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BA (Hons) Childhood & Youth Studies and Sociology course preparation

To help you feel prepared for BA (Hons) Childhood & Youth Studies and Sociology, we’ve gathered together a range of course related activities including suggested reading, useful websites and some great things to do right now. Read on to find out more:

Suggested reading

You’ll be given lots of information about which textbooks to read and introduced to the University Library, as well as the many ebooks we have for you to access, when you begin your studies in September.

In the meantime, there are a couple of books you might like to read before starting your degree if you can. We don’t recommend rushing out to buy texts before you arrive. But if you can pick some up second hand, borrow from a library or access online, we suggest:

Childhood & Youth Studies

  • Furlong, A., (2013) Youth Studies: An Introduction, Routledge: Abingdon.
  • France, A. (2016) Understanding Youth in the Global Economic Crisis, Policy Press, Bristol.

Sociology

  • Bauman, Z. and May, T. (2019) Thinking Sociologically (3rd Edition) London: Blackwell.
  • C. Wright Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Richard Sennett (2012) Together: The rituals, pleasures, and politics of cooperation. Yale University Press.
  • Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2010) The spirit level: why equality is better for everyone. Penguin.

Things to do now

We don’t recommend too much preparation before arrival as you’ll have plenty to do when your course begins.

However, you might want to think about how you’ll prepare for study. This might involve clearing a space for study if you intend to study from your home or thinking about how you’ll manage your time in relation to caring, social and work obligations when you begin the programme.

Do some general reading on the themes of childhood and youth. A good introductory text would be ‘Youth Studies: An Introduction’ by Alan Furlong published by Routledge.

You could also:

Meet your programme lead