HPSC0063

The Social Sciences of Inequality

This module is an historical examination of the social sciences in the long twentieth century. Although we know much about the history of individual disciplines - psychology, economics, sociology, political science -, we know comparatively little about how the sciences of society have cooperated and competed in both public and political spheres. This module investigates how social scientists sought to redraft the architectures of the state, of organizations and of mass culture. To guide our itinerary of twentieth century social science, we examine the problem of ‘inequality” has been conceptualized across time and across disciplines.

Course Objectives:

At the end of the course students should be able:

• to ask and answer cogent and focused questions about the evolution of social science and to pursue these questions through structured enquiry, selecting and interrogating an appropriate range of materials, including archival and historiographical sources of evidence;
• to understand how social scientists acted in the always different context of the past, learning to probe unfamiliar structures of belief and practice and appreciate the complexity and diversity of their cultural and institutional situations;
• to read and analyse social science texts and other primary sources, both critically and empathetically, while addressing questions of genre, content, perspective and purpose;
• to appreciate the problems involved in the interpretation of the complex, ambiguous, conflicting and often incomplete historical record and thus be aware of the limitations of our knowledge of the past and the dangerous allure of simplistic explanations;
• to marshal arguments in written and oral form, drawing on and presenting all the above skills. Such argument has structure and is relevant and concise. In the case of written argument it is expressed in clear, lucid and coherent prose. Orally, it involves the capacity to sustain a reasoned line of argument in the face of others, to listen, to engage in debate, and amend views as necessary in the light of evidence and argument.

UCL Module Catalogue: The Social Sciences of Inequality (HPSC0063)