Preface and Editorial

Sociology sets out to develop the sociological imagination of those who study it, allowing us to think critically and reflexively about the social world around us and make sense of the relationship between our personal experiences and wider society. This approach to interrogating the world is embodied in this collection of critical reflections written by final year students on the BA (Hons) Sociology, BA (Hons) Sociology and Criminology and BA (Hons) Sociology and Psychological Studies degrees here at Leeds Beckett University.  The essays in this volume underline both the breadth of the subject and its power to shed light on the familiar and the taken for granted. They tackle a wide range of contemporary issues: forms of commodification, entrepreneurship and feminist questions, debates on objectification and empowerment, problematic masculinities, surveillance and devolving technologies such as AI, or self-service machines, as well as experiences of working lass students. To do this, they apply theory as an interrogative and explanatory tool, tackling these subjects through the lens of, for example, commodification, self-surveillance, risk society and post-modern consumption practices, underlining its central role in Sociology.