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Dr Thomas Biegert OLD.2.54

This course is available on the BSc in International Social and Public Policy, BSc in International Social and Public Policy with Politics, BSc in Politics and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

Places on this course are limited and priority is given to Social Policy students in the first instance. If places remain available once Social Policy students have been accommodated, they will be offered on a first come first served basis to students from outside the Department.

This course is not available to third year students.

This course introduces students to sociological ideas and thinking and how they link to key social policy issues. 

The course is organised around six major social policy concerns : gender inequalities; ethnic and racial inequalities; class mobility and stratification; educational opportunity and inequality; social networks and social segregation; neighbourhood deprivation and housing.

These are related to key classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives and concepts that have been used to describe and explain them, such as occupational segregation, discrimination, cultural and social capital, institutions, socialisation, identity and belonging, and intergenerational transmission of status, values and resources.

The sociological understanding of the underlying reasons for the various dimensions of social inequality inform the critical analysis of social policies that aim to tackle them.

Courses in Social Policy will follow the Teaching Model which has been adopted by the Department of Social Policy during the period of the pandemic. This is outlined HERE: /social-policy/Current-Students/teaching-in-the-department-of-social-policy

This course will be taught through a combination of either a recorded lecture plus a follow-up Q and A session or a ‘live’ on-line lecture; and classes/seminars of 1-1.5 hours (with size and length of classes/seminars depending on social distancing requirements).

Further information will be provided by the Course Convenor in the first lecture of the course.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the MT and 1 presentation in the MT and LT.

One essay in MT

One group presentation in either MT or LT

The course will draw on three core texts, as well as academic journal articles:

David Grusky, D. and Szelenyi, S. (eds.) 2011 The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race, Class, and Gender. 2nd Edition. Westview Press Oxford University Press

Payne, G. (ed.) 2013 Social Divisions. Third Edition.Palgrave Macmillan

Platt, L. 2019 Understanding Inequalities: Stratification and Difference. 2nd Edition. Polity Press.

For those unfamiliar or without a background in Sociology, the following text provides useful background: Fulcher, J. and Scott, J. (2011) Sociology, 4th Edition.

Online assessment (60%, duration: 24 hours) in the ST.
Essay (40%, 1500 words) in the LT.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.