Undergraduate

Sociology and society

On this page

• What you will study
• Entry
• If you have a disability or additional requirement
• Study materials
• Teaching and assessment
• Students also studied
• Future availability

This lively introduction to contemporary sociology contains four modules, beginning with Understanding everyday life, which illuminates everyday aspects of the social world, including the home and pub. Next, Social divisions and differences examines the social divisions of race, class and gender, exploring their relationship to debates about citizenship and social justice. Social change introduces an historical perspective by considering changes in the temporal and spatial organisation of social life, in nations and cities, for example. Finally, The uses of sociology introduces different approaches to doing sociology, including methods.

Course facts

Register for the course

What you will study

The world in which we live (at least those of us in wealthy, industrialised societies) is subject to rapid and significant change: for example, the emergence of new and diverse forms of intimate and family relationships; the rise of the consumer society;  the shrinking of time and space in response to new information and computing technologies and transport links; and the emergence of new and important ways of experiencing who we are (in relation to our expectations of what it means to be a man or woman, for example, or in response to increasing cultural diversity and the weakening of nation states). However, some important continuities have run in parallel with these changes: fundamental inequalities of wealth and power persist (for instance, in terms of class, gender and ethnicity); and everyday life, in all its mundanity, goes on (we watch television, do housework, shop, have relationships, ‘go out’ and so on).

Sociology and society provides an introduction to sociology, a discipline that seeks to understand and explain such changes and continuities in the human world. It is organised into four modules.

Understanding everyday life, the first module, introduces you to sociological ways of thinking in relation to ‘everyday’ locales and aspects of life (for example, the home; the pub; watching television; and having relationships).

The second module Social differences and divisions investigates the main forms of division and difference in present-day societies (gender, class, race and ethnicity), in particular in relation to the debates about citizenship and social justice.

Social change the third module, explores social change – for example, in the lives of cities and nations; in intimate relationships; and in the world of new communication technologies.

Finally, the fourth module, The uses of sociology, focuses on the issue of doing sociology. As well as asking such questions as how far sociology provides a means of understanding the ways in which social worlds are made, the module explores the research methods associated with different traditions of sociological enquiry and seeks to equip you with some of the skills you will need to evaluate sociological evidence.

As such, as well as exploring some of the major concerns and theories current within the discipline, DD201 introduces you both to sociological ways of thinking and sociological ways of doing (i.e. to the practices of sociology). In more general terms, it also provides the basis for more specialist study at Levels 2 and 3. In particular, it serves as a transition from the interdisciplinary concerns of the Level 1 social science course Introducing the social sciences (DD101). Students who have studied DD201, will be well equipped to go on to study a wide range of further courses, in particular in sociology and social policy, but also in the other social science disciplines, and indeed in other faculties.

Entry

You are not required to have taken any Open University courses before this one, but, since it is a Level 2 course, you would normally be advised to undertake a course at Level 1 before embarking on DD201. The Level 1 course Introducing the social sciences (DD101) (or its predecessor DD100) gives an excellent grounding for it.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.

Preparatory work

If you have not done any previous study in sociology, you may want to examine the concepts used in the course modules as explained in the set book (see below). If you have not taken DD101 (or DD100), you might also find it useful to look at materials from it, available from bookshops as separate books:

Woodward (ed.) Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Nation, Routledge

K. Woodward The Natural and the Social: Uncertainty, Risk, Change, etc., Routledge

Hughes, R. Fergusson (eds) Ordering Lives: Family, Work and Welfare, Routledge

D. Held (ed.) A Globalising World? Culture, Economics and Politics, Routledge

D. Goldblatt (ed.) Knowledge and the Social Sciences: Theory, Method and Practice, Routledge.

If you have a disability or additional requirement

The study materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way. Written transcripts are available for the audio-visual material. The written study material is available in comb-bound format. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.

If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our publication Meeting Your Needs.

You can also find information about accessible study materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.

Study materials

What's included

Course books, other printed materials, CD’s or audio cassettes, DVD, website.

You will need

Television, CD player or audio cassette player, DVD player.

Computing requirements

This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.

You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2005 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. We may also be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.

Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.

You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.

Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. But if you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment, some courses allow you a ‘substitution score’. In DD201 this rule can apply to one assignment only. You will be given more detailed information when you begin the course.

Students also studied

Students who studied this course also studied at some time:

• Making social worlds (DD308)
• Welfare, crime and society (DD208)
• Introducing the social sciences (DD101)
• Personal lives and social policy (DD305)
• Crime and justice (DD301)

Future availability

The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2011 when it will be available for the last time. A new course, in the same area, is planned for October 2012.

Fees 2012

See fees and funding options for study from September 2012.

Study explained

Financial support

- find out if you qualify for support with your fees with our eligibility checker.

Study explained

- all you need to know about distance learning with the OU.

Student Reviews

This is my favourite module in the three years of study that I have done. Wonderful, thought provoking material, with ...
Read more

A really interesting course which teaches you more about issues you took for granted in life. This was my first ...
Read more

Your questions

We may have already answered it in our frequently asked questions.

Or contact an adviser in our Student Registration & Enquiry Service Email or call +44(0) 845 300 60 90+44(0) 845 366 60 35

Employers' questions

Contact Corporate Enquiries
Visit our website for employers or Email us

Browse the prospectus

• Undergraduate prospectus
• Postgraduate prospectus
• Research prospectus
• Professional skills
• Open qualifications
• A-Z of qualifications
• A-Z of courses
• A-Z of subjects

Get a prospectus