School of Social and Political Science

Committed to the production of cultural and scientific knowledge

Sociology at the University of Edinburgh (founded in 1964 by Tom Burns) is one of the UK’s leading sociology departments, highly regarded for our record of influential original research and teaching. We've been rated as first in the UK for the quality and breadth of our research in the Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF2014).

We have a long-standing commitment to original empirical and theoretical work on society, and on the production of cultural and scientific knowledge.

Our approach is shaped by a sociological understanding of the importance of the link between biography and history, private troubles and public issues, the micro-social worlds of individuals and wider social structures.