Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3032: Culture and Perception in Everyday Life

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Aims

  • To consider classic and current literature on culture and perception
  • To compare different theoretical models of culture and how culture works
  • To critically assess claims about value, veracity and causality in accounts about reality
  • To be aware of how cultural theories of reality and perception have applications in relation to real-world problems (such as health/illness, disability and identity politics)

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate an awareness of classic and current literature on culture and perception;
2. identify the practices that buttress claims about the nature of reality;
Discipline-Specific Skills3. exemplify theoretical concepts with grounded case study examples;
4. critically assess key perspectives on culture and perception;
Personal and Key Skills5. critically assess claims about the nature of reality in everyday life; and
6. write persuasively about aspects of the social world.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following themes:

  • Convention and the Unconventional
  • Figuring Realities
  • Embodying Realities
  • Variations across culture and time
  • Reflexivity
  • Multiple Realities and their Maintenance
  • Perception as Action
  • Cultural Pragmatics

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 Activity2211 x 2 weekly seminars
Guided Independent Study4422 x 2 hours of course readings
Guided Independent Study42Reading/research/writing the essay
Guided Independent Study42Revision for examination

Online Resources

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

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading:

Butler, Judith. 1999. Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge. 301.41 BUT

DeNora, Tia. 2014. Making Sense of Reality – in everyday life. London: Sage (in press now)

Douglas, Mary. 2002 (1966]. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. 301.152 DOU

Garfinkel, Harold. 1984 [1967]. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity. 301.2 GAR

Goffman, Erving. 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. New York: Anchor. 362.2 GOF

Latour, Bruno. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theroy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 301.1 LAT

Law, John. 2004. After Method: Mess in social science research. London: Routledge. 300 LAW

Schillmeier, Michael. 2013. Rethinking disability: bodies, senses, and things. London: Routledge. 305.908 SCH

ELE –http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/