Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work

The Sociology, Social Policy and Social work pathway covers research in three areas, sociology, social policy and social work and offers training and PhD supervision in each of these areas.

At Durham, the Department of Sociology has research expertise in Communities and Social Justice, Higher Education and Social Inequality, Health and Social Theory, Violence and Abuse, and Criminal Justice, Social Harm, and Inequalities.

At Newcastle, the Sociology Area in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology has three core research areas: Health: Practices, Spaces and Technologies, Imagining Pasts and Futures, and Power, Inequalities and Citizenship.

At Northumbria, the pathway is located across the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Communities and Education. Both schools offer rich research environments for ambitious, cross-disciplinary and imaginative proposals for PhD study. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences encourages PhD proposals that examine pressing challenges facing our communities, including (but not limited to) wellbeing and happiness; work and employment; activism around class, gender and the environment; media and digital-related topics; oppression of marginalised groups; and gender-based violence. The School of Communities and Education includes academics in the fields of applied social sciences, medical sociology, public health and social work practice.

At Queen’s Belfast, the Sociology, Social Work, and Social Policy areas of the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work have expertise across a broad range of themes including Race, racism, and inequalities; Politics, conflict, and protest; Identity, emotion, and everyday life; Gerontology; Social work education; Gender; and Sexuality.

Doctoral study in Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at the University of Sunderland places practice, partnership, and positive social change at the heart of the research journey. Supported by experienced researchers connected to the Centre for Applied Social Sciences and the Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion, PhD students can develop original enquiries into contemporary social and economic challenges affecting adults, children, families, practitioners, and communities. Areas of interest span safeguarding, mental health, ageing, neurodiversity, inequalities, and collaboration across professions, services, and institutional settings. The pathway particularly welcomes research shaped through participation and co-production, bringing academic insight together with professional expertise and lived experience. Applicants are encouraged to pursue questions and produce knowledge capable of strengthening policy, services, and everyday practice in line with current sociological and social work-related issues.

Teesside University’s participation in the pathway is based within its School of Social Sciences Humanities & Law, which facilitates linkages between sociology and social and adjacent expertise in fields such as criminology, education, law, politics, and psychology. Teesside’s School of Health & Life Sciences also hosts the Centre for Public Health, which can be a resource for researchers pursuing this pathway at Teesside.

Ulster University’s involvement in the pathway is facilitated through the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences. Research in Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work addresses inequality, poverty, disability, migration, race, gender, childcare, health and social care, education, reproductive rights, welfare reform, public policy and administration, language policy and planning. It also examines divided societies, conflict legacies, victims, truth, justice, institutional abuse, identity, memory, marginalisation, public services, social work practice, workforce issues, and community-based responses to exclusion and disadvantage in Northern Ireland and internationally.