Politics BA(Hons)

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Top reasons to choose this course

• Learn in a vibrant, progressive city with a reputation for radical, environmental and LGBTQI+ activism. 

• Your lecturers are internationally recognised researchers on issues including populism, gender studies, the Middle East, environmentalism, migration, housing and political theory. 

• You will engage with cutting-edge academic research. The university’s Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Ethics hosts regular talks, seminars, workshops and conferences, and offers an annual undergraduate research prize. 

• Apply to spend a semester studying abroad at a partner university in your second year – students in the Politics Subject Area have the opportunity to study at Groningen University (the Netherlands), Örebro University (Sweden), and Madrid Complutense (Spain).

• Guest speakers have included Caroline Lucas and Sue Shanks (Green Party), Yousef Eldin (BBC documentary producer), Nancy Hawker (Amnesty International) and Professor Angie Wilson (ex-chair of the Political Studies Association, researching sexuality and politics), as well as representatives from Make the Shift, The Free West Papua Campaign and Brighton & Hove Community Land Trust. 

• Assignments don’t just mean essays, you’ll be assessed in lots of ways including films, podcasts, data visualisations, political speeches, social media campaigns – the types of projects that will be valued by employers.  

• Graduate with both theoretical and practical knowledge. Our courses offer practical skills and real-world experiences to prepare you for your future careers, with opportunities to undertake placements, design a campaign for a political organisation and learn digital communication skills. 

• The university’s commitment to addressing global challenges is the lens through which you will learn and issues such as climate change, equality and inclusivity and sustainability are embedded in all teaching on our politics courses. 

• Our decolonised approach to teaching and learning emphasises lived experience, recognising that knowledge is held in communities, not only in academic institutions. 

• You will be studying in a thriving community alongside students taking related degrees which informs our delivery.

Year 1 

In your first year, you will study six modules that introduce you to the subject area. 

Modules

• Introduction to the  Global Challenges Lab

  Supported by a tutor, you will design and conduct a research project that addresses one of the global challenges identified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. You’ll learn how to create blogs, podcasts and short films to communicate your research and ideas to a non-academic audience.

• Political Ideas

  This module gives a broad overview of the academic study of politics. You will focus on core concepts of political science and political theory and apply these to political processes, institutions, ideologies and the nature of political change. You’ll cover the core conceptual material needed for more advanced study in politics and also be introduced to ideas and approaches that can be applied in other social sciences.

• Foundations in World Politics

  This module will introduce you to a critical historical perspective on the modern international political system. You will examine how the peoples and governments of the world came to be linked through an imperial system by exploring major world events and processes of global history. By taking a long view of modern politics, the module is an opportunity for you to place world politics in its historical context. The key topics you will explore include the origins of the international political system, slavery, imperial and colonial expansion, anti-colonial resistance and liberation, global governance, controversy and historiography.

• Politics in Practice

  This module introduces you to ideas about how politics is practiced by state and non-state actors at local, national and international levels. You will take part in field trips, Q+As with political actors and engagement with political communications. You’ll also be introduced to methods of data collection as well as forms of qualitative and quantitative analysis.

• Comparative Political Systems

  On this module you will be introduced to some of the key features of politics including institutions, political actors and political processes. You’ll identify the most important political hallmarks, for example the legislature, the executive, political parties and electoral processes in at least two contemporary states that illustrate democratic, partially democratic or/and authoritarian political systems. You’ll also study political concepts, such as power and the state, in order to analyse and compare those political systems.

• Introduction to Environmental Politics

  This module introduces you to the key theories and global institutions relevant to environmental politics, and how these debates apply in practice to contemporary and historical issues of climate crisis. You will learn about environmental justice, ecological modernisation, fossil capitalism and environmental ethics, alongside studying the global institutions that contest climate politics including the UN, nation states, fossil fuel companies and protest movements.

Year 2

In year two you will explore British politics and theories of government and policy, and begin to learn the fundamentals of research methods and ethics in preparation for your final year dissertation.

You’ll also choose the subjects that interest you most through option modules.

Modules

Core modules

• Authority, Democracy and Justice

  Authority, Democracy and Justice builds on your understanding of political theory, bringing in key authors in their historical context and examining core concepts in depth. It focuses on critiques of democracy, addressing the question of political obligation and the social contract, and bringing to the fore Marxist and anarchist analyses of democracy. You will also explore social justice, entitlement theory and economic democracy.

• UK Politics

  This module will give you an understanding of the role, form and evolution of the contemporary British state. It takes as its starting point the post-war settlement and Westminster Model and looks at key developments in the form of the state and its influences, including the rise of the New Right, globalisation, governance and devolution.

• Researching Politics

  In this module you will study the research methods commonly used in politics, focusing on basic research design, ethical considerations and positionality, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, and case study research. You will explore the positivist paradigms dominant in politics research, focusing particularly on decolonising research methods.

• We, the People

  This module introduces the notion of the people into modern history and looks at its relationship to sovereignty, nationalism, revolution, colonialism, decolonial projects, and the academic study of politics as a discipline. You will critically examine debates over the people emerging in various historical contexts and political practices. You’ll also consider critiques of the people developed from decolonial and black critical theory.

Options*

• Debating Contemporary International Relations

  This module will introduce the relationships, ideas and principles underpinning historical and contemporary global governance. You will explore how International Relations (IR) theory can be used to explain and understand how the world ‘hangs together’. You will also look at conceptual issues including power, conflict, security, political economy, law, migration and governance.

• War, Violence and Terror

  This module introduces historical, philosophical and political approaches to the study of war, violence and terror. You will consider the place of violence in human society and politics. Using an intersectional and critical approach, as well as various case studies, you will look at practices of war and the legacies of war and terror. You will explore war as military invasion as well as non-traditional forms of war, such as the war on drugs, terror or migrants.

• The Politics of Critique

  You will study the origins of critique and the history of critical theory in this module. You’ll read foundational texts about the politics of critical theory which are situated in relation to their historical and political contexts. You will examine the works of key philosophers including Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Horkheimer, Adorno, Foucault and Ranciere.

• Unruly Bodies: Understanding and Contesting Normativity

  In this module you will explore the historical production of dominant ideas of the body, specifically the production of raced, classed, gendered and normative bodies in relation to the histories and legacies of colonialism, capitalism and empire. You will examine alternative concepts of bodies and embodied practices that challenge dominant ways of thinking and being.

• International Institutions

  This module focuses on key contemporary international institutions including the United Nations and the European Union and examines how different actors – including states, diplomats, non-governmental organisations and social movements – interact within these institutions. By looking at how decisions are made, you will explore questions of power, democracy and governance in a changing international order. The module will include at least one model United Nations event.

• Nations and Nationalism

  This module will introduce you to political understandings of the nation and the phenomenon of nationalism. You will explore the historical construction of nationalism as imagined and analyse how nationalism matters for states and societies. You'll differentiate between the state and the nation and analyse the impact of nationalism in terms of conflict, identity, power and representation. The module will focus on the key thinkers on nationalism and seminal texts on the subject.

• Structuralism, Post-Structuralism and the Politics of Critique

  You will study structuralist and post-structuralist theoretical work in the context of the revolutionary changes of the 1960s and the 1970s in this module. You’ll consider these theories from the vantage point of the present to assess their consequences and limits. You will examine the work of theorists including Saussure, Levi-Strauss, Derrida, Lacan, Deleuze, Cixous, Butler and Badiou.

• Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community

  This 40-hour community engagement module provides you with the opportunity to explore workplace practices and recognise your role as a global citizen. You will put into practice what you have learned in relation to policies, politics and communication, and reflect on issues such as gender, race and class representation. Through the placement you will acquire transferrable employability skills and abilities, including professional conduct in the workplace, teamwork and problem-solving.

• Development and Sustainability

  This module offers an overview of global development and explores contemporary issues including poverty, foreign aid, hunger and the global land grab. You will explore alternative development strategies and alternatives to development by looking at issues including the rise of China, cash transfers, food sovereignty and gender-equitable development. You will also examine the interrelationship between development and sustainability and critically interrogate the limits of sustainable development.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Final year

Modules

Core modules

• Activism and Social Change

  With the aim of exploring how civil society groups can intervene in the political sphere, you will plan a political campaign during this module. You will study the social issues involved and design and run a campaign that meets a live brief provided by a third sector campaigning organisation. You’ll learn a range of skills to help you run a successful political campaign and draw on the digital and creative skills you have acquired in the Global Challenges Lab.

• Politics Dissertation

  With expert guidance, you will take on a research project you’ve designed and refined through a series of research lectures and supervisions. You will examine primary sources, analyse theoretical debates and use research methodology aligned with your course requirements, including quantitative and/or qualitative methods. The culmination of your research will be presented in a comprehensive dissertation.

Options*

• Radical Political Economy and Anarchist Politics

  This module provides an in-depth and critical examination of political economy and anarchism theories, introducing classical theories of political economy and presenting a range of alternatives from the political left and right. It also assesses the contribution of anarchist politics from different established perspectives.

• Global Social Policy

  You will learn about contemporary developments and challenges for human wellbeing and social policy at the global level during this module. It looks at supranational, regional, national and local contexts of social policy provision, the relationship of monetary and fiscal policy and policy transfer. The module applies theoretical frameworks and concepts from the social sciences, including social policy, politics, sociology and area studies.

• Politics in the Middle East

  This module focuses on key debates in the study of Middle Eastern politics, taking a largely thematic approach to politics in the region and exploring relevant case studies within these themes. Topics under analysis include the legacies of colonialism; independence movements and nationalism; political economy; the role of religion in politics; and questions of democracy and authoritarianism.

• Race and International Relations

  The place of ‘race’ and its different connotations in the discipline and practice of international relations (IR) is currently the topic of a lot of scholarly research and debate. This module will investigate how conventional IR is subjectively racialised as white and how the production of whiteness in IR significantly constrains our collective capacities to understand world politics.

• Politics of the Right

  This module examines the history and theory of the right to shed light on its contemporary political manifestations. It considers the history, theory and practice of conservatism, nationalism, fascism, neoliberalism and the New Right and examines the new modes the right has utilised in the twenty-first century and what impact these have had.

• Care Ethics and Social Policy

  This module will explore debates about responsibilities for care, the relationship between care and social justice and the personal and interpersonal impact of caregiving. It will draw on research into caregiving, social policy analysis of individual versus collective responsibilities and a feminist ethic of care that emphasises it as a moral practice with political implications.

• Sociology of Globalisation

  This module explores the emergence of globalisation and considers the implications of living in an increasingly globalised world. You will develop a critical appreciation of current theories, issues and debates around the subject and explore the way in which globalisation has arguably become the central idea in trying to understand the social changes that we are living through today.

• Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention

  This module explores human rights and humanitarian intervention, examining the role the international community plays in causing, preventing and responding to human rights violation. You will study human rights issues in the context of military intervention and the prevention of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity, and question if and how human rights are being protected in a changing international order.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Placements

In your second year you can gain real-world experience on placement with the option module Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community.

You'll spend 40 hours working with an organisation and put into practice your learnings in relation to policies, politics and communication, and reflect on issues such as gender, race and class representation. 

Through the placement you will develop transferrable employability skills and abilities, such as teamwork and problem-solving, and gain insight into potential career paths—all while actively contributing to the community.

We will help you find a placement that suits your interests and support you to build your CV and with interview preparation.

Our politics students have spent their placement with organisations including:

• The Green Centre
• Sussex Community Development Association
• The Queery
• Afrori Books
• Sussex Prisoners Families.

Lab facilities

Mithras House has a series of lab rooms which can be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.

Life lab
A skills-based lab for practice-based teaching, social work, psychotherapy and counselling, and employability. The Life lab is fitted with lounge furniture to provide a comfortable space for conducting qualitative research with larger groups. The lab can be used to conduct research activities with children of all ages and can be used for meetings and events. The room also contains a dedicated space to conduct assessed role play or interviews with children.

City lab
This is a qualitative research methods and creative methods resource for all students, staff and researchers, as well as research participants, including children, community groups and the general public. It can also be used for meetings and events. The City lab contains a kitchen, a teaching/meeting room with enhanced acoustic isolation and two meeting spaces that can be separated with a screen or combined to accommodate larger groups.

Design lab
Housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses, this has the space and equipment for you to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.

Community Lab
A space designed for collaborative student learning, this is used by students and staff involved in the university’s Global Challenges programme – our collective mission to contribute towards solutions to tackle the pressing issues facing our world.

Stats lab
A specialist workspace with computing equipment for statistical analysis and projects involving video and audio editing software. The lab contains eight acoustically treated booths for both recording and transcribing interviews undertaken as part of dissertation research and for recording and editing podcasts.

Applied Cognition lab
A dedicated research space for psychological research involving measures such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG). The space is designed to allow the participant and researcher to sit at separate desks whilst psychophysiological data is being collected. 

VR and eye tracking lab
The VR and Eye-Tracking Lab is used for psychological research using equipment, such as eye-trackers and virtual reality headsets. The space has adjustable lighting and a blackout blind for maintaining consistent lighting conditions during eye-tracking research, as well as sensors set up in the room to allow individuals to move freely around the room during virtual reality research.

Meet the team

Dr Andy Knott  –  course leader

Andy works in political theory, with a specific interest in political subjects, especially individualism and the people of populism, as well as debates across contemporary democratic theory.

Andy teaches and has published several recent books on populism and is currently writing a book entitled Rethinking Left and Right in Contemporary Politics.

Read Andy’s full profile.

Robin Jervis

Robin’s research focus is in the field of political economy. He is interested in ideas of ownership of resources, particularly in alternative models of public ownership informed by anarchist and Marxist traditions and how these approaches can relate to radical understandings of democracy and ‘ideal’ or ‘developmental’ conceptions of liberty.

Robin’s teaching style blends learning technologies with more traditional seminar teaching approaches. Robin is currently working on a series of projects which focus on alternatives to capitalism, as well as an ongoing research project examining perceptions of social justice using psychological techniques. Read Robin’s full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include:

• Dr Clare Woodford
• Dr Heba Youssef
• Dr Chris Wyatt
• Prof Mark Devenney
• Dr Robin Dunford
• Dr German Primera Villamiza
• Dr Chrystie Myketiak 
• Dr Zoe Sutherland

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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