BASS Social Anthropology and Data Analytics / Course details

The course unit aims to:

• Explore everyday relationships and their sociological significance for contemporary debates on family, personal life and kinship; as well as illuminating the importance of relationships in all aspects of everyday life.
• To provide theoretical frameworks and empirical materials to allow students to explore for themselves how personal relationships are played out through all aspects of everyday life.
• Explore and critique different relationships through different institutions and practices.

The course unit aims to:

• Explore everyday relationships and their sociological significance for contemporary debates on family, personal life and kinship; as well as illuminating the importance of relationships in all aspects of everyday life.
• To provide theoretical frameworks and empirical materials to allow students to explore for themselves how personal relationships are played out through all aspects of everyday life.
• Explore and critique different relationships through different institutions and practices.

Provisional

The course will be divided into 3 key segments: Introducing theories, thinking about relationships through social institutions; exploring relationships and practices.  

Weeks 1 –3 will introduce key theoretical perspectives on families and relationships.  

Weeks 4 – 6 will examine relationships in the context of key social institutions, like the home.  

Weeks 7 – 9 will move on to explore relationships in a broader range of social practices.  

Our final week draws the course to a close, offering a recap on the topics covered whilst also contemplating the future study of relationships and everyday life. 

Lecture-style material will be delivered weekly through a mix of up to one hour pre- 

recorded (i.e. asynchronous) content and one hour live (i.e. synchronous) lecturer-led classes. Additionally, weekly one hour small-group tutorials will be delivered on-campus as long as government guidelines allow, otherwise they will be delivered online.  
Lectures will focus on exploring and critiquing everyday relationships and family life  
through different structural framings. Classic texts in the field of family sociology and the sociology of personal life will be drawn upon, alongside contemporary debates in books, journal articles and the media enabling students to consider the key theoretical  
arguments in relation to empirical case studies.  

In tutorials, students will be encouraged to explore empirical examples of everyday relationships, applying theoretical knowledge from the course to critique and debate them.  

Video materials will be suggested as recommended viewing in advance of particular workshops and shorter video or audio materials used within lectures.  
The course will utilise Blackboard and other software to deliver the module's course content, core readings, lecture slides, any supplementary materials such as video materials, and communication.  

• Understand and critique different everyday relationships and explain their relevance to different structural framings.
• Be able to apply theoretical knowledge to the sociological understanding of everyday relationships and family life.

• Evaluate competing analytical perspectives
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of empirical evidence
• Employ material available from academic, media and policy sources to make effective arguments.
• Develop a critical approach to academic, media and policy texts.

• Use library and electronic sources and resources
• Undertake and present independent research

• Present ideas and ask questions in group discussion.
• Develop a critical approach to contemporary sociological debates on everyday relationships, family and personal life.

Non-assessed mid-semester written coursework submission (500 words)

Assessed written end-of-semester coursework (2000 words, 100%) 

• Non-assessed mid semester coursework feedback 

• Assessed essay -Written and summative feedback  

Allan, G. and Crow, G. (2001) Families, Households and Society, London: Palgrave.

Finch, J. and Mason, J. (1993) Negotiating Family Responsibilities, London: Tavistock/Routledge.

Mason (2017) Affinities Potent Connections in Personal Life, Polity Press

Jamieson, L. (2013) 'Personal Relationships, Intimacy and the Self in a Mediated and Global Digital Age' in K. Orton-Johnson and N. Prior (eds) Digital Sociology: critical perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan.

May, V. and Nordqvist, P. (ed.) (2019) Sociology of Personal Life, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Mason, J. (2018) Affinities: Potent Connections in Personal Life, London: Wiley.

Mason, J. (2008) Tangible Affinities and the Real Life Fascination of Kinship', Sociology 42(1): 29-45.

Morgan, D. (2011) Rethinking Family Practices, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Scott, J., Treas, J and Richards M. (eds.) (2004) The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Families, Oxford: Blackwell.

Smart, C. (2007) Personal Life: New Directions in Sociological Thinking, Cambridge: Polity.

Weeks, J. (2007) The World We Have Won, London: Routledge.

Williams, F. (2004) Rethinking Families, London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Zelizer, V.A. (2011) Economic Lives, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Ch. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.