Sociology of Success + Fame

Department of Political Science and International Studies, School of Government and Society

College of Social Sciences

Details

Code 21906

Level of study Third/Final year

Credit value 20

Semester 1 and 2

Pre-requisite modules Where students take this course as a 10 credit unit they will be expected to undertake self directed study of the material not covered from the readin

Module description

The module aims to approach the concepts of success and fame from a sociological perspective, provide an introduction to some of the main attitudes and approaches to them since antiquity, and highlight the changes they have gone through since the Industrial Revolution. In the first term the focus is on how success and fame were viewed at in ancient civilizations (e.g. Egyptian, Greek, Roman), and in different social and economic systems, especially in feudalism. In the second term, the attention is on the impact of the capitalist mode of production and consumption on people¿s attitudes to success and fame. Among the topics examined in this part of the module are the significance of career, the reasons for the lack of sociological literature on women and success, the role of the nineteenth century Graphic revolution on the emergence of celebrity culture, and the nature of anxiety in modern times and post modernity.

Teaching and learning methods

These courses are taught by a combination of lectures, classes and directed reading.

This module is available as:
Autumn term only 10 credit unit – 3,000 word assessed essay
Spring term only 10 credit unit – 3,000 word assessed essay
Whole Year 20 credit unit – 4,000 summative essay (50%), and 3 hour examination (50%).