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Social media, anti-social media, breaking news, faking news: this weekly programme discusses a range of topical issues that will help to keep you up to speed with the latest talking points in the world of media.

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This is the programme about a revolution in media.

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Is a 'British baccalaureate' the right way forward for KS5 students?

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By Nathan Standley, education reporter & Nick Eardley, political correspondent

Rishi Sunak is considering a major reform of A-levels in England which could see the introduction of a new "British baccalaureate".

The prime minister's plans could include the compulsory study of maths and English up to the age of 18, according to newspaper reports.

The shake-up of A-levels would be controversial - but no final decision has been taken.

Labour said the proposals were an "undeliverable gimmick".

The government has denied that Mr Sunak is trying to find radical proposals which will help his party in the polls, with No 10 saying this week that the prime minister is focused on long-term solutions.

Mr Sunak initially suggested the idea of a new baccalaureate qualification during his unsuccessful leadership campaign against Liz Truss last year, and has previously said he wants all young people to study maths to 18.

It is possible the prime minister will set out more of his plans for education at the Conservative Party conference in October.

Andrew Mitchell, who attends Cabinet in his role as a Foreign Office minister, said he expects Mr Sunak to agree to a significant reform of England's education system.

"We will be guided by the best expertise on how we ratchet up standards and give children the best possible chance of getting the graduate jobs of the future," he told BBC Radio 4.

About half of 18-year-olds in England currently take A-levels, typically sitting exams in three subjects.

In 2021, the EDSK education think tank said the dominance of A-levels in secondary education was "inescapable" and that they were too narrow, calling for a new baccalaureate qualification to replace them.

In theory, it would broaden the curriculum to cover any academic, applied and technical subject which students could gradually specialise in over the course of a three-year qualification.

Education is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so decisions in each nation are taken by devolved governments.

The proposal for England is being called a "British baccalaureate" to differentiate it from the current English baccalaureate, which is a separate set of subjects at GCSE level.

Any educational reform in England would be controversial, and concerns have already been raised about the potential impact on existing recruitment and retention issues within teaching.

David Robinson, director for post-16 and skills at the Education Policy Institute, said steps to broaden the curriculum were "encouraging", but added that it would cause an increase in workload for teachers.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, called it a "sketchy proposal" and said teaching was already facing a "recruitment and retention crisis".

A spokesperson for the Sixth Form Colleges Association said the post-16 curriculum, which is "narrow by international standards", was partly reflective of "chronic underinvestment in sixth form education since 2010".

The government is already working through its rollout of T-levels, a new vocational qualification which the first cohort of students started in 2020.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson accused Mr Sunak of "pursuing short-term headlines" with an "unworkable policy".

A Department for Education spokesperson did not comment directly on the proposals, but said the government was already "reforming technical education", and had set out "bold plans" to facilitate the study of maths up to the age of 18.

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Rishi Sunak considers radical shake-up of A-levels

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Rishi Sunak weighs up a new "British baccalaureate" qualification but no decisions have been taken.

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The latest report on gender roles from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey

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BSA 40: Gender roles | National Centre for Social Research

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This chapter examines how attitudes and behaviour in relation to men's and women's roles at work and at home have changed over the past four decades.

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A new study shows that more girls need to study maths or physics to bridge the divide.

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How to support your daughter’s interest in STEM, as research reveals huge gender gap

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A new study shows that more girls need to study maths or physics to bridge the divide. By Katie Wright.

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One ex-detective calls the BBC’s The Gold ‘a travesty’, but most screen versions of true crime play fast and loose with the facts

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t was, so the introduction to The Gold suggests, "the largest robbery in world history and changed British crime and policing for ever". We are also told that the six-part BBC series was "inspired by real events" but "some characters and elements have been created and changed for dramatic purposes".

So how much of the re-enactment of the Brink's-Mat £26m robbery of gold bullion in 1983 is true - one former detective described it as a "travesty" - and why do some major crimes make it on to the screen and others not?

At the centre of The Gold are the detective Brian Boyce, played by Hugh Bonneville, and Kenneth Noye, played by Jack Lowden. Both are real characters. One former colleague of Boyce says: "The casting is spot on. He was a very professional detective. One of the best bosses ever."

Noye, who is portrayed as a Jack the Lad character, was a cool, calculating customer who, having been acquitted of the murder of the undercover police officer John Fordham was later convicted of handling the stolen goods. He duly told the jury: "I hope you all die of cancer."

What we do not learn is that, having served his bullion sentence, Noye came out of prison and stabbed 21-year-old Stephen Cameron to death in a road rage case in 1996, fled to Spain with a new identity, but was extradited and jailed for life, eventually serving another 18 years.

He is now free and the subject of a new book, A Million Ways to Stay on the Run.

John "Goldfinger" Palmer, who was acquitted of similar Brink's-Mat offences - he duly blew a grateful kiss to the jury - was also in reality a fairly ruthless operator, who moved to Tenerife and took advantage of gullible souls, who were conned into investing in timeshare apartments.

"My abiding memory of him is that he was a very tight little fellow and hated parting with any money in spite of the fact that he had millions," was how the late Jason Coghlan, a former armed robber described him.

Palmer was jailed for timeshare fraud in 2001, then murdered at his home in 2015, a killing for which no one has yet been charged. Of the actual bullion robbers, Micky McAvoy died just a few weeks before The Gold was screened and Brian Robinson in 2022.

Another former detective summed up The Gold as "great TV drama but absolute travesty of initial investigation strategy and police culture".

As for the invented lawyer character, Edwyn Cooper, played by Dominic Cooper, there was indeed a solicitor, Michael Relton, who was jailed for 12 years for his involvement and who had represented police officers previously.

Relton was described in court by the sentencing judge as a "parasite". One of his associates, who has been watching the series, described the lawyer character's apparent obsession with money and class as "absolute tosh".

What is certainly true is that some of those intimately involved in the robbery have never been caught, that some of the proceeds were invested in Docklands developments - and that Noye was very much involved in the Freemasons, as were many police officers.

Some famous robberies have, of course, already made it on to the screen. The late Bruce Reynolds, who masterminded the Great Train Robbery, reckoned the best representation of it was the German version, Die Gentlemen bitten zur Kasse, which was dubbed into English for the international market.

He described Buster, the film about his fellow robber Ronald "Buster" Edwards as "Carry On, Great Train Robbery".

The Bank Job, which came out in 2008 starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows, was based on the real 1971 robbery of a Lloyds branch in Baker Street in London.

According to its publicity material, "millions and millions of pounds" were stolen but "none of it was recovered. Nobody was ever arrested. The robbery made headlines for a few days and then disappeared - the result of a government D-notice, gagging the press."

All cheerful nonsense: four of the gang were jailed for a total of 48 years, £231,000 was recovered and there was no D-notice.

What was at the time believed to be the world's biggest cash robbery - since overtaken by the Central Bank of Iraq heist of a reported $930m (£775m) in 2003 - was that of the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in 2006.

The book on the case, Heist by Howard Sounes, has not yet been dramatised for the screen although there is much interest in it.

Another story waiting is that of Shirley Pitts, the Queen of the Shoplifters, and the subject of Lorraine Gamman's book Gone Shopping. Two decades ago it seemed about to happen - a wonderful part for an actor - but the project seems sadly becalmed. Also still to be told is the tale of the cat burglar and "gentleman thief" Peter Scott. The film-maker Roland Kennedy, who was with Scott when he died in a care home in east London in 2013, is on the case now.

As for those criminals who find themselves portrayed on screen in a strange variety of ways, they might echo the words given to the gangster Legs Diamond in Harvey Fierstein's 1988 musical of that name: "I'm in show business, only a critic can kill me."

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Fact or fiction? The truth behind TV crime dramas

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t was, so the introduction to The Gold suggests, "the largest robbery in world history and changed British crime and policing for ever". We are also told that the six-part BBC series was "inspired by real events" but "some characters and elements have been created and changed for dramatic purposes".

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Research reveals children are struggling to access grammar school places across many parts of the country despite changes aimed at helping them get in.

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Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are struggling to get into grammar schools in many parts of England, despite changes to admissions procedures aimed at helping them gain entry, according to research.

A quarter of England's 160 state grammar schools have fewer than 5% of their pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM), compared with 22.5% of children nationwide. In contrast, only 13 of England's 2,877 non-selective state secondary schools have fewer than 5% of pupils receiving FSM.

The research, conducted by the BBC using Department for Education data, found that while most grammar schools have adapted their entry criteria to encourage more disadvantaged children to win places, in most cases it has failed to make a substantial difference to the numbers admitted.

Sir Peter Lampl, the chair of the Sutton Trust, which campaigns for social mobility through education, said: "While most grammars have made changes to their admissions policies, this hasn't yet translated into a dramatic improvement in access. Free school meal rates at most grammars are still well below the national average."

State grammar schools select children using exams taken in the final year of primary school by children aged 10. But since 2016 grammar schools have been given more leeway to vary their selection procedures, including variable exam scores and priority places for those receiving FSM, as well as adopting "tutor-proof" aptitude tests.

Success stories include the King Edward VI foundation grammar schools in Birmingham, which reserve places for FSM-eligible pupils. The King Edward VI Aston school has 25% of its pupils receiving free meals, while the King Edward VI Camp Hill school for boys has admitted 24% and the school for girls 22%.

Queen Mary's girls' high school in Walsall has priority admissions for candidates receiving FSM, and 22% of pupils are eligible.

Birmingham and Walsall have high proportions of deprived children - the Birmingham local authority has 47% of children eligible for FSM, while Walsall has 38%.

Across England more than 1.9 million schoolchildren were eligible for FSM this year, in most cases because they live in households with an annual income below £7,400 and receive universal credit or other benefits.

The BBC's investigation found that few grammar schools had as many as half the proportion of pupils on FSM as live in their local authority, with most having only a fifth to a third as many.

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In the worst cases the proportion was much lower: Chesham grammar school in Buckinghamshire had just 1% of its pupils eligible for FSM, despite giving priority to those children within a local catchment area. Across Buckinghamshire 14% of children are eligible for FSM.

Lampl said all young people deserved the chance to attend grammar schools, not just those whose parents could afford extra tutoring for entry exams.

"In order to improve access schools should prioritise pupil premium and free school meals kids and engage in extensive outreach in primary schools in order to encourage a wide range of applications," Lampl said.

The BBC also found that existing grammar schools had expanded at a faster rate than pupil numbers overall. While Rishi Sunak said during the Conservative leadership election he supported opening new grammar schools, he has since dropped the idea in favour of curriculum changes.

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Poorer pupils still missing out on grammar school places in England

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Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are struggling to get into grammar schools in many parts of England, despite changes to admissions procedures aimed at helping them gain entry, according to research. A quarter of England's 160 state grammar schools have fewer than 5% of their pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM), compared with 22.5% of children nationwide.

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Comprehensive reference library, including study notes, quizzes, activities, topic videos and exam support.

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Study notes, videos, interactive activities and more for Sociology students and teachers.

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ometimes there are small errors in headlines that can quickly be amended and all is forgiven. Sometimes there are opinion pieces that are a little simplistic and could do with a drizzle of evidence and a garnish of nuance. Other times there are spear tackles of successful women that ponder whether they "can have it all".

This relic of a phrase is still invoked in our media from the BBC to newspaper tabloids.

A recent Daily Telegraph piece featured a handful of high profile women in the media who have separated from their husbands. Positioned as sympathetic, but ultimately scorching, the headline read: "Why love is the price celebrity women pay for their status." Despite failing the public interest pub test, having no insight into the dynamics of the various relationships or acknowledging that the separations happened over the course of several years, the column concluded the women "could not juggle a demanding career, marriage and parenting young children".

Naturally, the long list of divorced men in the industry wasn't included, nor was there an examination of the issues women in the public eye unfairly and disproportionately face. Things like the enormous amount of vicious trolling and harassment we experience online. Or the fact that appearance and age still play such a big role in our employment prospects. It definitely didn't factor in structural issues, like affordable childcare, maternity leave policies and the role men play in parenting and domestic work. I mean, that's all just so dull and evidence-based.

Instead, the article tenuously tied all of these women together, in a bid to show that our feminist foresisters shouldn't have bothered burning their bras, because now their pants are on fire because we were lied to. You see, women can't "have it all".

But it's not just a tabloid takedown weaponising this question. Just last month, in a now deleted BBC headline following Jacinda Ardern's shock resignation the boringly cliche question was rolled out again. Despite explaining that she didn't have "enough in the tank" to continue being an effective leader, the article examines Ardern's life as a working mother of a small child. Would the youngest male head of government who led New Zealand through the pandemic, and on tragedies including the terrorist attacks in Christchurch, and the White Island volcanic eruption get asked such a question, or an article about his resignation mention a young child?

'Having it all' is now largely weaponised against professional mothers

I'm not sure who decided women want it all. And even if some do, who has decided what "all" is?

While the phrase "having it all" became popular in the 1980s due to a book by the same name, its very genesis has since been debunked as both a misrepresentation and a myth.

Written by Helen Gurley Brown, who was the then-editor of US Cosmopolitan magazine, the self-help book for women made almost no mention of children and was largely about money, sex, diet, exercise and appearance.

The title has since been exposed as a marketing gimmick, one the author tried hard, but failed to have changed. Four decades later, "having it all" is a far less aspirational goal and a far more capricious penalty.

"Having it all" is now largely weaponised against professional mothers. It's a bar men aren't expected to reach, and yet it's one that continually shifts and moves for women. By its very design, all unwilling participants are destined to fail.

We need a new metric - or heck, our own individualised metrics - because what is "all"? If you choose not to have children, haven't found your soul mate and have zero interest in a seat at a boardroom table, do you have "nothing"?

We should be having more conversations and columns about priorities, self-care, sacrifice, timing and opportunity costs. A fairer and more realistic metric is one that doesn't reward a system where women are expected to do it all.

Feminists have fought, and continue to fight for women to have choices. To have agency. To have autonomy over our bodies and our lives.

Growing up, I was surrounded by women who had low to no job skills, no financial independence and very limited education. I witnessed many endure and stay in violent relationships, their health, happiness and wellbeing continues to be neglected or ignored entirely.

As far as objective statistics go, several decades into their nuptials, these women in my family are a raging marital success story.

Unfair attacks on the marital status of high-profiled mothers who are shifting public policy and challenging gender expectation are a mere distraction from the work that still needs to be done.

The face of homelessness in this country is women over the age of 50. First Nations women are the fastest growing prison population. A decade-high number of women were killed in December, 10 women in 20 days were allegedly murdered by a current or former partner.

This is the "price" women continue to pay in Australia.

Antoinette Lattouf is a broadcaster, columnist, author and co-founder of Media Diversity Australia. She was listed among AFR's 100 Women of Influence. Antoinette is also an ambassador for the Gidget Foundation

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'Having it all' is a myth still being used to punish working mothers | Antoinette Lattouf

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ometimes there are small errors in headlines that can quickly be amended and all is forgiven. Sometimes there are opinion pieces that are a little simplistic and could do with a drizzle of evidence and a garnish of nuance. Other times there are spear tackles of successful women that ponder whether they "can have it all".

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The 2018 ‘Russian spy poisoning’ is relevant to many areas of the A-level sociology specification, such as state crime, globalisation, and even consensus and conflict theory.

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Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class

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Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class

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In modern Britain, the working class has become an object of fear and ridicule. From Little Britain's Vicky Pollard to the demonization of Jade Goody, media and politicians alike dismiss as feckless, criminalized and ignorant a vast, underprivileged swathe of society whose members have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs.

In this acclaimed investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from 'salt of the earth' to 'scum of the earth.' Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, he portrays a far more complex reality.

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FutureLearn is a UK-based online learning platform that partners with universities and organisations to offer a wide range of online courses and programs.

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Search Our Free Online Courses - FutureLearn

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Enjoy free online courses from leading UK and international universities.

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Group brought up in 60s and 70s want redress for ‘educationally subnormal’ label applied disproportionately to black children

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Black people wrongly labelled "educationally subnormal" as children in the UK before being wrongly sent to special schools have launched a campaign demanding an apology and compensation from the government.

They say their lives have been ruined by their early experiences during the 1960s and 70s. They were told they were "backward" or "slow" or "a dunce", and placed in schools with no curriculum, no exams and no qualifications. The consequences have lasted a lifetime, blighting their confidence, self-esteem and life chances.

Some of their stories were highlighted in a 2021 BBC TV documentary called, Subnormal: A British Scandal. Since then however, more victims have come forward to share their experiences and are working with lawyers to try to secure compensation for negligence and post-traumatic stress.

The documentary described how from 1945, children thought to have limited intellectual ability were described by a new term, "educationally subnormal" (ESN). A leaked report by the Inner London Education Authority revealed it was applied disproportionately to black children, often based on IQ tests that were biased.

"The trauma has been lifelong for those who were robbed of an education," said the Labour MP Kim Johnson, who is supporting their claim.

Those affected were children of the Windrush generation. Noel Gordon's parents arrived in the UK from Jamaica in 1960. He was born six years later, then at the age of four his family discovered he had sickle cell disease.

His parents were told there was a place for him at a special school - a state boarding school - where a matron could keep an eye on his health. It turned out to be what was known at the time as an ESN school. He suffered racist abuse and had little formal, academic education.

"It was soul destroying," said Gordon. "All the things I could have learned and didn't because there was no curriculum, there were no exams. I couldn't punctuate, I couldn't spell. Normally, when you go to school, year after year, you're getting tested and you build your confidence up. I didn't have any of that. I felt inadequate."

He has spent a lifetime trying to catch up, completing a range of qualifications including a degree in information systems and a PGCE, and writing a children's book, but the stigma remains. "There are many that will not talk about their experiences because they feel ashamed.

"The most damaging thing about being in a special school is the lack of self-belief and confidence. That was sucked out of us. I left the school a blank template. I had to pick up the pieces and start again."

'I didn't have any confidence or self-esteem because of the educational background I had,' says Maisie Barrett. Photograph: Lyttanya Shannon/BBC/Rogan Productions

Maisie Barrett also ended up in a special school at the age of six. "They told my mother I was backward." Thirty years later she was diagnosed with dyslexia, but the damage was already done. "When a Caribbean parent heard the word 'special', they thought they were lucky. In fact I didn't learn anything."

Her mother later sought a second opinion from a social worker, who carried out an assessment. "She said to my mother I was intelligent. That was the first time I had heard the word intelligent." At the age of 13 Barrett was transferred to a mainstream school, but it was too late. She had missed too much.

"My brain, all those years, had not been stimulated. Other children thought I was quite weird. I was a big girl and I could not read or write. I became a loner. I convinced myself I was useless. I could not learn. There was nothing I could really do."

Marriage and motherhood seemed her only option, but she was ill prepared for that too. She says her children have suffered as a consequence. "I didn't have any confidence or self-esteem because of the educational background I had," she said. "Up to this very day, it's affected my whole life." She has gone on to study for a degree in Caribbean studies and creative writing, and is writing her third book, but "it's been a great struggle", she says.

'There was no proper curriculum. I never sat an exam. It was more like containing,' says Ann-Marie Simpson. Photograph: Lyttanya Shannon/BBC/Rogan Productions

Ann-Marie Simpson, who came to England from Jamaica at the age of nine after little formal education, also ended up in a special needs school after being excluded from the mainstream for getting into fights. "I recall having an assessment by a psychologist and my mum was advised I needed special education. But I don't know what my special needs were."

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Of her new school, she said: "There was no proper curriculum. I never sat an exam. It was more like containing. At the time I was very, very embarrassed. I would not tell anyone where I went to school." She has since studied via evening classes and access courses, and is now a social worker.

Frances Swaine, a consultant solicitor at Leigh Day who is working with the group, said potentially hundreds of people were affected by the ESN scandal. An event is being held in the House of Commons on 1 March to highlight the campaign. A petition calling for justice for those affected has also been set up.

"Each individual client is very severely damaged by what happened to them," she said. "There are a lot of people who feel very ashamed about themselves. They did not realise the lack of education they suffered was not their fault.

"Our case is the fact they should never have been sent to these schools in the first place. If a proper investigation had been done, they would have been properly placed within a mainstream school."

She said her clients did not have the kind of disabilities that required a place in special school. In some cases, children ended up there because they had a strong Jamaican accent, or because teachers thought the best way to "keep them under control" was to put them in a separate setting. Others underwent an IQ test that was culturally biased and included questions they could not possibly answer because of their different experiences, but it was incorrectly put down to low IQ.

"In quite a number of cases what we see is a bias and systemic racism towards a group of children who were very vulnerable," said Swaine. "It's very clear for a lot of them that wrong or careless decisions were made."

Swaine is representing eight clients, but there are likely to be more. "A lot of them have kept their school reports, the way everybody does, so there's quite a lot of history there. And local education authorities also have not destroyed their records."

According to Swaine, there are precedents for this kind of action, which falls beyond the normal time limits, with the infected blood inquiry, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse and the Windrush compensation scheme.

Johnson, who sits on the Commons education select committee and is hosting the 1 March event, believes there are parallels today with the disproportionate numbers of black children put in lower sets, affected by fixed-term exclusions and sent to pupil referral units. She would like to see an inquiry into race in education.

"The persistent exclusion of black children from mainstream schooling presents a crisis situation. Unlike the 60s and 70s, we know the scale and nature of the problem today. There needs to be a sense of urgency and not delay from the Department for Education on how to put an end to the routine exclusion of black children from education."

The DfE said: "Racism in all its forms is abhorrent and has no place in our schools or society, and the Equality Act makes it clear that any discrimination against pupils on the basis of their race is unlawful."

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Black people labelled 'backward' as children seek justice for lifelong trauma

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Black people wrongly labelled "educationally subnormal" as children in the UK before being wrongly sent to special schools have launched a campaign demanding an apology and compensation from the government. They say their lives have been ruined by their early experiences during the 1960s and 70s.

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Factors in Differential Achievement - Material Deprivation

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Factors in Differential Achievement - Material Deprivation

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This 2011 BBC documentary, titled Poor Kids, tells the stories of some of the 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK. They give their thoughts on their situation and their future prospects.

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Britain's Poorest Kids (Poverty Documentary) | Real Stories

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Factors in Differential Achievement - Gender

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Factors in Differential Achievement - Gender

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Is the way we treat boys and girls the real reason we haven't achieved gender equality? Dr Javid Abdelmoneim aims to find out by taking over a primary school class.

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BBC Two - No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free? - Episode guide

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All episodes of No More Boys and Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free?

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George Ritzer′s McDonaldization of Society continues to stand as one of the pillars of modern day sociological thought. By linking theory to 21st century culture this book resonates with students in a way that few other books do, opening their eyes to many current issues, especially in the areas of consumption and globalization.

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The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone

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The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone

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Why do we mistrust people more in the UK than in Japan? Why do Americans have higher rates of teenage pregnancy than the French? What makes the Swedish thinner than the Australians? The answer, according to Wilkinson & Pickett, is inequality.

This groundbreaking book, based on years of research, seeks to provide hard evidence to show how almost everything - from life expectancy to mental illness, violence to illiteracy - is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is, even suggesting that societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them - including the well-off.

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Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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Thinking Allowed Podcast. New research on how society works. Updated: weekly. Episodes available: indefinitely. Subscribe in BBC Sounds.

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Hosted by Matthew Wilkin, the Sociology Show conducts interviews with a range of different people from within the world of sociology. Also available on Apple and Spotify.

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Uploaded here are the Podcast interviews for The Sociology show. You can download from the usual places you get your pods or on Spreaker - https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-sociology-show

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HE+ Sociology - The University of Cambridge

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HE+ Sociology - The University of Cambridge

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The HE+ website brings you exciting super-curricular resources created and written by Cambridge students and academics, including challenging activities, engaging videos, reflective questions and much more. Content is aimed at school-aged students looking to go beyond the school curriculum and discover their passion for a subject today.

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What is Sociology?

Sociology is the study of society. It tries to reveal the ways in which people are shaped by their societies and how these societies, in turn, are equally impacted by individuals, groups and organisations. Sometimes sociologists can achieve precision through the use of statistics and new mathematical techniques for understanding phenomena such as social media. Sometimes sociologists can better understand people and situations by thinking carefully about meanings. Sociologists don't have one best way of studying societies, but pride themselves on flexibility and adapting their research methods to suit the puzzle they are trying to solve. Sometimes sociologists work to understand large-scale social systems, for instance comparing capitalism with other social and economic systems. Other times, sociologists focus on changes in intimate relationships between groups and individuals.

To study Sociology at Cambridge, you can study it through our Human, Social and Political Sciences Course.

What can I do with a Sociology degree?

Sociologists go on to great careers in all walks of life including politics, research, graduate level management, law, education, media and international development.

What might I need to study Sociology?

Sociology as a university degree rarely has any specific subject requirements. Whilst studying A level sociology gives you a great introduction to the subject, it is by no means necessary and those without it won't be disadvantaged. Essay based subjects will be a good preparation.

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What is Sociology? Sociology is the study of society. It tries to reveal the ways in which people are shaped by their societies and how these societies, in turn, are equally impacted by individuals, groups and organisations. Sometimes sociologists can achieve precision through the use of statistics and new mathematical techniques for understanding phenomena such as social media.

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The Sociological Review is the home for critical sociological thinking and research in the UK and internationally. Here you will find a space to question our taken-for-granted understandings of the social world and provide a platform for thinking about alternative possibilities for what it might be.

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Statistics from the Office for National Statistics on people, population and community, including residents of the UK, population changes, how we spend our money, and data on crime, relationships, health and religion. Statistics that help us build a detailed picture of how we live.

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People living in the UK, changes in the population, how we spend our money, and data on crime, relationships, health and religion. These statistics help us build a detailed picture of how we live.

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People living in the UK, changes in the population, how we spend our money, and data on crime, relationships, health and religion. These statistics help us build a detailed picture of how we live.

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ClickView is a video content resource platform for schools and colleges, offering access to curriculum-aligned video content and resources.

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Series: Sociology

This programme examines modern day epidemics, using three case studies from the late 20th and early 21st centuries including SARS, HIV-AIDS, and influenza.

University of Michigan business professor Andy Hoffman relates how, in order to promote societal awareness of climate change, we need social entrepreneurs to consistently make public links to related events to disrupt people's common beliefs.

The Maasai people in Tanzania embrace the Earth's elements for a tribal ritual.

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Browse the ClickView Video Libraries for Schools and Colleges

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Skip to content This programme examines modern day epidemics, using three case studies from the late 20th and early 21st centuries including SARS, HIV-AIDS, and influenza. University of Michigan business professor Andy Hoffman relates how, in order to promote societal awareness of climate change, we need social entrepreneurs to consistently make public links to related events to disrupt people's common beliefs.

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Each year NatCen's British Social Attitudes survey asks around 3,000 people what it's like to live in Britain and what they think about how Britain is run.

Since 1983 they have been measuring and tracking changes in people's social, political and moral attitudes.

The survey is a critical gauge of public opinion, and is used by the Government, journalists, opinion-formers and academics.

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British Social Attitudes | NatCen Social Research

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The world-renowned British Social Attitudes Survey was founded in 1983 to provide a trustworthy measure of public opinion. Every year, we invite the public to share their views on important issues like health, education and how the country is run.

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The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.

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Latest Society news, comment and analysis from The Guardian

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Latest Society news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

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Provides an introduction to the fundamental themes, concepts, theories, methods and events that underpin the subject and form the basis for all undergraduate degree courses and modules in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

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Empowerment, liberation, choice. Once the watchwords of feminism, these terms have now been co-opted by a society that sells women an airbrushed, highly sexualised and increasingly narrow vision of femininity. Drawing on a wealth of research and personal interviews, LIVING DOLLS is a straight-talking, passionate and important book that makes us look afresh at women and girls, at sexism and femininity - today.

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Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism : Walter, Natasha: Amazon.co.uk: Books

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Richard Sennett's The Fall of Public Man examines the growing imbalance between private and public experience, and asks what can bring us to reconnect with our communities.

Tracing the changing nature of urban society from the eighteenth century to the world we now live in, and the decline of involvement in political life in recent decades, Sennett discusses the causes of our social withdrawal. His landmark study of the imbalance of modern civilization provides a fascinating perspective on the relationship between public life and the cult of the individual.

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On Liberty is the story of today's threats to our freedoms and a highly personal, impassioned plea in defence of fundamental rights, from Shami Chakrabarti, one of Britain's leading human rights campaigners.

On 11 September 2001, our world changed. The West's response to 9/11 has morphed into a period of exception. Governments have decided that the rule of law and human rights are often too costly. In On Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti explores why our fundamental rights and freedoms are indispensable. She shows, too, the unprecedented pressures those rights are under today. Drawing on her own work in high-profile campaigns, from privacy laws to anti-terror legislation, Chakrabarti shows the threats to our democratic institutions and why our rights are paramount in upholding democracy.

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Seneca offers free podcasts to help you learn what you need to know for your A-level Sociology exams.

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Join millions of students listening to 'Revise A Level Sociology' by Seneca. Each episode covers a topic you need to know for your exams.

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edX Courses | View all online courses on edX.org

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Materials covering course content, exam advice and revision techniques.

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ReviseSociology – A level sociology revision – education, families, research methods, crime and deviance and more!

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Family branding guru and founder of The Family Room LLC George Carey takes a closer look at changes to family structures, their impact on children, and how they are changing the future of families and the future of our world forever.

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The future of families: four discoveries that change everything | George Carey | TEDxNaperville

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30 min(ish) podcasts covering key topics from across Sociology.

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30 min (ish) podcasts covering key topics from across Sociology.

All done on the first and only take. Hosted by Ben from allsociology.

instagram.com/allsociology

30 min (ish) podcasts covering key topics from across Sociology.

All done on the first and only take. Hosted by Ben from allsociology.

instagram.com/allsociology

Great show, even for someone who knows nothing about sociology!

Love the format, Ben is clearly incredibly knowledgable and passionate about the subject. Perfect podcast for people who want to know more about the subject.

Allsociology

Brilliantly written. Easy to follow format

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30 min (ish) podcasts covering key topics from across Sociology. All done on the first and only take. Hosted by Ben from allsociology. instagram.com/allsociology 30 min (ish) podcasts covering key topics from across Sociology. All done on the first and only take. Hosted by Ben from allsociology.

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irthrates are falling in the rich world and this leaves us with an unsolved puzzle. Women who want children are not having them. Why? Surveys tell us that, on average, women and men in rich countries would ideally like two children - near the coveted " population replacement rate " of 2.1 - but birthrates are falling far short of this. Women have more money and choices than ever, but are for some reason not able to have as many children as they would like. Why not?

Well, in places such as the UK, falling birthrates are frequently blamed on childcare, housing and income problems. In some respects, people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are worse off than their boomer parents. Hence fewer children.

That feels right. But compare the situation of today's young to almost any group other than their boomer parents and our theory falls apart. Millennials in the modern rich world live in far greater luxury than their child-popping contemporaries in poorer countries. Even within millennial groups in the US and Europe, it is among the middle and upper classes where birthrates are mostly falling.

This is not just about money. Since the 90s, parental incentives have soared across rich countries, yet birthrates have continued to plummet. Last week's plea from a Chinese health official for leaders to "make bold innovations" to boost the birthrate, after financial incentives failed to work, fit a global pattern.

OK: so it's about social structures, then? Lack of childcare, unequal parental leave and career penalties for mothers. Not so - or not primarily. In our fecund recent past, remember, career penalties for mothers were even higher. Mothers still suffer a career penalty almost everywhere, but attempting to remove it doesn't seem to alter their decisions that much. Since 2008, amid unequalled progress in gender equality and some of the most generous parental support schemes on the planet, birthrates in Sweden, Norway and Iceland have fallen precipitously. Nordic countries are, comparatively, parental utopias, yet birthrates tick along slightly above the EU average and still well below the replacement rate.

Since 2008, birthrates in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland have fallen precipitously: a street in Stockholm. Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg/TT/EPA

Better childcare and parental provision are, of course, worthwhile policies on their own terms: they increase human happiness but they do not change birthrates all that much.

In fact, falling birthrates track with just one metric: a rise in female empowerment itself. The right to contraception and abortion allows women not to have children they don't want and life offers them a greater range of interesting choices outside motherhood. That accounts for a lot but it doesn't explain why women with all these increased choices are having fewer children than they would like. No one has nailed down the answer. What is that?

Well, here is a suggestion. Surveys of childless women tell us that a top reason is not career, lifestyle or financially related: it's that they just haven't found the right partner. This was the second most common reason given in a representative UK study of 42-year-old childless women - right behind not wanting children. (Focusing on career was way down the list.) US studies echo this. Fertility rates within marriages have stayed fairly steady since the 1990s. Gay couples have started to add to birthrates too but the dramatic rise in childless women - and their inability to find the right partner - is driving a good deal of the rich world's birthrate fall.

Hang on, why is it that only modern women have this problem? How is this related to empowerment? Well, "just not being able to find the right man"is a fairly recent luxury for women. Their grandmothers and great-grandmothers who didn't find the right man would probably at some point simply have had to pair up with the wrong man - single life, or "spinsterhood", was just too miserable and poverty-stricken. Women spending this Valentine's Day alone should consider that in ages past they would probably have been married by now, happily or not.

Women may not in theorywant to be single and childless, but they can afford to be if the right person doesn't come along. That is how increased choice might paradoxically result in women who want children not having them.

If correct, our theory would present policymakers with a conundrum. Falling birthrates are a problem for countries that fret about shrinking workforces. But they are also being driven by something positive: greater female choice. We cannot simply suggest single women - or indeed single men, who are making many of these choices - alter their expectations when they have freely decided that they would rather pay the price for not doing so.

Immigration is only a sticking plaster for rich countries: birthrates will soon fall everywhere. But there's another more radical solution to all this. Single women may not want to pair up, but they can still have children alone. Yet single motherhood is still offputtingly tough and to some extent socially penalised. In China, single mothers have only just got the same rights as married ones. Policymakers would do well to think about how they could better support single mothers. Target them and watch birthrates rise.

Martha Gill is a political journalist and former lobby correspondent
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

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Why a shortage of Mr Rights means single mothers hold the key to the falling birthrate | Martha Gill

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irthrates are falling in the rich world and this leaves us with an unsolved puzzle. Women who want children are not having them. Why? Surveys tell us that, on average, women and men in rich countries would ideally like two children - near the coveted " population replacement rate " of 2.1 - but birthrates are falling far short of this.

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How the Media Shapes the Way We View the World

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How the Media Shapes the Way We View the World

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From a young age, the media we consume shapes our identity, the way we think and the way we view the world. So just how damaging can racial tropes and a lack of representation in films, TV and books be for our sense of identity?

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How the media shapes the way we view the world - BBC REEL

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All Media Are Social: Sociological Perspectives on Mass Media

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All Media Are Social: Sociological Perspectives on Mass Media

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From TV to smartphone apps to movies to newspapers, mass media are nearly omnipresent in contemporary life and act as a powerful social institution. In this introduction to media sociology, Lindner and Barnard encourage readers to think critically about the power of big media companies, state-media relations, new developments in journalism, representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality in media, and what social media may or may not be doing to our brains, among other topics.

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How does media change your perception of culture?  Nowadays, because of social media, the way we look at an image and receive a piece of information has changed.

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Whoever Controls the Media, the Images, Controls the Culture | Min Kim | TEDxLehighU

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Misha Glenny on global crime networks

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English Training & Development Center ETDC

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Misha Glenny investigates global crime networks

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We Are All Criminals - Crime as a Social Construct

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We Are All Criminals - Crime as a Social Construct

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One in four people in the US has a criminal record; four in four have a criminal history. Attorney and artist Emily Baxter talks about We Are All Criminals, a project that examines the suffocating stigma created by our criminal justice system—and the disparate harm of that system upon poor people, people of color, and Indigenous people across the United States.

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We Are All Criminals | Emily Baxter | TEDxUNG

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How many people does each of us know that have been to prison? Why is it that the answer is “lots” for some of us and “none” for others? Who ends up in our prisons? Other human beings. What does justice look like for them?

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We need to talk about prisons | Sara Hyde | TEDxExeter

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This is a comprehensive text for the research methods course taught out of sociology or other social science disciplines. It covers a wide range of methods and approaches to study design, data collection, and analysis. It pays equal attention to both qualitative and quantitative methods, while offering practical, step-by-step advice to students through all stages of the research process.

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Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process

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Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process

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This book bridges the gap between theory and methods in social research and clearly illuminates these essential components for understanding the dynamics of social relations.

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Research Methods in Education covers the whole range of methods employed by educational research at all stages. Its five main parts cover: the context of educational research; research design; methodologies for educational research; methods of data collection; and data analysis and reporting.

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Cab driver who acted as ‘courier’ for cross-Channel people smugglers avoids jail

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Habib Behsodi had himself come to the UK having fled the Taliban regime, where he was tortured with ‘boiling water’.

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A reflection on Danny Dyer's recent attempt to grapple with 'How to be a Man'.

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Podcasts from the Dept of Sociology in Oxford looking at real-world issues. Scroll down through the vast range of topics.

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Sociology in Oxford is concerned with real-world issues with policy relevance, such as social inequality, organised crime, the social basis of political conflict and mobilization, and changes in family relationships and gender roles. Our research is empirical, analytical, and comparative in nature, reaching far beyond British society, to encompass systematic cross-national comparison as well as the detailed study of Asian, European, Latin American and North American societies. Statistical analysis of large-scale survey data is one of our core strengths. And we are at the forefront in developing new research methods, including the analysis of complex social networks and computer simulation. The Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (at Nuffield College) provides infrastructure for designing and conducting social experiments. Our expertise also encompasses ethnographic studies and archival/historical research. In addition, Oxford sociologists lead the development of analytical sociology which identifies generalizable social mechanisms and elucidates the logic of individual action.

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Sociology in Oxford is concerned with real-world issues with policy relevance, such as social inequality, organised crime, the social basis of political conflict and mobilization, and changes in family relationships and gender roles. Our research is empirical, analytical, and comparative in nature, reaching far beyond British society, to encompass systematic cross-national comparison as well as the detailed study of Asian, European, Latin American and North American societies.

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First introduced in Freakonomics (Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?), here is the full story of Sudhir Venkatesh, the sociology grad student who infiltrated one of Chicago's most notorious gangs.

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The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

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The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

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In this work, Goffman presents an analysis of the structures of social encounters from the perspective of the dramatic performance. He shows us exactly how people use such ‘fixed props’ as houses, clothes, and job situations; how they combine in teams resembling secret societies; and how they adopt discrepant roles and communicate out of character. Professor Goffman takes us ‘backstage’ too, into the regions where people both prepare their images and relax from them; and he demonstrates in painful detail what can happen when a performance falls flat.

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We are a nation in denial about our imperial past and the racism that plagues our present. Brit(ish) is Afua Hirsch's personal and provocative exploration of how this came to be - exploring the uncomfortable truth about race and identity in Britain today - and represents an urgent call for change.

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The gap between rich and poor, included and excluded, advantaged and disadvantaged is steadily growing as inequality becomes one of the most pressing issues of our times. The new edition of this popular text explores current patterns of inequality in the context of increasing globalization, world recession and neoliberal policies of austerity. Within a framework of intersectionality, Bradley discusses various theories and concepts for understanding inequalities of class, gender, ethnicity and age, while an entirely new chapter touches on the social divisions arising from disabilities, non-heterosexual orientations and religious affiliation.

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Have you ever been unable to explain the idiosyncrasies of English humour, bizarre mobile-phone etiquette, or the endless obsession with class? In this classic bestselling book, social anthropologist Kate Fox puts a nation under a microscope. The result is a biting, affectionate, insightful and often hilarious look at the English in all our glory.

Based on extensive field-research, experiments and observations, Fox deciphers a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and bizarre codes of behaviour.

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What does 'feminism' mean today?

In this personal, eloquently argued essay – adapted from her much-admired TedX talk of the same name – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now – an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

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Our culture is one that speaks rather than listens. From reality TV to political rallies, there is a clamour to be heard, to narrate, and to receive attention. It reduces 'reality' to revelation and voyeurism.

The Art of Listening argues that this way of life is having severe and damaging consequences in a world that is increasingly globalized and interconnected. It addresses the question: how can we listen more carefully? Social and cultural theory is combined with real stories from the experiences of the desperate stowaways who hide in the undercarriages of jet planes in order to seek asylum, to the young working-class people who use tattooing to commemorate a lost love.

The Art of Listening shows how sociology is in a unique position to record 'life passed in living' and to listen to complex experiences with humility and ethical care, providing a resource to understand the contemporary world while pointing to the possibility of a different kind of future.

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In this original book, Malcolm Gladwell explains and analyses the 'tipping point', that magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviour cross a threshold, tip and spread like wildfire. Taking a look behind the surface of many familiar occurrences in our everyday world, Gladwell explains the fascinating social dynamics that cause rapid change.

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When No Logo was first published, it became an instant bestseller and international phenomenon. Klein's exposé of the branded and corporate world in which we live became a rallying cry for rebellion and self-determination. This is a book that defined both a generation and its language of protest.

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Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire

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Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire

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From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives speaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.

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Published in 1995, this is an innovative contribution to the study of popular culture, focusing on the youth cultures that revolve around dance clubs and raves.

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Every day, women around the world are confronted with a dilemma – how to look. In a society embroiled in a cult of female beauty and youthfulness, pressure on women to conform physically is constant and all-pervading. In this shortened edition you will find the essence of Wolf’s groundbreaking book. It is a radical, gripping and frank exposé of the tyranny of the beauty myth, its oppressive function and the destructive obsession it engenders.

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McMafia is a journey through the new world of international organised crime, from gunrunners in Ukraine to money launderers in Dubai, by way of drug syndicates in Canada and cyber criminals in Brazil.

During his investigation into the dark side, Misha Glenny speaks to countless gangsters, policemen and victims of organized crime, and also explores the ferocious consumer demands for drugs, trafficked women, illegal labour and arms across five continents.

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Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain's Underclass

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Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain's Underclass

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Darren McGarvey, award-winning author and presenter of BBC series The State We're In has experienced poverty and its devastating effects first-hand. He knows why people from deprived communities all around Britain feel angry . . .

So he invites you to come on a safari of sorts. But not the kind where the wildlife is surveyed from a safe distance. This book takes you inside the experience of poverty to show how the pressures really feel and how hard their legacy is to overcome.

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In the autumn of 1959, a white Texan journalist named John Howard Griffin travelled across the Deep South of the United States disguised as a working-class black man. Black Like Me is Griffin's own account of his journey.
Published in book form two years later, it sold over five million copies, revealed to a white audience the daily experience of racism and became one of the best-known accounts of racial injustice in Jim Crow-era America. Embraced by some and fiercely criticised by others, its legacy sixty years on remains problematic, but Black Like Me nevertheless stands as a fascinating document of its times.

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Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed

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Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed

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We live in the age of the individual.

We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture's image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We're told that to be this person, you just have to follow your dreams, that our potential is limitless, that we are the source of our own success.

But this model of the perfect self can be extremely dangerous. People are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. Unprecedented social pressure is leading to increases in depression and suicide. Where does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell?

To answer these questions, Selfie takes us from the shores of Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of narcissism and the selfie generation, and right up to the era of hyperindividualistic neoliberalism in which we live now.

It tells the extraordinary story of the person we all know so intimately - our self.

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The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged

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The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged

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This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Drawing on 200 interviews across four case studies - television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – it explores the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile.

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Fifteen pupils and their teachers embark on an extraordinary time-travelling adventure as they fast-forward through more than 100 years of school life.

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BBC Two - Back in Time for School - Episode guide

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Filmed over one term with access to three schools in Bexley, which has a fully selective education system, this series follows children and teachers to see how selection impacts on education.

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Filmed over one term with access to three schools in Bexley, which has a fully selective education system, this series follows children and teachers to see how selection impacts on education.

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BBC Two - Grammar Schools: Who Will Get In?

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Following children and teachers to see how selection impacts on education.

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Faith Schools Menace? is a television documentary presented by Richard Dawkins which explores the effects of faith schools on the students in them and society in general. At the time of broadcast, one third of British schools had some kind of religious affiliation.

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Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science

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Series from 2015 which takes a look at life inside the Bridge AP (Alternative Provision) Academy, whose students have all been permanently excluded or subjected to a managed move from schools across west London.

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BBC Three - Excluded: Kicked Out of School

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Series about one of the UK's biggest secondary alternative provision academies.

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The makers of this 2019 documentary travelled to Singapore to find out why its education system tops the global leader board. They look at high-stakes testing, and ask if the culture of competition puts too much pressure on kids.

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Inside Singapore's elite education system | SBS Dateline

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Social Distribution of Crime/Control of Crime

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Social Distribution of Crime/Control of Crime

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In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyse the criminalisation of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.

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Documentary exploring the diverse community of hackers and their role in ensuring online security, as well as the ease and profitability of cybercrimes in the digital age.

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21st Century Hackers | Full Hacking Documentary 2021

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Factors in Differential Achievement - Social Class

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Factors in Differential Achievement - Social Class

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Documentary of an experiment in which a private head, his state school counterpart and six of their pupils spend a week in each other's worlds. Does going private really give you a first class advantage, and does a state education really mean second-rate? This programme unpicks the educational gulf dividing Britain's school system.

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Posh Kids Go To State School | School Swap: The Class Divide E1 | Our Stories

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CSF super-curricular: Sociology A-level (padlet.com)