Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC2009: Deviance: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The central aims of the module are to enable you to develop an understanding of and to critically explore the cultural dimensions and significance of deviance; to use theoretical concepts and modes of reasoning from a range of different disciplinary perspectives to do so; to reflect critically on and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different disciplinary perspectives. The module seeks to go beyond orthodox social science accounts of deviance which cast deviance as reducible to ‘hard’ social-structural variables on the one hand, and individual-centred ‘psychological’ factors on the other.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the current state of cultural criminological, cultural sociological and social and cultural anthropological debates related to deviance
2. Show a developing understanding of specific issues related to the understanding of deviance – such as performativity, punishment, subcultures, embodiment – based on criminological, sociological and anthropological literature.
Discipline-Specific Skills3. link theoretical concepts with empirical examples and case studies;
4. Show competence in assessing claims about deviance using sociological and cultural theory
Personal and Key Skills5. Understand and communicate theoretical ideas clearly both orally and in writing;
6. work independently and in groups, within a limited time frame, to complete self-directed and group-based tasks

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading:

Alexander, J. (2003) ‘A Cultural Sociology of Evil’, in The Meanings of Social Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 109 – 120.

Anderson, T. (2015) Understanding Deviance: Connecting Classical and Contemporary Perspectives. Oxford: Routledge.

Ferrell, J. Hayward, K.  Young, J. (2015) Cultural Criminology. London: Sage.

Freilich, M, Raybeck, D. and Savishinsky, J. (1991) Deviance: Anthropological Perspectives. London:Bergin and Garvey.

Furedi, F. (2013) Moral Crusades in an Age of Mistrust: The Jimmy Saville Scandal. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Goode, E. (2015) The Handbook of Deviance. West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons.

Lyng, S. (2005) Edgework: The Sociology of Risk Taking. Oxford: Routledge.

O’Neill and Seal, L. (2012) Transgressive Imaginations: Crime, Deviance and Culture. London: Palgrave MacMillan.

Reed, I. (2007) ‘Why Salem Made Sense: Culture, Gender and the Puritan Persecution of Witchcraft’, Cultural Sociology, 1(2): 209 – 234.

Seidman, S. ‘Defilement and Disgust: Theorizing the Other’, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 1(3): 3 – 25.

Smith, P. (2008) Punishment and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Smith, P. (2010) Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Terry, J. and Urla, J. (1995) Deviant Bodies: Critical Perspectives on Difference in Science and Popular Culture. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Worthen, M. (2016) Sexual Deviance and Society: A Sociological Examination. London: Routledge.