Module Code - Title:
SO4077
-
SOCIOLOGY OF YOUTH
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
To understand and to explore key theoretical perspectives on youth and the youth experience within contemporary contexts
To critically engage with key examples of empirical research conducted with young people in a variety of social contexts
To encourage and to enable critical and analytical thinking about the diverse ways in which young people are constructed and represented via media, policy and academic discourses
To examine the relationship between social theory, methodological approaches, research methods and ethical considerations
Syllabus:
This module is focused on the study of young people (middle to late adolescence) in Irish society and addresses a number of critical questions which are rooted in traditional sociological concerns about power, inequality and representation. In addressing these questions, students will be asked to analytically engage with theoretical perspectives on youth as it intersects with material categories of social class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. Young people's experiences and interactions with the key social structures of education, the community, the family and work; as well as issues around time and space; young people's life styles and the existence of gender differentiated cultures will be explored through classic and contemporary empirical research. Public media and policy representations of youth will also be addressed in the context of contemporary media discourse which constructs young people as a wide ranging social problem.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
Understand the key theoretical approaches to the study of youth and young people
Understand debates and criticisms within and around these approaches
Be aware of, and able to engage with, key examples of both classical and contemporary empirical studies of youth
Be able to bring a sociological perspective to contemporary media debates about young people across local, national and global contexts
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
Develop critical thinking as well as analytical skills.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Nayak, A., and Kehily, M. (2008)
Gender, Youth and Culture. Young Masculinities and Femininities
, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan
O¿Connor, P. (2008)
Irish Children and Teenagers in a Changing World: The National Write Now Project
, Manchester: Manchester University Press
Roche, J., Tucker, S., Thompson, R., and Flynn, R. (eds.) (2004)
Youth in Society (2nd Edition)
, London: The Open University/Sage
Lalor, K., DeRoiste, A., and Devlin, M. (2007)
Young People in Contemporary Ireland
, Dublin: Gill and MacMillan
Other Relevant Texts:
McDowell, L. (2003)
Redundant Masculinities. Employment Change and White Working class Youth
, London: Blackwell.
Walkerdine, V., Lucey, H. and Melody, J. (2001)
Growing up Girl. Psychosocial Explorations of Gender and Class
, Hampshire: Palgrave
Frosh, S., Phoenix, A. and Pattman, R. (2002)
Young Masculinities. Understanding
Boys in Contemporary Society
, London: Palgrave
Connell, RW (1995)
Masculinities
, Cambridge: Polity Press
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
sindy.j.joyce@ul.ie