Public Sociology

UCAS code: L390

Here's what Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh says about its Public Sociology course.

Please note: for September 2026 entry there is only direct entry onto Year 3 for this course. Please refer to our Sociology course (L400) if you are looking for entry into Year 1 or 2.

You will embrace new ideas and schools of thought on this intellectually stimulating and personally empowering BSc/BSc (Hons) Public Sociology course. It encourages rigorous critical thinking on complex and challenging social issues, opening the door to a wide range of careers.

Why QMU?

• Unique in Scotland: Our degree continues to be the first in Scotland to have Public Sociology as our underpinning ethos and practice.

• Learn from tutors who are actively involved in social justice campaigning: This will help you to see how Sociology can contribute to challenging inequality and improving people’s lives.

• Dynamic learning environment: We engage our students in a wide range of learning experiences which are intellectually stimulating and personally empowering, ranging from traditional lectures, small seminar and study groups, to opportunities for work-based learning and community engagement experiences.

• Support for students: Our class sizes are smaller compared with some universities, so you have closer and more individually tailored support and guidance from our staff.

On this course you will:

• Engage with diverse communities and develop a sense of the ways in which a public sociological imagination can meaningfully intervene in real-world political and social events.

• Ask, and be able to answer, critical questions such as 'What is the nature of society and how can we change it for the better? What are the root causes of social injustice and inequality? How could we change society’s perception of them, and make the actual changes themselves?

• Reflect upon the ways in which sociological knowledge can affect real change in people’s everyday lives.

• Learn how to critique preconceptions about social equality and justice.

• Learn how to make sense of complex and challenging social issues, and how to provoke change.

• Understand how the public sociologist and sociological knowledge can create radical approaches to solving social problems.

If you have an enquiring, questioning mind and you want to understand more about human societies, social problems, interactions and experiences, you will thrive on this course. It is Scotland’s first public sociology course and we continue to be pioneering in the way we think. Our students have chosen fascinating and original topics to research for their dissertations, from women’s body image on social media to a community campaign on gentrification.

Year One •Introduction to Academia and the Sociological Imagination •Foundations of Psychology •Introduction to Psychology •Diversity, Identity and Wellbeing •Methods of Investigation

Year Two •Social Inquiry – Philosophy and Design •Social and Developmental Psychology •Psychological Literacy •Production and Consumption of Culture •Engaged Sociology

Year Three •Current Debates in Sociology •Sociology of Liberation •Interaction and Social Order •Poverty and Social Exclusion •Social Research – Theory and Practice •Changing World: Social Movement and Global Change

Year Four •Dissertation •European Social Policy and Politics •Options may include: Gender Justice and Violence: Feminist Approaches/ Queer Theory, Gender and Sexual Politics; Sociology of Scotland/ Public Sociology Education

The modules listed here are correct at time of posting (Feb 2022) but may differ slightly to those offered in 2023. Please check back here for any updates.

You will be taught in lectures, seminars and practical workshops. Outside these timetabled sessions you will be expected to continue learning through self-study. You will be assessed by essays and a variety of other ways including written reports, presentations and groupwork.