Introduction to sociology as a discipline and a review of some of its internal debates. Topics include: social class, gender, globalisation, power, sexual identity and family. Draws on material from a range of societies.
Provides an introduction to the sociological analysis of New Zealand society. Looks at familiar events, institutions, social processes from a sociological point of view and offers ways to understand them in new and different ways. Focuses on the structure of New Zealand society and on social and political changes which affect the lives of New Zealanders and shape their society. Spanish
Provides an overview of key contemporary social policy issues within the context of globalising economic processes and continuing gendered and racialised divisions. Discusses the way in which debates around social policy are constructed and the implications this has for social justice. Case studies may include food and health, technology, indigeneity and children.
A cultural studies approach to social life focuses on the way we experience the world, taking account of what we see, what we hear, what we consume and how we communicate. Sociological theory will be explored through investigating different cultural forms including film, advertising, art, social media, sport, and video games.
Aims to map the social condition through theorists who also emphasise the need to transform it. Focuses on material existence, how it is interpreted through language and the investment of people in oppressive regimes, ideologies and discourses. Develops critical perspectives on the intersections of class, race, gender and sexuality.
Sociologists construe ideology as ideas that conceal social inequalities. This course explores the meaning of ideology and some of its related concepts, such as hegemony, discourse, and subjugation. It then critically analyses some of the most pervasive contemporary ideologies. Although not exhaustive, examples include beliefs about personal responsibility, corporate job creators, faith in technology, and crime and deviance.
Analyses the means by which different institutions, groups and individuals control the actions, behaviours and thoughts of people in contemporary modern societies, including our own. Discusses controllers, their targets, the mechanisms they employ, the goals they seek to accomplish, and the means by which people resist. Prompts students to reflect how controlling processes have affected their everyday life.
Through consideration of sociological theory from the Chicago School, British Cultural Studies, and postmodernism, this course investigates marginal, non-normative, and socially deviant group formations considered as ‘subcultural’. This will include critical consideration of the social, economic, and political dynamics in which specific group practices and identities of subcultures such as ravers, punks, and skaters take shape in capitalist society.
Focuses on 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 characterise contemporary family life.
Examines the changing relations between work and life outside of paid employment. Particular attention is paid to new forms of expropriation that profit from claiming private ownership of collective effort, ideas and cultural forms. These developments are crucial to understanding and contesting social inequality, globalisation, organisational restructuring and new technologies. Course material is drawn from international literatures and is grounded in an understanding of contemporary New Zealand.
Charts the political, economic, cultural and ecological consequences of imperialism, colonisation, globalisation, aid and development, up to and including the IMF/ World Bank's neoliberalism and structural adjustment programme. It pays particular attention to violence (physical, psychological and ideological), environmental consequences and health impacts in these contexts.
Popular culture appears to be everywhere, but what political and social effects might all this popular entertainment have on us? This course seeks to answer such questions through a sociological interpretation of popular culture as both an indicator of social change and as a location of meaning and significance. Topics include reality TV, celebrities, consumption, music, and technology.
Charts the development of the concepts of racial, national, ethnic and indigenous identities in relation to the histories of modernity and colonisation and then uses these concepts to analyse a range of contemporary issues of identity and belonging.
What motivates and sustains collective action for social and political change? Through local and international examples, students will explore different theories about why people form and act through movements, the tactics and strategies activists use, how movement successes and failures are measured, and how and why groups evolve, or fall apart, over time.
Explains why crises are endemic to capitalism and have destructive effects on people, society and planetary life. Considers why capitalism emerged in Britain first and became a global system. Draws on a range of critical theory perspectives to explain the relationship of political economy to ideology, subjectivity and the intersections of class, race and gender.
Illuminates the social processes through which knowledge is produced and transmitted, and how these processes are shaped by powerful social forces, including corporations and the state. Students will gain critical insights about knowledge production, how this relates to social justice and state control, and will build skills for detecting misinformation and disinformation.
Environmental sociology provides insight into the complex social processes that define, create and even threaten our natural environment. This course gives tools with which to think sociologically about environmental issues, such as understanding how environmental issues come to be seen as environmental problems, and how political, cultural, and economic factors have come to shape our interaction with the natural environment.
Introduces students to theoretical approaches for understanding the social, material and power (political) dimensions of science and technology, as well as practical approaches for imagining and enacting more ethical, equitable, collaborative and anti-colonial technofutures. Topics studied include: science, technology and social theory; feminist, anti-colonial and post-capitalist approaches to science and technology; translating knowledge to engage public audiences.
Explains why crises are endemic to capitalism and have destructive effects on people, society and planetary life. Considers why capitalism emerged in Britain first and became a global system. Draws on a range of critical theory perspectives to explain the relationship of political economy to ideology, subjectivity and the intersections of class, race and gender.
Brief history of post Second World War theories of economic development and modern world systems. Explores Pacific responses to world systems such as colonisation, capitalism, globalisation and militarisation. Examines Pacific relations with colonial and imperial powers such as Aotearoa New Zealand, Britain, and US. Analyses the limitations of world systems models.
Examines the relationship between national borders and international migration alongside an exploration of critical theories of the drivers, management and experience of displacement. Particular attention is paid to representations of migration, political and policy responses to migration, and patterns of involuntary, labour, lifestyle and educational migration.
Develops skills in integrating theory and methods so that students can critically engage with social problems using a sociological lens both inside and outside the university.
Examines, in a comparative mode, how law as a set of social relations and categories can both create and remedy inequalities of gender, race, and class.
Compulsory schooling in western society has traditionally been seen as a significant instrument of socialisation, progression and economic advancement for young people. The course will engage students in ideas which challenge this view by drawing on critical theories such as Labelling, Marxist, Foucauldian, and Anarchist theory, and exploring topics including colonialism, patriarchy, racism, and the social control of youth.
An exploration of the relationship and patterns of interaction between media, culture and society through an examination of the print and broadcasting media, and advertising in New Zealand.
Introduces students to new developments in sociology by examining the significance of our relationships to others: intimate partners, friends, acquaintances, and even pets. The course considers the ways relationships are embedded in life through everyday practices, sharing photographs, and telling stories. In so doing, it engages with contemporary debates about the rise of individualism and the decline of family life.
Drawing on writings from a variety of intellectual traditions, this course explores the contested nature of violence through an examination of a number of contemporary debates about the causes, agents, consequences, as well as responses to and interventions in, incidents of violence.
Presents a conceptual and topical overview of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Medicine. Specific topics to be addressed include: the social distribution of disease; the social production of disease; the social construction of 'illness'; the social construction of treatment practices; patient experiences of illness and healthcare; the social organisation of medicine; and alternative visions of healthcare.
Draws on theories of subjectivity to discern how capitalism influences the way people think, act and desire. It considers the damage that a competitive society does to the psyche relative to sex/gender. It considers how changes in the psychosocial condition can be brought about.
Examination of sociological issues in research design, execution, analysis and interpretation. Particular attention is paid to computer assisted data and benefits of employing multiple methods.
Interrogates advanced sociological theories of medicine and psychiatry, investigating mental health interventions as social, economic, cultural and political projects. Key issues will include The Enlightenment and theories of the self, the rise of science and the 'psy' professionals, institutionalisation and community care, current sociological theories of mental health, the medicalisation of everyday life, and gender, race and mental illness.
Disasters are increasing in scale, cost, frequency and severity. This course examines their causes and consequences and considers their future avoidance. In doing so it draws on social theory, Science and Technology Studies, and broad literatures on disaster. Topics include: the risk society thesis, the social patterning of disasters, and the political economy of disasters (disaster capitalism).
Explores the relationship between population, state and society with a particular emphasis on the settler colonial and post colonial context of Aotearoa New Zealand and the South Pacific. Social theories of biopolitics, gender, racism and technology are examined in order to develop critical insights into population ‘problems’ of migration, borders, fertility/mortality, citizenship and diversity.
Interrogates the purpose of a university from a sociological lens. Explores how the university is imagined and the different social drivers that guide the ‘purpose’ of a university. Topics include non-performative diversity, the university as a site for ‘cultural wars’, the neoliberal university, critic and conscience and academic freedom.
Crimes An advanced study of sociological and green criminology approaches to environmental harms that illuminates the complex social processes that creates them. This course critically analyses phenomenon that harms humans, non- humans and the environment. Examines the complex political, cultural, economic factors, and social factors contributing to them, as well as the social responses to address these problems.
Explores some of the major principles of research design and practice before discussing particular methods of research. Students will work through problem definition, literature review, and research design. Both ‘empirical’ and ‘theoretical’ projects will be encouraged.
The influence of changing ideologies of mothering, fathering, family and work, as well as the political forces and pressure groups that promote them, on both the development and restructuring of social and legal policies in several industrialised nations, including New Zealand.
Traces contemporary sociological debates in the analysis of gender and sexuality. This includes reference to feminist concerns with identities, differences, bodies, power and agency. These issues are taken up and explored through an examination of practices enacted on/or through sexed bodies.
Starting from the premise that science is a social phenomenon, this course investigates how science is shaped by norms, institutions, beliefs and other social forces. It asks students to consider how the human world affects science, and how science affects the human world.
Critically examines settler colonialism and the contemporary politics and practices of recognition and reconciliation between indigenous and settler peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA. The course examines the literatures on settler colonialism and contemporary practices of recognition and apology, as well as the work of courts, tribunals, governments and indigenous communities across these four societies.
Investigates the social forces and forms of thought currently producing progressive social change out of the contradictory realities of the existing social situation. Considers the immanent possibilities for radical change at the present moment of late capitalism, the grounds on which social change might be justified and the practical steps that might be taken to realise them.