Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT1003: Imagining Social Worlds: Texts

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

Overview

NQF Level 4
Credits 15 ECTS Value 7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module ran during term 1 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

Dr Charles Masquelier (Lecturer)

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Available via distance learning

No

Anthropologists and sociologists are primarily concerned with understanding the human condition. In order to do this, they engage in research processes which enable them to explore the lives, experiences and world-views of their human subjects. In anthropology this has traditionally meant living in small, remote communities for an extended period of time, while sociologists have tended to work closer to home, and on a larger scale in the cities of Europe and North America. Yet regardless of the location, both disciplines share a repertoire of research tools, theoretical ideas and analytical frameworks. This module involves the systematic study of selected problems and questions in social research with a focus on the end products of ethnographic study: the written and multi-media texts which social researchers produce to enable them to tell the stories of the people and places they will have studied.

In this module, you will find out about how sociologists and anthropologists research the social world. You will become familiar with different strategies for gathering and evaluating empirical evidence. We will do this by approaching academic books and other texts as reflections of how the sociologists and anthropologists in question imagine the social worlds of the 'others' they have studied. Through a focus on research which has been conducted by sociologists and anthropologists in a range of contexts around the world you will be able to explore the issues, areas of study and methods of enquiry associated with anthropological and sociological research. As a result, this module will provide you with key skills and understanding you will need at the start of your academic careers. No prior knowledge or pre-requisite modules. 

Module created

01/10/2011

Last revised

13/07/2017