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Dr Donald Slater STC S310

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Culture and Society. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms is the core course for the MSc Culture and Society. The aim is to introduce you to a wide range of approaches, debates and issues that loom large in the study of cultural processes. By the end of this course you should have a reasonable map of different aspects and approaches to researching cultural processes; and you should feel able to formulate your own research questions and strategies within the diverse traditions of culture theory and cultural research.

In Term 1 we introduce the diverse approaches to cultural theory and the central debates that have structured the field, with particular attention to the ways in which these link to central sociological themes. The second focuses on approaching these theoretical debates from the vantage of empirical research and a concern with methodologies for studying cultural processes.

10 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 20 hours of seminars in the LT.

Reading weeks: week 6 (MT) and week 6 (LT)

All students are expected to submit one piece of non-assessed written work per term and prepare seminar presentations.

Ahmed, S. 2004. "Affective economies", Social text, 22: 117-139.

Bourdieu, P. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.

Hall, S. (1992) `New Ethnicities' in Donald, J and Rattansi, A (eds.) (1992) “Race”, Culture, Difference, London: Routledge.

Latour, B. (2004) Why Has Critique Run out of Steam?: From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry 30 (Winter 2004), 225–248.

McGuigan, J. (2010) Cultural Analysis. London: Sage.

McRobbie, A. (2005) The Uses of Cultural Studies. London: Sage.

Miller, D. (2008) The comfort of things. Polity, Cambridge.

Oswell, D. (2006) Culture and Society. London: Sage.

Essay (50%, 5000 words) in the LT.
Essay (50%, 5000 words) in the ST.

Two hard copies of each assessed essay, with submission sheets attached to each, to be handed in to the Administration Office, S116, no later than 16:30 on the submission day. The first essay is due by the second Thursday of Lent Term and the second essay is due by the second Thursday of Summer Term. An additional copy of each essay is to be uploaded to Moodle no later than 18:00 on the same day each essay is due.

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