Stigma, Power & Resistance - SPY00082H
- Department: Social Policy and Social Work
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
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Academic year of delivery: 2025-26
- See module specification for other years: 2024-25
Module summary
This module will introduce students to theories of stigma and power as lenses through which to explore the treatment and experiences of key groups who are the target of social policies and interventions.
Module will run
Occurrence | Teaching period |
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A | Semester 1 2025-26 |
Module aims
This module will introduce students to theories of stigma and power as lenses through which to explore the treatment and experiences of key groups who are the target of social policies and interventions. It will consider macro-level processes of stigma production as well as developing insight into the experiences and consequences of stigma. It will further encourage an engagement with the ways in which individuals and groups of people can be observed to be resisting stigma and challenging dominant power relationships, and the outcomes of this. Further, it will consider the interplay between stigma, power, and policymaking processes, and the ways in which particular policy choices and justifications can be better understood when considered alongside ideas of stigma, power and resistance.
Module learning outcomes
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Understand the theories surrounding stigma, power and resistance
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Understand how theories of stigma, power and resistance relate to aspects of difference and diversity, i.e., gender, age, class, ethnicity, and how these intersect
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Apply theoretical frameworks to help us understand the experience and impact of stigma on different social groups
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Understand the interplay between stigma, power and the policymaking process
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Appreciate how different research strategies and data help us understand the reach and impact of stigma
Module content
A number of case studies will explore how these ideas and theories of stigma, power and resistance are acted out and impact upon diverse groups (to include, for example, ‘welfare dependants’, drug users, offenders, people with mental health problems, people with experiences of homelessness, teenage parents). This component of the module will draw upon expertise across the wider School to help facilitate research led teaching.
Teaching would include a combination of lecturers, interactive workshops and assignment clinics, with social media also employed to support learning and to encourage engagement with the ideas developed in the module in a contemporary context.
Indicative assessment
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
Task | % of module mark |
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Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Feedback will be given in accordance with the University Policy on feedback in the Guide to Assessment as well as in line with the School policy.
Indicative reading
Goffman, E (1990), Stigma, notes on the management of spoiled identity, New Edition. London: Penguin Books.
Tyler, I & Slater, T (Eds) (2018), The Sociology of Stigma, Sociological Review Seminar Series.
Link, B. G. & Phelan, J (2014), Stigma Power, Social Science and Medicine, 103, 24-32.