Cultural Sociology/Cultural Analysis

Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough

The Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough is a large and research-oriented department that includes programmes in Communication and Media Studies, Criminology, Social Policy and Social Psychology in addition to Sociology. The Department has consistently achieved a high ranking in research in the periodic Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and been rated excellent for teaching. Loughborough has also come top repeatedly in the annual student appreciation survey for UK universities.

Sociology is taught in an interdisciplinary context within the Department and its postgraduate programmes link the social sciences with the humanities. Staffing for its postgraduate programmes is of the highest order in terms of research and publication. The Department is recognised for its research and teaching by both the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The Sociology Group at Loughborough receives research funds from not only the ESRC and AHRC but also from the European Commission, the Welcome Trust and Leverhulme amongst other grant-giving bodies. Members of the Group are involved in European collaborative research projects as well as nationally-based projects and editorial work for journals in a wide range of sociological and cognate fields of research.

Postgraduate Programmes in Sociology

In addition to supervising research students for PhD and MPhil degrees from the UK, the EU and further overseas, Sociology offers two taught masters degrees in a twin programme, the MA Cultural Analysis and the MSc Cultural Sociology, in collaboration with other sections of the Department of Social Sciences. The main aim of the MA Cultural Analysis is to combine the humanities and the social sciences in interdisciplinary cultural study, specialising in qualitative research methods. The main aim of the MSc Cultural Sociology is to provide social-scientific research training in a full range of both qualitative and quantitative methods. Both masters routes are designed to equip students with research skills to continue their studies for a PhD or an MPhil degree.

MA CULTURAL ANALYSIS

AIMS

To provide a thorough grounding in the theory and methods of interdisciplinary social and cultural analysis
To provide training in qualitative research methods in the humanities and social sciences
To provide option choices in substantive fields of cultural research
To provide experience of research design and implementation

COMPULSORY MODULES

Social and Cultural Analysis
Media and Modernity
Ethnographic Research Techniques
Textual Analysis Research Techniques
Research Design for Cultural Sociology
Dissertation Research Project

OPTION MODULES

Two to be chosen from a selection offered in any one year of the programme

Digital Futures – Explorations in New Media
Culture, Media and Everyday Life
Culture, Media and Globalisation
Visual Cultures
Popular Music and Modern Times
Audiences and Consumers
Citizenship and Communications
Cultural Policy
Media, Nations and Nationalisms
Global Communications
Rhetoric and Discourse
Cultural Criminology

MSc CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY

AIMS

To provide thorough grounding in the theory and methods of interdisciplinary social and cultural analysis
To provide training in qualitative methods in the social sciences and in relation to the humanities
To provide training in quantitative methods in the social sciences and in relation to the humanities
To provide experience of research design and implementation

ALL MODULES ARE COMPULSORY

Social Cultural Analysis
Media and Modernity
Ethnographic Research Techniques
Textual Analysis Research Techniques
Quantitative Methods and Analysis I
Quantitative Methods and Analysis II
Research Design for Cultural Sociology
Dissertation Research Project

The joint programme in Cultural Analysis and Cultural Sociology is 12 months in duration