SS4056 - Sociological Imagination (2023/24)
| Module specification | Module approved to run in 2023/24 | ||||||||||
| Module title | Sociological Imagination | ||||||||||
| Module level | Certificate (04) | ||||||||||
| Credit rating for module | 15 | ||||||||||
| School | School of Social Sciences and Professions | ||||||||||
| Total study hours | 150 | ||||||||||
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| Assessment components |
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| Running in 2023/24(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) |
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Module summary
This module will provide you with the necessary intellectual skills for developing your sociological imagination. Week by week you will encounter a range of important insights into the social world that will enable you to identify, apply and evaluate sociological approaches, concepts and debates relating to the everyday situations.
The overall aim of the module is to allow you to see how sociology requires that we make the familiar world appear strange in order to see the workings of society below surface appearances. ‘Sociological Imagination’ will provide you with an introduction to constructing sociological arguments, thinking critically and assessing sociological evidence. The module discussions will allow you to explore a range of applications of sociological insights and theories in order to move beyond common-sense interpretations of society and to understand why ‘personal troubles’ must be grasped in relation to ‘public issues’.
Each week the module visits core sociological contexts including social class, inequality and exclusion; the city and urban sociology; power and surveillance; gender and bodies; popular culture and the arts; unconscious social forces; and religion and spirituality.
Prior learning requirements
Available for Study Abroad? YES
Syllabus
● Social Class and Social Space
● Inequality and Exclusion
● The City and Urban Sociology
● Power and Surveillance
● Gender and Bodies
● Sociology and Social Justice
● Visual Sociology, Popular Culture and the Arts
● Sociology, Religion and Spirituality
● The 'Social' Unconscious
Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity
Delivery of this module is through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, case studies and workshops allowing students to be actively involved in the learning process and develop their own learning style. The lecture programme provides the underpinning theoretical foundation in the subject area and thinking skills are developed through complementary activities including case studies, workshops, seminars and tutorials. Students are expected to complement formal teaching with self-directed reading and completion of specified assignments. The module will also promote the student’s self-management and a reflective approach to their learning.
This module will be supported with relevant WebLearn pages where all lecture and workshop notes, relevant literature, and other sources will be available. All sessions will be recorded with Panopto and will be available to students.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
LO1: Exercise their sociological imagination by interpreting and applying sociological insights to practical, everyday situations.
LO2: Define and apply sociological concepts and evidence.
LO3: Formulate, evaluate and present sociological arguments.
LO4: Organise aspects of and reflect on their own learning.
Assessment strategy
Throughout the module students will undertake a three-fold Workbook that reflects their ‘journey’ from a common-sense interpretation of an everyday occurrence to a more sociologically informed account. This involves an observation, a sociological explanation and a reflective account. The workbook is therefore tied very closely to the syllabus and the developmental aspects of the students’ acquisition of a ‘sociological imagination’.
The Workbook components:
Formative: write a 500 word draft common-sense account of an everyday experience (section 1) and a 1,000 word draft sociological analysis (section 2) to be submitted in stages.
Summative (100%): write a complete 2,000 Workbook comprising sections 1 and 2 (responding to comments on drafts) and a third section (500 words) reflecting on the development of the student’s sociological imagination.