Sociology reading and watching list – 2021
Here is a list of suggested Sociology related Films/Documentaries/books/podcasts and articles. Some of them are referenced in your packs or power points and others you may actually look over in class if you have time. All of them are really good for stretching and challenging and adding knowledge and evidence to your study of Sociology topics. Why not write a report on what you read/watch/listen to or you could create a poster summary or simply take some notes pulling out key evidence that you could use in exam responses.
List by topic area Colour Key for topic areas. • Gender • Ethnicity • Class • Family • Education • Global development • Crime and deviance • Theory
Good Sociological films FILMS PLOT TOPIC LINKS An anthology series exploring a twisted, high-tech Black Mirror Postmodernism/ world where humanity's greatest innovations and (2011-) Crime/Marxism darkest instincts collide. The true story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her struggles for equal rights, and the early cases of a On the Basis of Class historic career that lead to her nomination and Sex (2018) /Gender/ Sexuality/Family confirmation as U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice. A woman lands a dream job at a powerful tech The Circle company called the Circle, only to uncover an Postmodernism/ (2017) agenda that will affect the lives of all of Crime/Marxism humanity. The story of a team of female African-American Hidden Figures mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA Gender/ Ethnicity (2016) during the early years of the U.S. space program.
Manchester by A depressed uncle is asked to take care of his the Sea Class/ Age/ Family teenage nephew after the boy's father dies. (2016) A chronicle of the childhood, adolescence and Moonlight burgeoning adulthood of a young, African- Class/ Age/ Family/ (2016) American, gay man growing up in a rough Sexuality neighbourhood of Miami. A high school senior finds herself immersed in an online game of truth or dare, where her every Nerve (2016) Postmodernism/ Crime move starts to become manipulated by an anonymous community of "watchers." U.K. gay activists work to help miners during their Class/Gender/ Pride (2014) lengthy strike of the National Union of Sexuality/Family Mineworkers in the summer of 1984. A political thriller set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990's Sierra Leone, "Blood Blood Diamond Diamond" is an emotive story including some Global development. (2006) upsetting scences of child soliders, women as weapons of war. In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one City of god. struggles to become a photographer and the Crime/Global development other a kingpin. Gripping and hard hitting. Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA Argo (2012) agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue Crime/Religion six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979. Two teenage brothers must face their own Ethnicity My Brother the prejudices head on if they are to survive the perils /Crime/ Religion/Age/ Devil (2012) of being British Arabs growing up on the streets of Family gangland London. An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of Ethnicity The Help (2011) view on the white families for which they work, / Family/ Age and the hardships they go through on a daily basis. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known The Social as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers Postmodernism/ Crime/ Network (2010) who claimed he stole their idea, and the co- Gender founder who was later squeezed out of the business. The life of a hot-tempered teen outcast takes an Fish Tank (2009) unexpected turn when her mother brings home a Age/Class/ Family handsome boyfriend. In New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is Precious (2009) pregnant with her second child is invited to enrol Education/Class/ Gender in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. A young Bangladeshi woman arrives in 1980s Brick Lane Ethnicity London, leaving behind her beloved sister and (2007) Immigration home, for an arranged marriage and a new life.
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk Freedom Writers Class/ Ethnicity students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, (2007) /Education and pursue education beyond high school An unruly class of gifted and charming teenage The History Boys boys are taught by two eccentric and innovative Education/Class/ (2006) teachers, as their headmaster pushes for them all Gender to get accepted into Oxford or Cambridge. A young boy becomes friends with a gang of This is England skinheads. Friends soon become like family, and Social Class/ Crime/ Family (2006) relationships will be pushed to the very limit.
Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives Crash Racism/Religion/ collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and (2004) Inequality/Crime redemption.
Dirty Pretty An illegal Nigerian immigrant discovers the Ethnicity/ Things unpalatable side of London life. Immigration/ Religion/Crime (2002)
A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative Mona Lisa Smile Gender/Class/ 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional (2003) Education social roles. Two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood Crime/ Gender/ City of God of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one Family/Global (2002) becomes a photographer, the other a drug development dealer. Bend it Like The daughter of orthodox Sikh rebels against her Gender/ Ethnicity Beckham parents' traditionalism by running off to Germany / Nationality/ (2002) with a football team. Family/Religion A talented young boy becomes torn between his Class/Gender/ Billy Elliot (2000) unexpected love of dance and the disintegration Marxism/New Right of his family.
A former neo-Nazi skinhead tries to prevent his American Ethnicity younger brother from going down the same History X (1998) /Crime/ Family wrong path that he did.
Six unemployed steel workers form a male The Full Monty Class/Inequality/ striptease act. The women cheer them on to go (1997) Gender/Marxism/ Family for "the full monty" - total nudity.
The coal mine in a northern English village may be Brassed Off Class/Gender/ closing, which would also mean the end of the (1996) Age/Marxism/ Family miners' brass band. Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early Crime/ Ethnicity Malcolm X life and career as a small-time gangster, to his / Family/Religion ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam. Based on True events leading to the Equal pay Made in act, a drama charting the fight of female factory Feminism/Gender equality Dagenham workers at the Ford Dagenham plant In 1968, When a young Arab is arrested and beaten unconscious by police, a riot erupts in the notoriously violent suburbs outside of Paris. Three of the victim's peers, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Said (Said Taghmaoui) and Hubert Crime/ Ethnicity La Haine (1995) (Hubert Koundé), wander aimlessly about their home turf in the aftermath of the violence as they try to come to / Family/Inequality / Global grips with their outrage over the brutal incident. After one of the men finds a police officer's discarded weapon, their night seems poised to take a bleak turn.
Podcasts Synopsis Sadia Azmat and Monty Onanuga talk about a variety of No country for young women topical issues affecting young BAME women. Yo, Is This Racist?, hosted by Andrew Ti, creator of the popular blog of the same name, is now a weekly podcast! Yo, is this racist? Every Wednesday, Ti, co-host Tawny Newsome, and their guests answer questions from fan-submitted voicemails and emails about whether or not something is, in fact, racist. Laurie Taylor, professor of Sociology hosts BBC Radio 4’s thinking allowed programme has a whole wealth of Thinking allowed sociological episodes. Further list of recommended/relevant ones available on Moodle. About Race with Reni-Eddo Lodge. Krishnan Guru Murphy hosts this Channel 4 documentary series podcast on a range of interesting topics. The one Ways to change the world suggested here looks at the legalization of drugs and the impact on the CJS. A journal and series of articles and podcasts on topical The sociology review podcasts sociological issues.
The Sociology show hosted by Matthew Wilkin conducts interviews The Sociology show with a range of different people within the world of Sociology.
BOOKS TOPIC LINKS SYNOPSIS
The flip flop trail - Following the journey of a pair of (2014) plastic sandals this book unpacks Globalisation and the global anthropological the ‘lives and landscapes’ hidden in commodity chain. study by Professor the plastic’. Providing new insights in Caroline Knowles the process of globalisation.
An investigation into the lives of ‘Hard Work’ by Polly Inequality/Poverty/Class/Marxism those living below minimum wage in Toynbee (2003) the UK
‘Unjust Rewards’ by Inequality/Poverty/Class/Marxism Polly Toynbee
‘A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun’ Crime/Class by Razor Smith ‘Brick Lane’ by Ethnicity/Immigration/Religion Monica Ali
‘Bodies’ by Susie Feminism/Media/Popular Culture Orbach
‘The Equality Illusion’ Feminism/Gender Inequality by Kat Banyard
‘Chav: The Demolition of the Class/Inequality/Marxism/New Right Working Class’ by Owen Jones
‘No Logo’ by Naomi Marxism/Consumerism/Postmodernis Klein m
‘Shock Doctrine’ Critique of Neo Liberal approach – Naomi Klein global development
‘Hard Time’ by Shaun Crime Attwood
‘Pablo Escobar- beyond Narcos’ Crime/Global Shaun Atwood
‘The Spirit Level’ by Inequality/Poverty/Marxism Richard G. Wilkinson
‘Lads and Laddetes’ Feminism/Gender Identity/Media by Carolyn Jackson
‘Folk Devils and Subcultures/Youth/Crime/Interactioni Moral Panics’ By Stan sm Cohen
‘One Blood – Inside Britain’s Gang Deviance/Crime Culture’ By John Heale
‘White Teeth’ by Ethnicity Zadie Smith /Immigration
‘Teenage: The Creation of Youth Subcultures/Youth/Family/Education Culture’ by Jon Savage
‘Everyday Sexism’ by Feminism/Gender Inequality Laura Bates
‘Girl Up’ by Laura Feminism/Gender Inequality Bates ‘I Call Myself A Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Feminism/Gender Inequality/Family Women Under Thirty’ by Victoria Pepe
‘Shattered – Modern An entertaining and controversial Motherhood and the book attempting to expose the Family/Feminism/Gender Inequality Illusion of Equality’ by inequalities of motherhood and Rebecca Asher family life.
A book looking at data and Invisible women Gender/Feminism/Global evidence that supports the Caroline Criado development/Family existence of structural inequalities of Perez (2019) women, cross glbal comparisons.
‘Gang Leader for a Crime/Class/Ethnicity/Research Day’ by Sudhir Methods Venkatesh
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Feminism/Gender Identity/Education Ellena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
Why I’m no Longer Talking to white Ethnicity people about Race /Systemic Racism/Inequality by Reni Eddo-Lodge
The Bottom Billion, Global Development Paul Collier
There ain’t no Black Ethnicity in the Union Jack by /Racism/Inequality Paul Gilroy
The Good Immigrant Ethnicity by Nikesh Shukla /Racism/Islamophobia
Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Ethnicity Belonging by Afua /Racism/Islamophobia Hirsch
Stories for Boys Who Postmodernism/Gender Dare to be Different Identity/Education by Ben Brooks
The Power by Naomi Feminism/Gender Inequality Alderman
Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Feminism/Gender Inequality Beard Revolution by Russell Marxism/Poverty/Postmodernism Brand
Un-Making a Murderer: The Framing of Steven Crime/Interactionism/Labelling Avery and Brendan Dassey by Shaun Attwood
A Thousand Splendid Feminism/Gender Roles/Global Suns by Khaled development Hosseini
The Kite Runner by Inequality/Global development Khaled Hasseini
Sold: One woman's true account of Crime/Globalisation/Gender modern slavery by Inequality Zana Muhsen
McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime by Crime/Globalisation Misha Glenny
A Glasgow Gang Observed by James Crime/Youth/Research Methods Patrick
Breadline Britain: The Rise of Mass Poverty Poverty/Marxism/Social Class by Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Postmodernism Media/Popular Side of Everything by Culture Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Selfie: How the West Became Self- Postmodernism Media/Popular Obsessed by Will Culture Storr
Celebrity Culture Postmodernism Media/Popular (Key Ideas) by Ellis Culture Cashmore
Celebrity And Power: Fame and Postmodernism Media/Popular Contemporary Culture Culture: Fame in Contemporary Culture by David Marshall
The Circle by Dave Postmodernism/Crime/Marxism Eggers
A novel set In a world where black Malorie Blackman Ethnicity and white are right and wrong. Noughts and corsses /racism Written for children/young adults to explore themes of racism.
An Autobiographical account of the life of Malala ousafazai, the girl from I am Malala, Malala Gender inequality/Global Pakisatan who was shot by the Yousafzai. (2013) development Talioban and fights for the rights of young women to be educated.
The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Class Privileged (2019) by
Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison
The equality illusion
Feminism Marie Claire recommends 12 must see documentaries that empower women, see the trailers here.
Systemic racism- how to ‘unlearn racism’
About Race- Reni Eddo-Lodge
In search of black history- Bonnie Greer
We Need To Talk About the British Empire- Afua Hirsch
Yo, Is This Racist?- Andrew Ti and Tawny Newsome
Have You Heard George’s Podcast?- George the Poet
Striking the Empire- Akala and David Olusoga Documentaries and TV
When they see us (Netflix)
13th (Netflix)
Sitting in Limbo (BBC iPlayer) Dear White People (Netflix) Murder to Mercy (Netflix) Shame in the Game: Racism in Football (BBC iPlayer)
The Colony (BBC iPlayer) Books
“Me and White Supremacy”
“Why I no longer talk to white people about race”- Reni Eddo-Lodge
“Nations”- Akala
“Me and White Supremacy”- Layla F Saad
“White Fragility”- Robin DiAngelo
“White Privilege: The Myth of a Post-Racial Society”- Kalwant Bhopal