Sociology of Everyday Life II (L4041)
Sociology of Everyday Life II
Module L4041
Module details for 2008 cohort.
18 credits
FHEQ Level 5
Module Outline
The aim of this course is to encourage students to think sociologically about everyday life, by 'making the familiar strange'. Students are asked to suspend any taken for granted assumptions they have about the rules and routines of social life, and instead to question these patterns of behaviour from the perspective of an external observer. The course will introduce students to some of the key theories of interpretivist social theory, such as ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism, and encourage students to look for the unspoken rules and norms of behaviour that govern social life in different contexts. Thus the substantive topics to be covered include the home and domestic routines, interaction on the street, shopping and consumption, eating and drinking rituals, time and schedules, shyness and embarrassment, holidays and leisure, and the sociology of sleep. There will be a session about (and where possible, a visit to) the Mass Observation archive, which students will be encouraged to use as a source of data. An exercise will be set each week relating to the topics; the collection of these exercises will be submitted as part of the assessment task. Students will also be asked to give presentations (one non-assessed and one assessed) to demonstrate that they have developed an in-depth understanding of at least one topic from the course's content. Students will also be asked to give a non-assessed presentation on a text from one week of the course.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to
1. Apply and critically evaluate some of the ideas and concepts used by theorists of everyday life.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of the connection between micro and macro level social processes.
3. Observe and analyse the patterns of social behaviour found in different 'everyday' settings.
4. Develop a demonstrable in-depth specialist knowledge of an area of the course content.
5. Demonstrate an ability to communicate, through oral presentation, an in-depth, specialist knowledge of an area of the course.
| Type | Timing | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | 100.00% | |
| Coursework components. Weighted as shown below. | ||
| Essay | Spring Week 10 | 70.00% |
| Presentation | Summer Week 1 | 30.00% |
Timing
Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.
Weighting
Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.
| Term | Method | Duration | Week pattern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring & Summer Terms | SEMINAR | 1 hour | 111111111100 |
| Spring Term | LECTURE | 1 hour | 111111111100 |
How to read the week pattern
The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.
Dr Susie Scott
Convenor, Assess convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/171734
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