Prof George Gaskell KSW4.08

The LSE100 lectures are given by lecturers from a range of departments.

Compulsory course on all undergraduate programmes: students complete term one in Lent Term of their first year and term two in Michaelmas Term of their second year. The course is not available to General Course students or to second-year direct-entry students.

The course introduces students to the fundamental elements of thinking like a social scientist. Running through all of the social sciences are questions of evidence, explanation and theory. As no complex issue can be fully understood through the lens of a single discipline, LSE100 uses current issues of public concern and intellectual debate to explore these questions from the perspective of different fields of social science.. The goal of the course is to enable students to complement intellectual grounding in their discipline with a broad understanding of different ways of thinking. In four five-week modules, the course will examine 'big' questions, such as: How should we address poverty? Are we witnessing a global power shift from West to East? Do nations matter? Is punishment the answer to crime? Through questions like these (this list is only illustrative), students will explore different types of evidence, different forms of explanation and different strategies for abstraction and modelling that are used across the social sciences. The intention is not only to broaden students' intellectual experience, but also to deepen their critical understanding of their core disciplines. The focus on the core elements of social scientific reasoning will be accompanied by a strong emphasis on critical thinking, research and communication skills.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT.

Formative activities will be completed in class and may include writing assignments or data analysis tasks.

Readings are module-specific. Class reading packs are provided in hard copy and are all available from the LSE100 Moodle site, along with additional reading and resource recommendations.

In both terms, a short essay will be due in Week 5 and a group project will be due in Week 10. Students will also complete brief portfolio exercises each week, to be reviewed in class and assessed at the end of each term. These exercises are designed to support students’ understanding of key theories and critical analysis of arguments or evidence. The essays and group projects are each worth 20% of the student’s final mark and the portfolio exercises are worth 10% per term. Students receive an overall mark for the course of Distinction, Merit, Credit or Fail.