University of Bristol

The contemporary world is characterized by both interconnectedness and disconnectedness. Some people, ideas, and capital move between different parts of the world with ease, speed, and frequency: companies exist in multiple countries simultaneously; new technologies enable us to connect with people all around the world; environmental change creates new challenges to be faced by all. Other people, ideas, and cultures are entrenched in their own isolation, shut off from these global flows: people find comfort in local attachments, political space is increasingly fragmented, and cultural boundaries reinforced. How do academics understand these experiences, and how might they challenge some of the core assumptions of sociology? This course examines some of the key ways in which the contemporary world is evolving. By investigating specific social spheres such as migration, religion, culture and risk, the course considers both the potential and limits of globalization.

This course focusses on the imbrications between culture and politics in the 20th and 21st centuries. Moving beyond élite forms of culture and across different contexts, students ask, firstly, how nation-states have attempted to mobilize culture to gain legitimacy and consolidate power at home and abroad. Secondly, students ask how a wide cast of characters – artists, writers, athletes, activists, doctors and others – have resisted the efforts of nation-states (as well as of institutions above, below and beyond the state) to marshal and co-opt them. Thirdly, students consider how cultural and political forms have moved across borders, and how these have been adopted, adapted and reforged in these histories of export and circulation.

This course explores the connections between political economy and social policy. Political economy is about the distribution of power and money in society, whilst social policy is about welfare and meeting people’s needs. The course thus sets out to understand how the distribution of power and money affects the ability of states and other actors to meet people’s needs. It addresses this question through an everyday approach that seeks to link everyday experiences to global phenomena, institutions, and processes. The first few weeks of the course discuss various ways in which scholars have theorized political economy and social policy. Students then move on to study broad areas of international political economy and social policy, such as debt, housing, work, climate change, and race.

This course considers popular music within a social context. This does not just mean how and where popular music is used (though this is important) but, rather, how popular music is socially constructed: how do social conditions give rise to particular forms of popular music, and how do they affect the creation of popular music, and its reception? Using both historical and contemporary examples, the unit introduces students to some of the key ideas needed to understand popular music sociologically.

The use of computers is increasingly pervasive in all areas of mathematics. This course introduces the foundational concepts of programming and some of the many computational tools in common use by mathematicians.