Skip to main content
 

SOCI3707: Drugs and Society

Please ensure you check the module availability box for each module outline, as not all modules will run in each academic year. Each module description relates to the year indicated in the module availability box, and this may change from year to year, due to, for example: changing staff expertise, disciplinary developments, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback. Current modules are subject to change in light of the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19.

Type Tied
Level 3
Credits 10
Availability Available in 2023/24
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Sociology

Prerequisites

  • At least 20 credits of level 2 modules offered by the Department of Sociology.

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • To provide students with a sociological framework for understanding the legal and health dimensions of illicit drug use and drug policy.
  • To develop students sociological reasoning to critically analyse media and popular culture accounts of substance use, abuse, and trafficking.
  • To familiarise students with the modern history of, and dominant theoretical perspectives on, substance use and regulation and the major critiques of these paradigms.

Content

  • The social construction of substance use: Thinking critically about licit drug use, illicit abuse, and addiction.
  • The history of substances and substance use regulation.
  • Moral panics and substance use.
  • Drug and alcohol prohibition.
  • Racism, gender, and class in drug use.
  • Models of addiction: moral models, disease models, social models.
  • Medicalisation and criminalisation of illicit drug use.
  • Drugs and youth culture.
  • Drug use and pleasure.
  • Drug trafficking, drug markets, and borders.
  • Drug treatment, biopower, and disciplinarity.
  • Harm reduction approaches, public health, and the debate over drug legalisation.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • At the end of the course students will:
  • Understand key concepts and debates about the sociological study of drug use and policy.
  • Be able to draw on the history of drug use and policy to understand contemporary debates about drug use, addiction, prohibition, legalisation, and harm reduction.
  • Be able to articulate arguments about drug use and policy employing findings from empirical studies of past and present drug use and policy from a variety of geographical settings.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • By the end of the module the typical student will be able to:
  • Evaluate sociological arguments and evidence about drug use and policy.
  • Employ the conceptual apparatus of Sociology in relation to drug use and policy.
  • Undertake and present drug use and policy related work in a scholarly fashion.
  • Apply theoretical and empirical knowledge to an appropriate sociological question in the field of drug use and policy.
  • Employ theoretical and methodological expertise as appropriate in drug use and policy related area.
  • Be able to convey, both orally and in writing, the meaning of abstract methodological concepts in ways which are meaningful to others.
  • Perceive the relevance of, and relate their sociological knowledge to contemporary issues in drug use and policy and related issues.

Key Skills:

  • Demonstrate a range of communication skills including the ability to: evaluate and synthesize information obtained from a variety of written sources; communicate relevant information in different ways.
  • Demonstrate competence in the use of IT resources, including the ability to word-process, use and interpret basic statistical tables and graphs, and use web-based resources (Virtual Learning Environment).
  • Demonstrate a capacity to improve own learning and performance, including the specific ability to manage time effectively, work to prescribed deadlines, engage in different ways of learning including both independent and directed forms of learning, gather necessary information from a range of bibliographic sources.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Lectures provide students with substantive information, indicate the main issues to be considered and introduce the main themes, interpretations and arguments of the subject material. They encourage students to develop skills in listening, selective note-taking and an appreciation of how information may be structured and presented to others.
  • Seminars will be organised around themes for discussion and will have designated reading. They provide the opportunity for students to present and develop their own understanding of relevant materials, encourage them to develop transferable skills (e.g. oral communication, group work skills, information retrieval skills), subject-specific skills (e.g. competence in using theoretical perspectives and concepts in Sociology, the ability to formulate sociologically-informed questions) and general skills (e.g. judging and evaluating evidence, assessing the merits of competing arguments and explanations, making reasoned arguments).
  • Students will also spend time in self-directed study as they prepare for specific seminar and essay assignments.
  • A formative essay requires students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of module topics. The feedback provided on formative essays enables students to reflect on their knowledge and understanding, and to improve their performance where appropriate.
  • A summative essay requires students to demonstrate more detailed and extended knowledge of module topics. It also provides an opportunity for feedback.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures101 Per Week1 Hour10 
Seminars5Fortnightly1 Hour5Yes
Preparation and Reading85 
Total100 

Summative Assessment

Component: EssayComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay2,500100 

Formative Assessment

Students will have the option of submitting an outline of the summative essay (up to 500 words) to obtain guidance and feedbacks from the module conveners.

More information

If you have a question about Durham's modular degree programmes, please visit our FAQ webpages, Help page or our glossary of terms. If you have a question about modular programmes that is not covered by the FAQ, or a query about the on-line Undergraduate Module Handbook, please contact us.

Prospective Students: If you have a query about a specific module or degree programme, please Ask Us.

Current Students: Please contact your department.