Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

How do we make sense of everyday life as sociologists? This module engages with traditions of micro-sociology and cultural sociology and regards the quotidian as a foundational dimension of human experience, important both as a topic in itself and as a critical field of sociological inquiry. Students are introduced to the study of everyday life through sociological observation and by attending analytically to ‘ordinary’ situations, people, events, things, spaces, rituals and practices. Students are encouraged to investigate the hidden or implicit rules of routine encounters and ‘scripts’ that comprise social life, and to question aspects of their everyday lives that are seemingly mundane, ‘normal’, ‘trivial’ or taken for granted.

The module provides students with:
(a) an understanding of how the mundane, micro-level activities and experiences of everyday life in everyday settings are implicated in broader processes of social change and transformation; in the construction and reconstruction of social order and structure; and in relationships of power, resistance and conflict;
(b) a broad summary of developments and 'turns' in the sociological study of everyday life;
(c) an overview of established and newer conceptual and theoretical sociological approaches to understanding the above;
(d) broad exposure to a range of methodological ways for exploring and researching everyday life; with coverage of module-aligned tools and techniques for primary and secondary data collection;
(e) an introduction to a range of empirical research relevant for the investigation and evaluation of everyday life.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module will introduce students to established and contemporary sociological concepts, techniques and scholarship relevant to the study of everyday life. The module will take a broadly thematic or topic-based approach, with a mix of lectures/talks and interactive activities. Examples of themes/topic might be: Lifestyles, Things, Places & Spaces, People, Imagination, Knowledges, Intimacies, Movement, Bodies. Selection of themes and substantive content will be dependent on the teaching team. Teaching and learning activities for each theme will combine theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of everyday life with research-based examples and observable real-world cases of everyday life, from e.g., recent events, media, lived experience, or material culture.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

Students will:
- be introduced to key sociological concepts to begin robustly understanding the mundane, micro-level activities and experiences of life in everyday settings;
- develop a strong basic familiarity with a variety of methodological approaches appropriate to the exploration of everyday life;
- begin to develop a strong foundational understanding of how to work with existing research findings and empirical sociological data to study everyday life;
- gain hands-on opportunity to design and complete fieldwork exercises in a variety of real-life situations, and learn how to use key tools of primary and secondary data collection, including observational/ethnographic, discursive, visual, virtual, documentary and interviewing methods
- be introduced to the use of data analysis techniques relevant to naturalistic/interpretive approaches to social research

Intended Skill Outcomes

Students will develop a range of subject-specific, cognitive and transferable skills which will include:
- keen awareness and sensitivity to detail, including attention to mundane issues and everyday dynamics that are otherwise taken for granted
- an ability to confidently and critically read and apply issue-relevant theories and concepts;
- an ability to critically reflect upon and engage with evolving bodies knowledge through the reading of research findings and reflection on lived experience;
- organisational, planning, evaluation, and writing skills, for example in crafting argumentation for assignments;
- creative and sensitive hands-on application of research tools and techniques appropriate for working with and learning about the social world;
- confidence with communicating and networking in groups with peers, teaching and learning staff, and external partners

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

PIP lectures will introduce students to ideas and academic debate in relation to the broad themes/topics that underpin the module.

PIP seminars provide a collegiate, small-group forum for reflecting on, evaluating and critically debating e.g. journal articles, news reports or a programme relevant to the particular topic. Students will be directed toward particular readings.

PIP workshops will benefit student assessment development, and provide in-depth guidance and discussion of how to successfully approach assignments/assessment.

The fieldtrip/s allow students to cohere the module's themes and techniques in a hands-on learning activity within a real-world setting. Participation in the fieldtrip (which can also be undertaken as a self-guided activity) will help students successfully undertake assignments/assessment on the module.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Conceptual Review: The Conceptual Review will require students to undertake a review of a particular concept used within the module to 1,500 words.

Critical Case Study: This 2,000 word assessment will require students to pick their own case study drawing on ideas and examples developed across the module.

General Notes

N/A