Welcome to your Sociology and Social Justice course

A hybrid learning approach has been adopted for this programme. This means students will have chosen whether to study on campus or via distance learning. This way of learning has been designed so you can tailor study around your personal needs. In practice, if you’re an on-campus student, you will be expected to join timetabled sessions on the university campus. In exceptional circumstances (e.g. to illness etc), you can join timetabled sessions synchronously (live) but will be expected to return to attending on campus study. If you have chosen to study via distance learning, you have one of two options. We make it possible for you to join us synchronously (live) during timetabled sessions – you will need a good wifi connection. You will join sessions online via Blackboard Collaborate. Students get a lot out of joining the ‘live’ sessions. If due to personal circumstances, you will study at a distance, (asynchronously) it is mandatory that you watch all the recorded lectures/seminar/workshop discussions and complete the activities. You must engage with your course material on a weekly basis. Students who do not engage with their course materials generally perform poorly in their coursework. 

Learning is delivered over a single day each week on campus (usually but not guaranteed, on a Friday).

Lectures are where the team deliver a talk for about 50 minutes-an hour about a particular topic. Seminars, tutorials and workshops are about 50 minutes-hour long and allow for cohort discussions, completion of activities to consolidate learning from the lecture.

Teaching team hold Academic Support Time each week, usually held after the timetabled sessions. Academic support is where you can have one to one or small group discussions about the weekly topic, coursework or other issues influencing your studies.

As part of the programme, you will complete one of two option modules. One option is the placement module which gives experience in a particular sector or profession (and less lecture time so you can do your placement). The other option available is Leadership, that ensures learners leave the module with potential skills and abilities in leadership that can be applied to various social and criminal justice contexts.

Students selecting to study the full time one year route are advised to take note that each 40- credit module comes with 400 hours of study and each 20- credit module has 200 hours of study allocated. Some of these hours are for weekly taught sessions. (Around 26 hours per module will be contact with the teaching team). It is worth noting the number of hours individual learners are expected to invest in their own independent study in order to accomplish a good overall experience of postgraduate study. We strongly encourage you to not to attempt to combine full time postgraduate study AND try and maintain full time paid employment.

It might be good to know that we have a two- year continuous part- time programme that learners might find easier to manage alongside demanding, paid work.

If you have any questions about this or anything else described above, please contact the course leader Arta Jalilli-Idriss, arta.jaliliidrissi@staffs.ac.uk or Lauren Metcalfe lauren.metcalfe@staffs.ac.uk. 

1. Read the news!

We cannot stress enough the importance of this one. In Sociology, we are often referring to issues, articles, news stories and journalists in the media so it is crucial to stay up to date. This is simple: spend a few minutes a day looking through the stories and reading anything that seems relevant (for example policy changes, stories about inequalities, benefit claimants, social divisions and minority groups, tensions and riots, investigations or events). When you see a news story that is particularly controversial, it is a great idea to research other news websites to see different perspectives of the same story (e.g. BBC vs The Guardian vs The Times) and note the differences and similarities – for example, how they represent the social group, victim, or how they describe the issue or policy change. This will be extremely useful and a great habit to get familiar with, as you will be doing this throughout the course.

2. Watch and listen to the News

Newsnight and Channel 4 news are probably the best to watch but try and look at a range of different news channels and think about their different focus and framing of stories and what their agenda is behind why they are representing stories in particular ways. But more importantly, just about everyone who is senior in the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and academia starts the day with the BBC Today programme (6am- 9am Monday- Friday, 7am- 9am Saturday), as it is regarded as the important place where debate and policy plays out. Indeed listening to the News and BBC Radio 4 is really advisable, as there are a great deal of specialist programmes that are often relevant, some stand alone and one off, some repeated, such as Laurie Taylor’s long term show Thinking Allowed, but also the Moral Maze, All in the Mind and Woman’s hour.

3. Podcasts

There are a wealth of fantastic podcasts that you can listen to and we recommend – search for podcasts on your podcast provider on issues you’re interested in. You can follow Woman’s Hour as a daily podcast or get highlights from the weekly programme via Weekend’s Woman’s Hour; The Archers Omnibus, is an hour- long soap playing out the dramas and challenges effecting families that live in a fictional rural area (the storylines are topical and focus on current issues); Friday Night Comedy features a range of satirical programmes that offer a different perspective of topical news stories; my favourite is the range of programmes offered by BBC World Service including The Documentary, or Witness History. You might also want to listen to About Race with Reni-Eddo-Lodge, or for debates about feminism, The Guilty Feminist, The Waves are worth a listen.

4. Documentaries, films, BBC Iplayer and Netflix

There are a wealth of documentaries, box sets and films that we recommend to help emphasise some of the issues you are likely to encounter on the programme and more widely. These include:

Sorry we Missed You; I, Daniel Blake, Kes; Cathy Come Home

Wild; Suffragette, Million Dollar Baby, Philomena, Educating Rita

Freedom Writers

Priscilla Queen of the Desert; Philadelphia

Pride, Brassed Off, Billy Elliot

American History X, City of God, Lion,

This is England,

American Beauty, Thirteen Reasons Why

The Green Mile; Shawshank Redemption, Orange is the New Black; Erin Brockovich

On Netflix;

Can’t Pay, we’ll take it away; Girls Incarcerated; Dirty Money; Fahrenheit 911; Black Mirror; The Fundamentals of Caring; Flint Town,

BBC IPlayer (and Box of Broadcasts once you’ve enrolled);

The Secrets she Keeps; I may Destroy You; Anthony; Life on Mars; Ashes to Ashes; Line of Duty; The Moorside; Three Girls; The Long Song; The Missing; Baptiste; Casualty; Hidden; Informer; Killed by my debt; A suitable Boy; murdered by my boyfriend; murdered by my father; Mrs America; Our Girl; The Trial of Christine Keeler

5. Browse the library (dependant on social distancing regulations)

It is never too early to get prepared. Get into your local library or your nearest city library (or even a university library if you have one close by) and look at the Sociology section. Take some time reading around sociological theories, case studies, different types of social issues, inequalities, the media and research methods. You may feel overwhelmed by how much information is out there but there is no harm in getting used to the different types of textbooks. We suggest you do not buy textbooks or if you do, only get second- hand ones.

6. Specific reading

Please do not buy new and expensive textbooks before you arrive as the reading lists can change each year. However, it is a good idea to check out general sociology textbooks that cover everything especially if they can be bought on eBay at a low cost (see below for some suggestions). Sometimes older editions remain useful, they certainly paint a picture of what the concerns of the time were when they were published, but as well as specialist texts we recommend some other introductions.

7. Here are some very good academic textbooks, the first two of which are considered the ‘bibles’ of sociology and would be good if you are new to sociology.

Recommended texts about Classic Societal problems:

Best, J., (2008) Social Problems. New York. WW. Norton and co.

Blakemore, K., and Warwick-Booth, L., (2013). Social Policy: An introduction. Open University Press

Foucault, M., (2001) Madness and Civilisation. A history of insanity in the age of reason. Transl. Richard Howard. London. Routledge classics

Donzelot, J., (1980). The Policing of Families. Hutchinson

Ballinger, A., (2000). Dead Woman Walking. Executed Women in England and Wales 1900-1955. Aldershot. Ashgate

Martin, A., Lloyd, J., (1986). The Miners’ Strike 1984-5: Loss without Limit. London. Routledge and Kegan Paul

Capp, B., (2003) When Gossips meet: Women Family and Customs in Common. Oxford. OUP

Thompson, EP. (1991). Customs in Common. Merlin

Caine, B., (1997). English Feminism 1780-1980. Oxford. Oxford University Press

Poole, R., (2013). The Lancashire witches. Histories and Stories. Oxford. OUP

McNay (1992). Foucault and Feminism: a Critical Introduction. Polity Cambridge

Smart C. (1978) Women, Crime and Criminology. Routledge and Kegan Paul. London.

Recommended texts about Sociological Theory:

Burkitt, I (2008). Social Selves: theories of self and society. Second edition
May V., (2013). Connecting Self to Society: Belonging in a Changing world.
Mead, GH and Morris, CW., (1972). Mind, Self and Society from the standpoint of a social behaviourist.
Hines, S., and Sanger, T., (2010). Transgender Identities: Towards a Social Analysis of Gender Diversity.
Hall, M and Hearn J., (2018). Revenge Pornography: Gender, Sexuality and Motivations.
Beasley, C., (2005). Gender and Sexuality: Critical Theories; Critical Thinkers.
King, A., and Almack, K., (2019). Intersections of Ageing: Gender, Sexualities: Multidisciplinary International Perspectives.
Morgan, D (2009.) Acquaintances: The Space between Intimates and Strangers. OUP
Goffman, E (1971). Relations in Public: Micro Studies of the Public Order. New York. Basic Books.
Goffman, E (1963). Behaviour in Public Places: Notes on the social organisation of Gatherings. Greenwood Press Publishers. Westport Connecticut
Hylton, K (2009) Race and Sport: Critical Race Theory.
Marmot, M (2016). The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. Bloomsbury
Marmot M., Allen, J., Boyce, T., Goldblatt, P., Morrison, J., (Feb 2020) ‘Health Equity in England’: The Marmot Review 10 years on. Available at: https://www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/the-marmot-review-10-years-on
Dermott E and Seymour, J., Displaying Families: A new Concept for the Sociology of Family Life. Routledge
Morgan DHJ., (1996). Family Connections: An introduction to Family Studies. Polity
Ribbens McCarthy J., and Edwards, R., (2012). Key Concepts in Family Studies. Sage
Reay, D., (2017). Miseducation: inequality education and the working classes. Bristol. Polity
Cohen, S., (2002). Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Routledge

Recommended Texts on research methods and project design:

Field, A., (2009). Discovering Statistics using SPSS: and sex, and drugs and rock n roll. Third Edition. London. Sage
Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., McNaughton Nicholls, C., and Ormston, R., (2014). Qualitative Research Practice. A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers. London. Sage
Mason, J., (2018). Qualitative Researching. Third Edition. London. Sage
Bell, J. (2010). Doing Your Research Project. Open University
Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods. Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press

All of these can be bought second hand if you do decide to buy, and we encourage you to do this (especially the first two as they are expensive). We certainly do not expect everyone to buy and read all the above.

8. Find your interest!

Finally, through all this preparation and reading you may figure out where your interest lies. For example, is your interest in ‘current or historical social problems’; ‘domestic abuse prevention’; ‘racial inequalities’; ‘mobility’ and ‘educational disadvantage’; ‘social policy’; ‘poverty’; ‘inequalities and social divisions’; ‘minority groups’; ‘equality and diversity’; ‘impact of prejudice and stigma’; ‘health’; ‘the many issues effecting the lives young people are able to live’; ‘family relations’; ‘ageing and generations’, ‘gender and sexuality’; ‘austerity’; ‘social research’. Identifying early on where your passions lie allow you to develop expertise and specialise, which can help you work out what topic you want to focus on for your final dissertation project. Its not essential that you know what it is you want to focus on for your final project, but, having some initial ideas can help

We are all looking forward to meeting you and working with you. Please do get in touch should you have any questions.

The Staffordshire University Crime and Society Research Group (SUC&SRG) provides an opportunity for students to join academics in conducting research that contributes to creating a more equitable and inclusive society.

Software that you can download before you start your course.

Download software