Sociology BSc (Hons)
Why choose this course?
Sociology is the study of people in society. It is concerned with the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and how people's beliefs, attitudes and behaviours are shaped by the world around them. On this course you will delve into how we influence one another as individuals and groups, and the ways in which wider social factors affect what we do and how we think.
Our Sociology BSc (Hons) explores questions about the nature of society, human relationships and behaviour. It looks at issues around power and inequality, social change, conflict and development.
Sociology challenges our prejudices and assumptions. This degree will enable you to tackle global social problems like inequality, migration, war and climate change. You will gain experience relevant to growing sectors such as think-tanks, NGOs, governmental and international organisations, and local and urban agencies.
| Attendance | UCAS code/apply | Year of entry |
|---|---|---|
| 3 years full time | L300 | 2020 |
| 4 years full time including foundation year | L301 | 2020 |
| 4 years full time including sandwich year | L302 | 2020 |
| 6 years part time | Apply direct to the University | 2020 |
| Location | Penrhyn Road |
Reasons to choose Kingston University
- A relevant work placement will enhance your learning and give you valuable work experience for your future career
- There are opportunities for field trips in the UK or abroad
- You'll be taught in a vibrant, award-winning department. You'll be able to take part in events such as student conferences and research seminars.
Studying Sociology at Kingston University
What our graduates say
What you will study
Take a look at some of the content and modules that you may have the opportunity to study on our Sociology course:
Year 1
Year 2
Optional year
Sandwich year
Final year
In Year 1, your will gain the theoretical grounding necessary to becoming a sociologist as you look at some of sociology's key thinkers whilst tracking the historical development of sociological theory from ‘classical' to 'contemporary'. You will be introduced to some of the most influential ways of thinking about self and identity, drawing on both sociology and psychology; and you will explore who is policed and disciplined in societal, popular and political cultures. You'll understand how researchers utilise qualitative and quantitative research methods and will gain hands-on experience of research skills.
Core modules
Violence, Transgression and Society
30 credits
Violence, Transgression and Society explores who is policed and disciplined in societal, popular and political cultures. It thinks about why some people and their behavior are seen as especially violent and transgressive while others are not. It shows that responses to violent and transgressive people are shaped by historical and social context, geographical location and intersections of social identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sex, class, faith and age.
Students will learn about who is policed and disciplined, how, why and by whom across teaching blocks 1 and 2. In teaching block 1 there is emphasis on histories of violence, and in teaching block 2 there is emphasis on contemporary forms of transgression. Examples include: riots and anti-social behaviour, social ‘groups' like homeless people and ‘problem' families, and communities such as white working class and Muslim communities.
Throughout the module, the question of who is policed and disciplined, how and why, is explored through national and global real-world events and case-studies and in relation to criminal, social and racial justice. Students bring academic knowledge to real-world events and issues in weekly interactive workshops and the module assessment.
Social Selves
30 credits
This module introduces students to some of the most influential ways of thinking about self and identity, drawing on both sociology and psychology. It deals with key dimensions of identity in contemporary life such as gender; work; sexuality; race; ethnicity; understandings of mental health; connections with places such as nations, cities and the globalised world; spirituality and religion. It explores the inseparable interweaving of society and the psyche; the psychological and the socio-political; collective forces and universal human drives. It places the ongoing process of constructing the self in the foreground in attempts to understand people's behaviour and development more generally. The very notion of the ‘self' is treated as an interactive, social phenomenon. The first part of the module considers the questions such as ‘what is the self?' and ‘how does the self arise?' The second part goes on to focus on a number of social dimensions which pattern selfhood. Students' employability is enhanced through the development of presentation skills as well as the ongoing development of analytical and critical skills through discussion and written work.
Contemporary Issues in Sociology
30 credits
Contemporary Issues in Sociology has two key objectives. The first is to provide the theoretical grounding necessary to becoming a sociologist. It introduces students to some of sociology's key thinkers and tracks the historical development of sociological theory from ‘classical' to 'contemporary'. It presents a critical account of theory and by the end of the module students will have a repertoire of theory available to them. The second objective is to make theory ‘useful' by offering the professional tools necessary to apply it to a range of fresh, contemporary social issues.
Students are expected to demonstrate their full engagement with the module by keeping a regular, up to date personal research diary. This diary will be used to produce research notes relevant to everyday experiences and students will be expected to reflect on these experiences within the context of the theoretical discussions in the lectures. Students will be expected to discuss their diary entries in seminars.
The module teaches theory and its application and provides an appropriate theoretical and skills grounding for Levels 5 and 6.
Researching Everyday Life
30 credits
A key task of sociologists is to understand the routine aspects of everyday life.
This module will focus your attention on how researchers have utilised a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods to develop attentiveness to the seemingly mundane that is everyday life and how lives are lived at the junctures of self, family, culture and social worlds. This module aims to ground your understandings of everyday life through practical application of methods and data analysis. You will gain hands-on experience of research skills throughout the module that can be applied to future study and employability
In Year 2, you'll explore a range of classic and contemporary thinkers to address the double role that sociology has inherited from its origins. You will understand the historical and theoretical conceptualisations and methodological approaches to researching ‘race' and ethnicity in contemporary society. Alongside this you will build upon your existing research skills. You will have the opportunity to specialise in your main interests via a choice of modules.
Core modules
Researching Race and Ethnicity
30 credits
This module focuses on historical and theoretical conceptualisations and methodological approaches to researching ‘race' and ethnicity in contemporary society. Key questions that are interrogated on the module are: In what ways do the researcher and participants' racial and ethnic identities impact on the research process? In what ways are race and ethnicity shaped, and in turn shape, the experiences of class, gender, sexuality and religion? How do they intersect with other forms of social difference to affect relations of power and privilege? What are the ethical dilemmas of doing such research? How are different social contexts shaped by, and shape, race and ethnicity? What are the ways in which individuals, groups and communities challenge racism in order to raise awareness and contribute to social change? Throughout the module students will work to expand their critical thinking and research skills, make meaningful connections between theoretical concepts and lived experience, and to better understand how experiences of race and ethnicity interact with broader social structures.
How to Change the World
30 credits
Building on SO4001 ‘Contemporary Issues in Sociology' and SO4003 ‘Social Selves', this module will develop the concept of ‘the sociological imagination', first outlined by the US theorist C. Wright Mills to indicate "the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society" (1959). Although Mills was writing in the post-war era, the concept can be traced back to the development of the discipline as it emerged in response to the challenges of social life in industrial cities of the 19th century. Hence this module will use a range of classic and contemporary thinkers to address the double role that sociology has inherited from its origins: not just to understand the world, but to try to change it. This problem will be explored within the context of the city as a strategic unit of analysis in order to understand wider processes of modernisation, industrialisation and the subsequent onset of postmodernity and post-industrialism.
By studying original texts and placing them within their social and historical contexts, students will deepen their understanding of the discipline's critical engagement with different aspects of social life. There will be a strong focus on London with opportunities for fieldwork.
The module will be team-taught and will address the underlying questions: what role can sociologists play in tackling different forms of social injustice and inequality?
Optional modules
Youth, Crime and Deviance
30 credits
This module considers what is understood by the term youth, as a social category and life stage, and explores young people's lived experiences. As such, it examines the history of youth culture and subcultures and styles, and critically considers the notion of 'problem' youth and societal responses to this including intervention and multi-agency working. Bringing together sociological, criminological and cultural studies theory from Level 4, the module considers youth from both an individual and structural view point. We will also look at how we have come to deal with young offenders in the youth justice system and considers the contradictory messages about welfare, diversionary measures, human rights, punitive justice, managerial and crime prevention discourses and strategies.
Policing and Punishment
30 credits
This module provides you with a critical insight into key issues and controversies in the delivery of justice, social control and punishment. It encourages you to think critically about the role of the state in the regulation of behaviour and provides an overview of key changes that have occurred in the field of crime control and criminal justice. The first part of the module is dedicated to developing understanding of the concepts of 'policing' and the 'police'. Key issues confronting contemporary policing are explored together with an enhanced awareness of the historical context within which contemporary policing has developed.
Debates about policing are situated within broader debates of social control and governance, with a critical appreciation of the police function and role. It also considers the implications of globalisation for policing both at an organisational and conceptual level. The second part of the module provides you with the opportunity to undertake a critical examination of contemporary debates on the purpose of punishment. You will be introduced to a range of theoretical perspectives and debates on the use of punishment to address criminality and will consider the purpose of punishment in modern societies. This will be accompanied by an examination of different forms of punishment including an in-depth exploration of the use of imprisonment and comparative penal systems.
Securing Human Rights: Contemporary Themes and Issues
30 credits
This module is a core requirement for students taking Human Rights at level 5, and can also be taken as an option by students in related fields. The module introduces the contested and evolving relationships between the theory and practice of securing human rights.
It starts with an overview of key frameworks and mechanisms designed to secure rights at the international, regional and domestic levels. A central feature of the module is to introduce key critical themes, from which issues can be dissected and analysed through a range of contemporary and international case-studies.
Themes may include:
- ‘Human Rights, Security and Forced Migration', which analyses the way in which the issue of forced migration brings together a variety of legal, political and security debates.
- ‘The Politics of Human Rights in Development', which examines the recent convergence of the fields of human rights and development (inclusive of ‘the right to development' and the proliferation of ‘rights-based approaches to development').
- ‘Rights in the aftermath? Truth, Justice and Reconciliation', which examines the globalization of transitional justice discourses and the propagation of different mechanisms (ranging from International Criminal Tribunals, to national truth commissions, to local justice initiatives).
- And, ‘Indigenous Peoples, Rights and Beyond' that engages with central issues surrounding indigenous peoples' claims, whilst also probing the gravity of particular contested issues (such as ‘the right to self-determination' and broader ‘sovereignty' challenges).
The module concludes by asking: what is the future for human rights?
Slavery and Emancipation
30 credits
This module will introduce you to the controversies and debates over slavery and other forms of violence committed against groups of people in the modern world and their responses seeking emancipation. Beginning in the fifteenth century with the first European enslavement of Africans, it looks at the rebellions and other forms of day to day resistance, the relations between slavery and Britain's industrialisation, the subsequent development of US slavery, the struggles for emancipation and the movements of African Americans into the twentieth century. These cases will be revisited from the perspective of gender, and compared to other forms of structural oppression of colonised peoples and workers.
The module will consider the challenges in identifying the standpoint of the oppressed and study examples of how 'subaltern' oppressed groups enter politics. There are case studies of different historical and contemporary movements for emancipation, exploring some of their key debates and the challenges of constructing unity whilst respecting diversity.
The module as a whole will encourage the critical analysis and assessment of the various interpretations that have been put forward and facilitate the development of your research skills, ability to work together and communicate your ideas.
Globalisation and Social Change
30 credits
Through TV, newspapers, and other forms of media we are continually told that we live in a fast-moving globalised world. Yet whilst ‘globalisation' is now a common term, what it entails and how it affects our lives is often more difficult to discern.
Focusing on the social, cultural, political and economic aspects of globalisation, this module exposes the different dimensions and implications of global social change. Opening with a critical examination of the meaning and competing definitions of globalisation, it moves on to examine: processes and theories of uneven global development, international inequality, the evolution and changing face of global capital, the significance of global environmental risk, the creation of global cultures and the transformation of local culture, migration and transculturalism, the rise of global cities and the urban experience, and the significance of global networks.
Although not a pre-requisite, this module is also a good preparation for students wishing to study Migration and Social Transformation (SO6022) in level 6. The module will help to prepare students for a variety of professions in which knowledge and understanding of international and global social processes is relevant.
Study abroad optional year
You have the option to take an additional year to study abroad or to undertake a year-long work placement overseas (or even a mix of both.)
This course has a sandwich year option which takes place between Year 2 and your Final year. During this sandwich year you will take a placement within a relevant setting, ensuring you gain essential experience to add to your CV and help you secure a graduate job.
In your Final year, you will explore the social intersections between gender, race and class. You will undertake an advanced research project on a topic of interest and receive training in research skills. You will also choose from a range of specialist modules that suit your area of interest.
Core modules
Social Intersections: Gender, Race and Class
30 credits
This module explores the social intersections between gender, race and class. It begins by examining historical conceptualisations of these terms and intersections, and the social and civil movements that challenged how these terms were considered in both women's and men's lives.
From the beginning, the module will introduce you to a wide range of feminist approaches in order to make sense of various intersections of gender, race and class. In this module you will consider how such categories and intersections contribute to identity constructions and contestations. You will reflect on these elements within contemporary examples of everyday life – for example, consumption, families and intimacies, education and sport. Upon completion of this module you will have expanded your skills in critical reflection and analysis of social intersections and inequalities.
Sociology Dissertation
30 credits
This module provides students with an opportunity to develop their own sociological specialism by conducting an extended and in-depth study on a topic of their choosing. Students will be tutored in the skills necessary to successfully complete a final year dissertation and will work with a staff supervisor to develop a critical understanding of their research topic. These skills, involving an ability to organise and plan work effectively and autonomously will enhance their employability.
Sociology Extended Dissertation
60 credits
This module provides students with an opportunity to develop their own sociological specialism by conducting an extended and in-depth study on a topic of their choosing. Students will be tutored in the skills necessary to successfully complete a final year dissertation and will work with a staff supervisor to develop a critical understanding of their research topic. Students will also work together to organize a student conference at which they will present their work, thereby learning the skills of event organization and management as well as have an opportunity to disseminate their dissertation to a wide audience. These skills, involving an ability to organise and plan work effectively and autonomously will enhance their employability.
Optional modules
The Politics of Crime in the Black Atlantic
30 credits
The module studies the role played by race in all aspects of the criminal justice systems in the United States and United Kingdom. It takes as its point of departure Professor Paul Gilroy's 1993 concept of the ‘Black Atlantic' as a cultural-political ‘space of hybridity' involving Africa, America, Britain and the Caribbean, and we use that concept to examine the extent to which crime and the criminal justice system have been politicised.
The module concerns itself with the shifting politics of race within the criminal justice system. Among other topics, it explores historical representations of race and crime; press and media depictions of black male offenders; racial profiling and the ‘othering' of female offenders; and the commodification of prison that has led to the United States having the highest incarceration rates in the world.
Other focal areas include racial disparities within the criminal justice system, the politics of punishment and sentencing, and empirical, theoretical, practical and policy issues. The module addresses issues of representation, the production of knowledge, the historical contexualisation of minority experiences in theoretical perspectives, and the ethical duties of criminologists working within minority experiences.
The module includes a field trip to Bristol to explore the history of immigration and emigration as it relates to crime.
Crimes of the Powerful: Corporations, the State and Human Rights
30 credits
This module takes a critical look at the concepts of crime, power and class in the contemporary world, and the impact of 'crimes of the powerful' on the struggle for human rights and social justice. The gaze of many political scientists and criminologists tends to be focused firmly 'downwards', towards analysing the misdemeanours of the poor, the dispossessed, the underclass. This module, in contrast, will focus 'upwards', in an attempt to understand and explain deviant actions by states, corporations, and the ruling class more broadly. Through the use of case studies, presented by the teaching team but also generated by students, we will examine issues such as war crimes, torture, corruption, global supply chains, police abuses, and state terrorism.
Migration and Social Transformation
30 credits
Global migration has intensified rapidly since 1960, with the UNPD estimating an increase from 80 to 210 million by 2009. It has become a contentious political topic with far-reaching consequences for contemporary societies, and arguably for established sociological paradigms (e.g. methodological nationalism).
The module will equip students to understand and investigate in depth the social dynamics of migration and its consequences, and enable them to offer informed and critical comment on contemporary debates (e.g. media coverage of migration, on the economics of migration, and on migration's consequences for social solidarity).
It offers students the opportunity to build on interests and skills developed at Level 5 (e.g. in International Perspectives and Sociological Approaches), and broadens the department's offering at Level 6 to a new area of contemporary social relevance.
Applied Sociology: Work and Volunteering
30 credits
This is a level 6 optional module that draws upon both criminological and sociological debates and knowledges. Students will learn by observing and undertaking work-based practice. The principle underlying this module is that worksites are important contexts for students to test, validate, expand upon, supplement and enrich their academic learning. The module requires students to undertake a minimum of 40 hours of fieldwork in an organisational setting. The form that the fieldwork will take will depend upon the type of placement secured, but, typically it may involve interning, shadowing or volunteering in subject relevant placements (for example across social justice, criminal justice/crime prevention, welfare and support fields). Whilst in their placements students are encouraged to think about the social aspects of organisations and working life, including their structural forms, interpersonal relationships and their practices. Students will be supported in securing their placement at level 5 in preparation for the commencement of the module at level 6.
The information above reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. Updates may be made on an annual basis and revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. The regulations governing this course are available on our website. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this may not be offered.
Foundation year - Social Sciences
If you would like to study this degree at Kingston University but are not yet ready to join the first year of a BSc (Hons) course, you may want to consider studying this course with a foundation year.
Entry requirements
Teaching and assessment
Timetabled teaching and learning on this course includes lectures, small group tutorials and seminars.
Who teaches this course?
You will be taught by an experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on this course. The team includes senior academics and professional practitioners with industry experience. Postgraduate research students may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader.
The following group of staff members are currently involved in the delivery of different elements of this course. This pool is subject to change at any time within the academic year.
Course fees and funding
After you graduate
Our graduates typically pursue careers in policy research, market research, advertising, teaching, human resources and business. They often secure roles within local and central government, media industries, charitable organisations and non-governmental associations.
A sociology degree prepares students for life after university by teaching key transferable skills that employers are looking for. These include problem-solving and analytic skills; critical thinking and reasoning; team working, project planning and leadership; self-motivation and working independently; managing and interpreting data sets; written and oral communication, including public speaking.
Some graduates have continued their academic studies doing a masters course and doctoral studies in the UK and internationally.
Key information set
The scrolling banner(s) below display some key factual data about this course (including different course combinations or delivery modes of this course where relevant).
