of diverse contemporary issues, including: rape
and sexual violence; paedophilia and child sexual abuse; prostitution; pornography; public sex; and homophobia and
hate crime.
INDICATIVE READING
Johnson, P. and Dalton, D. (2012) Policing Sex. Routledge.
Letherby, G. et.al (2008) Sex As Crime? Willan.
Phoenix, J. & Oerton, J. (2005) Illicit and Illegal: Sex, Regulation and Social Control. Willan.
MODULE NO. SOC00035H
Module Organiser
CINEMA, CITIES, CRIME
Dr Gareth Millington
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
AIM
This module will critically reflect upon how the modern city, urbanization and urbanism is imagined and represented
in a series of films (e.g. Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Super Fly, La Haine, Devil in a Blue Dress,
Boyz n the Hood, Drive, Dirty Pretty Things). The ‘cinematic city’—an amalgam of the real and the representational is
used to reflect upon major transformations of city life including bureaucratic control, urban renewal, suburbanisation,
ghettoisation, globalisation and dualisation. As such the module inevitably scrutinises forms of social stratification
such as ‘race’, ethnicity, class and gender. The module will attempt to encourage students to develop an historical
sociological understanding of the modern city.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this module student should:

have a general understanding of the relationship between cinema and the city

be able to reflect critically upon sociological analyses of the city in relation to the urban imaginaries
contained in crime films (especially in relation to the notion of dystopia)

be attuned to both the ideological and critical content of crime based cinema

be aware of the fractured, contested character of urban experience as mediated by cinema
ORGANISATION
This module is built around weekly two hour lectures and one hour seminars. The seminar sessions will be built upon
student presentations and class discussion of key readings and relevant films.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: All students must complete an essay of no more than 4000 words.
DESCRIPTION
Writers, artists and filmmakers have long been exhilarated by their experience of the metropolis. Yet a dark shadow
always loomed over modern enthusiasm for the city. Authority and repression punctuated the drama of city
freedoms; immersion in the crowd produced feelings of estrangement and paranoia; the promise of technology and
planned urban futures could be terrifying. One way that in which modern cinema expressed this terror was through
the image of urban dystopia, often expressed in the crime film. Dark visions of cities forged by capitalism and
technology did not necessarily mean a forthright rejection of the modern metropolis but rather a critique of how the
progressive, emancipatory or utopian promises of urban life were being betrayed. Moreover noir urban imaginaries
warn against the impossibility of individual heroism and of achieving societal ‘perfection’. This module provides an
historical sociology of the modern city by visiting the more troubled cinematic spaces and times of capitalism and/ or
modernity.
INDICATIVE READING
Barber, S. (2002) Projected Cities: Cinema and Urban Space. London: Reaktion Books
Rafter, N. (2000) Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Penz, F. (2011) Urban Cinematics: Understanding Urban Phenomena Through the Moving Image. Bristol: Intellect
Prakash, G. (ed) (2010) Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City. Princeton: Princeton University Press
MODULE NO. SOC00014H
MORBIDITY, CULTURE AND CORPSES
Module Organisers
Dr Ruth Penfold-Mounce and Dr Sian Beynon-Jones
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: None
Compulsory for Degree: None
AIM
The module aims to explore fascination with death, dying and corpses. This will be achieved through
engaging with representations in popular culture, dark tourism, disposal of corpses and issues of
disgust, the role of fame and celebrity in relation to death, criminality and space and morbidity as a
site of social stratification.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module students will be able to:
• Express and tailor ideas and arguments coherently to an audience through presentations, group discussion and written
work.
• Self manage: ability to plan and manage time; work autonomously; take initiative and a will to succeed.
• Work as a team: co-operating with others on a shared task; to recognise and take on appropriate team roles; leading and
following effectively
• Problem solve: demonstrating a capacity for analysis and synthesis, applying knowledge, able to retrieve, analyse and
evaluate information from and for different sources
• Demonstrate creativity and innovation: ability to generate ideas; to identify and take opportunities
• Recognise the importance of effective use of IT: basic word-processing skills; ability to use the internet and email
effectively
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through a 3 hour workshop.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4000 word essay chosen from a list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
Society faces major economic uncertainties and austerity measures where the strain of living is increasing and where
humanity’s vulnerabilities and fragility are being tested and exposed on multiple levels. Rising individualism, shifting
religious belief systems and aggressive consumerism have shifted views regarding death, dying and aging. Particular
forms of morbidity are being embraced through death tourism, horror and fantasy films and a consumerist approach to
the end of life. This module aims to focus on the relations between morbidity, space, media and social stratification.
INDICATIVE READING
Butler (2009) Frames of War: When is Life Grieveable?
Layne (2003) Motherhood lost: A Feminist Account of Pregnancy Loss in America
Quigley (1996) The Corpse: a history, London: McFarland and Company
MODULE No. WOM00001H
Sexuality, Technology, Culture
Module Organisers: Prof Stevi Jackson, Dr Ann Kaloski-Naylor and Prof Gabriele Griffin
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: No.
AIM: To introduce students to contemporary debates around the interrelationship of bodies, sexuality, technology and
gender, emphasising interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module students should have: acquired a sound grasp of theories of gendered and sexual embodiment,
developed a critical awareness of global and local, technological and cultural, influences on intimate relationships, be able
apply analytical skills to diverse forms of cultural and media representation and offer a feminist appraisal of their
historical, political and cultural context.
ORGANISATION
This module is taught via a weekly lecture plus a 2 hour seminar.
ASSESSMENT
A 4000 word essay on a question chosen from a list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
This module will draw on a range of interdisciplinary sources including: feminist social and cultural theory; empirical
sociological and anthropological studies; film; literature; autobiography; digital media and fiction. Indicative lecture titles
are:
 Gendered and Sexual Embodiment and the Sexualization of Culture Debates
 Global Sexual Relations and Exoticized Others
 Cultures of Proliferation: New Family Formations
 Unintended Consequences: Auto/biographical Narratives of Donors and Donor Offspring
 The Ethics of Cloning
 Feminist Narratives of the Digital: An Introduction
 Embodied Online Relationships: Virtual Worlds, Real Sex?
 Technotexts – Thinking around Shelley Jackson’s My Body: A Wunderkammer
INDICATIVE READING
Attwood, F. (2009) Mainstreaming Sex: The Sexualisation of Western Culture. London: I. B. Tauris
Constable, N. (2003) Romance on a Global Stage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Churchill, C. (2002) A Number. London: Nick Hern Books.
Franklin, S. and S. McKinnon, eds. (2001) Relative Values: Reconfiguring Kinship Studies. Durham: Duke UP
Haraway, D.( [1991) 'A Cyborg Manifesto’, in Simians, Cyborgs and Women. New York: Routledge,
Ishiguro, Kazuo (2005) Never Let Me Go. London: Faber and Faber.
Johnson, Phyllis (2010) Second Life, Media, and the Other Society. New York: Peter Lang.
Lan, Pei-Chia (2008) ‘Migrant Women’s Bodies as Boundary Makers’ Signs, 33(4): 833-862.
Sheldon, Sally (2005) ‘Fragmenting Fatherhood: The Regulation of Reproductive Technologies’, Modern Law Review 68/4
(July): 523-553.
Stacey, Jackie (2010) The Cinematic Life of Clones. Durham: Duke UP.
MODULE No. SOC00003H
Module Organisers
BODY, IDENTITY AND SOCIETY
Dr Nik Brown, Dr Sarah Nettleton
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Spring Term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: None.
AIM
The body has taken centre stage in sociology over recent years and this module will examine some of the key
perspectives associated with embodiment and corporeality. The modules will explore themes such as embodied
identity, sex, disfigurement, etiquette, regulation, reproduction, body mass, pain, the emotions, and temporality. It
will explore perspectives associated with the thinking of, for example, Goffman, Foucault, Bourdieu, Elias, Crawford,
Agamben, Haraway, Oakley, Latour, etc.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this module students will understand the place of ‘the body’ in contemporary sociological perspectives,
and gain a grounding in the connections between theory and empirical areas of research on the body.
ORGANISATION
This module is taught via a weekly 2–hour workshop (including a break) plus a 1-hour lecture. Seminar topics will be
based on the preceding lecture and readings will be available on the VLE (Yorkshare). All students will participate in
a group presentation during the final weeks of the course.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4000 word essay on a question chosen from a list to be provided during the module..
DESCRIPTION
Indicative Lecture topics will explore:
 The Civilising of the Body – etiquette, pollution and body orders
 The Disciplining of sex, gender and inter/sexualities
 Visual culture and embodiment – the body in representation
 Fat and skinny – diet, consumption, capitalism and the body
 Body work, body building and sporting bodies
 The temporal body – lifecourse, rhythmic and cyclical embodiment
 Posthuman bodies – identity in transplantation
INDICATIVE READING
Brown, N. and Webster, A. (2004) New Medical Technologies and Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Douglas, M. (1966) Purity and Danger. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Elias, N. (1984) The Civilising Process. Oxford: Blackwell.
Howson, A. (2012) The Body and Society: an introduction Cambridge, Polity Press. Second edition.
Nettleton, S. and Watson, J. (1998) The Body in Everyday Life. London: Routledge.
Shilling, C. (2012) The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage. Third edition
Turner, B. S. (2008) The Body and Society. London: Sage. Third edition
Williams, S. and Bendelow, G. (1998) The Lived Body: Sociological Themes and Embodied Issues. London: Sage.
MODULE NO. SOC00007H
HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS
Module Organiser Amanda Rees
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: None.
AIM
To find out what looking at animals can tell us about the nature of human identities and the structures of human
societies.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
• To develop an understanding of the role played by animals in human politics and culture, and an appreciation of
how that role has evolved historically and geographically
• To examine the significance of animals in the production of both profit and knowledge in capitalist societies
• To consider the contrasts between expert and lay opinions on the nature of animal life, and the use of animals in the
construction of definitions of what counts as human
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through a weekly one-hour lecture and two hour seminar.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4000 word essay on a question chosen from a short list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
Over the past thirty years, the social sciences and humanities have begun a profoundly critical re-examination of our
relationship with animals and the natural world. In the past, ‘nature’ and ‘animals’ were treated as irrelevant to the
analysis of the social world: now, we understand just how important they are to the origin, development and
maintenance of our societies. Why do we (intend to) eat cows and not horses? Should the interests of endangered
animals (whales, lions, elephants) be given priority over those of the humans that live near them? How do we define
an endangered animal? If we can poison and shoot foxes, why can’t we hunt them? And why can we shoot foxes, but
not badgers? Can animals think? Can they feel? Can some of them talk? Do these questions matter when considering
the legal status of animals? Do we treat a person holding a Rottweiler differently to a person holding a Pekinese?
What assumptions do we make about them? What are these people telling us about themselves when they walk their
dogs? Finally, why are all these questions about mammals? What about reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, insects?
Don’t they count? These are just some of the questions we’ll explore in this module as we look at the ethical,
economic, social, cultural, political, biological, edible and emotional roles of animals in human societies.
INDICATIVE READING
Brantz, D (ed) (2010) Beastly Natures: Animals, Humans and the Study of History. Charlottesville: University of
Virginia Press.
Franklin, A. (1999) Animals and Modern Cultures . London: Sage
Gross, A & Valley A (eds) (2012) Animals and the Human Imagination. New York: Columbia UP
Ingold, T (ed) (1988) What is an Animal? London: Routledge
Kalof, L. (2007) Looking at Animals in Human History. London: Reaktion
Malamud, R (ed) (2007) A Cultural History of Animals in the Modern Age. Oxford: Berg
Philo, C & Wilbert C (eds.) (2000) Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-Animal Relations.
London: Routledge
MODULE No. SOC00013H
Module Organiser
ART, TASTES AND STRATIFICATION
Dr Laurie Hanquinet
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Spring Term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: None.
AIM
The module aims to explore the links between art and society from a sociological perspective. This module
encourages students to reflect upon how art is produced and how it is diffused into society, as well as how this
process affects people’s tastes.
Art production and consumption are associated with values that are deep-rooted in society and that have to be
unraveled and deconstructed, such as the concepts of gift, genius or the universality of tastes. These values are not
neutral. On the contrary, they play an important role in the (re)production of social inequalities and are entangled
with issues of domination and power. Following insights from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the recent
Great BBC class survey has, for instance, recently highlighted the importance of cultural capital observable through
people’s tastes or cultural preferences in social class divisions and more generally social stratification. Cultural
preferences are thus embedded in a wide range of social relations (class, gender, age, ethnicity) and hence symbolic
and moral boundaries.
The module aims to encourage students to develop a critical view on these different aspects of the relationships
between art and society, with a particular focus on the understanding of the social meaning of tastes. Examples of
questions students will be asked to reflect upon are: what is an artist? Is an artist somebody naturally gifted? What are
the relationships between artists and society? How do art institutions support and diffuse art? How is art received by
people? How are tastes formed?
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this module students should:
•
be able to reflect upon the social construction of art and its three main dimensions, production, mediation and
reception
•
have a critical vision of the different actors and institutions involved in this process (e.g. the role of museums)
•
be able to engage with the sociological literature on art, artists and taste but also to understand better the
main theoretical currents in sociology
•
gain an insight into interdisciplinary approaches on these topics (e.g. museum studies, history of art, etc.).
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through a two hour lecture and 1 hour seminar each week.
ASSESSMENT
A group presentation (15%), individual written critical reflection on the presentation (10%), 3000 word essay (75%).
DESCRIPTION
The module starts by deconstructing the definition of art and artists and shows that both are socially constructed. Art
cannot be considered as (only) a spontaneous act of a genius. Its development has always followed social rules and
has been embedded in the production and reproduction of inequalities (see for instance, Zolberg, 1990). The module
focuses on, for instance, the roles of elites in the legitimisation of high culture and its distanciation from more popular
forms of art through the establishment of cultural institutions such as museums. By unraveling the social mechanisms
behind the production of culture, it becomes clear that people’s tastes are not natural or the simple expression of our
true self but are also developed within aesthetic principles that act as markers of social inferiority or superiority.
Bourdieu (1984) associated highbrow culture to upper-middle class ‘snobs’, particularly rich in cultural resources (or
capital). Peterson (with Simkus, 1992 and with Kern, 1996) argues, on the contrary, in favour of a distinction between
‘omnivores versus univores’. Further recent influential sociological approaches claim that tastes and social position
have become blurred and less predictable in a consumer society (Bauman, 1988; Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1991). The
module covers these different theories and helps students think about what people’s tastes say about them.
INDICATIVE READING
Becker, Howard Saul (1984). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bennett, T., Savage M., Silva E., Warde A., Gayo-Cal, M. and Wright, D. (2009). Culture, Class, Distinction. London:
Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Harrington A. (2004). Art and Social Theory: Sociological Arguments in Aesthetics. Cambridge: Polity.
Inglis, D. (2005). Thinking 'Art' Sociologically, in Inglis, D. & Hughson, J. (eds) The Sociology of Art: ways of seeing.
Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp.11-29.
Peterson R., Kern R. (1996). Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore. American Sociological Review, 61(5),
pp. 900-907.
Prior N. (2002). Museums and Modernity: Art Galleries and the Making of Modern Culture, Oxford and New York, Berg.
Tanner, J. (2003). The sociology of art: a reader. London: Routledge.
Zolberg, V. (1990). Constructing a sociology of the arts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MODULE No. SOC00036H
MIGRATION AND TOURISM
Module Organiser
Dr Wes Xiaodong Lin
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Spring Term
AIM
To provide a sociological perspective to understanding migration and tourism
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this module you should have:




knowledge of the different forms of contemporary migration and tourism
theoretical understanding and empirical appreciation of contemporary migration and tourism as social
phenomena
learned to evaluate contemporary migrations and tourism through a sociological lens
a critical appreciation of the similarities and differences in sociological approaches to the study of migration
and tourism
ORGANIZATION
The module will be taught as a 2 hour lecture and 1 hour seminar.
ASSESSMENT
1 x 4000 word essay on a topic to be chosen from a list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
The study of migration and tourism have often been conducted in isolation. In recent years, however, an increasing
number of social phenomena that blur the boundaries between migration and tourism have been the subject of social
scientific research. In this module we examine sociologies of migration and tourism alongside one another, in order to
evaluate the relationship between diverse migration and tourism practices and explore differences and similarities in
approaches to understanding these mobile practices. The module will draw on a range of empirical cases, including
labour migration, sex tourism, lifestyle migration and tourism-related mobilities, engaging with sociological
discussions on gender, class and other social categories.
INDICATIVE READING
Castles, S. de Haas, H. and Miller, M. (2013) (5th Edt.) The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the
Modern World. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave MacMillan. [see also http://www.age-of-migration.com/]
Franklin, A. (2003) Tourism: an Introduction. London: Sage.
O’Reilly, K. (2012) International Migration and Social Theory. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Special Issue: Theories of Migration and Social Change (2010), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 36(10).
Urry, J. (2007) Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity Press.
MODULE No. SOC00039H
Module Organiser:
Level 3 | 20 Credits |
Prerequisite: None
Compulsory for Degree: No
The Racial State
Dr Nisha Kapoor
AIMS
The aims of this module are to:
i.
Provide a theoretically informed understanding of the interaction between race and modern state
formation.
ii.
Develop students’ understandings of links between stratification, race and structural notions of racism.
iii.
Consider the connections between racism and liberalism and think critically about racism as the
exception.
iv.
Reflect on the significance of the postracial, both in terms of the implications of suggestions that racism is
of the past or has been overcome, and in terms of how we might look to move beyond racial structuration.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
 Engage with the sociological and related disciplinary literatures on the connections between racism and the
state including institutions, media, policy and legislation.
 Understand racism as a structuring device and reflect critically on social, economic, political and cultural
inequalities.
 Connect and critically discuss the theoretical literature on the racial state in relation to grounded empirical
realities in Britain.
 Appreciate the connections between the conceptualisations of race in Europe and racial governance in
colonized states.
 Think critically about the significance of claims to postraciality, what the postracial means in practice and as
an ideal utopia.
ORGANISATION
The module will be taught through a 2 hour lecture plus a 1 hour seminar each week.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 3000 word essay worth 75% of the course mark and a powerpoint presentation worth 25%.
DESCRIPTION
Racism is often thought of as an aberration, discussed as something exceptional and contraire to accepted liberal
conventions and norms. In recent times, amidst claims that society is now ‘post-race’ inferring that racism has largely
been overcome, high-profile racist events are often depicted as sporadic episodes and remnants of the past. Such
claims frequently rely on conceptualisations of racism as the product of individual acts of prejudice. This module
tackles such assumptions and understandings through focusing on the connections between racism and the state,
considering the way race 1) has informed modern state formation, 2) continues to be used as a structuring device, and
3) is performed as an everyday governmentality. We will consider the connections between race and liberalism,
empirically focusing on British counter–terrorism policy since 2000.
INDICATIVE READING
Goldberg, D.T. (2002) The Racial State, Oxford: Blackwell.
Winant, H. (2004) The New Politics of Race, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kundnani, A. (2007) The End of Tolerance, London: Pluto Press.
MODULE No. SOC00041H
Module Organiser
The GLOBAL TRANSFORAMTION OF HEALTH
Prof Ellen Annandale
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Spring Term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: None.
AIM
To introduce students to the key substantive issues in the study of the global transformation of health and healthcare
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the module students should have
Subject knowledge of
 The health consequences of increasing global connectivity and mobility
 The securitization of health and (bio)terrorism
 .The rise of global medial tourism and its consequences
 The global commercialisation of health (e.g trade in body parts)
 The globalisation of new epidemics (from SARS and HIV to Obesity)
 The impact of neoliberal politics on global health systems and the provision of healthcare
 New and emerging forms of health stratification
ORGANISATION
This module will be taught in a weekly two-hour lecture plus seminar and a one hour lecture.
ASSESSMENT
Mode: A 4000 word essay on a question chosen from a short list provided during the module.
DESCRIPTION
This module will explore the consequences for health of global connectivity. How we think about our health and how
we treat the sick is being transformed by more mobile populations (of patients and of health personnel) in a context of
cultural, political and medical technological change. New health problems have emerged (such as novel viruses, like
ebola) which impact people differentially in different parts of the globe and health status becomes increasingly
important with the movement of people (the securitization of health). New forms of health stratification are resulting
from the differential exposure of people to various illnesses and from their capacity to protect their health in divergent
political circumstances (e.g of war and civil conflict). We will see that the kinds of healthcare provided in national
healthcare systems are changing in response to new health markets e.g medical tourism, and the trade in body parts,
around the world.
INDICATIVE READING
E. Annandale (2014) The Sociology of Health and Medicine, 2nd edn, Polity.
J. Butler (2010) Frames of War. When is Life Grievable? Verso
W. Cockerham and G. Cockerham. Health and Globalization. Polity
S. Davis (2009) Global Politics of Health. Polity
D. Dickenson (2008) Body Shopping. Converting body parts into profit. One World Press.
S. Elbe (2010) Security and Global Health. Polity
J. Tritter et al. (2010) Globalisation, Markets and Healthcare Policy. Routledge.
P Wald (2008) Contagious: cultures, carriers and the outbreak narrative. Duke University Press.
MODULE No. SOC00042H
EMOTIONS IN THE SOCIAL WORLD
Module Organiser
Dr Steph Lawler
Level 3 | 20 Credits | Autumn Term
Prerequisite: None.
Compulsory for Degree: No.
AIMS
This module introduces students to the sociological and cultural study of emotions. It aims to:
•
Develop a critical approach to the study of emotions
•
Consider how emotions can be seen as social phenomena that both shape and are shaped by social life.
•
Critically explore a range of ways of understanding emotions in the social world
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the module, students will:
•
Be able to demonstrate knowledge of recent theorizing about the significance of emotions in the social world;
•
Be able to conceptualize emotions as social and cultural products
•
Understand the relationships between social inequalities, social identities, and emotion;
•
Be able to apply their understanding of emotion to empirical phenomena, including cultural texts.
•
Have an understanding of the uses of emotion in the production and consumption of cultural texts.
•
Be able to critically reflect on, and engage with, the relevant literature
•
Have improved their communication skills
•
Be able to identify an appropriate data set and to critically analyse it
•
Have improved their skills in marshalling an argument
•
Have had the opportunity to improve their skills in time management, and self-organization.
ORGANISATION
This module will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops (3 hours / week)
ASSESSMENT
Mode: Portfolio consisting of a data set and critical analysis (1500 words, 35% of the mark)
and
Essay on a question chosen from a list provided during the module (2,500 words, 65% of the mark)
DESCRIPTION
This module introduces students to the sociological and cultural study of emotions. It considers how emotions work
as social and cultural phenomena, and also considers how emotions can be understood as both personal and political,
linking ‘large-scale’ social issues with the personal and the everyday. The module looks at the links between social
inequalities, social identities and emotions in order to understand how emotions circulate within social relations. It
will look at how emotions are involved in the work of setting social, cultural and political boundaries between self
and other, ‘us’ and ‘them’.
The module introduces different conceptual models of emotion, as well as analyses of emotions in context.
INDICATIVE READING
Barbalet, J., ed, (2002) Sociology and Emotion. Oxford: Blackwell.
Burkitt, I. (2014) Emotions and Social Relations. London: Sage.
Bendelow, G. and Williams, S.J., eds, (1997) Emotions in Social Life. London: Routledge.
Greco, M. and Stenner, P., eds (2008) Emotions: a Reader. London: Routledge.
Redman, P., ed. (2008) Attachment: Sociology and Social Worlds. Manchester: Manchester University Press
Wetherall, M. (2012) Affect and Emotion: a New Social Science Understanding. London: Sage.