Sociology

About This Course

This degree is intended for students with a general interest in sociology who wish to update, extend and deepen their knowledge and understand current developments in the field.

The programme aims to provide students with opportunities to expand their knowledge of the discipline by engaging with contemporary research and by undertaking historical and comparative study.

Qualification

MA in Sociology; Postgraduate Diploma in Sociology; Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Social Sciences

What will you study on this course?

Research Process and Meaning: The module provides postgraduate level training in the main varieties of qualitative and mixed methods research in the social sciences, including basic literacy in qualitative data analysis. Locating the research process in debates about situated knowledge, reflexivity and subjectivity, show how research design is unavoidably grounded in assumptions about the nature of the phenomena to be investigated and how researchers are implicated in the things they describe.

Students are taught how to generate qualitative data and how to apply a variety of analysis techniques. The use of ‘mixed’ methods is addressed through examples of text analysis, visual interpretation and online social research. Training in the use of NVivo qualitative data analysis software is an integral part of the module and takes place alongside the sessions dealing with analysing conversation, interviews, observations, ethnographic accounts, texts and visuals.