100-level

SOCI111
Exploring Society
Description
An introduction to the major themes in contemporary sociology in a way that is relevant to New Zealand culture and society.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
15 points
SOCI112
Global Society
Description
Combining sociological theory and concepts with arguments and examples drawn from around the globe, this course conveys the scope and value of sociology for understanding the complex and fast-changing world in which we live.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points

200-level

SOCI201
Social Theory for Contemporary Life
Description
This course engages with a range of classical and contemporary social theories dealing with the complexity of the social and everyday life. Even though social theories aim to provide a general interpretation of the social forces that have shaped the modern, contemporary world; we use them every day in informal ways. This course focuses on how social theorists have set out to make sense of the world. Students will be introduced to a selection of theorists and perspectives in an approachable manner and use material that is relevant to our contemporary social world. This course is compulsory for the Sociology major.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI301, SOCI393 (2013).
SOCI202
Constructing Bodies
Description
This course focuses on the ways in which the body is shaped in culturally/historically specific contexts, which include the lived body as a site of knowledge and experience. It explores a range of body practices, representations and technologies such as non-mainstream body modification, sexuality education, trans medico-surgical practices and the sexualization of culture.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, CULT, or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
GEND102, FMST102, GEND112, AMST113, CULT112, AMST142, GEND201, CULT207
SOCI209
Te Tiriti: The Treaty of Waitangi
Description
This course uses the Treaty of Waitangi to frame examinations of contemporary New Zealand society. We ask questions designed to highlight and emphasise the relevance of the Treaty of Waitangi to everyday New Zealanders. In addition, the course looks at the importance of this document in the maintenance of Crown and Maori relations. Topics covered range from the signing of the Treaty, and historical developments, to the protest movements and activism of the continuing Maori renaissance period, race relations and one law-for-all.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, CULT, HIST, HSRV, MAOR, POLS, SOCI, or SOWK, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
HIST268, MAOR219, POLS218, POLS258, HSRV207, CULT219
SOCI220
Environment and Society
Description
This course considers the relationship between ecology and environmental sociology, collective dilemmas, energy and society, the environment and politics and some other selected environmental issues.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI230 (2005), SOCI320, SOCI330 (2005)
SOCI222
Whakataka Nga Here: Colonisation and the Criminal Justice System
Description
This course will examine one of the most pressing issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand. Students will explore historical and contemporary determinants of Maori over-representation in the criminal justice system. The course also engages with contemporary responses to the challenges we will examine, and identify future solutions.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level in SOCI, ANTH, CRJU, or LAWS, or Any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
CRJU222
SOCI243
Sociology of Health and Medicine
Description
This course explores sociological ways of thinking about health and medicine. Focusing on health institutions, people's experiences within the health system, and different ways of constructing health and illness, we will look at inequalities and health, mental health, disabilities, chronic illness, and complementary medicine, amongst other topics. Students will engage in a policy project and will gain a broad understanding of the Aotearoa New Zealand health scene. Students will also have an opportunity to think about health and illness in relation to their own lives.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI343
SOCI278
Religion and Society: Why God Won't Die
Description
This course is an introduction to the sociology of religion focused on thinking and rethinking religion & society.Central to the discussion is why god and religion has not dissapeared as was predicted in much modern social theory. In considering this question, the course provides a critical discussion of the ways religion, god and religious practices have been thought, dismissed and applied over the past 150 years within the Sociology of Religion.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH298, SOCI292, SOCI392 in 2012
SOCI293
The History of Gangs in New Zealand
Description
An introduction to the sociology of gangs, focusing on the historical development of gangs in New Zealand and the methods which have been taken to control them.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level in SOCI, ANTH, CRJU, or LAWS, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

300-level

SOCI303
Sexualities, Gender and Relationalities
Description
This course explores the changing landscape of sexuality and gender categories and identities, as well as new forms and understandings of intimacy and relationality. It considers how various identities, representations and practices disrupt and/or reproduce gendered, sexual and non-sexual intimacies and relationship normativities in a range of sites. These include mediated intimacies, polyamory and other non-consensual non-monogamies, asexualities, incels and PUAs (‘pick up artists’), ‘sexting’ and dating apps.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
SOCI345
Critical Disaster Studies
Description
This course focuses on an introduction to the sociological study of disasters and their impact on society. Disasters are triggered by both natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, floods, wildfires) and human-induced hazards (e.g., oil spills, terrorism, nuclear accidents, COVID-19 pandemic) and cause widespread community disruption, displacement, economic loss, property/infrastructure damage, death and injury, and psychological suffering. There has been a significant increase in the frequency and magnitude of disasters, and the economic costs, damage to the built and natural environments, and human consequences have been increasingly severe. In this course, much of the focus will be on how social, political and economic conditions influence how people and communities experience, manage, prepare for, recover from and mitigate disasters. Through Critical Disaster Studies (CDS) perspectives, case studies of major disasters in Aotearoa New Zealand and the world (including the COVID-19 pandemic) are used to explore topics such as the impact of sex/gender, class, race/ethnicity, colonization, age and social capital on social vulnerability and resilience to disasters.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, OR any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
SOCI363
Investigating Social Worlds
Description
The course provides students with 'hands on' experiential learning in conducting, and participating in, life stories and focus group research. Students will gain skills in one-to-one interviewing, focus group interviews, research ethics, transcript analysis and reflexive research practice.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI340, SOCI341
SOCI368
The Politics of Need: Globalisation, Poverty and Welfare Provision
Description
An advanced study of globalisation that examines how our new world of risk (including global financial risk) shapes our experiences of wealth, poverty and belonging. As well as using case studies from around the world, it covers groundbreaking theorisations of globalisation and an interrogation of New Zealand's place in a global world.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
30 points of SOCI including 15 points at 200 level; OR 30 points of SOCI or ANTH at 200 level; OR 60 points in related subjects including 30 points at 200 level with the approval of the Head of Department.
Restrictions
SOCI268, SOCI348 (prior to 2006), HSRV205

Not Offered Courses in 2024

200-level

SOCI244
On Death and Dying: Current Controversies in Thanatology
Description
'On Death and Dying' introduces students to this most pervasive yet under-examined aspect of social life. Students will be given the opportunity to explore death, dying and bereavement from a sociological point of view. We will explore the different and complex ways people attend to death through a guided programme that includes a study of the notion of sequestered death, the body in death, the social stratification of death, customary practices past and present including Aotearoa/New Zealand, death and medicine, good death/bad death, near death experiences, ghosts, euthanasia, suicide, the funeral profession, grief and mourning, memento mori, mass death, death and the media/popular culture.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI244 course details
Points
15 points
SOCI255
Sociology of the City
Description
This course is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI255 course details
Points
15 points
SOCI262
Food and Eating
Description
This course explores the food chain, from production, through consumption, to exchange and considers the ways in which food is implicated in the reproduction of, and resistance to, inequalities of class, gender, ethnicity and nationalism.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2011 , 2013 , 2015 , 2016
For further information see SOCI262 course details
Points
15 points
SOCI263
Sociology of the Everyday World
Description
This course introduces students to a range of issues associated with the sociology of the everyday world. It examines how the elements of everyday life - shopping, credit cards, leisure, the meaning of home, food, relationships with companion animals, and other student selected topics reveal our entanglement with wider social processes. Everyday worlds will also be examined as a nexus for our engagement with contemporary issues ranging from environmental awareness to social justice.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022
For further information see SOCI263 course details
Points
15 points

300-level

SOCI301
Social Theory for Contemporary Life
Description
The course will engage with a range of contemporary social theories dealing with the complexity of everyday life. Topics covered include: networks, flows and globalisation; self-identity, sexuality and gender; governance, bio-politics and digital environments. The course will track the different ways in which theorists in these topic areas focus their concerns on, and provide descriptions of, the ceaseless experimentation characteristic of contemporary forms of communication, time-spaces, culture, and everyday life.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see SOCI301 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI311
Mental Health and Society
Description
This course will engage with debates and issues associated with mental health, mental illness and addictions. It will consider: differing approaches to 'madness'; critiques of the war on drugs; debates around psychotropic medications; Maori and indigenous perspectives on mental health; policy debates relating to mental health and addictions; global differences in the expression of mental distress; mental health consumers movements; and social and cultural determinants of mental health.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2018 , 2019
For further information see SOCI311 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI344
On Death and Dying: Current Controversies in thanatology
Description
'On Death and Dying' introduces students to this most pervasive yet under-examined aspect of social life. Students will be given the opportunity to explore death, dying and bereavement from a sociological point of view. We will explore the different and complex ways people attend to death through a guided programme that includes a study of the notion of sequestered death, the body in death, the social stratification of death, customary practices past and present including Aotearoa/New Zealand, death and medicine, good death/bad death, near death experiences, ghosts, euthanasia, suicide, the funereal profession, grief and mourning, memento mori, mass death, death and the media/popular culture.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI344 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI355
Sociology of the City
Description
This course is concerned with the city as it is experienced today: as shifting mixes of public and private spaces in which disruptions provoke different points of view, multiple memories and complex associations.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023
For further information see SOCI355 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI361
Social Movements
Description
This course explores diverse social movements, asking how we can make sense of them. How do they bring about social change? The course looks at abortion movements, environmental movements, civil rights movements, and many other movements. Collective identity, internet activism, framing, and various theories of social movements are considered. Students will do a presentation on a social movement of their choice.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2016 , 2017 , 2019 , 2020 , 2021
For further information see SOCI361 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI378
Special Topic
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see SOCI378 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI392
Special topic
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2016
For further information see SOCI392 course details
Points
30 points