Baert, P. & Da Silva F. C. 2009 Social Theory in the Twentieth Century & Beyond. Polity Press.
Birks, M. & Mills, J. 2010 Grounded Theory. Sage
Calhoun,C. Gerteis J. Moody J. Pfaff S. & Virk I. 2011 Classical Sociological Theory. John Wiley.
Edles, L,D. Applerouth,S. (eds) 2007 Classical & Contemporary Sociological Theory: Text & Readings. Sage.
Edles, L,D. Applerouth,S. (eds) 2009 Sociological Theory in the Classical Era: Text & Readings. Sage.
Edwards, J. & Petrovic-Steger, M. 2011 Recasting Anthropological Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.
Gilbert, N. 2008 Researching Social Life. Sage.
Have, T.P. 2007 Doing Conversation Analysis. Sage.
Scott, J. 2011 Conceptualising the Social World. Cambridge University Press.
Silverman, D. (ed) 2010 Qualitative Research. Sage.
Walliman, N. 2011 Your Research Project: Designing & Planning Your Work. Sage.

Two pieces of work.

The coursework essay, 4000 words [ Learning Outcomes 1,2,&3 ]

The research report, 2000 words [Learning Outcomes 1&2 ]

For 300 hours, of which 12 will comprise supervision, guiding you to fashion a limited manageable project and to take it through to completion. At each stage of the module you will have a schedule of regular on-line progress meetings. One outcome of your project will be to establish a clearer understanding of the place & application of socio - cultural theory within social research practice.
Socio - cultural theory can sometimes seem somewhat philosophical & abstract, the purpose of this module is however to provide you with a firm sense of its practical location & centrality within the investigations of the social sciences & humanities. As an essentially active & practical module, much of your learning is occasioned by doing theory & considering its application.

An overview of significant directions & themes within classical & contemporary socio cultural theory were outlined in the core module Contemporary Social Theory. An overview of the range of qualitative & quantitative research methods were outlined in the core module Researching Media Culture & Society. In this module, you are required to draw on the previous modules in order to select a theoretical perspective, design a small manageable research question & choose a research method that is suitable to explore it. The actual content of this module is consequently shaped by your choice from within the candidate range offered within socio-cultural theory & your choice of a research method for gathering data. This module is designed to fashion an awareness of the subtle & fine inter twining of socio-cultural theory & research methods for data collection & the generation of research findings.

Blackboard Facilities
On line journals
Web links to video/DVD/aural footage
Ebrary