This core module examines historical, sociological social problems and societies’ reactions to them.

A key concern of this module is to examine the socio-cultural and historical circumstances in which these different social problems emerged, doing so will illustrate how these different social problems or more specifically, particular social groups emerged as ‘social problems’ or ‘deviants’ to be ‘managed’ by society.

Students will be introduced to classical sociological theoretical debates about the consequences of disrupting social order, inequalities, power, oppression and social problems.

The module gives students the opportunity to develop first-hand knowledge of some of these social problems with the use of primary archival sources. Some of the ‘social problems’ encountered on this module are likely to include:
society’s varying reaction and social control of deviant women; managing the health of the population & the growth of female-oriented health & maternity professions. Other social problems discussed on the module focus on a variety of conflicts that emerge from social and political change. These are likely to include conflicts of race relations & immigration in post-war Britain; homosexual lives post decriminalisation; investigation of the role that religious divisions and socio-economic causes had on the Northern Ireland “Troubles”; divisions within mining communities, working class male identities and changing gender relations.

1. Essay composed of 1 x 2,500 words offering a critical appraisal of archive collections focusing on two social problems encountered on the module (meets learning outcome 3)
2. Two learning journal entries (750 words each) from a list of titles (meets learning outcomes 1&2)
*Learners need to pick four different social problems for their coursework. The Social Problems discussed in the learning journals and the essay need to be different.
As part of the module, learners are given the opportunity to submit formative coursework. This will be in the form of a short plan of their essay. They will receive feedback during one of the workshops

For 200 hours, of which 39 hours will consist of class contact and 161 hours of independent guided learning. Class contact consists of 1 hour per week (for 13 weeks) lecture/coursework briefing sessions; 1-hour seminar (and 1 hour academic support time)

Blackboard will be used to house teaching materials and readings. Recordings of ‘live’ lectures will be loaded to blackboard for students to revisit and review.
Electronic course packs will contain links to pdfs of readings relevant to each week’s topic.

Students will engage in independent study outside of the lecture/seminar this will include preparing for the taught sessions by doing the key reading(s) doing these readings will give students a deeper understanding of each of the social problems under discussion
Seminars will give learners the opportunity to engage in group discussions drawing on conventional academic resources such as journal articles, books, policies, parliamentary debates alongside archive sources. There will be one taught assessment guidance session.

Learners will have the opportunity to submit formative assessment (in the form of a plan for one of their portfolio responses) & will receive formative feedback) that informs the final portfolio.

Throughout the module, students will be given both informal feedback during taught sessions and written summative feedback on their final assessment.

To bolster understanding and experience of using secondary sources, students will be invited to go on a course trip to the labour history and archive study centre, housed within the people’s history museum, Manchester. This will give students a taster of handling original archive sources for their assignments and the confidence to arrange visits to other archive centres if they desire, to undertake further research for their assignment. Photographs of Archive sources are available on the blackboard site for any learners unable to participate in the course trip.

1. Demonstrate acquisition of critical knowledge of three social problems encountered on the module through the use of an array of archive sources and established relevant academic literature.

Knowledge and Understanding; learning

2. Critically analyse the ways in which specific socio-cultural, historical and material circumstances influenced these issues to emerge as ‘social problems’.

Communication; Analysis; Application

3. Demonstrate an ability to appraise the merits and limitations of using archive collections in the investigation of two social problems encountered on the module.

Knowledge & understanding; Application; analysis; Enquiry

Lecture room with technology facilities; suitable for capturing audio of the whole session, projector, speakers, suitable for PowerPoint presentations, seminar room suitable for group work

An extensive digital library of various archive collections (sourced from Labour History Archive and Study Centre, Manchester, housed on the VLE, module page)
Digital Archives - Digital Panoptican and British Library
University Library
eLibrary Resources
Blackboard
Internet

Ussher, JM., (1991). Women’s Madness: Misogyny or Mental Illness?: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Briggs, R., (1996). Witches and Neighbors. The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft. London. Penguin Books.
Levack, BP., (1995). The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe. Second edition. London. Longman.
Sharpe JA., ‘The History of Crime in Late Medieval and Early Modern England: A review of the field’: Social History. 7 (2)
Perkin, J., (1989). Women and Marriage in Nineteenth Century England. London. Routledge.
Dolan, F., (2003). ‘Battered Women, Petty Traitors and the Legacy of Coverture’: Feminist Studies. 29 (2)
Thompson, EP., (1991) Customs in Common. Popular Cultures in England 1950-1750. London Merlin. Ebook
Hamilton, S., (eds). Criminals, Idiots, Women and Minors: Victorian writing by Women on Women. Ontario. Broadview Press.
Childs MJ., (1992). Labour’s Apprentices: working-class lads in late Victorian and Edwardian England. London. Hambledon.
Kirby, P., (2003). Child Labour in Britain 1750-1870. Palgrave MacMillan.
Higginbotham A (1989) "Sin of the Age": Infanticide and Illegitimacy in Victorian London: Victorian Studies. 32 (3)
Grey, DJR., (2013). ‘What Woman is Safe…?’: Coerced Medical Examinations, Suspected Infanticide and the Response of the Women’s Movement in Britain, 1871-1881: Women’s History Review. 22 (3)
Thompson FML., (1988). The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain 1830-1900. London. Fontana.
Lewis, J., (ed). Labour and Love, Women’s Experience of Home and Family 1850-1940. Oxford. Basil Blackwell
Goulbourne, H., (1998). Race Relations in Britain since 1945. Basingstoke. MacMillan.
Dean DW., (1992). ‘Conservative Governments and the Restriction of Commonwealth Immigration in the 1950s: the problems of constraint’: The Historical Journal. 35 (1)
Bleich, E., (2006). ‘Institutional Continuity and Change: Norms, lesson-drawing, and the introduction of race-conscious measures in the 1976 British Race Relations Act’: Policy Studies: 27 (3)
Matthews, D., (2018). Voices of the Windrush Generation, The Real Story told by the People Themselves. Blink Publishing.
Rosenfeld, D., (2009). 'Heteronormativity and Homonormativity as Practical and Moral Resources: The Case of Lesbian and Gay Elders': Gender and Society. 23 (5)
Weeks, J., (1977). Coming Out, Homosexual Politics in Britain, from the Nineteenth Century to the Present. London. Quartet.
Humphries, L., 1975 [2008] Tearoom Trade, Impersonal Sex In Public Spaces. New York. Aldine de Gruyter.
Charles, N., and Harris, C., (2007). ‘Continuity and Change in Work-Life Balance Choices’: The British Journal of Sociology. 58. (2)
Sanders A and Wood IS., (2012). Times of Troubles: Britain’s War in Northern Ireland. Edinburgh University Press. Edinburgh.
Broad R., Downing, T., Elliston, C., Hinshelwood, I., Kossoff, A., Manwaring-White, S., Stuttard, I and Wood, A., The Troubles. London. MacDonald Futura Publishers
Donohue, LK., (1998). ‘Regulating Northern Ireland: The Special Powers Act, 1922-1972’: The Historical Journal. 41 (4) pp1089-1120
Prince S and Warner G (2012). Belfast and Derry in Revolt: a new History of the Start of the Troubles: Irish Dublin Academic Press