Comparative societies (COS) subjects examine not just contemporary industrial societies but all the very varied ways in which human beings have organised their lives together, now and in the past. They are crosscultural and historical, focusing on processes of social development and comparing the ways of life found in societies of all kinds: modern and premodern, agrarian and industrial, capitalist and socialist, Eastern and Western. Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged, and debates in this area cut across literary theory, history, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and sociology.
Comparative societies begins its specialisation at second year. Students normally use two first-year subjects in ANY and/or SCY as the basis for a minor or major in COS but other subjects may be allowed. Second-year subjects deal with the rise of capitalist societies, with the study of culture, with understanding prejudice and discrimination in its many guises, and with the impact of scientific rationality on our view of the world and our place in it. In the third year students can choose among options including the sociology of literature; the consumer society; bodily representations; nationalism; the sociology of disabilities; Japanese society; Marxist, critical, structuralist and post structuralist theories.
An honours program is also available for students wishing to specialise further and who may want to proceed to postgraduate research. The department offers a general MA by coursework within which specialised subjects are available in social theory, comparative societies, gender and feminism, and anthropology; postgraduate research degrees are also available.
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