Undergraduate Course: Theories of Power (SCIL10046)

Course Outline
School	School of Social and Political Science	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)	Availability	Available to all students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	Power is a central concept for social and political analysis. This course introduces you to major issues in the theorisation of power in the social sciences. It does this first through an examination of definitions, key concepts, and debates, and then through closer attention to selected theorists chosen to highlight different perspectives on the study of power. This year we focus on: Steven Lukes, Michel Foucault, Dorothy Smith, Pierre Bourdieu, G. William Domhoff, and Michael Mann. Students are encouraged to think in particular about three themes: (1) how to relate concepts and theories to practical research contexts, (2) connections between studying power at micro and macro scales, and (3) the difficulties of understanding how power works in liberal forms of society.
Course description	Not entered

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	Visiting students should have at least 3 Sociology or closely related courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students should be able to: identify and critically assess major themes in the theorisation of power; formulate a position on the value and importance of contending conceptions of power; analyse the ways substantive fields of research inform conceptions of power, and how specific conceptions of power may shape empirical research.