Students are asked to write a 2,250 word essay that critically and theoretically engages with a chosen ‘inequality’, using theories and concepts learned in the module and using empirical studies covered in module teaching and readings.
1. Using theories and concepts sociologists have developed to study elite groups, how can we explain the persistence of a traditional ‘upper-class’ in British society today?
2. Using empirical studies, discuss and analyse the material inequalities and moral judgements associated with personal debt and austerity.
3. What is meant by Lévi-Strauss’ concept of ‘house-based kinship’, and how can we use this concept to understand the role of kinship and inheritance in reproducing inequalities in Britain?
4. What makes a house a home? Referring to the concepts of rent, precarity and/or dispossession, assess the role that homes and housing play in inequalities in contemporary Britain.
5. Assess the role of the ‘racialised Outsider’ in the making of British identity and notions of belonging. Illustrate your answer with studies drawn from the module content and readings.
6. What do Virdee & McGreever mean by ‘Island Englishness’ and ‘Imperial Nostalgia’ mobilising the Brexit vote?
7. Assess the role that gender norms and gendered stereotypes play in structural inequalities, including class, and in the everyday struggles of marginalised people.
8. Outline and assess the argument that capitalism depends on a de-valuation of caring and reproductive work.
