SOAD3017 Identity, Self and Agency

Identity, Self and Agency introduces scholarship in which social and subjective life in late modernity is considered. Students are encouraged to critically engage with debates relating to the tensions between structural and subjective life through the examination of a range of relevant theoretical positions. Social theories in which identity in contemporary social life is considered will be examined alongside key contributions in which agency and structure are theorised. Encouraging debate and critical thinking, this topic will assist students to relate broader concepts relating to the self and the social to professional helping roles.

This topic aims to provide students with the opportunity to critically examine theories relating to identity in late modernity, as well as self and agency, and explore how tensions between these concepts may be played out in professional helping roles.

1. Determine the ways in which knowledge enables the exercise of power including through social work practice
2. Explain the concepts of structure and agency, relating these concepts to the social world
3. Critique the ways in which representations of identity, difference and the Other shape understanding and responses to people and problems
4. Discuss the notion of social justice and the ways in which social workers can contribute to social change