57102 Social, Political, Historical Studies Seminar

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: Social Inquiry
Credit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks

Handbook description

This seminar provides the opportunity for students to examine and reflect on key issues in the area of social, political, historical studies, by engaging in advanced investigation into the underlying assumptions, implicit aims, and diverse methods of these disciplines. Key topics and concepts in these areas, selected in consultation with the class, are taken as the starting-point for the group's research and discussion. The seminar focuses on in-depth study of central current problems in these fields of knowledge production, on the process of developing and substantiating students own independent ideas as well as on critically assessing and incorporating the theories of central and seminal figures in their areas of study. The content of the seminar's syllabus and its disciplinary emphasis is sufficiently flexible to address the thesis-related interests of participants and involves a sustained critique of the issues surrounding the choice of research methods related to these.

Subject objectives/outcomes

To have students:

Engage with specific ongoing disciplinary debates about the problems and politics of knowledge production.
Reflect critically on the theoretical and methodological tools used in knowledge production.
Develop a knowledge of, and appreciation for, a range of critical theoretical tools.
Cultivate an analytic and self-critical focus on their intellectual development as social/political/historical researchers.

Contribution to graduate profile

The knowledge acquired and the skills developed in the course of successfully completing this subject will contribute in a marked degree to having students achieve the Faculty's desired graduate profile. This subject will help develop more articulate, perspicacious and sharp-minded individuals, improve the quality of graduates' analytic thinking, expand their theorizing capacities, hone their capability for engaging in detailed and sustained discussion, assist graduates to develop as well-informed and inquiring active citizens, equip graduates with useful individual and team research-skills, enhance the social consciousness of graduates, and stimulate graduates towards a greater commitment to social justice.

Teaching and learning strategies

This seminar will be taught in a one hour lecture/two hour tutorial format. It will also include two final sessions of student seminars which will be peer assessed. It is expected that students will take control of, and lead, tutorial discussion, and prepare thoroughly for each topic discussion. Assessment has been designed to encourage you to hone skills in developing clearly structured arguments in both oral and written forms.

Content

In this subject you will be focusing on how to ask questions about the way in which knowledge is constructed. This is a philosophical journey of engaging with the status of knowledge in the areas of ethnography, historiography, political philosophy and feminism, and also a practical journey focused on how as researchers we might produce different accounts of the social world depending on which theoretical and methodological frameworks we draw on. Having developed your skills in interrogating narratives about the world, the subject's emphasis shifts from the crisis in knowledge production to the range of key theoretical approaches which may provide some useful starting points for framing your own research practice. These approaches include critical theory, post colonialism, post structuralism and feminism. The aim of assessment in the subject is to encourage you to link a critical awareness of the politics of knowledge with specific disciplinary debates and your own individual research topic areas.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Essay

Objectives	a, d
Value	40%
Due	Week 6
Task	Respond to the following essay topic: What is the so-called 'crisis' in knowledge production about? What challenges does this 'crisis' pose for contemporary research practice, including your own?

Purpose:	This short essay gives you the opportunity to bring together your overall understanding of debates about the status of knowledge and how these impact on the practice of research. Further, the essay also represents an opportunity to begin to reflect on how our discussions might be shaping the development of your own research approach.

Structure:	2500 words, formal essay. Focus yourself on some basic essay-writing skills: Have you structured your essay as a response to the essay question? Have you developed an argument throughout using proper paragraphs which internally develop a key issue or idea? Have you referenced correctly using the HSS referencing guide? (Do not hand in your essay unless you have checked and followed this guide.)

Submission:	In class.

Assessment criteria	Structured development of overall argument. Coherent, arguments throughout which draw on the readings and ideas covered in the first half of the subject. Evidence of wider, relevant reading which informs the development of all arguments. Well-evidenced evaluation of relevant epistemological debates in relation to research practice. Capacity to conform to a formal essay genre.

Assessment items 2 and 3: Close textual analysis

Objectives	a, b, c, d
Value	20 % Presentation; 40% Written analysis

Due	Oral presentation dates: Weeks 13 & 14 Written analysis due: Week 14

Task	Close textual analysis: For this task, you are expected to produce a close critical analysis of one SHORT piece of research (a key journal article, a chapter from an edited collection or a research report) which strongly relates to your area of research interest. This analysis should focus on exposing at least some of the following: the place of the selected piece in its wider disciplinary context. the key techniques through which the author creates an authoritative writing voice. the key techniques through which the author constructs the text narrative, argument or story (or, what is the structure of the text?). the key arguments of the text. the key epistemological/theoretical frameworks the author uses, and any assumptions, problems, oversights. the key methodological frameworks the author uses, and any assumptions or problems, oversights. the underpinning purpose of the text and its implied audience. There will be other issues to comment on, these are just some starting points. As a general rule, remember to think about what is absent from the text, as well as on what is present!

Purpose:	One of the key starting points for informed research practice is a concrete sense of what has been written in your potential project area and how you might position your own approach and ideas to respond effectively to a perceived gap in the field. In order to position your approach you need to both be able to articulate what it is, and understand and explain how it relates to, and challenges, existing work. Thinking through the knowledge assumptions texts make and being able to identify the key theoretical lenses a text mobilises are key starting points for this understanding and critique. In this task you are not being asked to develop your own approach to an issue but to prepare some of the critical groundwork which might contribute to its development. This task is a vehicle for bringing together the content of the subject with your area of research interest. It will force you to develop your own authorial voice, and encourage you to develop a disciplined capacity to speak back to other academic texts. Most importantly, this task is designed to get you used to structuring your own argument about a piece of work, with no specific topic or question to respond to. You must develop your own overall arguments about the text, and you must think carefully about how you will structure the presentation component to best enable your audience to follow your ideas as they unfold.

Structure:	Class Presentation: A 10-minute class presentation, followed by 5 minutes of discussion and questions. This is your opportunity to develop skills in presenting a theoretically informed argument orally. This will also be a great opportunity to get some feedback and ideas from other scholars to further develop in your own writing. Written analysis A formal 3,000 word essay. Focus on some of the following: Have you structured your presentation as a clearly argued review of one short research text? Have you situated the reviewed text in its topic area and disciplinary landscape? Have you elucidated and evaluated the key arguments the text presents? Have you elucidated and evaluated the key mechanisms through which these key arguments have been constructed? *Please provide a copy of the article/chapter/report with your analysis.

Submission:	To Virginia Watson's pigeon hole, Bon Marche, Level 5.

Assessment criteria	Presentation Clear situation of the text in its field. Clear identification of an overall argument about the text. Well-evidenced arguments about the epistemological, theoretical, and methodological assumptions made in the text. Evidence of informed critique rather than description. Capacity to field questions. Written analysis Clear situation of the text in its field, with reference to broader, relevant literature. Clear identification of an overall argument about the text. Well evidenced arguments about the epistemological, theoretical, and methodological assumptions made in the text. Evidence of informed critique, evaluation and argument rather than description. Capacity to conform to a formal essay genre.

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

Because of the exploratory nature of this seminar, no specific texts are being set initially. Seminal extracts from certain documents will be distributed in class during the first few sessions, and collectively the seminar group will be expected to build up a substantial set of apposite reference material.

The following are some suggested initial useful references:

Gibson Burrell, Gareth Morgan, Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis : elements of the sociology of corporate life, London : Heinemann Educational, 1979

Bryan S. Turner (ed) ,The Blackwell companion to social theory, Malden, Blackwell, 2000.

Anthony Elliott (ed),The Blackwell reader in contemporary social theory, Malden, Blackwell, 1999.

Ben Agger, Critical social theories : an introduction,, Boulder, Westview Press, 1998.

Luigi Tomasi (ed), New horizons in sociological theory and research : the frontiers of sociology at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Aldershot : Ashgate, 2001.

Clive Seale (ed), Researching society and culture, London, Sage, 1998.

Dickens D, Fontana A, (eds),Postmodernism and social inquiry,New York : Guilford Press, 1994.