Curious about studying Sociology - BSc (Hons)at Birmingham City University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Curzon Building
Full Time
Sep 2027
3 Year
Our BSc (Hons) Sociology degree is a radical and practical course; theoretically driven and empirically informed, as well as locally situated and globally focused. The discipline of Sociology helps us to make sense of the world and our place within it. Studying Sociology at Birmingham City University is about not reading sociology but doing sociology, allowing you to explore and question social norms and discover the complex issues behind your everyday routines and social practices in a range of spatial contexts, applying what you learn to your own lived experiences.
Professional Placement YearThis course offers an optional professional placement year. This allows you to spend a whole year with an employer, following successful completion of your second year, and is a great way to find out more about your chosen career. Some students even return to the same employers after completing their studies. If you choose to pursue a placement year, you will need to find a suitable placement to complement your chosen area of study. You will be able to draw on the University’s extensive network of local, regional, and national employers, and the support of our Careers teams. If you are able to secure a placement, you can request to be transferred to the placement version of the course. Please note that fees are payable during your placement year, equivalent to 20% of the total full-time course fee for that year.
This module aims to advance your awareness of the interplay between individual experience and wider society. In so doing, you will be supported to develop and to apply that which the American sociologist C Wright Mills (1959) called, a ‘sociological imagination’: an act which invites us to ‘think our selves away’ from the immediacy of the routines, events and personal circumstances of everyday life and to consider these in wider social context from a sociological point of view. In support of this endeavour , the module introduces and makes use of contemporary sociological thinking and practice with an alertness to social setting, agency and social structure. Analysis, discussion and debate are framed and grounded with reference to selected social topics and themes with a relevancy to the lived experience of the ‘everyday ’. Throughout this module you will be encouraged to apply a ‘sociological imagination’ to ask and to answer sociological questions. Overall, the module aims to engage you in developing a capacity to identify and to interpret past and present patterns of social life; and to advance an understanding of the connections between social structure, individual experience and acts of individual and collective agency. Specifically, the module aims to support you in taking forward the task of thinking imaginatively about your own life experiences along sociological lines: a task to be framed and directed with reference to Mill’s focus on ‘Public Issues, Private Troubles’ through the completion of a reflective diary which you prepared for assessment.
The modern city is one of the most significant spaces through which social life is organised, experienced, and contested. This module introduces you to the key processes, theories, and debates that shape urban environments in the contemporary world. Drawing on foundational and emerging perspectives in urban sociology, the module explores how cities develop, transform, and reproduce social inequalities over time. You will examine the processes that influence urban change such as gentrification, suburbanisation and ghettoisation and consider how these processes impact the everyday lives of different communities and the overall face of the modern city. You will develop the analytical tools needed to interpret the city as a dynamic social space. The module encourages you to connect sociological theory with real ‑ world examples, using case studies, visual materials, and local observations to deepen your understanding of how urban processes unfold in practice. By engaging with contemporary changes of the modern city , you will gain insight into the complexities and contradictions of modern urban life. The assessment for this module - a visually engaging e ‑ portfolio - supports you to apply theoretical ideas to concrete examples of urban change. This approach enables you to build confidence in academic writing, develop digital literacy skills, and cultivate a sociological imagination that recognises the city as both a physical environment and a social construct. By the end of the module, you will have a strong foundation for further study in sociology, human geography, and related disciplines concerned with space, place, and social transformation.
People, Power and Public Life is an introductory module that aims to familiarise you with key themes in political sociology. It introduces politics from a sociological perspective that encompasses institutional and extra-institutional means of doing politics, different spheres of claim-making, forms of political participation, and social change. The module encourages you to reflect on how political processes and discourses affect their own experiences, expectations, and visions of the future. Politics is studied in conventionally political settings such as the parliament and protests as well as in everyday life and personal relationships. Theoretical readings are followed by examples from contemporary socio-political life. This module will allow you to critically engage with political processes, and to develop your skills in group work and oral communication. Presentation skills are transferable skills that are valued by employers across a variety of sectors and an important addition to your skill set for employability. The module also enoucrages you to work in teams in a collaborative environment that values peer feedback and independent learning. Teamwork is another employability skill that will be demonstrated through coursework. You will have opportunities to get formative feedback on their progress throughout the module.
This core module introduces students to key classical sociological theories and perspectives, whilst situating them within their historical, social, and political contexts. The module approaches the sociological canon critically, examining how foundational theories emerged within, and were shaped by, processes of modernity, including colonialism, empire, slavery, and gendered exclusions. In doing so, the module challenges narratives that present sociology as an internally European development, instead emphasising the global and relational conditions through which modern social thought was constituted . You will engage with canonical thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber alongside often marginalised or excluded figures including W. E. B. Du Bois, Harriet Martineau and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These perspectives are explored not as discrete traditions but as interconnected responses to the transformations associated with modernity. The module encourages you to critically interrogate the formation of sociological knowledge, including whose voices are centred, whose are marginalised, and how power operates in the production of theory. Through interactive workshops, you will develop the ability to interpret, evaluate and apply sociological concepts to contemporary social issues. The module also supports the development of core academic and transferable skills, including critical reading, structured argumentation, and engagement with different forms of evidence. The assessment is designed to evaluate your understanding, interpretation and application of sociological theories, as well as your ability to communicate ideas clearly and coherently using appropriate forms and sources of evidence. The module is delivered through a weekly 3-hour interactive workshop, supported by a 1-hour optional drop-in session for additional guidance and discussion. You are expected to engage in weekly reading, directed online activities via Moodle, and independent study.
This module introduces you to the core principles, practices, and debates that shape qualitative research inquiry in the social sciences. The module equips you with the foundational skills needed to design, conduct, and interpret qualitative research, while encouraging you to think critically about how knowledge is produced, whose voices are heard, and how power operates within the research process.You will explore a range of qualitative approaches, including interviews, focus groups, ethnography, participant observation, visual and digital methods, and textual analysis and learn how these methods help researchers understand lived experience, meaning‑making, identity, and social worlds. The module emphasises reflexivity, ethics, and positionality, helping you recognise how oyur own background, assumptions, and relationships shape the research encounter. Through practical activities, case studies, and guided practice, you will develop confidence in collecting and analysing qualitative data, using tools such as thematic analysis, coding, and interpretive reading. By the end of the module, you will be able to evaluate qualitative research, design small‑scale projects, and apply methodological concepts to real‑world social issues.
Culture is arguably one of the most complex terms in the human vocabulary , with a wide range of meanings . It refers to visible cultural products and formats, such as art, music, and literature, but also to the shared meanings, symbols, values, and everyday practices that shape how people understand the world. To introduce you to this field, the module explores key sociological approaches to culture, including the distinction between the sociology of culture and cultural sociology. It covers major themes, theories, and methodological debates, such as cultural capital, boundary-making, culture and power, and interpretation versus explanation in social science methodology . You will also have opportunities to connect cultural theories to your own life experiences, examining the significance of culture in political, economic, and social settings more broadly.
This core Level 5 module builds on Sociological Perspectives by engaging you with contemporary social theories whilst also exploring the ways in which they are produced through globally entangled histories of power, knowledge, and resistance. Rather than treating theory as originating within Europe and subsequently applied elsewhere, the module approaches contemporary social theory as emerging through colonial, imperial, and postcolonial formations, as well as through struggles over race, gender, and epistemic authority. In doing so, it foregrounds how what is often presented as the ‘canon’ is historically produced, contested, and incomplete. A central aim is to interrogate how social theory is constituted: not only what counts as theory, but who is recognised as a theorist, and under what conditions. You engage with thinkers from different locations within global knowledge production, including those writing from and about colonial and postcolonial contexts, alongside feminist and Black intellectual traditions. Rather than positioning decolonial, feminist, and critical race perspectives as external critiques, the module places them at the centre of analysis, showing how they reshape key concepts such as power, culture, and identity. For example, not only do we examine Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, but we also explore it in relation to colonial domination and subaltern politics; Foucault’s analyses of power are understood alongside feminist and postcolonial interventions; and Bourdieu’s cultural capital is also examined in relation to racialised and gendered inequalities. By the end of the module, you will not only have acquired an in-depth understanding of these theories, but also the ability to apply them to the world around them, as well as to the topics and issues raised in other modules.
Sociology is an exciting and illuminating field of study that attempts to analyse and explain the most important social, cultural and political questions of our time. This module provides you with the opportunity to develop your knowledge and understanding of a range of “ problems ” or “issues” that currently dominate both the social and political climate. All of these are areas of social and political policy. Throughout this module you will be encouraged to develop your skills as an independent learner . You will be given the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge within an assessment that gets you producing a video campaign . You will use sociological insights to analyse social problems and pr ovide policy suggestions for a range of relevant stakeholders . This module introduces you to the sociological understanding of contemporary social and political events and areas in which policy is developed . It aims to provide insight into how these events can be read socially, politically and culturally; and how they can be theorised and analysed using a sociological lens. Because of the topicality of the module its content will be routinely updated contingent on specific current events and issues occurring, globally. Therefore, you will be introduced to cutting-edge understanding of the events and issues that are contemporarily present and around you in your everyday lives. You will firstly be introduced to the particular events and issues, before locating them in the existing literature and debates. Relevant sociological theory will be introduced as to provide you a conceptual base that can be applied to establish new understandings to the events and issues being examined.
This module develops your ability to critically engage with quantitative data and data-driven knowledge as an informed sociological thinker. Rather than training you as a producer of statistical tests, the module equips you to read, interpret, question, and critique the numbers that shape contemporary social life. Alongside this critical engagement, you build practical data literacy: understanding key statistical concepts (e.g. averages, distribution, correlation, significance), reading and interpreting tables and graphs, and gaining introductory experience with relevant software.
This module provides you with an opportunity to experience /reflect upon real world work and /or work - related activity in relation to one of five pathways . The f ive pathways are: an external work-exper ience placement with a third sector/public/commercial organisation directed use made of current and relevant work-experience as a n active volunteer or a s a n active p aid employee a n agreed BCU internal placement or a n agreed student-init iated (desk-based) p roject supportive of entrepreneurial endeavour a directed set of employment-relevant activities to be informed through a recounting of and reflection upon past employment/volunteering experience along with the complementary use of BCU employment-support resources a v ariation to or a hybrid combination of t he prece ding forms (1 to 4) to be agreed between tutor and student with reasonable regard to situation and circumstance and with an option to include a critical account of your personal ‘placement search’ activity with a focus on skill application and experiential learning . It is expected that each one of the five pathways will engage students for a target of 128 hours over a semester . You will be assigned a ‘pathway’ tutor. Where ex ternal or internal placements operate , a workplace-based supervisor will be sought in addition. To advance/support learning, a short series of workshop sessions will be provided on module-relevant topics. As relevant and i n a timely manner , you are expected to provide the module tutor with a copy of a n agreed ‘work plan’ providing an indicative timetable of pathwa y tasks to be undertaken. All s tudents will be supported via Moodle throughout the module. All pathways are to be agreed by the University.
This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 40- week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Undergraduate Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.
The aim of this module is to provide a framework for you to undertake a substantial disciplinary relevant project. It is founded upon the University's teaching and learning philosophy which integrates theory and practice. The format of the Integrated Research Project will vary, dependent on the degree pathway you are on, and the choice of project. Depending on student interest and available support, potential project formats may include: a library-based or empirical dissertation; a group-based social entrepreneurship project; a community organising project, or other projects based on the suggestion of students. The module provides a framework for integrating the principles, tools, theories and methods from your programme and providing students a degree of freedom to develop a project in a relevant subject of their choosing. The module is aligned to the programme ’ s aims as it pursues excellence in enabling you to specialise in a chosen field or area to develop your knowledge and your application of that knowledge and research findings. Depending upon the chose are of study the project may well be interdisciplinary or have an international scope. Class contact will consist of a programme of lectures/workshops, scheduled by the individual programme teams. Based on the format of project chosen there will also be a series of (independent or group) supervisory meetings to be taken over the course of the academic year. Although there is some recommended reading for devising the research project the essential reading will reflect the negotiated topic and organisation under investigation.
This module provides a critical introduction to global sociology focusing on key concepts, theoretical debates, and the relationship between knowledge, power, and sociological theory. It adopts a connected sociologies framework to examine global society as a historically interconnected system shaped by colonialism and its enduring legacies. The module explores how colonialism structured global systems, shaping empire, capitalism, racial hierarchies, and global political and economic ordering. It further analyses how these colonial formations continue to influence contemporary societies through persistent inequalities, global capitalism, dependency relations, and international governance structures despite processes of formal decolonisation. A central concern of the module is the analysis of social inequality in a connected global context, with attention to the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and identity, alongside processes of stratification, migration, and transnational social relations. These dynamics are understood through relational and historically grounded perspectives that emphasise interdependence rather than separation between societies. The module also foregrounds the role of the Global South not merely as an object of sociological analysis, but as an active producer of knowledge and theory. It engages with decolonising approaches, Southern theory, and alternative modernities to critically challenge Eurocentric assumptions within sociology and to highlight inequalities in knowledge production. Finally, the module considers processes of resistance and transformation through anti-colonial and decolonial movements, transnational activism, cultural resistance, and contemporary debates in global sociology. By integrating theory, history, and contemporary case studies, the module enables students to critically analyse global social processes and evaluate ongoing struggles within unequal global structures.
This module will provide you with a critical understanding of contemporary patterns and debates around intimacy, communities , and belonging . Questions such as: How has romantic and other forms of inti macy changed over time? How do people fulfil their need for community and connection with others? Why do people live the lives they do? What do their behaviours tell us about modern life? This module introduces key concepts and theories to help explore , understand, and critically analyse topics such as friendship, casual sex /relationships , consensual non-monogamy, fandoms, online culture , parasocial relationships, AI, nature, loneliness, the manosphere, and social media. Through a combination of theoretical engagement and analysis of contemporary case studies, you will develop critical thinking skills that allow them to evaluate various interpretations of people ’s behaviours. The module emphasises the importance of understanding wider sociocultural factors when considering how and why people do what they do . You will have the opportunity to pursue an assessment on topics that align with your own interests, developing their ability to synthesise academic literature and construct well-evidenced and nuanced arguments. These skills — critical analysis of complex social issues, evaluating multiple perspectives, and presenting reasoned arguments — are highly valued in diverse professional contexts including policy development, human resources, advocacy work, education, and research.
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