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Knowing the Social World

Module description

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 aims - intentions of the module

The module draws theory and empirical work together in ways that help us to understand the social world. In this module we will explore a variety of approaches to social research and gain hands-on experience with some of the techniques these sources have employed. The aim is to equip you with key life skills that are applicable in the workplace and in daily life – for example, evaluating the veracity of accounts and claims, judging situations, and learning about people and their ways.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. demonstrate knowledge of various methodological approaches to sociological research;
• 2. demonstrate an understanding of the advantages and limitations of those approaches;
• 3. evaluate critically empirical social research;
• 4. use and evaluate critically techniques of sociological research;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. use methodological knowledge and awareness of techniques to assess critically empirical claims in different areas of sociology;
• 6. demonstrate an understanding of the interrelations between empirical research and sociological theory;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. assess critically research-based claims in public discourse;
• 8. communicate effectively in written and verbal form.

Syllabus plan

Sessions will consist of lectures with question/answer and discussion, hands-on workshops and tutorials linked to honing research techniques.

From year to year, the module’s precise content may vary. The syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics::

• Introduction: Knowing the Social (perception and reality; epistemology and ontology; meaning; framing; ethics)
• Unobtrusive measures (physical traces; oblique perspectives, the ‘light footprint’, archives and numbers)
• Survey methods, sampling and questionnaire design
• Online methods of data collection
• Textual methods (poetics and metaphor, style, content, narrative and discourse analysis, voice)
• Talk and spoken discourse (personae, turn-taking, cueing and discourse strands and registers, ensemble)
• Interviews and focus groups (performance, leading, prompting, the self-effacing interviewer, what we say vs what we do?, cueing, follow-up, the micro-macro link)
• Ethnography and Participant Observation (materiality, embodiment, practice, setting, scenes, organisations, ethnomethods, experience)

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative Basic Reading List
Alan Bryman. 2016. Social Research Methods (5th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blaxter, L. and C. Hughes and M. Tight. 1996. How to Research. (Open University Press).
May, Tim. 2011 (4th Edition). Social Research (Open University Press,).

Fish, William. 2010. Philosophy of Perception: A Contemporary Introduction. London: Routledge

Key words search

Knowing the Social: perception, memory and representation