Module SOC2050 for 2023/4
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SOC2050: Knowing the Social World
This module descriptor refers to the 2023/4 academic year.
Overview
| NQF Level | 5 | ||
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| Credits | 15 | ECTS Value | 7.5 |
| Term(s) and duration | This module ran during term 1 (11 weeks) | ||
| Academic staff | Professor Michael Schillmeier (Convenor) | ||
| Pre-requisites | |||
| Co-requisites | None | ||
| Available via distance learning | No | ||
Social life is arguably the best ‘reality program’ in the world – 24/7, high resolution, 3D, multi-sensory, and with 360°surround.Knowing how to pay attention to social life, however, is not straightforward. It involves principles from social science, but it is also an art, and a craft. This module draws together issues common to sociology and empirical philosophy to explore what there is to know about social life and how to know and represent it. You will consider techniques such as participant observation, unobtrusive and oblique measures, focus groups, survey methods, online methods, social media as a research tool. . You will try your hand at using these techniques in workshops and tutorials, and in assessed written work. You will also consider practices of accounting for and describing social data with an eye to the ways that writing and telling do not merely describe but contribute to what we know, and can know, about social reality.
There are no prerequisites for this module. It is designed for students with a strong interest in the practical observation of everyday life and the theoretical issues associated with this observation. If you are doing an interdisciplinary pathway that includes sociology, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, or even literature or drama, this module might be of interest to you.
| Module created | 01/09/2011 | Last revised | 13/01/2022 |
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