Faculty of Social Sciences
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Case Studies
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Internet Governance
WHO governs the Internet? The worldwide web makes international communication and research easier and more effective than ever. But can a tool invented, developed and largely controlled in the world's most powerful nation really be anything other than dominated by America?
Motherhood
DOES motherhood change a woman's identity? And how much do such changes depend on a woman's social background?
Victims And Witnesses
VICTIMS and witnesses of crime could soon be working with police to produce the next generation of E-FIT pictures of suspects thanks to groundbreaking work by OU researchers.
Bob Marley
HOW did Bob Marley become an international superstar? And why, 25 years after his death, is he still the only musician from a developing country to have achieved that status?
Securities
BRITISH citizens tend to believe that media and government exaggerate the threat of terrorism – yet paradoxically they take that threat very seriously.
Youth Crime And Justice
OVER three thousand children are currently behind bars in England and Wales.
Hactivism
THE rise of computer hackers has opened up whole new areas for political protestors –according to OU research.
Citizenship
PUBLIC services are increasingly obliged to prove their commitment to the individual by seeing them as customers – yet almost no-one who uses the services wants to be described in that way.
Cultural Capital And Social Exclusion
BRITAIN’S cultural tastes and their impact on society is the focus of a major research project by OU sociologists.
CRESC
THE Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at the Open University and the University of Manchester is not only the most significant such project in Britain – it’s almost certainly the largest in the world.
Interdependence Day
A NEW way of exploring the world’s problems – and mapping ways out of them – was the focus of an innovative public event staged by The Open University and the new economics foundation.
Night Economy
THE growing number of female bouncers in Britain’s nightclubs must mean women doing the job have a more calming influence than their male colleagues, right? Wrong, says new research by the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Inequalities
In thinking about poverty and inequality, we tend to think about whole households as poor, and of income inequalities between households rather than between the individuals within them.
Globalisation And Innovation
RECEIVED wisdom that blames globalisation and innovation for a relatively poor performance by Europe’s economy is wrong, say researchers.
Migration
How does the security imperative impact on free movement of people? How do liberal democracies negotiate the relationship between freedom of movement and security? How do they structure the paradoxical nature of security policies that risk undermining what they claim to protect?
Identities
HOW do people construct a sense of identity these days? Are they shaped more by lifestyle than ethnicity, or more by politics than social class? How do people use their identity for good or bad? And how much does social exclusion impact on a person’s sense of self?
Berlin
THE fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 was one of the significant world events of the 20th century - reuniting Germany, changing the face of Eastern Europe and marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War. But what were the implications for the city itself?
Habitable Cities
CITY planners may well design urban green spaces but it’s the local residents – humans, animals, insects, birds and plants – that make them what they are.