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Accessibility statement
Qualification dates
StartEnd
03 Oct 2026Jun 2027
30 Jan 2027Sept 2027
This engaging module introduces you to the rich diversity of the social sciences and shows how they can help you understand the world around you. You’ll explore how individuals, communities, and societies shape one another, examining key themes such as identity and belonging, family and social institutions, the roles of power and inequality, and the ways global connections shape everyday life. Along the way, you’ll build confidence and valuable skills in critical thinking, communication and problem-solving, and learn how to question ideas, evaluate evidence and connect your own experiences to broader social, political and economic issues.
You’ll start by learning what the social sciences are and how they can help you make sense of everyday life. In the first two introductory weeks, you’ll explore examples of travel, transport and movement. These topics introduce key ideas about inequality and interconnection that run throughout the module. You’ll then move on to four blocks of study, each focusing on different aspects of the social world.
Block 1: Individuals and people
Block 1 starts from your own experience of the social world. You’ll explore identity, social categorisation, power, privilege and disadvantage, as well as how people connect with others and with the environment. By looking at individuals and social groups, you’ll begin to draw connections between personal experiences and the wider structures that shape your world. 
Block 2: Relationships with others
In Block 2, you’ll explore the relationships that matter in everyday life, including those with friends and family. By looking closely at how relationships are formed and maintained, you’ll examine how cultures and communities shape social interaction. You’ll explore relationships as sources of care, support and belonging, while also considering how they can reflect inequality and power shaped by wider societal forces.
Block 3: Societies and states
In Block 3, you’ll explore how societies are organised and governed. You’ll look at how power operates, how laws are created and enforced, and how social order is maintained. Alongside these ideas, you’ll reflect on your own experiences to see how personal lives are always connected to wider social and political worlds.
Block 4: Connected worlds
Block 4 brings together ideas from across the module by examining how different parts of your world are connected. You’ll explore how countries and communities depend on one another, from shared natural resources such as water to cultural and social activities that bring people together. You’ll also consider how these forms of interconnection create both global challenges and new possibilities for people, communities and societies.
This is an OU level 1 module. OU level 1 modules provide core subject knowledge and study skills needed for both higher education and distance learning to help you progress to OU level 2 study.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You'll be provided with two textbooks and have access to a module website which includes:
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying D112 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
You and your world: introducing the social sciences starts twice a year – in February and October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026 and February 2027. We expect it to start for the last time in February 2038.
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