Postgraduate Course: Researching Global Social Change (SCIL11029)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course explores various approaches to researching sociological topics and issues in a global framework. The emphasis is on engaging with actual instances of research, in the readings and as presented by staff, to better understand the challenges of studying social processes that are spatially diffuse, and sometimes temporally extended. By focusing attention on such research it aims to help students think more concretely about dissertation work, especially when concerned with global and international issues.
This course combines lectures by the convener and guest lectures by sociology staff with student-led presentation and discussion (again, perhaps supported through a course linked blog, as in Nationalism Studies). The course progresses from problematising what it means to do global research in the first half, to exploring approaches taken by various sociology staff, to researching topics of global scope in the second half.
Aims and Objectives
This course explicitly aims at: (1) preparing students for their dissertations, (2) helping them to think about issues of (desk-based) research design, (3) sensitizing them to the challenges of doing research that is transnational/global in scope, (4) introducing them to examples pertinent research done in Edinburgh sociology, (5) teaching them how to search for literatures (broadly defined) and produce literature reviews and annotated bibliographies.
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| Course description |
This core course for the Global Social Change programme provides an introduction to the theoretical concerns, methods, and multitude of data sources used in researching various issues, processes, and dimensions of global social change. Anchored around a range of issues, the course critically examines the nexus between the research question, an appropriate methodology, and the most relevant evidence for better researching global social change.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 40 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
All students will be assessed through a Mid-term assignment (1500 words, worth 30%) and an Essay (4000 words, worth 70%), to be agreed with the course organiser |
| Feedback |
All essays are electronically marked and moderated, and given extensive feedback comments. Students are invited to submit an essay abstract and outline to receive feedback in advance of submitting their essay, that they can feed into the final essay. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Engage with substantive issues in comparative policy analysis
- Assess the appropriate use of a range of research strategies and methods in gaining sociological knowledge in a global context.
- Set their own sociological research agenda in relation to global and international issues.
- Present their ideas about their own research to a group of peers for critical discussion.
- Engage in preparation and presentation of scholarly work for public seminars, and where appropriate, submit work for publication
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Reading List
Alcoff, L. M. and Mendieta, E. (2003) Identities: Race, Class, Gender and Nationality, Oxford: Blackwell. [See esp. parts V and VI, National/Transnational Identities and Reconfigurations.]
Boyes, R. (2009) Meltdown Iceland: How the Global Financial Crisis Bankrupted and Entire Country, London, Berlin and New York: Bloomsbury.
Hannerz, U. (1996) Transnational Connections: Culture, People, Places. London: Routledge.
Inglis, T. (2010) Sociological Forensics: Illuminating the Whole from the Particular, Sociology 44(3): 507-22.
Knorr Cetina, K. and Bruegger, U. (2002) Global Microstructures: The Virtual Societies of Financial Markets, American Journal of Sociology 107(4): 905-950.
Tilly, C. (1984) Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Torpey, J. 1999. The Invention of the Passport. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The Urban Sociology Reader, Jan Lin and Christopher Miele (eds), London: Routledge, part (2005), part 5, Globalization and Urban Change.
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2009) Income Inequality and Social Dysfunction, Annual Review of Sociology 35: 493-511.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Zoe Malcolm
Tel:
Email: Zoe.Malcolm@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr James Wills
Tel:
Email: jwills2@ed.ac.uk |
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