School of Social and Political Science

Sociology

More...

About

We are one of the UK's leading centres for research and teaching in Sociology. One of our major strengths is diversity, both in who we are and what we do.

Programmes

On our single and joint undergraduate degree programmes we place a strong emphasis on doing rather than just reading about sociology.

Research

Our work is at the crossroads of professional, critical, public and user-oriented policy sociology and focuses on the interweaving of individual lives, social processes and historical change.

People

Meet the Sociology team and find contact details.

News

See the latest news updates from Sociology.

Contact

We are based in the Chrystal Macmillan Building on George Square at the heart of the Central campus.

Latest news

News content

20/09/2022
Sociology

Sociology Seminar Series Autumn 2022

See the full exciting programme of weekly seminars starting on September 28th.
Ukraine flag
05/07/2022
Centre of African Studies

Remote academic support for PhD students affected by the war on Ukraine

Academics beyond Borders is now calling for applications from PhD students enrolled in Ukrainian universities. There are 14 remote places available for candidates whose research at their home universities is being affected by the war on Ukraine. All places are funded by the University of Edinburgh and require no fees from any students accepted onto the scheme.
Steve Johnson image from Unsplash
23/06/2022
Sociology

Social Policy expert launches collaborative feminist theory project aimed at influencing UK policy

Dr Rebecca Hewer in Sociology has launched a new research project, The Feminist Policy Project (FPP), and it now has a page on the School website’s Research section. The FPP is a collaborative venture that encourages contributors to critically evaluate and creatively rewrite a range of UK social policies.
SPS REF Results
12/05/2022
Science, Technology and Innovation Studies

REF 2021: Sociology, including Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS), at the University of Edinburgh

The results of the REF 2021 exercise demonstrated that our Sociology and STIS subject areas are excelling. Our submission was ranked top in the UK by Research Professional for the overall quality and breadth of our research.

Upcoming events

Events content

05 October 2022
16:00 - 17:30
Sociology

An intersectional approach to the community-building aspect of hashtag feminism in Brazil

This talk focuses on the  community-building aspect of digital feminist mobilisations  in Brazil and its inequalities, unravelling feelings of belonging and alienation that result from social organizing around a common cause and the ways in which these feelings relate to the histories of feminist activism more broadly.

06 October 2022
12:00 - 13:30
Sociology

Breaking ‘climate silence’ in everyday relationships: the environmentalist

Climate change - like death - is uncomfortable and commonly avoided in the conversations of day-to-day life in the UK. This ‘silence’ impedes public debate about, and civic participation in, different ways to tackle climate change.
19 October 2022
11:00 - 13:00
Sociology

The Call to Deviance: Queer Theory’s Inheritance from the Social Sciences

This paper draws on Love’s recent book Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory to consider uptake of midcentury deviance studies in classic queer theory.
20 October 2022
11:00 - 12:30
Sociology

Women’s life course trajectories to a non-conjugal family: couple norm and beyond

Join this CRFR seminar for a presentation, Q&A and discussion on women living with children outside of heterosexual partners in Finland. To what extent does the couple norm reflect women’s life trajectories in contemporary Finnish society? What led to women’s departures from heterosexual marriage? To what extent is motherhood a deliberate choice for women in Finland, or are pathways to reproduction more plural?