MSc Digital and Technological Society 12 months Postgraduate Programme By University of Bristol |TopUniversities
Subject Ranking

# 42QS Subject Rankings

Programme Duration

12 monthsProgramme duration

Tuitionfee

32,100 GBPTuition Fee/year

Application Deadline

25 Jul, 2025Application Deadline

Programme overview

Main Subject

Sociology

Degree

MSc

Study Level

Masters

Study Mode

On Campus

We are living through a period of dramatic transformation, where technological innovation is becoming a major sociopolitical concern. New social pressures, such as climate change, are driving technological upheavals in areas like energy and transport, while advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence (but also, for example, the blockchain, genetic engineering, autonomous systems, augmented reality, reusable rockets, and more) have the potential to create new social pressures. These dynamics are already disrupting our established social orders, creating a spectrum of opportunities and dangers.

The interdisciplinary MSc in Digital and Technological Society is designed to provide students with the tools to grapple with these opportunities and dangers. Drawing on insights from disparate social sciences, it offers critical perspectives on, and interdisciplinary methods to research, the nature of technological change: the ways technology shapes society and the ways it is shaped by society. Students will study technologies not just as tools or artifacts, but as systems interwoven with social, cultural, political, and economic meaning and practice.

The curriculum draws heavily on scholarship around digital systems but is designed to address a wide range of technologies: emphasising generalisable insights into society's relationship with its creations. Different unit options offer the opportunity to engage with different facets of modern technological development. We will ask how our social expectations come to shape our technological choices; how our technological choices structure our social relations; how digital technologies are fostering new cultural and economic forms; how we might recognise and govern the risks of innovation; and many other questions.

The programme is designed to equip students with skills and knowledge that are highly sought after in the rapidly evolving technological and digital world. It takes advantage of the University of Bristol's broad expertise in the social study of technological systems. This expertise – exemplified by research centres such as the Bristol Digital Game Lab (BDGL), the Bristol Digital Futures Institute (BDFI), the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF), the Jean Golding Institute for data research, and more – offers unique learning and networking opportunities for students.

Programme overview

Main Subject

Sociology

Degree

MSc

Study Level

Masters

Study Mode

On Campus

We are living through a period of dramatic transformation, where technological innovation is becoming a major sociopolitical concern. New social pressures, such as climate change, are driving technological upheavals in areas like energy and transport, while advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence (but also, for example, the blockchain, genetic engineering, autonomous systems, augmented reality, reusable rockets, and more) have the potential to create new social pressures. These dynamics are already disrupting our established social orders, creating a spectrum of opportunities and dangers.

The interdisciplinary MSc in Digital and Technological Society is designed to provide students with the tools to grapple with these opportunities and dangers. Drawing on insights from disparate social sciences, it offers critical perspectives on, and interdisciplinary methods to research, the nature of technological change: the ways technology shapes society and the ways it is shaped by society. Students will study technologies not just as tools or artifacts, but as systems interwoven with social, cultural, political, and economic meaning and practice.

The curriculum draws heavily on scholarship around digital systems but is designed to address a wide range of technologies: emphasising generalisable insights into society's relationship with its creations. Different unit options offer the opportunity to engage with different facets of modern technological development. We will ask how our social expectations come to shape our technological choices; how our technological choices structure our social relations; how digital technologies are fostering new cultural and economic forms; how we might recognise and govern the risks of innovation; and many other questions.

The programme is designed to equip students with skills and knowledge that are highly sought after in the rapidly evolving technological and digital world. It takes advantage of the University of Bristol's broad expertise in the social study of technological systems. This expertise – exemplified by research centres such as the Bristol Digital Game Lab (BDGL), the Bristol Digital Futures Institute (BDFI), the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures (CenSoF), the Jean Golding Institute for data research, and more – offers unique learning and networking opportunities for students.

Admission Requirements

67+
3.3+
88+
6.5+
An upper second-class undergraduate honours degree or international equivalent in any subject.

25 Jul 2025
1 Year
Sep

Domestic
15,100 GBP
International
32,100 GBP

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