S/S/127. Organizing Poor People movements: did it help or hurt them?

The paper looks at the history of social movements describing the activities of the Workers Alliance of America, the Unemployed Workers Movement, etc.

S/S/109. Harmful Effects of Illegal Immigration on the US Economy

The paper examines the breaches of the US law by illegal immigrants including tax dodging, the abundance of illegally cheap labour associated with undocumented workers, etc. Solutions to the problem of illegal immigration are suggested.

C/S/36. Consumerism and the Accumulation of Wealth and Goods does not Equate to Happiness

The pursuit of happiness is one of the ultimate goals of human life; however there are questions in what is happiness. In the modern era it seems that happiness is the accumulation of goods that equates to a high economic quality of life. However, the crux of this discussion will be that happiness cannot be bought; rather it is a sense of self and inner achievement. This discussion is going to illustrate how commercialization of life in fact creates an unhappy citizenry and yokes them to a dream that only the oligarchy can achieve.

S/S/64. Literature Review on poverty

The paper addresses the issues of poverty providing academic definitions of the concept, discussing absolute and relative poverty, individual perceptions of poverty, social and psychological roots of poverty, etc.

S/S/55. 'Consumption is an inherently creative activity'. Critically evaluate this statement.

The leading theme of this paper is consumption. The first social scientists focused almost exclusively on production and they did so for a very good reason: the importance of production used to be far greater in the past than it is now. Consumption is ubiquitous in post-modern societies and since it is often defined as "appropriation" the range of artefacts which can be consumed is almost limitless. The question is: has consumption evolved into a creative and active process? The nature of consumption has changed, it is both active and creative but within socially defined limits.

P/M/718. Trust and distrust in social networks

The paper examines the development of social networks reviewing academic definitions of the concept, the importance of collaboration in modern organisations, the types of trust in economic relationships, the role of goodwill trust in reducing performance risks, the role of control in undermining and boosting trust, the balance between trust and distrust in network relations, etc.

P/M/700. Changes in postmodern society and their impacts on consumer behavior

The paper critically evaluates the changes in the postmodern society including the changes in political systems, cultural stereotypes, the role of the family, advances in technology and advertising media, etc. The impacts of these changes on consumer behavior are discussed.

P/S/89. Social partnership: roots, obstacles and keys to success

The paper examines the concept of social partnership providing information on different types of partnership, its role in the culture of an organisation, key principles of successful partnership, obstacles to its implementation, etc.

P/S/88. Green consumer movement

The paper looks at the so-called Green consumerism, the movement towards environmentally friendly products. The implications of the green consumer movement for businesses are discussed; studies related to environmental ethics and consumer preferences are reviewed; the problems of the organic food market are outlined and supplied with examples.

S/S/15. How is fashion meaningful in the study of everyday life?

This paper considers how fashion is meaningful in everyday life and how the two became intrinsic. The work of Baudelaire and Simmel are considered to take a historical viewpoint, along with modern ideas of fashion much as those emanating from celebrities. The trend for retro and vintage fashions is discussed. Issues of the relationship between class and fashion are also dealt with.

S/S/14. Is dataveillance an inevitable aspect of a consumer society?

This paper investigates whether dataveillance is an inevitable aspect of a consumer society. It deals with the origins of dataveillance, defining the term and looking at its early use through to present day. The term "network society" is also considered. The use of technology in surveillance plays an important part of the paper as fraud and identity theft is.

S/S/10. How Useful a Concept is 'Globalisation' for Understanding Contemporary Societies?

This essay explores the often-used but rarely agreed-upon term 'Globalisation' to see what it can tell us about contemporary societies. The essay addresses this task by comparing the term with other concepts which it argues are often more helpful and informative. The essay also explores issues such as: the existence of international organisations including the United Nations; culture; the standardisation of products and the spread of the influence of multinational corporations. The discussion shows how Globalisation is often used too generally and is potentially misleading, although in specific areas such as global business its use might be appropriate.

P/S/17. What is the role and function of advertising in consumer society?

This paper discusses the role and functions of advertising in consumer society, provides a historical overview of the ideology of advertising, criticism of advertising (referring to various theorists), outlines economic factors of advertising, social factors of advertising, outlines how advertising is working and effects of advertising in the twentieth century.

P/S/11. Discuss and Compare the Perspectives on Work and Industrialization of any Two Theorists Presented on the Course

This paper explores the perspectives on Work and Industrialization of Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim.