Module SOCI3541: Communities and Social Justice

Department: Sociology

SOCI3541: Communities and Social Justice

Prerequisites

• None.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To enable students to examine critically the contested concepts of ‘community’ and ‘social justice’ within a sociological framework.
• To offer an overview of the roles of voluntary and public sector institutions, community organisations, coalitions and social movements, in deploying community-based policies, practice and actions for social control, transformation and liberation in the UK and internationally.
• To provide a forum for exploring a variety of theories and practices of community-based action for social change, including social planning, community development and community organising approaches.
• To offer students the opportunity to engage in community-oriented and collaborative learning, including dialogues, skills workshops and field visits.

Content

• Exploration of the contested nature of ‘community’ through participating in a Socratic Dialogue and engaging with relevant sociological and philosophical literature.
• Exploration of examples of communities of place, interest and identity; inter- and intra-community conflict, oppression and control; diversity, difference, inter-sectionality.
• Critical examination of ‘social justice’ in relation to theories of justice and notions of human flourishing, the common good, welfare states and societies.
• Institutional responses to developing socially just societies and living conditions through welfare regimes and Non-Governmental Organizations.
• Examination of community-based practices and actions for social justice in the UK and internationally, such as community work (including community development and community organising), social movements, community-based coalitions and campaigns (e.g. for environmental justice, against oppression on grounds of ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, age, ability).
• Practice skills in community organising – including refining an issue, relational meetings, negotiating, strategizing and building broad based movements.

Learning Outcomes

• Upon successful completion of this module, students will have demonstrated:
• An awareness of key debates in the sociology of community.
• A critical understanding of the concepts of ‘community’ and ‘social justice’.
• A critical understanding of a range of community-based policies, practices and actions for social justice-related change

• By the end of the module students should have demonstrated ability to:
• Articulate the contested nature of ‘community’ and the role of community-based interventions and actions in working for socially just change.
• Develop their own sociologically informed arguments about contemporary issues in relation to communities and social justice.
• Deploy critical reasoning in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of specific theoretical and practical approaches.
• Reflect on their own roles in a group, how power is deployed and roles assigned.
• Research and analyse a pressing social issue or problem and plan how to mount a community-based campaign for change.

• By the end of the module students should have demonstrated ability to:
• Engage in reasoned argument.
• Relate theory to practice.
• Gather information from a variety of sources both bibliographic and electronic.
• Work collaboratively in a group, deploying skills in listening, clarifying, empathising, negotiating, seeking consensus and planning strategic actions.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• It is proposed to offer this module based on 12 workshop teaching sessions of 2 hours and two fieldtrips, each of 4.5 hours. This fits with the pedagogic objectives of integrating theory and practice and promoting learning through collaborative dialogue and practical activities as well as theoretical discussions and debate.
• Given the workshop-style delivery, with a lot of group-based interactive learning, we suggest the module might be capped at about 25 students.
• Each student will receive 33 hours of staff contact time.
• Within any two-hour workshop session there will be a variety of modes of learning, including: mini-lectures, group-based exercises and learning activities, seminar-style discussions and debates. Seminar-style activities will be integrated into the 2-hour workshops, with students sometimes working in two groups facilitated simultaneously by two staff. One session will comprise a Socratic Dialogue; another session will comprise a community organising workshop. There will be two fieldtrips of 4.5 hours each (including travel time)
• The main components of the integrated teaching sessions are indicated below:
• Mini-lectures offer an overview of key issues and debates, drawing on relevant literature, and helping to develop theoretical understanding and knowledge. These encourage students to develop skills of listening, selective note-taking and an appreciation of how information may be structured and presented to others.
• Small group tasks and exercises give students the opportunity to develop ideas, arguments and skills collaboratively, to develop communication and negotiation skills, reflect on their own contributions, their use of power, and how they support and relate to other students.
• Seminar-style discussions and debates provide the opportunity for students to present and develop their own understanding of relevant materials, encouraging them to develop transferable skills (e.g. oral communication, group work skills), subject specific skills (e.g. competence in using theoretical perspectives in sociology, the ability to formulate sociologically informed questions) and generic intellectual skills (e.g. judging and evaluating evidence, assessing the merits of competing arguments and explanations, making reasoned arguments). In planning, preparing and contributing to seminar-style discussions, students should develop organisational skills, together with other transferable skills (e.g. developing confidence in public speaking and presentation, managing group work, and using the material provided on DUO).
• A Socratic Dialogue on the theme of: What is ‘community’? Socratic dialogue is a means of exploring complex philosophical concepts or questions with a group of people. The procedure involves collecting concrete examples relevant to the question from the participants, choosing one example to work on, exploring the chosen example, articulating its core statement and agreeing on principles in answer to the general question. This will serve to introduce students to the module, encourage contributions from all, engage with their own experiences, develop skills in listening, questioning, analysis, argument and empathy with others.
• A community organising workshop – will introduce students to the theory and practice of community organising, providing opportunities to practise skills in negotiating, relational meetings, identifying social issues and strategies for working for change.
• Two field visits enable students to relate theory to practice through visiting community-based projects in neighbourhoods, seeing how the areas are laid out, what community organisations exist, what issues they work on, what approaches they use, how the policy context influences their work, and what are their strengths and challenges. Transport will provided by accessible minibus. The venues we visit will be wheelchair accessible and neighbourhood guided tours can be undertaken by people in wheelchairs. Anyone with other mobility problems can choose to stay in one of the project venues visited.
• Self directed study, reading and preparation for the formative and summative assignments encourages students to learn about a particular topic in more depth, to engage with critiques and approaches in the literature and to apply theory to practice.
• A formative assignment early in the module will ask students to engage in a conceptual analysis of ‘community’ and ‘social justice’, which will familiarise them with key literature and arguments in preparation for two summative assignments.
• The first summative assignment will be in the form of an essay, requiring students to demonstrate detailed knowledge of one core topic.
• The second summative assignment will ask students to develop a strategy for an issue-based campaign, developing their abilities to analyse a social issue, plan a course of action and relate to theoretical and practical materials in the literature.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

1500 word essay (optional)

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University