SO495      One Unit
MSc in Economy and Society Dissertation

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Pre-requisites:

Students must have completed SO4D1 before taking this course.

The dissertation is an extended piece of written work that is your own independent research investigation of a social issue or problem, undertaken with the guidance of your dissertation supervisor. These workshops are meant to prepare you to produce an original piece of research. We will cover the expectations for the dissertation, as well as provide general guidance for deriving a research question that is appropriately situated in the themes of the programme; for developing an empirical strategy to study topics relevant to the programme; and for writing up conclusions that can speak to enduring questions in our area. In addition to consultation with faculty, in these sessions students will work in smaller groups to peer review their work-in-progress.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

There will be an expected 6 hours of lectures or seminars dedicated for students on your programme as well as one-to-one meetings with your supervisors in WT and ST.

There will be two sessions during AT for ALL MSc students based in the Sociology department. One of these will be offered in conjunction with LSE Library and provide basic guidance about planning your dissertation, such as selecting a suitable topic, designing the research and reviewing the existing literature.

Students are required to submit a project outline in WT.

• Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
• Clive Seale, The Quality of Qualitative Research (London: Sage, 1999)
• Clive Seale (ed), Researching Society and Culture (London: Sage, 2012)
• Howard Becker, Writing for Social Scientists (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1986)

Dissertation (100%, 10000 words) in August

An electronic copy of the dissertation, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on Thursday 13th of August 2026.

Dissertations may be up to and no more than 10,000 words, must be word-processed and be fully referenced using a recognised citation system.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.