Sociology

This course examines the interrelationship between gender, sexuality and families in New Zealand and other Western societies. Through an examination of important moments in the life course of families – for example, partnering and parenting – it explores changes and continuities in the gendered norms, identities, practices and patterns that characterize contemporary family life.

Digital technologies are more pervasive than ever, profoundly reshaping how people work and navigate today's job markets. Yet technological change is often framed as either a blessing or a curse, overlooking the complex ways it interacts with work. This course takes a step back to examine the foundations and stakes of contemporary, technology-driven changes in the domain of work. How are current technological changes affecting the nature of work? To what extent are they contributing to new or existing forms of labor market inequality? And what policy levers can effectively address new challenges posed by digital innovations in the area of work? Drawing on a multidisciplinary perspective, it explores the interactions between technology and labor market inequality, integrating insights from sociology, economics, and digital anthropology. Each class begins with a one-hour lecture and Q&A, followed by a one-hour student-led session. The second half follows a flipped-classroom format, in which a group of students designs and facilitates an activity (e.g., discussion, debate, case study, or mini-presentation) that engages peers in applying and critically examining course concepts.

At least since the 1980s, risk and its forms of calculation and management have been gaining ground as a relevant topic in the social sciences, which crosses different empirical approaches that include, for example, disasters and natural catastrophes, services and financial markets, to security policies and technologies. This course introduces the sociology of risk and offer a brief overview of the consolidation of this field of study and its main theoretical references, as well as exploring the issues, concepts and methodologies raised by the literature. The course is divided into three parts. First, it starts with a brief review of the two classic approaches of sociology and anthropology, namely, respectively, the theory of risk society (Beck, 1992 [1986]) and the theory of cultural risk perception (Douglas and Widalvsky, 1983). Next, it discusses some of the main contributions of governmentality studies to the development of research on risk governance technologies (Burchell, Gordon and Miller, 1991; O'Malley, 2009). While these three currents are more focused on ways of controlling and reducing dangers, threats and risks, in the third part, the course discusses studies that show the positivity of risk and uncertainty in the liberal tradition and the growing demand for “assuming” and “taking risks” in contemporary financial capitalism (Baker and Simon, 2010). Throughout the course, students are encouraged to use the concepts learned as analytical tools for building a sociological understanding of contemporary empirical facts.

People, alone and in groups, shape who we are, how we eat, heal, work, love, laugh, learn, and think, what we buy or believe, where we live, and how. Resistance, too, rarely happens in isolation; it requires coordination, collaboration, and communication. This course explores the interplay of individual lives and the social world. First, it develops conceptual dimensions—formal, relational, cultural, and institutional—for understanding collective processes. Second, it examines methodological approaches, from qualitative and ethnographic to quantitative and computational. Throughout, the course stays close to real social problems: the drivers of inequality and political activism, the dynamics of technological innovation and failure, and institutional change in financial markets and everyday work.

This course offers a range of analytical tools to address controversies, broadly understood as any instance of disagreement around scientific, technological, medical, or environmental issues. Students are exposed to different methods that enable them to better understand how the actors involved in the controversies and their arguments evolve over time. By introducing historical, sociological, philosophical, and political science perspectives, students seek to overcome simplistic views of controversies as easily solvable debates between truth and falsehood. Students also present controversies as involving actors outside the scientific community and reflect on normative agendas for not only studying but also critically intervening in controversies. 

This course examines the interplay between criminology and public policy. As well as providing an overview of factors shaping policy in Australia and other countries, it reviews challenges associated with making criminological, sociological, and philosophical theory relevant in practical contexts. It explores the implications, challenges and opportunities for policy change and considers the systems and processes that determine what is considered deserving of state intervention as either public policy or criminalization. Emphasis is placed on critically exploring contemporary public policy concerns such as those related to climate change, abolition, immigration, social security and policing.

This course examines critical contemporary issues for youth in the Pacific region with a particular emphasis on Aotearoa. Throughout this course, issues around health and well-being, identities (ethnic, spiritual, gender), education, climate change, artistic expressions, resilience, youth engagement and risk-taking behaviors will be examined, and the impacts these have upon Pacific young peoples, their families and their communities will be explored.

This course draws on contemporary moral philosophy to shed light on some of the most pressing practical, ethical questions of our time, including euthanasia, abortion, surrogacy, censorship, animal rights, genetic testing and cloning and environmental ethics. 

Educational inequalities are often explained through individual factors such as talent, effort, or motivation. This course shows instead that achievement is socially patterned and rooted in unequal resources, expectations, and institutional structures. It reviews major sociological approaches—cultural reproduction, rational-choice models, tracking and maintained inequality, and out-of-school effects. Sessions combine theory with hands-on analyses of a simplified PISA dataset in Jamovi. Students learn to read research articles, build hypotheses, and conduct basic descriptive and multivariate analyses to understand how social background shapes school outcomes.

This course examines contemporary trends in socio-economic inequalities across Western countries and explores their political implications. It analyzes inequalities in social mobility, income, and wealth; poverty and labor market integration, urban segregation, as well as health inequalities. Particular attention is given to the mediating role of educational systems, labor market institutions, and welfare states. The course contrasts institutionalist approaches to inequality with structural explanations that emphasize the impact of globalization and technological change. Finally, it discusses how these empirical patterns relate to evolving political attitudes and preferences, including the decline of traditional class voting and the rise of populist parties.