SO4D3 Half Unit
Culture and Society
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Sam Friedman
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in Culture and Society. This course is available on the MA in Modern History. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). Students who have this course as a compulsory course are guaranteed a place. Other than for students for whom the course is a compulsory course, places are allocated based on a written statement. This may mean that not all students who apply will be able to get a place on this course.
Course content
The course will introduce a range of sociological approaches to cultural processes and institutions, attending to analytical frameworks, research strategies and empirical case studies. It examines the different ways culture has been conceptualised and the different ways in which cultural production has been analysed. By the end of this course, you should have a reasonable map of different aspects and approaches to researching cultural processes and institutions; and you should feel able to formulate your own research questions and strategies within the diverse traditions of culture theory and cultural research.
Teaching
10 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
Formative assessment
All students are expected to submit one piece of non-assessed written work and prepare seminar presentations.
Indicative reading
Appadurai, A. (1990) Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. Theory, Culture and Society, Vol 7, 295-310.
Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.
Chen, K.-H. (2015) Asia As Method. Duke: Duke University Press.
Domínguez Rubio, F. (2020). Still Life. Ecologies of the Modern Imagination at the Art Museum. University of Chicago Press.
Gilroy, Paul. 1991 (1987). There is no Black in the Union Jack. The cultural politics of race and nation. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Hall, S. (1992) ‘New Ethnicities' in Donald, J and Rattansi, A (eds.) (1992) “Race”, Culture, Difference, London: Routledge.
Levitt, P. (2015). Artifacts and Allegiances. How Museums Put the Nation and the World on Display. Berkeley: University of California Press.
McRobbie, A. (2015). Feminism, feminity and the perfect. London: Sage.
Williams, R. (1976) 'Culture' in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Routledge.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 5000 words) in January
Attendance at all seminars and submission of all set coursework is required.
Key facts
Department: Sociology
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.