Economic & Social History/Geography

Economic and social history is a discipline that bridges the humanities and the social sciences, examining how people in the past lived, worked, and organised themselves, and tracing the long-run processes of economic development, social change, and institutional formation that have produced the world we inhabit today. It asks questions about inequality, labour, trade, technology, population, migration, and the distribution of power across societies and over time, combining the interpretive sensibility of history with the analytical tools of economics and sociology.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time combined degree pairs economic and social history with geography, creating a programme that examines change over time alongside the spatial dimensions of social and economic life. You will study structures, activities, and experiences across different periods and regions, using a variety of sources and methods to understand how the past has shaped the present. Geography adds a further layer of analysis, bringing questions of place, landscape, urban development, and the relationship between human activity and the natural environment into dialogue with historical enquiry.

A year abroad is a central feature of the programme, providing the opportunity to study these questions from a different national perspective. The entry tariff is 200 points, reflecting a programme that expects strong academic preparation.

Graduates from economic and social history programmes are well equipped for a wide range of careers. Academic and policy research, the civil service, international organisations, economic consultancy, journalism, finance, and the heritage sector are all common destinations. The capacity to analyse long-run trends, to work with quantitative and qualitative evidence, and to place contemporary problems in historical context is valued across many professional fields.

Postgraduate study in economic history, social history, development economics, or related social sciences is a natural next step for those who wish to pursue the discipline further.