Introduction to Sociology and Social Research

Overview

Course description

The Introduction to Sociology and Social Research course from The University of Edinburgh introduces you to key sociological theories and research and uses these insights to a) discuss contemporary issues such as systemic racism, sexuality, populism, and climate change, and b) familiarise yourself with core research methods, such as discourse analysis and ethnography, and the principles of research design in the social sciences. Throughout, you will have the opportunity to engage with a range of sociological research in and from different parts of the world.

The course is divided into two parts. The first part addresses different dimensions of the social self and the embeddedness of the self in social worlds. We will look at how people shape and are shaped by class, social institutions such as marriage and the family, and how even nature is shaped by the interrelationship between the self and social worlds. The second part focuses more closely on the processes involved in the production of identities and difference. We will look at racialisation, patriarchy, and populism, but also at the processes through which minorities have contested hierarchies based on identity and difference. At different intervals, the course introduces core social research methods, e.g. ethnography, and you will have the opportunity to practice research techniques in groups.