Course Catalogue

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This course offers a critical introduction to the sociology of revolution. As revolutions involve the dismantling of social orders and the remaking of new ones, revolutions are ripe for sociological exploration. Yet revolutions remain relatively absent from sociology curricula today. This course intervenes by guiding students through a global sociological history of revolutions spanning 200 years: from 1789 to 1989, before concluding by assessing 21st revolutionary movements in the aftermath of the putative 'end of history'.

Weekly two-hour session consisting of a lecture (1 hour) followed immediately by a seminar (1 hour); both on campus.

In order to take this course, you need to have met the requirements for entry into our Honours Programme. This means achieving a grade of 'D' or better in Sociology 1A and 1B and a 'C' or better in Sociology 2A and 2B. You also have to comply with the College of Social Science regulations for progression to Honours.

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Summative Assessment 1: self-directed essay. Worth 60% of grade; 2500 words.

A self-directed essay (to be pre-agreed with the course convenor through formative assignment) on a topic of the student's choosing related to any aspect of the sociology of revolution. It must have an object (an empirical case) to be explained using sociological theories and concepts. There are no pre-set essay questions for this course; students are free to specialise according to their own interests. This assignment is designed to foster independent thinking and active learning.

Summative Assessment 2: Revolutionary Dispatches (reading reflections portfolio). Worth 40% of overall grade; 1500 words.

'Revolutionary Dispatches' is a portfolio of reading reflections on revolutionary memoirs/oral histories. 'Dispatches' are short, critical, and reflexive. Students will submit entries of 150-300 words weekly that focus on one reading/recording from the course archive. Students will submit a total of 1500 words (+/- 10%) from this portfolio for assessment. By engaging with firsthand accounts of revolutions from social actors of varied social backgrounds, this assignment aims to allow students to gain experience of working with primary sources, as well as fostering empathy and reflexivity. 

Student reflections will be assessed using an analytic rubric derived to ensure consistent marking. This analytic rubric assesses how well students have demonstrated the core skills and abilities necessary to achieve the relevant ILOs.

No - reassessments not applicable for Honours courses.

This course aims to equip students with the conceptual, empirical, and historical knowledge necessary to grapple with seismic social changes and their consequences. In a rapidly changing and increasingly unstable world, these are essential graduate attributes for Sociology. The course has been designed to enhance students' programmatic learning by building on and extending their disciplinary knowledge. It does so by allowing students to examine classical sociological problems (such as the relationship between structure and agency, the nature of social transformation, and the relationship between the individual and society) that are core to our discipline and present throughout their degree programme from new and extraordinary vantage points. Global in orientation and historically grounded, the course seeks to broaden political horizons, stretch sociological imaginations, and foster critical thinking. The course content, its intended learning outcomes, its learning activities and assessments have been designed precisely to foster these dispositions. This will also enable students to make reflexive, informed, and rigorous contributions to real-world debates, beyond their degree programme. In doing so, they will achieve the discipline-specific graduate attribute of being able to 'reflexively question assumptions which are taken for granted'.

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

■ develop a historical appreciation of the role of revolutions in shaping and remaking the modern world.

■ demonstrate reflexivity by exploring how living through a revolution might alter or inform the political subjectivities of ordinary men and women, as well as key revolutionary protagonists.

■ assess the role of specific social actors (such as women, the working class, subaltern subjects, political leaders, grassroots movements, intellectuals, and artists) in initiating and sustaining revolutionary movements.

■ produce sociologically informed analyses by applying sociological theories and concepts to concrete empirical cases of historical case studies of key revolutions (both successful and unsuccessful), thus identifying social patterns, triggers, and mechanisms that contributed to revolutionary events.

■ critically appraise the relative explanatory power of competing explanations and accounts of the causes and consequences of revolutions.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.