Course Catalogue

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Focusing on case studies of gender, class, NGOs, social security and care, the course will explore growing inequalities in the contemporary period and the ways in which practices, relationships and experiences are shaped by both local and global socio-economic and political structures and by socio-cultural expectations and understandings of what is possible and acceptable for different groups of people. The course will also draw students' attention to the ways in which 'knowledge' is created and the biases and silences which can arise as a result. Students will be encouraged to explore a range of methodologies and approaches by which people's experiences and understandings of and responses to social and cultural change can be studied and analysed. Post-socialist regions will be used as examples and laboratories of unprecedented opportunities for qualitative sociological and anthropological research into the transformation of societies and cultures.

One 2 hour class per week

Mandatory entry requirements
Entry to CEES Honours normally requires a grade point average of 12 (Grade C) over CEES 2A and CEES 2B as a first attempt.

None

A 15-20 minute pre-recorded presentation outlining their proposed research project (30%)

3,500 words research project (60%)

Seminar performance (10%)

Seminar performance is assessed according to a set of criteria (attendance, prep, understanding, participation and

argument) full details located in course handbook.

This course aims to introduce students to key debates on cultural politics, social diversity, and inequalities from a comparative perspective. It seeks to develop an understanding of how socio-economic and political structures, together with cultural expectations and norms, shape everyday practices, relationships, and experiences. The course encourages students to critically reflect on the construction of knowledge about inequality and diversity, paying attention to the biases, silences, and exclusions that can arise in both academic and public discourses. Drawing on case studies of gender, class, social security, and care, with a particular focus on Russia and post-socialist Europe as sites of transformation, the course provides students with the conceptual and methodological tools to connect empirical evidence with wider theoretical frameworks across sociology, anthropology, politics, and cultural studies

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ identify and explain the ways in which socio-economic and political structures, as well as socio-cultural expectations and understandings influence practices, experiences and relationships between different groups of people using Russia and 'post-socialist' Europe as examples. 

■ critically apply relevant theoretical frameworks to empirical case study examples illustrating aspects of social diversity, inequalities and cultural politics in changing contemporary world.

■ evaluate the balance between shared experiences of state socialism and post-socialist transformations on the one hand, and local, social and cultural specificities on the other, in shaping everyday realities in transforming societies.

■ critically assess primary sources including contemporary media texts and visual images, cultural representations and ethnographic data, as well as academic and other secondary accounts, paying particular attention to silences and omissions.