58122 Introduction to Social Inquiry

How do we understand the structure and changing nature of the social world? This subject provides an introduction to key ideas in social and political thought which enable the critical interpretation of social life. It focuses on concepts such as gender, race and social class, and explores how they can be applied to understand society and the life-paths of individual social actors. As a core activity of the subject, students undertake their own empirical biographic or 'life-story' analysis as a vehicle through which to begin to develop their social research skills and to concretely explore the ways the social structures explored shape the possibilities of individual agency.