Politics and Sociology

Politics and sociology is a pairing that has a long and productive history in British social science. Politics provides the tools to analyse formal institutions of governance, the dynamics of power, the structure of party systems, and the forces that drive policy change. Sociology takes a wider view of the social structures, inequalities, identities, and cultural forces that both shape and are shaped by political life.

Together the two disciplines enable a genuinely critical and multifaceted understanding of how contemporary societies work and why they look the way they do.

At the University of Manchester you will study across three years on a full-time programme. The degree is designed for students who want to keep their intellectual options open while also being able to focus on specific topics that interest them most, whether that is race, class, crime, religion, or any of the other areas where politics and sociology speak most directly to each other. Manchester's social science faculty is among the strongest in the UK, with research-active staff across both disciplines who bring current scholarship directly into the teaching.

You will develop skills in theoretical analysis, sociological and political research methods, and written and oral communication, building the analytical capabilities that employers in research, policy, and public service value most. The combination of political and sociological perspectives encourages you to hold multiple frames of analysis in productive tension, which is one of the most valuable intellectual capabilities a social scientist can develop.

Graduates of politics and sociology enter careers across the public, private, and third sectors. The civil service, local government, journalism, public relations, market research, social work, community development, education, and the charity sector are all well-trodden directions. Many graduates also proceed to postgraduate study in sociology, politics, social research, or public policy, where the analytical and methodological grounding the degree provides is a significant asset.

Academic careers in sociology or political science are a realistic long-term direction for those who pursue research degrees.