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SO5011 Qualitative Sociology: Philosophy and Methods
Supplementary course brochure for Qualitative Methods
Course Co-ordinator Venue Dr Tony Glendinning Wednesday (email [email protected]) 10am – Midday Tel 01224 272760/
Lecturers Email Office (Edward Wright Building)
Office Hours
Marta Trzebiatowska
[email protected] F21 (Block A) Wednesdays 1-3pm Richie Nimmo [email protected] F43 (Block B) Thursdays 2-4pm
Note: The course starts in Week 2
The course at a glance
Week Date Subject Practical Session
2 3 Oct Fieldwork and Ethnography (RN and MT)
Do some unstructured observations and take notes (Out of class) 3 10 Oct Participant Observation: practical issues (MT)
Conduct directed participant observation and write up field notes (Out of class) 4 17 Oct Ethnographic Data and Writing field notes (MT)
Analyse field notes (In class)
5 24 Oct Qualitative Interviewing: approaches (MT)
Short interviews, take notes (In class)
6 31 Oct Qualitative Interviewing: techniques and procedures (MT)
In-depth interview, recorded (bring equipment) (In class) 7 7 Nov Focus Groups (MT) Consider visual in your field and bring examples next week 8 14Nov Visual Sociology (RN)
Explore visual artefacts (in class)
9 21Nov Archive Documents and Historical Methods (RN)
Class discussion
10 28Nov Forms of Analysis (RN) Student Presentations and Discussion 11 5 Dec Writing and the Reflexive turn (RN) Student Presentations and Discussion
12 12Dec Student Presentations (RN and MT) Student Presentations and Discussion
The Written Assignment
The assignment for SO5011 consists of two parts. One will assess your understanding of the philosophy of social science (and will be worth 40% of the overall grade, i.e., Part B of the course) and the other will assess the qualitative methods part of the course (and will be worth 60% of the overall grade, i.e., Part A of the course).
Title: Design, carry out and report on your own small-scale social research
project using one of the qualitative research methods covered on the module.
Written assignment due: Monday 7
th
January 2008, by 5pm (to be delivered to the
Sociology office. Email submissions not accepted)
Presentations
All students will be required to give an individual presentation to the group. This should last approximately 10 minutes, and should consist of a critical report on the practical project that he/she is undertaking for the Written Assignment (if this is not yet completed then a report on progress so far is acceptable).
Presentations should explain the research problem/question, the qualitative method used, why this method was chosen, and the researcher’s experience of using this method, including problems encountered and lessons learned. Other group members will be expected to comment critically on the issues raised, both in general and as pertaining to their own research.
Each presenter will be given a 15-20 minute slot: 10 minutes for the presentation and up to 10 minutes for group discussion.
To make sure that everyone gets the chance to present, the presentations will begin in the second hour of the session on November 28th^ (week 10), after the lecture on Forms of Analysis. Presentations will also occupy the second hour slot on December 5th^ (week 11), and the final session on December 12th^ (week 12) will be given over to student presentations. Please note that this may over-run, so avoid making plans for the following hour (12-1 pm) if possible.
Presentation slots will be allocated in the first lecture.
Please note that the full participation of both presenters and discussants is vital to the effectiveness of these sessions for the whole group. Non-attendance on presentation weeks will therefore be treated as unauthorised absence unless a medical note is provided.
Weekly Seminar Outlines and Reading Lists
Week 2 Fieldwork and Ethnography
The course begins with a look at the history of the development of the methods of ethnography within anthropology and sociology. This serves to introduce the range of qualitative methods and the distinctive qualitative approach. We will discuss the philosophical underpinnings and contemporary applications of qualitative research.
On a more practical level we will consider the course aims and objectives, research questions and design, and will discuss the assignments and practical sessions which will form part of the course. As the course proceeds I will offer recommended and further readings for each topic. However, it is strongly recommended that you trawl through a range of methods texts yourself and familiarise yourself with the range of literature available. In addition, you should consult texts which report on the findings of qualitative research, such as monographs and research reports. I recommend a selection below. As an advanced course your reading should progress beyond introductory texts and you should be able to seek out your own references.
Read in preparation:
- Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1966. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Introduction)
- One ethnography or summary of, e.g. from: Taylor, S (ed) 2002. Ethnographic Research. A Reader, Sage, or from the journal Ethnography , or from monographs list at end.
- Karen O'Reilly, 2004 Ethnographic Methods , London: Sage (Chapter One)
Further references:
Brewer, J. 2000 Ethnography. OUP
Ellen, Roy. (ed) 1984. Ethnographic research: a guide to general conduct. London: Academic Press.
Fetterman, David M. 1989. Ethnography: step by step. Newbury Park: Sage
Hammersley, Martyn. and Atkinson, Paul. (1993) Ethnography. Second Edition. London. Routledge
Erickson, K 1997. Doing Team Ethnography , Sage
May, Tim. 1997. Social Research. Second edition. Buckingham: Open UP
Whyte, William Foote. 1984. Learning from the field: a guide from experience. Newbury Park: Sage
Humphreys, Laud. 1970. Tearoom trade: impersonal sex in public places. Chicago, Aldine.
Week 3 Participant Observation: practical issues
This week we will think more about the practicalities of doing participant observation: note taking, key respondents, access, learning the language. Several of the monographs on the list above will be referred to. We will also debate the oxymoron of participation and observation. You will be encouraged to conduct some of your own observations and to take field notes which you bring along to the seminar.
Read in preparation:
- Karen O'Reilly, 2004 Ethnographic Methods , London: Sage (Chapter Four)
Further references: as week 2, plus the following (NB not all are available in our library, order through inter-library loan if you want to pursue this topic)
Gold, R. L. 1958 'Roles in Sociological Fieldwork', Social Forces 36: 217-223.
Hicks, D. 1984 'Getting into the field and establishing routines.' in R. Ellen (ed) Ethnographic Research. A Guide to General Conduct , London: Academic Press.
Holy, L. 1984 'Participant observation and the interpretative paradigm', in R. Ellen (ed) Eth- nographic Research. A Guide to General Conduct , London: Academic Press.
May, Tim. 1997. Social Research. Second edition. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Marcus, G. E. 1994 'What comes (just) after the 'post'? The case of ethnography', in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research , Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
McCall and Simmons. 1969. Issues In Participant Observation. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley
Rock, P. 2001 'Symbolic Interactionism and Ethnography', in P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland and L. Lofland (eds) Handbook of Ethnography , London: Sage.
Whyte, W. F. 1951 'Observational field-work methods', in M. Jahoda, M. Deutsch and S. W. Cook (eds) Research Methods in Social Relations , Vol. 2, New York: Dryden Press.
Week 4 Ethnographic Data and Writing Field Notes
This session will analyse field note and think about what data are for the ethnographer and participant observer. We will also consider power and ethical issues in fieldwork.
Read in preparation:
- Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I. and Shaw, L. L. 2001 'Participant observation and fieldnotes', in P. Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland and L. Lofland (eds) Handbook of Ethnography , Vol. 352-68, London: Sage. (photocopy box)
Further references: as above, plus the following
Mauthner, N. Parry, O. and Backett-Milburn, K. (1998) ‘The Data are out there. Or are they? Implications for Archiving and Revisiting Qualitative data. Sociology. 32 (4) 733-
Maynard, M. and Purvis, J. (1994) Researching Women’s Lives from a Feminist Perspective. London: Sage
Oakely, A. (1998) Gender, Methodology and People’s Ways of Knowing: Some Problems with Feminism and the Paradigm Debate in Social Science’. Sociology. 32 (4) 707-
Oakley, A. (1981) ‘Interviewing Women. A Contradiction in Terms’ in Helen Roberts (ed) Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul
Plummer, Ken (1995) Telling Sexual Stories , London: Routledge (in library)
Plummer, Ken. (2000) Documents of Life. Second edition. London: Sage
Richards, D. (1996) ‘Elite Interviewing Approaches and Pitfalls, Politics , Vol.16, No.3, pp.199-204.
Ritchie, J and Lewis, Jane. 2003. Qualitative Research Practice , Sage
Roberts, H. (1981) Doing Feminist Research, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Rosengarten, T. (2000 - reprint) All God’s Dangers. The life of Nate Shaw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (not in library)
Rubin, H.J. and Rubin, I.S. (1995) Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data , Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Rubin, Herbert J. and Rubin, Irene S. 1995. Qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, Sage (pp 32-41)
Samuel, Raphael and Thompson, Paul (eds) 1990. The myths we live by. London: Routledge
Seale, C. Researching Society and Culture (any edition), Sage
Silverman, D. (2001) Interpreting Qualitative Data , London: Sage
Thompson, Paul. 1978 (or later edition). The voice of the past: oral history. Oxford: O.U.P.
See Qualitative Researching: Issues and Debates and Feminist Research Processes: Practices, Issues, Debates under the ‘Thematic Collections’ at http://www.socresonline.org.uk/
Week 6 Qualitative Interviewing: Techniques and Procedures
Following on from week 4 the second session on interviewing will focus on the ‘how-to’ of qualitative interviewing. Issues raised include the format of the interview; interview schedules or guides; the phrasing of questions, including the need to avoid leading questions and closed and open questions; the misinterpretation of questions; good practice when asking sensitive questions; the validity and reliability of interview material; recording and transcribing.
Read in preparation:
- Rubin, H.J. and Rubin, I.S. (1995) Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data , Thousand Oaks: Sage. (chapters 5-7) OR
- O'Reilly (Chapter 6)
- Two articles based on research using interviews
Further references as week 5.
Week 7 Focus Groups
The use of focus groups has its roots in Market Research, where it is used to test reactions to new products. They are increasingly used by government agencies to test reactions to new policies and ideas. Because they are a useful way to get people to think broadly about some- thing and many attitudes/ideas are generated at once, they tend to be used to get a broad range of responses on a subject using a method that is quicker and cheaper than a survey. They are becoming more widely used in social research, somewhat triggered by their use in Media and Cultural studies - to research audience interpretations of cultural and media texts. Here the notion of how people react to something in interaction is emphasised; how meaning is created in groups.
Focus groups generate conflicting ideas, making people change their minds and think again, they are therefore very creative. They can be more naturalistic than individual interviews, re- flecting the idea that people make sense of their world in interaction, not as individuals. They can also be more naturalistic as people can forget that the researcher is there. Data gathered on interaction can be interesting itself and focus groups (combined with other methods) can be really interesting for looking at gap between what people say they do, what they say they should do and what they do. However, there are lots of difficulties and problems with their use. Focus groups should not be seen as a quick way to gain several interviews.
Read in preparation:
- O'Reilly (Chapter Five, second half)
- One focus group-based study
- D. Morgan (1997) Focus Groups as Qualitative Research, London: Sage. (or second edi- tion)
Further References. (note: most of the methods texts available have some discussion on Focus Groups)
Berg, B. 2004. Qualitative Research Methods. Pearson
M. Bloor (2001) Focus Groups in Social Research, London: Sage.
A. Bryman (2001) Social Research Methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
L-C Hydén; PH Bülow 2003, 'Who's talking: drawing conclusions from focus groups--some methodological considerations' International Journal of Social Research Methodology 6(4)305- 336
Jowett, Madeleine and O'Toole, Gill (in press) 'Focusing Researcher's Minds: Contrasting Experiences of Using Focus Groups in Feminist Qualitative Research' Qualitative Research (Cardiff; Sage) available at: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/sociology/courses/index.php
R. Kreuger and M. Casey (2000) Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, London: Sage.
Blaikie, A. (2001) Photographs in the Cultural Account: Contested Narratives and Collective Memory in the Scottish Highlands , in Sociological Review, 49 (3), pp. 345-67.
Emmison, Michael and Philip Smith. (2000) Researching the Visual. London: Sage
Grimshaw, A. (2001) The Ethnographer's Eye, Cambridge University Press
Hebdige, D. (1988) Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things , London, Routledge.
Pink, S. (2001) Doing Visual Ethnography , Sage
Plummer, K. (2000) Documents of Life. 2. London: Sage. (see pp. 58-77 - includes some useful ref’s for further reading)
Prosser, Jon (2007) Visual Methods and the Visual Culture of Schools , in ‘Visual Studies’, Vol. 22, No. 1, April 2007.
Examples of visual data analysis in politics and IR:
Beatty, Bob (2004) ‘Was the Media More Timid in Covering the Iraq War? Comparing Images of Death and Capture in the Newsmagazines for Grenada, Panama, The Gulf War, Somalia, and the Iraq War’, Paper prepared for the 61st Annual National Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 15-18, 2004, Chicago. Available at: http://www.politics.tcd.ie/P.Bernhagen/pi5009/
Coleman, Renita, and Ben Wasike (2004) ‘Visual Elements in Public Journalism Newspapers in an Election: A Content Analysis of the Photographs and Graphics in Campaign 2000; Journal of Communication 54, Issue 3 (September): 456-473, 2004, available at: http://joc.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/54/3/
Gussin, Phil (2004) ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ Paper prepared for the 61st Annual National Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 15-18, 2004, Chicago, available at: http://www.politics.tcd.ie/P.Bernhagen/pi5009/
Week 9 Historical Research, Archives and Documents
In its origins modern sociology was centrally an attempt to explain and make sense of the dramatic upheavals and social transformations associated with capitalist commercialization and industrialisation in Europe. It was therefore thoroughly historical in its perspective. In contemporary sociological research however, historical sociology can often seem a somewhat marginal field. This is reflected and reproduced by the relative absence of historical methods in core social research training courses. This week we will discuss some of the reasons for this and the problems and challenges it presents to the researcher, before tracing the recent development of historical sociology and the turn to ‘cultural’ history. The focus will be upon the methodological implications of different ways of conceptualising the historical, or ‘doing time’, in sociological research.
Moving from the abstract to the practical, the session will cover the essentials of working with historical materials, principally documents. This will include: an overview of the main types of historical sources and their characteristic strengths and weaknesses; a discussion of how to locate sources and use archives effectively; a critical look at the traditional techniques of source
criticism and interpretation; an account of the hierarchy of source-credibility; an explanation of ‘oblique methods’ of interpreting sources; and a discussion of the distinctive possibilities as well as the problems associated with the use of oral historical evidence.
Read in preparation (two or three of the following):
- Tosh, John (2002) (third ed.) The Pursuit of History , London: Longman.
- Plummer, Ken (2000) Documents of Life, 2 , London, Sage (Chapter 11).
- Scott, Joan W. (1991) The Evidence of Experience , in Critical Inquiry 17, summer 1991,
- Steinmetz, George (2007) The Relations Between History and Sociology in the US: The Current State of Affairs , in Journal of Historical Sociology, Vol. 20, Issue 1-2, March/June 2007 (includes a very good bibliography on the turbulent relationship of history to sociology).
Further References:
Smith, D. (1991) The Rise of Historical Sociology , Cambridge: Polity.
Prior, L. (2003) Using Documents in Social Research , London: Sage.
May, Tim. 1997 (second ed.) Social Research , Buckingham: Open UP (section on documentary research)
Kalberg, S. (1994) Max Weber’s Comparative Historical Sociology , Cambridge: Polity.
Dean, Mitchell (1994) Critical and Effective Histories: Foucault’s Methods and Historical Sociology , London: Routledge.
Studies:
Jordan, J. A. (2005) A Matter of Time: Examining Collective Memory in Historical Perspective in Postwar Berlin , in Journal of Historical Sociology, Vol. 18, No’s 1-2, March/June 2005.
Comeau, T. D. (2007) ‘Gender Ideology and Disease Theory: Classifying Cancer in Nineteenth Century Britain, in Journal of Historical Sociology , Vol. 20, No. 1-2, March/June 2007, Oxford Blackwell.
Blaikie, A. (2005) Accounting for Poverty: Conflicting Constructions of Family Survival in Scotland , 1855-1925, in Journal of Historical Sociology, Vol. 18, No. 3, September 2005.
Mackenzie, D. (1990) Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance.
Novak, T. (1988) Poverty and the State: An Historical Sociology , Open University Press.
Taylor, B. (1983) Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth Century.
Skocpol, T. (1979) States and Social Transformations: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China , Cambridge University Press.
Week 11 Writing and the Reflexive Turn
This week we will explore the question of reflexivity in social research writing and will consult some of the literature on writing ethnography. During the 1980s, influenced by ideas from textual criticism, cultural theory and literary theory, researchers began to look critically at how and what qualitative researchers produce, or create. That is, they began to explore the construction of ethnographic and other texts. This formed part of what is known as ‘the reflexive turn’. To some extent this led to a crisis in representation, to the idea that no voice can be regarded as more valid than any other. Some have responded by producing ‘postmodern’ texts of various kinds, or critiques of the discourse of methods, whilst others have attempted to retain some sense of authority for the academic researcher. This week we will explore some of these arguments as we consider the nature of authority in qualitative writing.
Read in preparation (at least two of the following):
- Law, John (2004) After Method: Mess in Social Science Research , Routledge (‘Introduction’).
- Karen O'Reilly (2005) Ethnographic Methods (Chapter 9).
- Clifford, J, and Marcus, G. (1986) Writing Culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography , Berkely: University of California Press. (Chapter One)
- Plummer, Ken (2000) Documents of Life, 2 , London, Sage (Chapters 8 and 10).
Further References:
Atkinson, P (1990) The Ethnographic Imagination: textual construction of reality. London: Routledge
Barley, N. (1983) The Innocent Anthropologist. Notes from a mud hut. London: Penguin
Bryman, A. (2004) Social Research Methods. Oxford University Press: Oxford (Chapter 24)
Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (1986) Writing Culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography , Berkely: University of California Press.
Geertz, Clifford. 1989. Works and Lives. The anthropologist as author. Cambridge: Polity Press
Hammersley, M. (1994) ‘Ethnographic Writing’. Social Research Update 5. Department of Sociology, University of Surrey (very comprehensive review and updated bibliography.
Hammersley, Martyn (1998) Reading Ethnographic Research. Second edition. London: Longman
Mauthner, N. Parry, O. and Backett-Milburn, K. (1998) ‘The Data are out there. Or are they? Implications for Archiving and Revisiting Qualitative data. Sociology. 32 (4) 733-746.
Morrow, Raymond and Brown, David D. (1994) Critical Theory and Methodology , London: Sage (Chapter 9: ‘reflexive procedures’).
Okely, Judith and Callaway, Helen (eds) 1992. Anthropology and autobiography London: Routledge (Chapter. 1)
Powdermaker, H. 1966. Stranger and Friend. New York: W.W.Norton.
Ronai, C. R. 1995 'Multiple Reflections of Child Sex Abuse. An argument for a layered account', Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 23(4): 395-425.
Smaling, A. (2002). The argumentative quality of the qualitative research report. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 1 (3), Article 4. Retrieved 25/09/04 from http://www.ualberta.ca/~ijqm.
Week 12 Student presentations
This week will be given over to student presentations and group discussion. For details please see page 2 of this course guide.
Monographs
By far the most enjoyable way to learn about methods is to use them and to read about how others have applied them, the problems they have had and how they overcame them. Some monographs serve this purpose. The following are all available in the library and/or bookshop. Look for others and share good ones with us, please.
Armstrong, G. 1998 Football hooligans: knowing the score , Oxford: Berg.
Barker, E. 1984 The making of a moonie: choice or brainwashing? , Oxford: Blackwell.
Bellah, R. N. 1985 Habits of the Heart: individualism and commitment in American life , Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ditton, J. 1977 Part-time crime: an ethnography of fiddling and pilferage , London: Macmillan.
Fielding, N. 1981 The National Front , London: Routledge.
Fraser, R. 1979 Blood of Spain: the experience of civil war 1936-39 , Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Harding, A. and Samuel, R. 1981 East End underworld. Chapters in the life of Arthur Harding , London: Routledge.
Hobbs, D. 1988 Doing the business: entrepreneurship, the working class, and detectives in the East End of London , Oxford: Clarendon.
Hochschild, A. R. 1990 Second Shift: working parents and the revolution at home , London: Piatkus.
— 1997 The Time Bind: when work becomes home and home becomes work , New York: Metropolitan Books.
Kelly, L. 1988 Surviving sexual violence , Cambridge: Polity.
Lewis, O. 1959 Five Families; mexican case studies in the culture of poverty , New York.
— 1962 The children of Sanchez: autobiography of a Mexican family , London: Secker and Warburg.
Lynd, R. and Lynd, H. M. 1929 Middletown: a study in American culture , Harcourt USA: Brace.
SO5011 - Part A
Qualitative Sociological Research Methods
2007-
Assessed Project Details (60%)
Design, carry out and report on your own small-scale social research project using one of the qualitative research methods covered on the module.
You should design your research in order to address a specific research problem.
Bear in mind when designing your research project that this is only a pilot study and you should ensure that it is realistic and practicable to complete and write-up within the time frame of the course.
Your report (3,000 words) should briefly outline your research design and how the project was carried out, as well as any results, before critically evaluating the chosen research method. The bulk of the report (around 2,000 words) should be given over to this critical evaluation.
In evaluating your chosen method, you should consider its suitability for addressing your particular research problem, any difficulties encountered, whether these difficulties resulted from problems with the method or from your use of it, and how they were overcome (if at all), as well as critically discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the method (both practical and philosophical).
You can:
Either, use the project to address a research problem of your own, perhaps related to a planned programme of postgraduate research, and take the opportunity to assess the suitability of one particular qualitative method for your research. In this case, you should make reference to any implications for your planned postgraduate research in your critical evaluation.
Or, if you prefer you may carry out one of the projects outlined below. Each outline also lists one or more pieces of published social research which have used similar or related methods. These are provided as suggestions which you may find it helpful to read as a guide to your own pilot study and make reference to in your critical evaluation:
1. An ethnographic participant-observation
Choose a social setting event and carry out participant observation by watching, listening, interacting and taking field notes. Consider impression management strategies, the degree of self-disclosure and the ethical issues involved. How did you negotiate your way into the field? Were you familiar with the setting or was it new to you? How did you decide which events were significant? What are the potential problems with this method? Make sure to include any obstacles and difficulties encountered. They are part of your data!
- William Foote Whyte (1955) Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum , Chicago, University of Chicago Press
- Laud Humphreys (1970) Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places , Chicago, Aldine. 2. A qualitative interview-based study
Recruit a small sample of interviewees, prepare an interview schedule and conduct semi- structured in-depth interviews on the topic of your choice. Pay particular attention to the task of establishing/maintaining rapport with your interviewees and the process of collaborative data production. Are some interviews easier to carry out than others? Why? How important is the interview location? How do you handle sensitive topics and what do you do if your views are at odds with those of your interviewees? Finally, bear in mind that hearing data is an art in itself. Sometimes it is what your participants do not say that constitutes the most important piece of data.
- Kathy Davis (1995), Reshaping the Female Body , London, Routledge
- Tova Hartman and Naomi Marmon (2004), ‘Lived Regulations, Systemic Attributions: Menstrual Separation and Ritual Immersion in the Experience of Orthodox Jewish Women’, in Gender and Society , Vol. 18, No. 3, 389- 3. A visual social research method.
Either,
a) Choose a specific social group or contemporary ‘subculture’ and undertake a semiotic analysis of its distinctive visual ‘style’, from direct observation and/or from 2-D visual representations (e.g. photographs in magazines). This should include (but need not be limited to) modes of dress, bodily gesture, posture and deportment, and associated features of place and environment. How does this ‘style’ cohere as a whole and what is its social meaning? What are its explicit messages (or ‘denotations) and implicit subtexts (or ‘connotations’)? Your report should include a critical assessment of semiotic analysis (whether of 3-D or 2-D visual ‘data’) as a visual social research method – what are its strengths and weaknesses?
- Dick Hebdige (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style , London, Routledge.
- Erving Goffman (1979) Gender Advertisements , London, Macmillan.
Or,
b) Choose a specific social location (this could be a waiting room, a nightclub, a library, public transport, or any other location) and carry out a visual-ethnographic observation which focuses upon the role of its visual elements in producing the social relations and forms of social order associated with the location. Your analysis could consider, for example: the visual-spatial organisation of an interior, or of a built or ‘natural’ environment; any explicit or implicit visual
