Do you need to change the way you think when faced with a complex situation? Managing complexity: a systems approach, is a free course that examines how systemic thinking and practice enables you to cope with the connections between things, events and ideas. By taking a broader perspective complexity becomes manageable and it is easier to accept...

How do 'welfare to work' programmes such as the New Deal take into account and shape people's personal lives? This free course, Remaking the relations of work and welfare, looks at how participation in, and drop-out from, 'workfare' programmes are interpreted within different theoretical perspectives, and uses two case studies to connect the ...

What makes a 'nation' and what makes peoples strive for nationhood? This free course, Nationalism, self-determination and secession, will provide you with an introduction to studying political ideas by looking at how people who see themselves as nations challenge the existing order to assert their right to a state of their own.

Children are subject to many forms of adversity, for example, poverty or ill health. However, a significant form of adversity experienced by children in many different regions of the world is violence. The form of violence against children varies widely and is hugely disparate. In this free course, Children and violence: an introductory, ...

Anti-social behaviour, homelessness, drugs, mental illness: all problems in today's society. But what makes a problem social? This free course, Social problems: Who makes them?, will help you to discover how these issues are identified, defined, given meaning and acted upon. You will also look at the conflicts within social science in this area.

Within the field of social sciences the terms 'social construction' and 'social constructionism' are frequently used, particularly in relation to social policy. This free course, Social construction and social constructionism, will enable you to achieve a greater definition and understanding of these terms.

What is active reading? It is reading with the aim of understanding and grasping something. While studying this free course, Reading evidence, you will be focusing on the variety of methods for presenting and organising qualitative and quantitative evidence in the form of numbers and text. You will learn how to understand the ways in which ...

What is Europe and what defines a European? This free course, Who are Europeans?, looks at the development of identities within Europe and the European Union. You will assess the mechanisms through which a new identity commitment is being formed and the limitations of and oppositions to this process. Can a genuine European identity ever be ...

This free course, The problem with crime, looks at the issues of order and disorder. Can the way these issues are represented change your view of a city? Taking Glasgow as an example, you will look at the problem of crime and how misrepresentation can easily occur.

Can the concept of human rights be applied across borders or are rights culturally specific? Is it realistic, or even desirable, to aim at an international system based on universal principles of justice? This free course, Rights and justice in international relations, takes a critical view of the assumption that 'rights are a good thing' and ...