Massey is ranked in the world’s top 200 universities for sociology by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking. Sociology is about understanding and describing our local society and its global setting. Sociologists are interested in almost all aspects of the social world and in your MA (Sociology) you’ll consider questions such as: How is society structured? How is society changing? What divides or unites social groups? What causes the inequalities we see in society? How does power operate? With a Massey MA (Sociology) you’ll ask challenging questions about how power structures function in the social world. You’ll study culture, ethnicity, class, inequality, gender, mass media, politics, environment, social change and individual and group interactions.

Careers Your Master of Arts (Sociology) will give you the knowledge and competencies you need to start your career as a policy analyst, researcher or community development organiser. You ‘ll learn a range of intellectual and practical skills that will stand you in good stead in the job market. Loads of career options This qualification opens up a world of opportunity to be involved in influencing a broad number of social issue outcomes such as healthy housing, youth development, Maori wellbeing, health promotion, or gender analysis of policy. You’ll approach this not only from the perspective of government and local-body policy, but also from the perspectives of local communities and community organisations. You’ll learn to apply your critical sociology analysis skills to a number of decision-making scenarios, for better social outcomes. This could take many forms including policy development, project planning, legal submissions or strategic organisational management. You could work in areas such as: Research Communications Project management Governance Charitable trusts Social marketing Journalism Advocacy Teaching and lecturing Policy analysis - public, private and third sector (non-government organisations, public-private partnerships, not-for-profit, voluntary and charity organisations) Youth development Community development Politics Government agencies - local, regional and central NGOs - housing, Maori land trusts, health service providers, disability advocacy and support, youth development