Postgraduate Course: The Documents of Life (PGSP11302)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Social life is saturated by 'documents of life' both offline and online. They include diaries, autobiographies and letters; personal web pages or Facebook pages, policy documents, government statements and news releases; academic research reports, data-sets and published articles; the leaflets and advertisements of organisations such as banks and food-chains; and the forms and requirements of institutions such as schools, universities and government departments. Documents of life provide social researchers with a real-world laboratory of texts of written, oral, visual and other kinds that help make up 'life as we know it'. This course provides a practical hands-on 'toolkit' mixed-methods approach to analysing these documents, by using documentary, visual, narrative, discourse & institutional ethnography methodologies. Its aims are to engage analytically with the documents of life and provide confidence in actually using methodologies to analyse 'real-world' examples. |
| Course description |
Introduction: A Toolkit Approach to Analysing 'Documents of Life' Data
Doing Documentary Analysis (2 workshop sessions: eg. policy & government documents)
Doing Visual Analysis (2 workshop sessions: eg. photographs, objects, spaces)
Doing Narrative & Discourse Analysis (2 workshop sessions: eg. autobiographies & life histories, numbers as narratives, political statements & pronouncements)
Doing Institutional Ethnography (2 workshop sessions: organisational texts & contexts (eg. government departments, educational institutions)
Conclusion: Bringing It Together - Mixed Methods Toolkits in Social Inquiry
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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
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Develop a broad understanding of 'documents of life' research and an awareness of key ideas in the field
- Identify a variety of methodological approaches and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses
- Critically deploy (orally in the workshops and in writing through exercises and the final assessment) the range of methodological approaches to the analysis of 'documents of life' data
- Identify how documents of life research sits with other social science methodologies
- Develop an understanding of ethics as tied to research processes and analytical activities and not just programmatic statements
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Reading List
Davis, M (2013) 'Doing research on and through digital media' in Andrews, M, Squire, C and Tamboukou, M ( eds) Doing Narrative Research Sage London
Hookaway, N (2008) Entering the blogosphere : some strategies for using blogs in social research Qualitative Research 8: 91
Page,R.; Harper, R. and Forbenius, M (2013) 'From small stories to networked narrative' Narrative Inquiry 23:1
Ken Plummer (2001, 2nd edition) Documents of Life 2 London Sage
Liz Stanley (ed) (2013) Documents of Life revisited. Surrey: Ashgate
Brian Roberts (2001) Biographical Research Buckingham: Open University Press
Barbara Merrill & Linden West (2009) Using Biographical Methods in Social Research London: Sage
John Scott (1990) A Matter of Record Documentary Sources in Social Research Oxford: Polity Press
Lindsay Prior (2003) Using Documents in Social Research London: Sage
Gary McCullouch (2004, new edition) Documentary Research London: Routledge
Gillian Rose (2006, 2nd edition) Visual Methodologies London: Sage
Marcus Banks (2008) Using Visual Data in Qualitative Research London: Sage
Claudia Mitchell (2011) Doing Visual Research London: Sage
Jane Elliott (2005) Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches London: Sage
Catherine Kohler Riessman (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences London: Sage
Kathleen Wells (2011) Narrative Inquiry Oxford: Oxford University Press
Norman Fairclough (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research London: Routledge
James Paul Gee (2011) How to Do Discourse Analysis: A Toolkit London: Routledge
Marie Campbell (2004) Mapping Social Relations: A Primer in Doing Institutional Ethnography AltaMira Press
Dorothy E. Smith (2005) Institutional Ethnography AltaMira Press
Dorothy E. Smith (ed, 2006) Institutional Ethnography as Practice Rowman & Littlefield
Jennifer Greene (2007) Mixed Methods in Social Inquiry Jossey Banks
David Plowright (2010) Using Mixed Methods: Frameworks For an Integrated Methodology London: Sage
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Taking responsibility for undertaking core and shared activities.
2. Organisational skills in working in team contexts, organising divisions of labour, and agreeing hands-on shared working strategies.
2. Group and inter-personal skills in working cooperatively with peers, developing shared stratagems and trading ideas and competencies.
4. Individual skills and ability in planning and executing a larger piece of individual work. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Julie Brownlie
Tel: (0131 6)51 3917
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Andrew Macaulay
Tel: (0131 6)51 5067
Email: |
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