MODULES
Year 1
CORE MODULES
Mental Wealth 1: Knowledge, Skills, Practice and the Self
The module aims to ground and complement other shared or common level 4 programme modules by providing an introduction to the key Vision 2028 ‘UEL Graduate Attributes’, such as the psychological and physical determinants of human performance that are difficult or impossible to be replicated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The module takes a psychosocial approach to exploring ‘the self’ in both personal and professional contemporary contexts. The module aspires to provide an intellectually integrative and socially cohesive workshop experience.
The module will provide an opportunity for students to review their own personal development to date self-reflexively.
With these ends in mind, the module introduces students to theories of individual and social inequalities and how the latter can inform one’s approach to ‘community businesses ‘that is, all kinds of activities and enterprises run by local people for local people’ https://www.powertochange.org.uk/get-inspired). In the context of understanding the concept of, designing and exploring a community business, students will identify their employment and career aspirations and their personal, professionally relevant skills and potential abilities. Students will learn to develop skills with a psychosocial approach to research by gathering and presenting data in relation to their proposed community project.
Contemporary Issues in Criminology
You will develop positive notions of mutual respect by fostering a safe learning environment where you are encouraged to share your views on key political and criminological issues. You will develop listening skills and experience the power of having your voice heard. The module will provide you with a stimulating introduction to a selection of the issues of current concerns within the fields of criminology and criminal justice studies. The module also intends to introduce you to more general issues pertaining to the position and relevance of criminology in the 21st Century.
Social Theory 1
This module is about decolonising social theory which means looking at how social theory as an attempt to understand 'modernity' needs to incorporate, rather than relegate the significance of colonialism and empire.
The Mess We Are In (And How We Got Here)
In this module we will consider the representation of the present as a moment of crisis. This will include consideration of:
- Economic crisis, including welfare reform and austerity
- Political crisis, including democratic deficits and populism
- Ecological crisis
- National crisis, including questions of identity, racism and justice
- Emotional crisis, including links between individual well-being and social structures.
The module will introduce students to histories of empire and colonialism in order to understand long-standing processes of expropriation and ecological degradation in the name of progress.
Digital Sociology and the 4th Industrial Revolution
Since the 1970s when social theorists like Bell and Touraine proclaimed the coming of post-industrial society there has been a growing interest in the implications of technological change on society and in particular on the central role of information in these transformations.
This module is about the relationships between technological change, i.e. the emergence of the so-called 4th Industrial revolution (Schwab 2017) and social relationships. Moreover, it is also concerned with the implications of all of this for are capacity and ability to make sense of these changes via social science and the arguments that we need to develop a 'digital sociology' (Orton-Johnson and Prior 2013, Lupton 2015, and Marres 2017) to do this.
Issues in Contemporary Society
This module introduces students to key debates in contemporary society, including discussions of gender, sexuality, and feminism; the legacy of imperial histories; racism and the media; new technologies; ecological crisis; democratic deficit
Year 2
CORE MODULES
Space, Bodies and Power
This module introduces students to debates about bodies and embodiment and the exercise of power across spaces. We will discuss practices of surveillance, bordering and the relation of these practices to colonial practices of ordering and to ecological crisis. We will revisit questions of inequality, inclusion and stigmatisation. This will include a consideration of questions of sexuality and sexual rights and disability rights.
Social Theory 2
The aim of the module is to provide a comprehensive introduction to classical and contemporary sociological theories as they developed from the 19th century to explain the emergence of 'modern' societies and continued to track the development and transformation of modern societies in the 20th century and the emergence of what has been increasingly understood as globalisation by the start of 21st century.
The module examines five major ideas that have structured the development sociological theories since the establishment of the discipline. These ideas are the industrial society, democracy, individualism and modernity which in turn emphasise the economic, political, social and cultural aspect of the social. In addition, the module will also look at the more recent development of ideas of globalisation.
Mental Wealth 2: Social Enterprise
This module aims to introduce students to a range of planning and fundraising models and techniques used in the third sector. It will build their competence and confidence in designing and presenting their own projects and fundraising ideas. It will be delivered in collaboration with UEL Enterprise and other partner third sector organisations. This is the second of 3 modules running through the BA (Hons) International Development with NGO Management, which will incrementally build a full set of competencies for work in the not-for-profit sector.
OPTIONAL MODULES
Theoretical Criminology
The module is intended to provide an introduction to criminological theory, examining historical, social and cultural context surrounding the development of various theoretical perspectives, how these propose we deal with crime and their relevance to contemporary problems.
Crime and Social History
The primary aim will be to introduce students to the understanding of crime through the study of social history, focusing in particular on the emergence and growth of the modern 'crimino-legal complex'. Students will be made aware that throughout history the explanation of 'crime' and the concept of 'the criminal' has been constructed, and this construction is intimately connected to changes in philosophical and social ideas, and, economic and political forces. More specifically the course aims to introduce students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to the benefits of thinking of crime in the context of social history. This will involve looking at philosophy, social theory and cultural studies as well as criminology. Students will finish the course with a clear understanding of the importance of social history for the discipline of criminology, as well as a command of key theoretical concepts such as modernity and for postmodernity.
Intersectionality and Digital Culture
Intersectionality is a way of understanding our multiple identities and the impact of intersecting structures of inequality on our lives. Increasingly, in our digital world, processes of discrimination, harassment and hatred take place through digital means. At the same time, we live mediatised lives, presenting ourselves online and crafting new identities for pleasure and for work. This module will introduce students to debates about intersectionality and the place of digital cultures in staging and remaking our identities and relations to each other.
Generations Age and Meaning
The aim of this module is to explore the meaning of age and ageing throughout the life course, by exploring the relationship between ‘biographical aging’ (Randall and Kenyon 2001), and social structure. How do individuals experience aging throughout their life course, and how are these experiences mediated by social institutions? Aging has often been constructed as a ‘problem’ affecting isolated individuals at the end of their lives. Adopting a critical gerontological perspective, this module will examine the assumptions built into such a construction, explore their origins and implications
Policing and Society: Critical Perspectives
The module assists students to develop engagement with ideas beyond police investigation and operations by considering the wider social context of contemporary policing. Recent developments and current debates on police and policing are explored in relation to the demands created by modern diverse communities, seeking to help students develop independent thinking on the social consent given to the police role in dealing with crime as part of a criminal justice system.
OPTIONAL MODULES
Optional placement
This course offers the opportunity of year-long placement between years two and three. If you choose to take this option, you’ll spend your third year on a placement with a relevant company or organisation, adding valuable practical experience to your growing academic knowledge.
The extra placement year means it will take four years to complete your studies, instead of three.
Year 3
CORE MODULES
Applied Research Project in Social Sciences
This module allows you to apply your understanding of key social scientific theories and concepts as well as issues and methods in social and community work to a research question of your choice. The module introduces necessary research and evaluation tools and methods and ethical procedures, data collection and analysis methods and starts you on your journey to becoming independent researchers. You will complete an independent research project or an evaluation of a project you have been involved with through placements, volunteering or work experience. You will receive support and guidance throughout the independent research and are encouraged to reflect on the methodological, ethical and theoretical issues that you will face in the course of your research experience.
Mental Wealth 3: Placement Reflections
The Placement Reflections module aims to bring together learning from reading, lectures, coursework and discussions during the first two years, first by applying the skills learned in a real- life work environment, then by reflecting on the Placement experience and relating it to the key concepts and debates in your area of study. To achieve this, you are required to work for at least two days a week for a minimum of 10 weeks (or 20 working days total) as a volunteer for an organisation with a speciality in your area of study. During this time, you should carry out an identifiable project agreed with the host organisation for this Module. The Module Leaders of each programmes will provide guidance and briefings for you on securing a suitable placement.
During the work placement you are expected to:
- Improve skills for future employment
- Engage in “real -life” projects which will enable students to put academic knowledge into practice and place practice into an academic context.
- Develop key personal and professional skills such as team-working, time management, working under pressure and self-evaluation.
OPTIONAL MODULES
Youth Crime. Gangs and Sub-culture
The module will aim to introduce you to the main theoretical discourses and empirical research - both historically and within contemporary context - pertaining to the understanding of:
- the diverse cultural formations adopted by young people
- subcultural (and post-subcultural) theories of youth culture with regards to explanations of crime and deviance
- youth transitions, social exclusion and crime
- of media representations of 'deviant' youth cultures / styles, and
- the contested notion of the emergence of violent street gangs in England’s urban centres.
Life Histories
The module is designed to develop understandings of the relationship between the personal and the social dimensions of identity. It examines this relationship through an exploration of life accounts.
Gender Studies
The aim of this module is to familiarise you with key concepts, issues, questions and debates in gender studies and explore and analyse gender relations in a range of social spheres and institutions such as education, work, culture, law and the family.
Constructions of 'Race' in Culture and Politics
The aim of this module is to examine the ways in which concepts of race have developed historically in the West and to look at some of the key social, political and theoretical consequences of this. The module begins with looking at the argument that ‘race’ is a social construct then the module examines the ways in which this has been constructed and reconstructed in different historical periods, and the political struggles that have surrounded this.
Surveillance, Technology and Society
This module will build on your existing knowledge of routine surveillance to enable you to recognise security breaches, ethical issues raised by mishandling of sensitive data and the value of confidentiality/privacy as a human right. It provides you with invaluable skills at a personal and professional level essential for research, employment and your daily life.
To live in the 21st century means experiencing multiple systems of surveillance, in what is termed a 'surveillance society'. This interdisciplinary module introduces students to the functions of a society that has overlapping systems that track, measure and judge individuals on a continuous, daily basis in a more pervasive way than could have possibly been imagined. We have become habituated to incessant surveillance to the extent that we share aspects of our everyday lives on social media and increasingly popular reality shows embed it into our culture leading to even greater acceptance of it.
This module looks at the origins of surveillance right up to the latest emerging automated surveillance systems and pre-crime surveillance. It considers how surveillance 'works' on persons to modify behaviour and how categorisation of individuals results in social sorting that can affect our life chances. It also explains how surveillance capitalism functions and if we can employ means of 'digital self-defence' to protect ourselves from such intrusion.
Culture, Media and Politics
This module introduces students to key debates in the field of cultural sociology, including debates about fashion, media, memory and the presentation of self.
Psychological Criminology
The aim of this module is to provide you with an introduction to the developing relationship between psychology and criminology. You will combine the study and practice of forensic psychology and criminology, particularly in relation to police and court systems. You will be encouraged to critically appraise the relevance and efficacy of psychological and forensic studies of crime.
