Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - Childhood and Youth and Sociology (LL93)

Childhood & Youth is an exciting, multidisciplinary subject in which students will explore a range of issues and challenges faced by children and young people in contemporary society, both here in the UK and on a global level. Drawing on key ideas from sociology, politics, history, social policy and cultural studies, the degree examines important questions about children and young people and the social contexts in which they live.

Topics studied include: how children and young people’s place in society has changed over time; how social class, poverty, gender, ethnicity, disability, social policy and so on impact children and young people’s lives; the role of risk and risk-taking in children and young people’s everyday lives and; how children and young people make sense of and help to shape their social worlds. In exploring such issues students will also look at various political debates and policy initiatives, as well as learning about various ways of researching with children and young people that aim to help them overcome the many challenges that they face.

With its strong emphasis on social justice and welfare, the degree will enable students to develop as critical social scientists who value their role within the academic community at Hope and who, as graduates, will be able to use their skills and knowledge to the benefit of their local community and society more broadly.

Contemporary society is becoming ever more complex and the need to understand how it works is increasingly important. Sociology is the study of how society is organized, how this influences the attitudes and behavior of individuals and the impact this has on social relationships, both within and between societies. Accordingly, sociology is now commonly regarded as an essential discipline for understanding the development of all modern societies. The Sociology degree at Liverpool Hope University will help students to think critically and constructively about the key questions relating to modern society.

This sociology degree is based around a core that provides inputs from social theory and from the comparison of different forms of society. The degree will help students to examine ‘common-sense’ assumptions about the world by exploring the issues that confront society, both nationally and globally, and by studying the theories and methods that help to explain and understand these issues. It also examines and evaluates the methods of research which make the study of society possible. The degree enables students to study a range of additional topics which cover the whole spectrum of sociological inquiry.