Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The aim of this module is to advance your knowledge and understanding of critical and sociological approaches to crime, policing & (in) security in relation to governance, with an emphasis on historical and international aspects. To do this, we focus on three global phenomena which have governance through policing and (in) security at their heart: the War on Terror, the War Crime, and the War on Drugs.

You will build a sociological understanding of the racist and colonial roots of contemporary policing & security and governance formations in all fields. You will explore how the racialised and demonised figures of the ‘Terrorist’, the ‘Criminal', and the ‘Narco’ are used to control and govern specific populations and territories, with implications for social justice and human dignity.

Further, you will develop your sociological imagination so as to map alternative futures to challenge these perpetual and deeply intertwined ‘global wars’. To do this, we explore the production of policy 'roadmaps' which foreground human rights and social justice and engage with radical, abolitionist imaginaries that invite us to build futures without the police and prisons.

Outline Of Syllabus

Policing and Governing Populations
The War on Crime
The War on Drugs
The War on Terror
Intersectionality, Drug Policing and Lived Experiences
Security, Surveillance, Resistance
Building Alternatives to the War on Drugs
Abolitionist, Non-carceral Imaginaries
(plus Assessment Support)

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of this module, you should be able to:
1.       Define ‘policing & 'security’ and ‘governance’, and state their relevance to our global world
2.       Understand key critical, historical, and sociological perspectives on policing & security, and governance, and apply these to ‘crime’, 'terror', and 'drugs'
3.       Engage with critical classic and contemporary scholarship on the War on Terror, War on Crime, and the War on Drugs
4.       Critically analyse racism, ‘racial capitalism’, coloniality, and intersectionality as central to policing & security, and governance
5.       Assess the role of, and relationships between, the State (eg. Police), public/private partnerships, and private organisations, in ‘perpetual wars’
6.       Identify the impacts on specific ‘suspect’ populations and their 'lived experiences'
7.       Assess the relationship between policing & security, surveillance, and possibilities for resistance
8.       Build alternative future imaginaries in key policy areas of global significance

Intended Skill Outcomes

In terms of professional and intellectual skills, students should be able to: (
a) Articulate, with clarity and understanding, the formal specialised language of sociology.
b) Undertake and present work in a scholarly way.
c) Engage in a critical reading of texts. In terms of key skills, students should:
(1) Be able to demonstrate an appropriate level of competence with respect to oral skills (in class presentations and discussions) and written skills (in the assessed essays).
(2) Be able to carry out topic-oriented research using both library and IT resources.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

8 small group workshops of three hours (with breaks) to enhance student learning, with combination of lecture style and seminar style/small group T&L activities.

An additional 3 hours of in-person/online Assessment Support Workshops in the final week of the module to support students with their essays.

3 hours of (academic) podcast listening to engage students with alternative formats and sources, and encourage peer dialogue and discussion in class.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The module is assessed via an essay that will require students to identify and synthesise relevant source materials. They will need to develop a coherent and logical argument that demonstrates critical thinking, and present this within an essay format with due attention to structure, syntax and referencing.

The essay will help students to develop their written and analytic skills alongside their empirical and theoretical knowledge of the subject. It will also allow students to draw on other learning from the module including class discussions and workshop materials.

General Notes

N/A