Module SOC3120 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SOC3120: How Organisations Work: Ethnography in Institutions
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
You will learn how to conduct an ethnographic research project through hands-on experience in combination with an introduction to landmark methodological texts in sociology and anthropology. Instruction will take the form of lectures and ‘practicums’ (where students will apply module concepts to their own ethnographic practice). Some will address challenges inherent in any ethnographic project (picking a site, negotiating with gatekeepers, elicitation techniques, the perils of participation, writing up, and disseminating findings). Others will focus in on characteristic social dynamics of contemporary institutions (reliance on infrastructure, written record-keeping, and the use of statistics). Through a guided project, you will conduct your own ethnographic study of a local institution and present your findings in both oral and written formats.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate a strong familiarity with the major contemporary social scientific approaches to the ethnographic study of institutions; 2. Show an in-depth understanding of specific aspects of ethnographic research like ethics, site selection, dealing with gatekeepers, building rapport, interviewing, participant observation, mapping, document analysis, writing up and the dissemination of findings; |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Critically apply various theories and methodologies to a specific institutional case; 4. Critically assess claims about institutions and socio-political organization more generally; 5. Think critically about the social, political, and anthropological implications of institutions; |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. Communicate effectively in written and oral form; 7. Engage in cross-cultural translation and comparison; 8. Conduct research on a topic and organize findings in written form in a compelling manner. |
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 topics:
- Ethics
- Finding a Site
- Gatekeepers
- Learning How to Ask
- Rapport
- Observing and Participating
- Infrastructure
- Paper
- Numbers
- Writing Up
- Disseminating Findings
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 11 | 11 x 1 Hour Lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 11 | 11 x 1 Hour Practicums |
| Guided Independent Study | 8 | Ethics Assessment |
| Guided Independent Study | 44 | Weekly Reading for Seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 48 | Hands-on Ethnographic Research |
| Guided Independent Study | 6 | In-Class Presentation |
| Guided Independent Study | 22 | Research Report |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Presentation | 10 minutes | 1-8 | Oral and Written |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethics Assessment | 30 | 1000 words | 1-7 | Written |
| Research Report | 70 | 2500 words | 1-8 | Written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethics Assessment | Ethics Assessment (1000 words) | 1-7 | August / September reassessment period |
| Research Report | Research Report (2500 words) | 1-8 | August / September reassessment period |
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.
Smith, Dorothy. 2005. Institutional Ethnography. Altamira.
Borges, J.L. 1969. ‘The Ethnographer’. Penguin
Pratt, Mary Louise. 1986. ‘Fieldwork in Common Places’. Writing Culture, Marcus and Clifford, eds. University of California Press.
Marcus, George. 1995. ‘Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography’. Annual Review of Anthropology.
Nader, Laura. 1969. ‘Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained From Studying Up’. Reinventing Anthropology, D. Hymes, ed. Pantheon.
Briggs, Charles. 1986. ‘Introduction’. Learning How to Ask. Cambridge
Hull, Matthew. 2010. ‘Democratic Technologies of Speech’. Linguistic Anthropology.
Herzfeld, Michael. 1992. The Social Production of Indifference. University of Chicago Press
Lewis-Krauss, Gideon. 2016. ‘The Trials of Alice Goffman’. New York Times
Deloria, Philip. 1998. Playing Indian. Yale University Press.
Star, Susan Leigh. 1999. ‘The Ethnography of Infrastructure’. American Behavioural Scientist.
Latour, Bruno. 1990. ‘Technology is Society Made Durable’. The Sociological Review.
Hull, Matthew. 2003. ‘The file: agency, authority, and autography in an Islamabad bureaucracy’. Language and Communication.
Garfinkel, Harold. 1967. ‘Good Organizational Reasons for ‘Bad’ Clinical Records’. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Polity.
Porter, Theodore. 1995. Trust in Numbers. Princeton University Press.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981. ‘Forms of Time and Chronotope in the Novel’. The Dialogic Imagination. University of Texas Press.
Ortner, Sherry. 1995. ‘Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal’ Comparative Studies in Society and History.
