Sociology and Criminology

Citizenship, Activism and Resistance

Module code: L4069A
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay

On this module, you’ll focus on political sociology. You’ll consider where modern ideas of citizenship come from and how they have they been

  • theorised
  • contested
  • put into practice
  • expanded.

Key to this are debates around the role of the modern nation state (as the dominant ‘container’ of citizenship) in determining who gets included – and who excluded – from the rights of citizenship. In turn, it is important to explore how histories of coloniality and capitalism have shaped contemporary framings of citizenship.

You’ll ask:

  • whether modern citizenship provides the necessary foundation for global democracy, or whether it’s better seen as a device for the maintenance of contemporary global inequalities
  • whether we should see the rise of the welfare state as a positive achievement of working-class struggle, or an insidious tool of neo-colonial domination, whereby gendered and racialised bodies are put into complex hierarchies and pitted against each other
  • how, and to what extent citizenship has provided a basis for – and goal for – social and political activism
  • how the structures and norms of citizenship have been resisted and transformed.

In tackling such questions, we’ll dip into a variety of relevant fields, such as the politics of:

  • work and consumption
  • health, gender, and sexuality
  • migration and surveillance
  • the spread of digital technologies
  • the repercussions of ecological crisis and so-called ‘climate apartheid’.

Module learning outcomes

  • Demonstrate understanding and knowledge of key topics and debates relating to citizenship and participation in political sociology
  • Demonstrate critical understanding the relationship between individuals and states in different societies and over time
  • Assess the strengths and weaknesses of empirical material as evidence in specific cases
  • Critically evaluate competing theoretical perspectives on citizenship and participation in writing