SC101-4-FY-CO:
Researching Social Life I

The details
2020/21
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 4
Current
Thursday 08 October 2020
Friday 02 July 2021
30
07 October 2020

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

SC203, SC208

Key module for

BA M900 Criminology,
BA M901 Criminology (Including Year Abroad),
BA M903 Criminology (Including Foundation Year),
BA M904 Criminology (Including Placement Year),
BA L3C8 Criminology with Social Psychology,
BA L3H8 Criminology with Social Psychology (Including Placement Year),
BA LHC8 Criminology with Social Psychology (Including Year Abroad),
BA MV91 History and Criminology,
BA MV92 History and Criminology (Including Placement Year),
BA MV98 History and Criminology (Including Foundation Year),
BA MV9C History and Criminology (Including Year Abroad),
BA LV31 History and Sociology,
BA LV32 History and Sociology (Including Placement Year),
BA LV38 History and Sociology (Including Foundation Year),
BA LV3C History and Sociology (Including Year Abroad),
BA LP33 Media and Digital Culture,
BA LP34 Media and Digital Culture (including Placement Year),
BA P300 Media and Digital Culture (Including Foundation Year),
BA PL33 Media and Digital Culture (including Year Abroad),
BA CL83 Sociology with Social Psychology,
BA CL93 Sociology with Social Psychology (Including Placement Year),
BA CLV3 Sociology with Social Psychology (Including Year Abroad),
BA L2CH Social Sciences,
BA LFCH Social Sciences,
BA L300 Sociology,
BA L301 Sociology (Including Year Abroad),
BA L304 Sociology (Including Foundation Year),
BA L306 Sociology (Including Placement Year),
BA LM38 Sociology and Criminology (Including Placement Year),
BA LM39 Sociology and Criminology,
BA LMH9 Sociology and Criminology (Including Year Abroad),
BA LMHX Sociology and Criminology (Including Foundation Year),
BA LL23 Sociology and Politics (Including Year Abroad),
BA LL24 Sociology and Politics (Including Placement Year),
BA LL32 Sociology and Politics,
BA L3J9 Sociology with Human Rights (Including Placement Year),
BA L3M9 Sociology with Human Rights,
BA LMJ9 Sociology with Human Rights (Including Year Abroad),
BA LCJ8 Sociology with Psychosocial Studies (Including Placement Year),
BA LJ8C Sociology with Psychosocial Studies (Including Year Abroad),
BA LJC8 Sociology with Psychosocial Studies,
BA P550 Journalism and Criminology,
BA P551 Journalism and Criminology (Including Placement Year),
BA P552 Journalism and Criminology (Including Year Abroad),
BA P540 Journalism and Sociology,
BA P541 Journalism and Sociology (Including Placement Year),
BA P542 Journalism and Sociology (Including Year Abroad),
BSC L315 Sociology (Applied Quantitative Research),
BSC L316 Sociology (Applied Quantitative Research) (Including Year Abroad),
BSC L317 Sociology (Applied Quantitative Research) (Including Placement Year),
BA L333 Criminology with Counselling Skills,
BA L334 Criminology with Counselling Skills (Including Year Abroad),
BA L335 Criminology with Counselling Skills (Including Placement Year),
BA LM11 Criminology with Criminal Law,
BA LM12 Criminology with Criminal Law (Including Year Abroad),
BA LM13 Criminology with Criminal Law (Including Placement Year),
BA L332 Sociology with Counselling Skills,
BSC L310 Sociology with Data Science,
BSC L311 Sociology with Data Science (including Year Abroad),
BSC L312 Sociology with Data Science (including Placement Year),
BSC L313 Sociology with Data Science (Including foundation Year)

Module description

The module provides introductory training in research design and the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Upon completion of the module students will be able to approach their studies and the materials they use with a more developed 'critical eye' and some practical skills. Students will be introduced to the nuts and bolts of social investigation, and through practicals will gain expertise in referencing and preparing professional reports reliant on social data.

Module aims

How do sociologists investigate the social world? What tools and methods do they employ to ensure their research claims are relevant? How can you interpret their findings? On completing this module, you will be able to answer these key questions. You will develop your research skills so that you will understand how sociologists move from an initial research idea through to collection, analysis and presentation of data.

The module aims to:

To introduce students to the social research process

To give students the tools to evaluate the strengths and limitations of different approaches to sociological research

To teach students the key features of qualitative and quantitative data, including how these are collected, analysed and presented.

To provide practical hands-on sessions that will help students to develop their research, study and employability skills

To develop students’ communication and critical appraisal skills

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

formulate a research question

plan a social science research project

undertake basic analysis of qualitative and quantitative data

evaluate the strengths and limitations of different methodological tools for sociological research

recognise how different types of research data should be presented

critically assess the connections between theory and research

engage constructively and reflexively in debate with their peers

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

The module is taught through a combination of lectures, seminars and practical's through both Autumn and Spring terms. The Autumn term introduces the fundamentals of research design and qualitative research. The Spring term discusses quantitative research methods and how they relate to the fundamentals of the social enquiry.

Bibliography

  • Sinclair, Gary; Green, Todd. (2016-01) 'Download or stream? Steal or buy? Developing a typology of today's music consumer', in Journal of Consumer Behaviour. vol. 15 (1) , pp.3-14
  • Di Ronco, Anna; Allen-Robertson, James; South, Nigel. (2019-03) 'Representing environmental harm and resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline in Italy', in Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal. vol. 15 (1) , pp.143-168
  • Laurie, Charles. (2016) 'How to find a representative sample', in Doing real research: a practical guide to social research, London: SAGE., pp.87-111
  • (2014) Demonstration Qualitative Interview - how it should be done.
  • Goffman, Alice. (2014) 'Introduction', in On the Run: The University of Chicago Press., pp.1-8
  • Flick, Uwe. (2015) 'Why Social Research?', in Introducing research methodology: a beginner's guide to doing a research project, London: SAGE.
  • Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. (2008) 'How Does it Feel to be Black and Poor?', in Gang leader for a day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets, New York: Penguin Press.
  • Bonilla-Silva, E.; Zuberi, T. (2008) 'Toward a De?nition of White Logic and White Methods', in White logic, white methods: Racism and methodology, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield., pp.3-31
  • Barbour, Rosaline S. (2008) 'Chapter 9: Analysis Groundwork Storing, Coding and Retrieving Data', in Introducing qualitative research: a student guide to the craft of doing qualitative research, London: Sage Publications., pp.191-214
  • Heath, Anthony F.; Di Stasio, Valentina. (2019-12) 'Racial discrimination in Britain, 1969–2017: a meta-analysis of field experiments on racial discrimination in the British labour market', in The British Journal of Sociology. vol. 70 (5) , pp.1774-1798
  • Bryman, Alan. (2016) Social research methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Fink, Arlene; SMRO. (2002) How to ask survey questions, London: SAGE. vol. 2
  • Flick, Uwe. (2014) An introduction to qualitative research, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
  • (2014) 'Has multiculturalism failed in Britain?', in Ethnic and Racial Studies: Taylor & Francis. vol. 37 (1) , pp.161-180
  • (2016) 'The Ethics of Social Research', in Researching social life, London: SAGE.
  • de Vries, Robert. (2018) 'What does it mean to be average?', in Critical Statistics: Macmillan Education UK., pp.91-110
  • Lofland, John. (2006) Data Logging in Observation; Fieldnotes, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth., pp.108-117
  • Lancee, Bram. (2019-06-24) 'Ethnic discrimination in hiring: comparing groups across contexts. Results from a cross-national field experiment', in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies., pp.1-20
  • Wheeler, Kathryn. (2012) 'The Practice of Fairtrade Support', in Sociology. vol. 46 (1) , pp.126-141
  • Babbie, Earl R. (2016) The practice of social research, Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
  • Flick, Uwe. (2014) 'Qualitative Content Analysis', in The Sage handbook of qualitative data analysis, London: Sage.
  • (2014) 01 Sampling What is Sampling.
  • Reichel, David; Morales, Laura. (2017) 'Surveying immigrants without sampling frames – evaluating the success of alternative field methods', in Comparative Migration Studies. vol. 5 (1)
  • Flick, Uwe. (2007) 'Qualitative Research Designs', in Designing qualitative research, London: SAGE.
  • Yeo, A. et al. (2014) 'In-depth interviews', in Qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers, London: SAGE.
  • (no date) Pioneers of Qualitative Research: Thematic extracts from Leonore Davidoff interview.
  • Hochschild, Arlie Russell. (2016) 'Preface', in Strangers in their own land: anger and mourning on the American right, New York: New Press., pp.1-4
  • (2014) Demo qualitative interview with mistakes.
  • Howells, Stephanie. (2016) 'How to do focus groups: Making the most of group processes', in The how to of qualitative research, London: SAGE., pp.117-138
  • (no date) Pioneers of Qualitative Research: Thematic extracts from interview with Margaret Stacey.
  • Becker, Howard S. (1967) 'Whose Side Are We On?', in Social Problems. vol. 14 (3) , pp.239-247
  • O'Leary, Zina. (2017) 'Reviewing Literature', in The essential guide to doing your research project, ©2017: SAGE Publications., pp.94-113
  • Fink, Arlene. (2003) 'What is a Survey? When do you use one?', in The survey handbook, London: SAGE. vol. 1, pp.1-29
  • Arthur, Charles. (June 30, 2014) 'Facebook emotion study breached ethical guidelines, researchers say', in The Guardian.
  • Foster, Liam. (2014) Beginning Statistics: Sage Publications Ltd.
  • British Election Study Ethnic Minority Survey, 2010, https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=6970#!/details
  • Zheng, Tiantian. (2009) Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Clarke, Victoria. (2013) 'Ten Fundamentals of qualitative research', in Successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners, London: SAGE.
  • Thomas, Gary. (2017) How to do your research project: a guide for students in education and applied social sciences, London: SAGE Publications.
  • Kumar, Ranjit. (2019) Research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners, Los Angeles: SAGE.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   Online quiz (week 4)    5.00% 
Coursework   Online Quiz (week 8)     5.00% 
Coursework   Online Quiz (week 11)    5.00% 
Coursework   Online Quiz (week 18)    5.00% 
Coursework   Online Quiz (week 24)    10.00% 
Coursework   Online Quiz ( week 32)    10.00% 
Coursework   Autumn term Essay Plan     5.00% 
Coursework   Autumn Term Essay    25.00% 
Coursework   Spring Term Essay Plan     5.00% 
Coursework   Spring Term Essay    25.00% 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
100% 0%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Neli Demireva, email: nvdem@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Katy Wheeler, email: katy.wheeler@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Neli Demireva
email: socugrad (Non essex users should add @essex.ac.uk to create the full email address

 

Availability
Yes
Yes
No

External examiner

No external examiner information available for this module.
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 15196 hours, 12 (0.1%) hours available to students:
15184 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 

Further information
Sociology and Criminology

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