Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3032: Culture and Perception

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 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.

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/