| Unit name | Understanding Culture |
|---|---|
| Unit code | SOCIM0014 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Morgan |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
Culture is at the heart of social life, and so understanding it is key to understanding society. This unit will equip students with the tools they need to understand culture in a rigorous social scientific way. It takes a broad view of the field of cultural sociology and the sociology of culture, focusing upon the conceptual apparatus that has been deployed by scholars working in this area. It hopes to convince students that culture lies in unexpected places, and is rarely, if ever, absent from social processes.
How does it fit into your programme of study?
This unit is core to the MSc Social and Cultural Theory Pathway, and will be essential for that postgraduate taught degree programme. It will also be useful for students on other pathways too, who are interested in how culture permeates social life. Whilst the unit will not neglect empirical illustrations, it will primarily provide a theoretical scaffolding composed of competing modes of cultural analysis which will be useful for students who wish to address culture in more direct ways in other units, in their dissertation, or else in work beyond university.
An overview of content
This unit aims to introduce students to the various historical and contemporary ways in which ‘culture’ has been defined, and in which sociologists have gone about analysing it. As well as reviewing some of the most influential social theories of culture, we will question whether, in attempting to ‘understand culture’, we are trying to comprehend a discrete sphere of society or something which, to a greater or lesser extent, underlies and penetrates all aspects of social life. We will explore both elitist and democratised understandings, examine it both from the side of production as well as from the side of consumption, and demonstrate the ways in which it might be thought of as both expressing and reproducing symbolic and material structures. We will ask how autonomous culture is from other social spheres and forces, whether it is a hierarchical or horizontal system, and whether it is best conceived as a context within which actors act, or a resource that agents actively produce and deploy.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of this unit
On completion of this unit, students should have a good understanding of some of the main theories and debates over how culture ought to be understood, and be well-equipped to critique and selectively synthesise the various approaches covered in order to perform their own independent cultural analyses. Students should emerge with a newfound appreciation of culture not simply as a supplementary zone or dimension of social activity, but at the core of social life in general.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
The unit will be taught through 2-hour long ‘seminars’, the first hour of which will typically involve a lecture. The unit therefore involves both active engagement with the live lecture and seminar discussion. Learning methods will including a mix of synchronous and asynchronous teaching activities, including readings, videos to watch posted online, presentations, textual comprehension and other seminar exercises, and written assignments.
How you will be assessed
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
1,000 word essay plan (optional)
There will be an optional 1000 word formative assessment in the form of an Essay Plan, which will allow you to gain feedback before you embark on your summative essay.
Seminar presentation
There will be a formative assessment in the form of a seminar presentation. This assessment will allow the presenter to go deeper into a particular reading and relate this reading to the topic of that week. It will also provide other students with an avenue to broaden their sources.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
3000 word essay (100%) [ILO 1-4]
When assessment does not go to plan:
You will normally complete the reassessment in the same format as outlined above. Students are expected to select a different essay question from the original list.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. SOCIM0014).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
