Sociology at The Open University has long been at the forefront of critical thinking, inflected by the cultural perspective. Its origins lay in the work of Stuart Hall, the cutting-edge scholar of cultural studies who worked here for 25 years. All the department are engaged with world-class research with an ethics of care and aim of social change. This commitment is reflected in our teaching that is accessible, stimulating, and relevant.
 

Our academics

Our academics comes from all walks of life – different parts of the world, different educational experiences, different class, gender, and race backgrounds – which gives us a unique insight on the social world.  Our research interests include:

• Migration, diasporas, transnational communities
• Digital societies, science and technology studies
• Feminism, gender and sexuality
• Cities and urban cultures
• Everyday life and popular culture
• Race, postcolonial and global south
• Psychosocial
• Art and creative methodologies

Our research

Following our diverse research interests, our current research includes:

• Moving MarketPlaces (MMP): Following the Everyday Production of Inclusive Public Spaces 
• The Political Economy of Patriarchy in the Global South
• Participatory Action Research (PAR): participatory theatre and walking methods' potential for co-producing knowledge
• Covid Chronicles from the Margins - Refugee Art UK
• War and the Body | Militarisation, Practice and Experience
• Pathological Lives – Disease, Space and Biopolitics - Pathological Lives  
• Feminism and Public Sociology in China

How we work with others

Given our commitment to public sociology and engagement in the community, we aim to connect our research with a wide range of players in voluntary organisations, government institutions, media and other bodies: Internally, we play a key part in a number of Open University research groups, such as Centre for Global Challenges and Social Justice (GCSJ) , Citizenship & Governance and Migrant Art Archive. Our engagement extends to organizations such as the British Sociological Association (where we contribute to a blog on the cost of living), the International Sociological Association (where we serve as committee members of research committee racism, nationalism, indigeneity, and ethnicity), and the BBC (specifically, Diasporas at the BBC World Service).

Find out more

• Read more about studying with us
• More about our teaching and research
• You can find a range of free sociology resources at OpenLearn.

Banner background image: Hooppe/ Shutterstock; Inset image: Ian Allenden / Alamy