Politics and Sociology

Politics and sociology are disciplines that address one of the central questions of social science: how is the social order maintained, challenged and transformed? Politics examines the formal and informal processes through which authority is organised and exercised, how institutions function, how ideologies compete and how citizens participate in collective life. Sociology examines the social structures, inequalities and cultural forces that shape individual experience and collective behaviour, often in ways that operate beneath or alongside formal political processes.

At the University of Leicester, this three-year full-time programme includes a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to study politics and society in a different national context, enriching your comparative understanding of how political systems and social structures vary and interact. The programme develops your ability to move between political analysis and sociological interpretation, using each to illuminate the other.

You will study political theory, comparative government, international relations and the study of political behaviour alongside sociological theory, research methods, social inequality, the sociology of work, health, education, culture and globalisation. Both quantitative and qualitative research skills are developed, giving you the methodological range to engage with different kinds of evidence about political and social life.

Graduates go on to careers in the civil service, policy research, social research, public services, education, journalism, human resources, charities, NGOs and international organisations. The combination of political and sociological analysis is valued wherever understanding people, institutions and power relationships is required. Some go on to postgraduate study in politics, sociology, public policy, social research or related disciplines.