MSc Sociological Research / Course details

In the social sciences we tend to assume that the best theories are critical of prevailing reality, and so they demand an effort of application, without which they are irrelevant - 'academic' in the worst sense of the word. This course examines the critical relationship between the ideas we study in universities and political practice. Can we can translate our concepts and theories into activist strategies and policy recommendations? Should we do this? What are the implications for our theories of believing that they should have practical, political consequences? What are the implications for us - do we have to become intellectuals, activists, as well as social scientists?

This course is an exploration of the meaning and value of a humanities education in contemporary society. Thinking critically is often lauded as the principal gain of a good university education, especially in the humanities. But this is rarely backed up by any account of what critical thought actually is and what makes it so special. There is a growing body of work within the critical disciplines themselves that questions it and asks if the claims made for critique aren't a bit overblown. By looking at the history of the critical approach we clarify its strengths and weaknesses and throw into relief the availability of other ways of posing questions and construing research. This enquiry is multi-, inter-, and in-disciplinary and students from all humanities disciplines are welcome.

The overall aim of the course is to explore the idea of thinking critically in a critical way. Critique is the dominant motif of contemporary humanities education and as academics we often claim that the lasting effect of our endeavours is the cultivation of a distinctively critical intelligence in our students. But critique's hegemony has occasionally been challenged. Is it anything more than a kind of 'virtue signalling' dressed up as epistemology?

The course aims:

• To assess the relationship between critique and a range of practices, including politics, academic work and the arts
• To develop and explore critical thinking about critique
• To discuss what is meant by the phrase 'critical theory' and how this has changed.
• To explore the uses of critique in multiple disciplines and from multiple perspectives.
• To assess the enduring significance of critical theory as a way of approaching key debates and topics in contemporary humanities and social sciences.

Students will develop:

• An in-depth appreciation of the scope, aims and character of contemporary critical theory as it is found in and across multiple disciplines
• Enhanced understanding of the meaning of 'critique', and of thinking critically, as against other ways of reasoning
• Ability to form opinions and make arguments concerning the current status of critical theory as a branch of study in the human sciences
• Advanced understanding of individual authors in the critical tradition, including Kant, Marx, Adorno and Foucault, gained through engaging with primary texts and a range of secondary literature
• Advanced understanding of the practical implications of thinking critically

10 * 2 hour lecture/seminars, focused on key readings and student-led discussion

Written assignment (3000 word essay) 100%