This module aims to introduce students to the subject matter of contemporary sociology. It will familiarise students with the key concepts used within sociological analysis and demonstrate, using illustrative materials, the uses and continued importance of sociological analysis in the modern and post-modern world
This module aims to better acquaint students with the discipline and field of sociology, including the work of contemporary sociologists, and to provide them with strong foundation of knowledge in preparation for further sociology modules. In addition to enhancing student’s awareness and understanding of key sociological theories, concepts and issues, this module is oriented to developing students’ ability to use sociology as an analytical tool. Finally, this module also seeks to promote valuable skills in critical thinking, writing, referencing, and research. Key themes addressed in this module include:
- Social Class & Class Inequality
- Racism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism
- Gender, Sexuality & The Body
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the important sub-disciplinary field of the sociology of health and illness. The overall objective is to develop the students’ analytical ability to examine the concepts of health and illness from a sociological perspective (perspectives), and critique the structures and processes involved in these within late modern Western society.
This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the mass media from a sociological viewpoint. It will introduce students to key aspects of the debate amongst social scientists about the workings and influence of the media. The course is structured upon an examination of these key areas as well as presenting examples of the various methodological approaches used by sociologists in their analysis of the mass media.
Key themes addressed in this module include:
- Media Audiences
- Media Representations of The Social World
- Media Power
- Citizen Journalism
This module provides an introduction to the fundamentals of social research by comparing the approaches of several different research methods. Focusing on research design, data-collection, data analysis, and the ethics of research, the course explores the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods. The ultimate goal of the course is for students to be to be able to conceptualise and design their own research project.
This module examines a range of key themes within classic sociological theory (e.g. Mark, Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, Schutz, Mead). It will focus on different analyses of the development of capitalism and the money economy; the division of labour; social solidarity; rationalisation; religious and mental life; conflict and consensus; economic interests and ideologies; understanding and explaining society in its multi-dimensional and layered complexity; theorising human agency and interaction.
This module is based on a selection of modern and contemporary sociological theories following on from the Classic Sociological Theory course in order to show how sociology has developed to reflect changing social and intellectual contexts. The module examines how selected theories draw on, modify or radically alter key classical presuppositions about the nature and scope of sociological inquiry in understanding the social world. As a way of elucidating these issues, substantive topics will be discussed in relation to the different theoretical perspectives.
This module examines Globalisation from a Sociological standpoint. Key themes include: Globalisation, transnational processes and the world of the twenty-first century; Global cultures and practices of consumption; Global risk society: impact and effects; Globalisation and contemporary urban cultures; Globalisation and religion; Gender, development and international women’s movements; Global changes and women’s lives and work; Globalisation, technology and the media;Sociology of globalisation and cyber-space.
This module provides a systematic introduction to quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis in sociology. The course focuses both on the theoretical and methodological implication of quantitative methods, and on the practical skills required for the collection, processing, statistical analysis and presentation of quantitative data, including the use of statistical software packages such as SPSS.
This module introduces students to Qualitative Research Methods. It asks: What is qualitative research? What are the different paradigms, which fall within the parameters of qualitative research? It examines the history of qualitative research. Approaching research from a qualitative perspective, generating ideas, defining cases, analysis and interpretation. Doing interviews and conducting observation studies.
The course will introduce theories of social change and perspectives on work as well as examining contemporary changes in work practice. The effects of class, gender and ethnicity on access to and experience of work will be examined. The changing organizational context of work will be explored. Other themes include sectoral decline, development and relocation as well as an examination of globalization and the rise of the transnational corporation. The continuance of hierarchical and vertical segregation in the midst of organisational, societal and cultural change will be explored, as well as organisational culture. A number of Irish case studies will be examined e.g those related to the semi-state and educational sectors. The course concludes with a consideration of the future direction of socioeconomic change and its impact on the distribution, structuring and experience of work.
This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the welfare state. Students will be familiarised with debates, definitions and theoretical frameworks pertaining to the concept of the welfare state, the different models of welfare in existence, and the need for a rigorous analysis of the welfare state. Specifically the module will focus on the Irish context as it seeks to examine the structural, cultural and ideological dynamics underpinning the Irish model of welfare provision.
Focusing on Sociological understandings of Popular Culture this module’s key themes include Feminist perspectives and the pornography/erotica debate; feminism, pleasure and power; Mulvey and visual culture; psychoanalytic and French feminist perspectives; the high culture/ pop culture debate; the Frankfurt school; Bourdieu and culture; post-structuralist perspectives; cyborg feminisms and technological culture; Queer theory and popular culture; nationalism, transnational feminisms and representation.
This module examines theoretical approaches to multiculturalism and how different multicultural approaches construct cultural difference in gendered ways; it offers a comparative approach by considering different gendered cultural practices and different national approaches to multiculturalism; it offers a framework for understanding how gender relations affect and are affected by multicultural strategies for negotiating difference.
This module introduces students to a selection of classical modern and contemporary sociological theories on the contested meaning of mental illness and the broader social impact of psychiatric ideas and practices. Students are also introduced to key ideas within the philosophical and politics debates within psychiatry, which have a strong resonance with different sociological critiques. The challenges posed by the mental health service/survivor movement will also be addressed, as well as sociological accounts of this new and emerging social movement.
*Elective Modules are run subject to the availability of faculty
This module engages students with sociological debates, theory and research regarding the social impact of and social influences on the Internet. In doing so, students will become acquainted with both macro and micro sociological perspectives on the Internet, including conceptualizations of the internet; identity and community online; e-participation and digital exclusion. Through these discussions students will also become familiar with new methods emerging from Internet research.
*Elective Modules are run subject to the availability of faculty
Introduction to Sociology of Youth; Competing Paradigms – the structural/cultural divide; New Youth-Transitions – education, work, uncertain futures; Constructing Deviance – young people in media discourse; Social Exclusion, Privilege and Youth; Hegemonic and non-hegemonic Masculinities; Doing boy/doing girl; Existence of gender differentiated cultures? Youth in Private Spaces – the family and the home- gendered realities? Youth in Public Spaces – class, community and visibility-gendered realities?; Re/producing and Regulating Gendered Identities – young people and schooling; Consuming Youth –cultural expressions and practices; New Approaches to Youth Research.
*Elective Modules are run subject to the availability of faculty
This module examines social theory and the body; the obesity debate; disordered eating; cosmetic surgery; sport, physical activity and fitness; bodybuilding and drug-taking; tattooing; piercing; working bodies; sexualities; virtual bodies and cultures of technological embodiment (cyborgs); ageing; disability, chronic illness and healthcare; death and dying; embodied ethnography.
*Elective Modules are run subject to the availability of faculty
This module centrally addresses one of the abiding and core concerns of sociology that is, the nature of social order, and the most appropriate methods to get at this phenomenon. Sociologists have long debated the micro/macro binary and yet it offers sociology students the prime possibility of engaging in an intensive logical exploration and elucidation of key sites that are hugely problematic. Bourdieu’ theory of practice will be used to explore and elucidate key issues and concerns.
*Elective Modules are run subject to the availability of faculty
This course applies students’ existing theoretical knowledge to contemporary society and social change, focusing on themes such as changing gender roles, the life course, inequality, the labour market, and values and attitudes, using a variety of existing data sources to address key issues, enhancing data-analytic skills and enabling students to develop a critical, theoretically- and empirically-grounded sociological insight into contemporary life.
*Elective Modules are run subject to the availability of faculty
The aim of the module is to provide students with a conceptual and operational understanding of the dynamics of inequality and social exclusion. It introduces students to the central approaches to measuring inequality and social exclusion and the implications of that diversity. A key focus is on the relationships between poverty, inequality and social exclusion. The module explores the continued significance of class, gender and ‘racial’ / ethnic divisions as bases for both social exclusion and inequality. Specifically the module focuses on the Irish context as it examines the implications of inequality & exclusion, the structural, cultural and ideological issues underlying these phenomenon and their reproduction, and the resultant implications for individuals and groups within Irish Society. Additionally it examines the social construction of social exclusion with particular reference to media discourses about those who are excluded.
This module examines the different aspects of relationships: love, friendship, partner selection and dating, non-marital lifestyles, marriage, reproduction and forms of parenting. A key component of the course is the influence of changing work patterns, power relations and gender roles on family forms. The objectives of this module are:
- To introduce students to the sociological perspective as it applies to the understanding of relationships and familial phenomena.
- To present various sociological theories regarding love, sexual relationships, marriage and family systems.
- To familiarise students with the results of empirical research of social scientists who study partnership formation and family behaviour.
Data valuable for the social sciences is increasingly found in the virtual world. There are two critical aspects of this. First, there is both need for and value in collecting data virtually that can increases efficiency, accessibility, and scope of research in ways that were previously impossible. Advances in ICT have dramatically reduced traditional barriers of time and space. Second, the many modalities of ICT (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) are themselves data generators and increasingly scholars look to the world wide web for information about social processes and social dynamics. Against this backdrop, this module focuses on the development of three skills. First, it will focus on general issues of online data, the different types, and omnibus strategies for data collection in the virtual world. Second, it will articulate data harvesting techniques (e.g., web scraping), as well as best practices for sampling, storage, management, and assessment of quality. Third, it will focus on issues of analysis, particularly the techniques for coding (e.g., thematic, micro-, open, or axial), categorising or scaling (e.g., assessment of measurement properties), and the ultimate linking of such data in the pursuit of specific research objectives.
Issues of crime and justice have a long history in popular media. Yet, changes in the nature and technology of media have altered the ways in which crime is portrayed and challenge conventional wisdom and prior accounts of the crime-media relationship. In particular, the notion of "true crime" and the use of crime stories has become a staple part of the arsenal of 21st century media (i.e., TV 'infotainment,' podcasts, Netflix documentary-series). Serious study of the contemporary use of crime in popular media can tell us a lot about culture and society. Against this backdrop, the module has four inter-related themes. First, how has is crime used in popular media and how, if at all, has this changed over time? Second, how are crime stories selected for media presentation? What are the social and institutional processes that drive selection? What types of crime are deemed most suitable for re-telling in popular media? How is this related to the specific methods and modalities of different media platforms? Third, how do specific media platforms tell crime stories in unique ways that may shape how they are interpreted, understood, and ultimately experienced by audiences. Here, specific attention focuses on reality TV, podcasting, and the emergence of "docudrama" or "infotainment" programming (e.g., Netflix). Finally, how do crime stories reflect and reinforce social - cultural, political, and even economic - features of societies? In other words, how do crime stories in the new era of mass media influence how people and social groups think, feel, act, and interact with others in light of experiences with true crime mass media? In answering these questions, the module seeks a broad interrogation of how and why societies use crime in popular culture. Each week will select a particular crime story in a particular popular culture medium and do a deep dive into its content to highlight how that particular story highlights particular themes in culture and society.
The purpose of this module is to explore the manner in which society seeks to control particular ways of behaving, being and thinking. The broad framework of both informal and formal sanctions will be adopted, but the module will focus in particular on the latter. A critical approach to the ideas which underpin the criminal justice system, its remit and functioning, will be encouraged. Questioning will be facilitated through introducing students to sociological theories of crime and deviance, through their application to contemporary case studies and through comparison to other cultural and historical contexts. Particular attention will be given to inequitable experiences of criminal justice including on the basis of social class, gender, ethnicity and racialized identities, sexuality and legal status.
This module provides a foundation for students to understand data in the modern world. Data is increasingly the capital of contemporary society and is foundational for both science and industry. The module focuses primarily on social data, how and why it is generated, how it is used, and how it can be used to explain important processes in economics, geography, history, political science, psychology and sociology. It does however also consider issues of data linking and how social and non-social data can be combined in powerful ways. Specific attention will focus on the different types of data that exist, how it is controlled and accessed, the different forms that it takes, and how this constrains and enables different types of analytic strategies.
This module will consider 'race' as a social construct and address some of the following questions. How and why is race constructed in contemporary society? How do 'racialising processes' occur in social relations? How does 'racial formation' take place in conjunction with other identities? How are racial identities contested? What are the gendered and class-based dimensions of race? These questions will be addressed by looking at how racial knowledge and forms of institutional racism inform public policy specifically in education, in housing, within the criminal justice system and in health. The purposes of the module are to a) discuss and analyse the conceptual frameworks for understanding the multifaceted and intersectional dimensions of race and racism; and b) to comparatively examine how these inform public policy in Ireland and internationally.
The purpose of this module is to explore the phenomenon of hate crime through a sociological and legal lens. Specifically the module aims to unpack hate crime as a social construct; to examine is structural roots; to explore the social consequences of legal formulations and legislative lacunae; to critically evaluate the potential for legal, civic, and educational solutions; to familiarise the student with the field of hate studies as an interdisciplinary project drawing on both sociology and legal scholarship and to critically interrogate the hate crime paradigm.
Aims: via examination of key themes in current sociological research extends advanced students knowledge of substantive theory by applying it to societies using multiple sources of empirical data and deepens their data-analytic skills by applying them to real-life examples. To enhance their ability to see sociology as a source of concrete answers to practical questions about social policy and action. Objectives: to enable students to apply theoretic and conceptual frameworks to a range of research questions; familiarise them with a range of data sources (surveys, censuses, statistics and official sources, UN/OECD/EU reports, other quantitative research reports); enhance their conceptual and technical skills in using data to address questions; appreciate the importance of micro-macro, agency-structure and local-comparative dimensions in research; enhance their understanding of the principle features of current social change from a theoretical and empirical point of view.
Social dynamics of the modern world both challenge existing data collection practices and provide new opportunities for innovation and creativity. This module provides a broad and synthetic overview of data collection approaches that span the social sciences. The module is divided into four parts. The first part discusses broad issues around data collection that highlights the unique features of contemporary, IT driven world that shapes data, its meaning, and its uses. The second part discusses the dominant modes of data collection across the social sciences and interrogates why particular disciplines prioritise particular methods over others. The third part focuses on the digital world and consequent opportunities and strategies for unique data collection (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Finally, the module will involve research based lectures from each of the contributing disciplines that will emphasise how the data collection
This module is designed to introduce students to sociological understandings of the criminal justice system and of the criminal legal process. The module will provide the student with the conceptual tools to critically reflect upon the manner in which the criminal legal process interacts with and impacts upon social inequalities. The module will attend in particular to the institutions of the police, the courts, and prison, and to the manner in which access to, experiences in, and outcomes of the criminal justice system are shaped by race, class and gender.