Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC2050: Knowing the Social: perception, memory and representation

This module descriptor refers to the 2017/8 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Sessions will consist of lectures with question/answer and discussion, hands-on workshops and tutorials linked to honing research techniques.

From year to year, the module’s precise content may vary. The syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics::

  • Introduction: Knowing the Social (perception and reality; epistemology and ontology; meaning; framing; ethics)
  • Unobtrusive measures (physical traces; oblique perspectives, the ‘light footprint’, archives and numbers)
  • Sensory methods (multi-sensory and cross-sensory issues, non-verbal, the material world, embodiment)
  • Textual methods (poetics and metaphor, style, content, narrative and discourse analysis, voice)
  • Talk and spoken discourse (personae, turn-taking, cueing and discourse strands and registers, ensemble)
  • Interviews and focus groups (performance, leading, prompting, the self-effacing interviewer, what we say vs what we do?, cueing, follow-up, the micro-macro link)
  • Ethnography and Participant Observation (materiality, embodiment, practice, setting, scenes, organisations, ethnomethods, experience)
  • Practical Workshops (on sensory, textual, interview and participant observation)
  • Portfolio Clinic (on the written assignments)

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity168 Lectures 2 hours each
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity32 revision session 1.5 hours
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity3Tutorials 1 hour each
Guided Independent study64Reading set texts and wider reading to inform formative assessment items
Guided Independent study64Application of data collection /analysis for essay preparation

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).