BSc (Hons) Sociology Bachelor's degree at the University of Kent

You'll explore how sociologists understand the social structures and determinant social forces that shape our living conditions and life chances. The module examines how Sociology is a discipline committed to an analysis of the constitution of society, aiming to explain the distinctive character of people's social experience of the world.

You're introduced to the key concepts, problems, and theoretical traditions that have shaped sociological thought. This module will provide a grounding in the study of the so-called 'founding figures'– Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber – but also offer a critique of this canon through an analysis of their positionality and Eurocentric bias.

On this module, you'll learn how we, as social scientists, study society. What is the difference between evidence and theory? How do we know when we know something, and how confident can we be in that knowledge? What are the different kinds of evidence social scientists use to investigate how people organise themselves?

Explore some of the key ideas, events, figures, movements and mythologies that have shaped how 'Western' cultures think of themselves. Drawing on 500 years of history, but with a particular focus on the period from the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century.

This module explores some of the key areas which have been most acutely affected by these developments and are of great importance for understanding the world we live in. It raises questions about how contemporary society can be understood from a variety of social, theoretical, cultural, economic and technological perspectives.

How do sociologists attempt to document and explain the social experience of everyday life? Get a new perspective of everyday life as you explore and examine how sociology impacts the 'ordinary' world.

Research methods are – together with theoretical frameworks and empirical material – one of the three main pillars of the study of human society. This module unlocks the power of data analysis for students from a variety of educational backgrounds - no statistical knowledge is necessary.

We live in a deeply unequal world – one in which your education, wealth, power, and even health can be determined not by your intelligence or character, but by the social group you belong to. The study of these social inequalities has been central to Sociology right from its beginnings as a discipline.

Society is becoming ever more digitally centred – from work to leisure, our activities are centred around 'the digital.' Do the ways we study society need to change in line with the ways we live within it? This module provides you with the chance to critically assess this, and related questions, while offering digital methods training to conduct your own research.

Explore the major issues and controversies that have shaped key developments in contemporary social theory. We will survey the development of social theory through the second half of the twentieth century and up to the present day.

In what ways are various inequalities relevant to crime and the delivery of criminal justice? You'll examine the complex relationship between social inequalities and the criminal justice system, focusing on how disparities in socioeconomic status, race, gender, and other factors contribute to patterns of crime, victimisation, and access to justice.