Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

Students wishing to take this module must have studied at least 1 Sociology module at stage 1 in 19/20 and SOC2058 in semester 1 2020/21.
Stage 3 students wishing to take this module must seek written approval from the DPD.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aims of this module are to explore the continued relevance of class in the late modern, post- industrial period. Class has become an increasingly contested issue whereby some commentators see it as less relevant, whilst others assert it is as significant, if not more so, than it has ever been. The module examines the role of class in the context of de-industrialisation, individualisation and the neoliberal moment that have led some to pronounce its death. Students will engage with and critically evaluate contemporary theoretical trends in class analysis. The module reasserts the continued relevance of class today and looks at how it manifests in our everyday lives through such things as our relationships, job, health and clothes and endures as a key mode of inequality and identity in the UK. Students will be expected to engage critically with the content of the module and come to their own assessments as to how far class remains a key dimension of inequality in the contemporary period. The module will examine the on-going fissures between cultural and economic/ phenomenological and material relations of class that have beset analysis and explores how these might be understood using various theoretical frameworks to explore the remaking of class subjects. Throughout the module there will be a particular focus on the changing relationship between structure and agency in the ways in which life chances and life experiences are determined. The module will challenge students to think about social class from both a personal and a theoretical perspective.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module begins by developing theoretical foundations of class analysis and knowledge of key historical, political and intellectual moments that have been argued to have undermined its relevance before going on to explore and assess the continued relevance of class in current everyday life.

Lectures/Workshops 1-4
Building on theoretical debates introduced in stage one (particularly the work of foundational theorists including Marx, Weber and Bourdieu), this module will further develop those ideas and will also introduce students to contemporary Cultural Class theorists such as Savage, Skeggs and Reay and individualisation theories via Beck, Giddens and Bauman. This part of the module will develop students’ knowledge of class and will present and consider the role of hegemony as a tool for reasserting and examining class today in late modern neoliberal times.

Lectures/Workshops 5-9
Each week will explore the contemporary relevance and manifestations of class in relation to substantive topics. These include: employment, leisure, media, elites, and social mobility. Students will explore the current ways in which class is experienced via old and new inequalities and identity formation in everyday life.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

•       Demonstrate critical understanding of foundations of class analysis from Marxist, and Weberian traditions and contemporary Bourdieusian perspectives.
•       Demonstrate critical understanding of contemporary sociological debates on how class is changing, disappearing or being reproduced within the UK.
•       Demonstrate a class-based critique of key areas of research and social life from the perspective of class.
•       Show critical understanding of how class intersects with various social issues and impacts life chances for different groups in society.
•       Demonstrate critical understanding of empirical research and evidence of inequalities related to class.
•       Demonstrate personal and reflective analysis of everyday issues through a classed lens.

Intended Skill Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
•       Assess the continued relevance of the role of class analysis within social theory and social life.
•       Analyse the phenomenological and material experiences of class and problems of structure and agency in theory and analysis.
•       Use class as a critical lens to explore various aspects of social life and investigate its empirical manifestations from both a personally reflective, and a theoretical perspective.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures will introduce students to the core themes of the module. Students will be engaged in critical assessment of key readings in the workshops and asked to reflect on these in light of their own life experiences. Students will be set activities each week that prepare them for the following week’s lecture and workshop, in which there will be space for personal reflections, insights and analysis. Included in the non-synchronous activity work, students will be set independent tasks such as collecting news articles, images, and social media posts that catch their attention and can be viewed through a classed lens. They will also be set the task of viewing specific, relevant films and documentaries that either have class as their central theme or that can be analysed as presenting a particular class perspective. These activities are intended to encourage students to link abstract ideas to the everyday and will feed directly into the second assessment for this module.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The essay will test the theoretical learning outcomes and will involve the students engaging with independent learning – retrieving and assimilating new material. The zine-making project will allow students to reflect on either one or two personal issues or experiences through a classed lens and draw in theoretical material where appropriate. Students will be encouraged to keep a weekly diary that records their experiences on the module and reflects upon the topics covered (work, leisure etc.) from a personal perspective. The diary is not assessed, but is intended as a way to build a cumulative record of their thoughts and feelings, and collection of images and writings, which will help them in creating the second assessed piece of work.

General Notes

N/A