Media, Communications and Culture Minor (Level 3)
Sociology Dual Honours (Level 3)
Sociology Major (Level 3)
Sociology Minor (Level 3)
This module will critically explore the idea of home as a socio-cultural concept. Using an interdisciplinary approach, broadly located in sociology, but appealing to students interested in geography, english, marketing, psychology and media/cultural studies, it asks a number of difficult but fascinating questions about why we are all so obsessed with home cultures.
Why are we obsessed with the homes of celebrities? What dreams are we pursuing when we seek to nosy around their wine cellars and their marble bathtubs? Is this dream telling us something about our own narratives of belonging, or do we realise we will never achieve what they have? And how can we understand this obsession with homes in a social context: have we always been like this, or is this only since home buying became a central part of the British economy?
What is the significance of stuff? We're surrounded by it, but it is often mute and difficult to understand. We will be exploring the relationship of people to their things - displaying, collecting, disposing: the objects that make up home have enormous social, personal, cultural and psychological significance which needs unravelling.
Is it true that the only good music and art comes from 'running away from home'? From the Modernist avant garde, to punk, to Hirst and Emin, to grime - it seems that inspiration comes not from the stifling normality of homely life, but from city streets. Home spaces are often seen as the evil 'other' of creativity, yet they are as much a part of the modern city as shiny glass buildings and exciting public spaces.
What does the idea of home do to obscure the real social relations that go on behind closed doors? In what ways does the concept of the 'domestic' shelter us from the gritty reality of home life? And how is this ideology promoted and defended? The dark, uncanny side of home will be explored and themes from sociology, geography and cultural studies blended to examine how home is a key motif in notions of evil.
- To provide a sociological and cultural approach to the understanding of concepts of home
- To teach a comparative and interdisciplinary approach in order to better interrogate the salience of the everyday notion of home
- To enable students to apply conceptual knowledge of home to real world exemplars
- To allow engagement with a distinctive interdisciplinary and emergent research literature
- Assess sociological perspectives upon the notion of $ùhome&©, and apply central concepts in the literature to different cultural and material contexts of home
- Compare interdisciplinary approaches to the notion of home, developing an awareness of the limits and advantages therein (students will be able to make critical judgements about this meta-debate)
- Develop and apply their knowledge of a particular sub-field of the literature in order to negotiate an essay question
- Generate a suitable up-to-date bibliography from the research literature based on their essay question
- Describe and debate the strengths and weaknesses of current research on their essay question topic (students will be able to evaluate the relevance of the latest research in the light of the field)
- Apply conceptual knowledge from the literature to real world and real data exemplars
- Source and organise $ùdata&© that illustrates a particular exemplar and relate this to their developing conceptual knowledge
40 hours tutorial preparation
30 hours independent study
60 hours assessment preparation
TOTAL 150 HOURS
Students will present work-in-progress mid-term on themes from literature and/or illustrative material
Students will define and negotiate essay question, generate a list of suitable sources using bibliographic resources, outline essay plan, submit collection of reviews of key sources. May remain separate and unintegrated at this stage (1500 words)
3000 word illustrated essay. Students must make use of above materials, integrating and organising into full essay. In addition, students are expected to illustrate their essay with suitable $ùcase study&© material appropriate to their topic: photographs, collections/found objects, primary/secondary data. This material must be integral to the developing theme/analysis, and not merely decorative. It need not be visual representations: standard research data (such as interviews, narratives, survey data, archive material) may be used; equally, cultural examples from literature, film or art may also be used. Any illustrative material must be included within the printed essay document however.
This document is the definitive current source of information about this module and supersedes any other information.