Dr Rebecca Elliott STC S211

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Culture and Society. This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Cities Programme, MPhil/PhD in Sociology, MSc in City Design and Social Science, MSc in Economy, Risk and Society, MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course introduces students to the theory and practice of qualitative research methods in sociology. The seminars address issues of research design, data collection and analysis in relation to qualitative research methods, including ethnography, in-depth interviewing, and textual analysis. Taking these methods together, we will build toward an understanding of best practice in qualitative inquiry. Based on the principle that doing is one of the best means of learning, this course is highly interactive and requires ‘hands-on’ participation in a series of practical exercises and project work throughout the term. A syllabus detailing course objectives, course style, readings, teaching arrangements and student assessment will be distributed at the beginning of the term.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and seminars totalling a minimum of 20 hours in the MT.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in MT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students must write a 1,000 word book review of a qualitative research study.

• Luker, K. 2008. Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences: Research in an Age of Info-Glut. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Small, M. 2009. ‘How Many Cases Do I Need? On the Science and Logic of Case Selection in Field-Based Research.’ Ethnography 10: 5-38.
• Lamont, M. and A. Swidler. 2014. ‘Methodological Pluralism and the Possibilities and Limits of Interviewing.’ Qualitative Sociology 37(2): 153-171.
• Jerolmack, C. and S. Khan. 2014. ‘Talk is Cheap: Ethnography and the Attitudinal Fallacy.’ Sociological Methods & Research 43(2): 178-209.
• Weiss, R.S. 1994. Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies.
• Emerson, R.M., R.I. Fretz, and L.L. Shaw. 2011. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (2nd edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Stanley, L. 2017. The Archive Project: Archival Research in the Social Sciences, edited by Niamh Moore, Andrea Salter, Liz Stanley, and Maria Tamboukou.
• Seale, C. 1999. The Quality of Qualitative Research. Chapter 11, ‘Reflexivity and Writing,’ pp. 159-177.
• Burawoy, M. 1998. ‘The Extended Case Method.’ Sociological Theory 16:4-33.
• Snow, D.A., C. Morrill, and L. Anderson. 2003. ‘Elaborating Analytic Ethnography: Linking Fieldwork and Theoretical Development.’ Ethnography 4: 271-290.

Research report (90%) in the LT.
Class participation (10%) in the MT.

The assessment consists of class participation in MT and an individual qualitative research report in the LT.

An electronic copy of the assessed report, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on Wednesday Week 5 of LT.

Participation will be assessed based on students’ engagement with course activities, including for example in-class discussions, class assignments, and contributions to online discussion boards.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.