Module overview
In this module you will be able to examine a variety of organisations involved in social change, such as governmental and non-governmental organisations, voluntary organisations, social movement organisations and charitable organisations. You will be helped to understand how these movements and organisations are located in their historical and spatial context, why people join such organisations, how they are financed and hat effects they have.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Develop collaborative study and research abilities.
- Produce succinct summary overviews of complex material.
- Engage critically with competing sociological theories about the emergence, organisation and impact of social change organisations (social movement organisations, non-profit organisations, third sector organisations, non-governmental organisations).
- Integrate insights from social movement theory with those from other relevant sub-disciplines within Sociology.
- Knowledge and understanding of different types of social change organisations organizations.
- Knowledge and understanding of resource-management such as recruitment and fund-raising.
- Produce a sustained argument using diverse data.
- Knowledge and understanding of the impact of non-profit organisations on various levels (personal, social, political).
- Articulate views and arguments in sustained seminar discussions.
- Knowledge and understanding of different organisational structures and strategies.
- Analyse and evaluate competing perspectives on a topic.
- Evaluate wider sociological claims through the applied study of particular fields of practice.
- Take responsibility for representing particular arguments/evidence.
Syllabus
Topics to be covered within the SOCI3074 module will include: The national and international context of social change organizations; goals, tactics and strategies; resource mobilisation and accountability, professionalisation processes; regulation, policing and repression; mutual aid and prefigurative politics; outcomes of social change organisations (individual level, culture, legislative change). We will explore these issues in a wide range of contexts including climate change, gender equality, development and humanitarianism, movements for racial equality such as Black Lives Matter.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
This course will be delivered through weekly lectures and bi-weekly seminars.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Seminar | 22 |
| Independent Study | 128 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani (eds>) (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sabine Lang (2013). NGOs, Civil Society, and the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jon Dean (2020). The Good Glow. Charity and the Symbolic Power of Doing Good. Bristol: Policy Press.
Snow, D.A., Soule, S., Kriesi, HP , McCammon, H. (eds) (2019). The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Wiley.
Zyenep Tufekci (2007). Twitter and Tear Gas. The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Silke Roth and Clare Saunders (2023). Organising for Change. Social Change Makers and Social Change Organisations. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Sarah S. Stroup and Wendy H. Wong (2017). The Authority Trap. Strategic Choices of International NGOs. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Coursework | 70% |
| Blog and feedback contributions | 30% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Coursework | 30% |
| Coursework | 70% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External