University of Manchester

This course considers the re-emergence of social class as a primary category of a sociological understanding and analysis and assess its significance for interpreting contemporary inequalities and recent political developments. Set against the backdrop of post-war social and cultural change in Britain, it begins by tracing the declining salience of class in sociological theory and political discourse before considering the recent development and impact of a more culturally sensitive model of class analysis associated, in particular, with the work Pierre Bourdieu. It then moves on to examine how the key mechanisms of class formation are conceptualized and operationalized by researchers, paying particular attention to debates about social mobility, education, and meritocracy. A third section considers the relationship between lifestyle and classed cultures, the politics of classification, and issues of intersectionality between class, gender, and ethnicity. Finally, the course looks at the particular role of elites in defining class-based spatial inequalities and political alignments in "Brexit Britain."

This course examines concepts relating to gender and sexuality, and discuss the obsession with gendering in a historical, social, and cultural context.  Topics for discussion also include the sex/gender system; gender and sexuality in relation to identity, behavior, the body and desire. Questions include: to what extent are the characteristics of masculinity and femininity born with us, or to what extent do the makers of gender vary over time and between societies? Is sexuality innate of socially constructed or a combination of the two? 

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of using social media data for research and enables the development of transferable research and data skills. Such skills are in demand in the research and consultancy profession across the public and private sectors. After reviewing the different data types including Facebook and Twitter, students consider how to access and analyze such data. This, in part, includes developing the student’s critical data skills, hands-on training, and practice analyses on real social media data such as coding Tweets and blogs. This involves the use of on-line software to gather social media data. The course involves the development of research design skills including hypothesis testing, data analysis, and interpretation and writing skills. The emphasis on the use of real data to answer questions is designed to engage students and for them to consider using such approaches as part of their own dissertation research.

This course focuses on how entrepreneurs generate the ideas that allow them to create and grow their firm. It examines how entrepreneurs discover ideas and how they implement them. The course is grounded in research-led teaching but also links into the wider employability agenda. It is relevant for all students, with no prior business knowledge required.

This course introduces the discipline of psychology as it applies to the study of crime and criminal justice; explores the contribution of psychology to the explanation, prediction, and reduction of crime; critically appreciates the strengths and limitations of the featured approaches and literature; and develops transferable communications and metacognitive skills.

This course takes a geographical approach to some of the world’s most complex moral issues. It gives students the chance to explore a range of moral questions from a geographical perspective. Arguably a geographical perspective, which embraces knowledge from other disciplines and not only its own, is well-placed to "join the dots" and grapple with the complexity of the world as it is, not how we want it to be. It explores these complex issues using a multi-scalar, place-sensitive approach, embracing not only key geographical thinkers, but also philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and economists. 

In this course, students explore the origins of Western philosophy by examining the thoughts and ideas of ancient Greek thinkers. In the first part of the course, the main ideas and theories of pre-Socratic philosophers regarding the natures of reality, soul, and knowledge are  discussed. During the next two parts of the course, the main ideas of Plato and Aristotle are discussed in more detail. Through analysis of some of their major works, students examine their views on some of the most important issues in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Most of the reading materials of the course are from primary sources whose translations are available in English.

Picasso is the most densely inscribed artist of the 20th century, a key figure in histories of modernism and the avant-garde. This course tracks his production across narratives of art, culture and ideology, placing it in historical and theoretical contexts, while attending to the themes and fictions of the reception. Notwithstanding Picasso’s continuing recuperation as an institution or brand-name, his practice submitted the European world-picture to an unprecedented interrogation. This course brings this radical questioning of identity and meaning to the fore.

This course familiarizes students with the themes and history from late imperial (1842–1911) to republican (1912–1949) and Communist China (1949–). The course provides the major events and history makers, but not at the cost of micro history as it pays great attention to ordinary people and their lives. The course examines change, but change came in the shape of continuity, considering how a better understanding of China’s transformation from the “sick man of Asia” to economic superpower helps us better understand the making of the modern world.