Entry requirements

Normally at least an upper second class degree (2:1). English Language requirements Please check requirements for your subject and level of study.

Months of entry

October

Course content

This MA degree programme is designed for students who wish to explore the social dimensions of risk and resilience. The Department of Geography is especially well-suited to examine these in relation to security- and health-related risk, but students are encouraged to develop their thinking in relation to anyaspect of risk, including, for example, climate risk and disaster risk reduction. For students interested in security-related risk, the MA programme offers in-depth and advanced understanding on geo-political security challenges and politics, including the ways in which they are governed increasingly through the prism of risk. The course responds to the growing realisation that many risks are being created through social processes bound to questions of security, including the ways that risk techniques are emerging and being employed as a means of securing uncertain futures. Since the 9/11 attacks in New York City and the 7/7 bombings in London, governments have become more concerned with terrorist threats to security. Surveillance has become more commonplace, preventing some risks while also creating new ones never before seen in society.

For students interested in health-related risk, the MA programme offers advanced training in research methods on the determinants of health and well-being, and their implications for health policy and service provision. Led in part by experts in population health from a social science and public health perspective, the MA programme responds to the observation that we often overlook the critical role played by communities in creating and managing risks, and that we need to develop new approaches to building community resilience. Students learn about the 'social determinants' associated with public health risks including unemployment and poverty. The socioeconomic impacts of financial crises, for example, have large implications for public health risk creating new challenges for research and governance. Students will be trained in both quantitative and qualitative methods to learn how to produce evidence relating to the wider determinants of health that is likely to benefit population health. Graduates from this programme will be well-suited to the needs of social and community work, to health professionals, and the pursuit of research degrees.