Understanding Everyday Life

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Display a basic knowledge of a range of perspectives and methods on which sociology and anthropology draws
• Understand the distinctive properties of everyday life and the ways they are evident in different sites of everyday practice.
• Display a broad understanding of both sociological and anthropological debates about structure and agency, the nature of power, and the relation between discourse and reality, as these debates have been applied in the area of everyday life.
• Understand the links between personal experiences of everyday life and aspects of wider social organisation.
• Understand the relationship between personal opinion, argument and evidence in relation to the study of everyday life
• Engage in active and critical reading, effective notetaking, effective oral and written communication.

The study of ‘everyday life’ is basic to the study of sociology, criminology and anthropology but what exactly do we mean by the term? What does it include and exclude? And what is the relation between the knowledge that we already bring to the module in comparison with sociological and anthropological knowledge? This module will introduce a range of concepts and perspectives that have been applied in the study of everyday life and illustrate their ability to throw new light on aspects of day to day life that are usually taken for granted. It will explore everyday life through a look at the life course, and will consider a number of the key sites in which the ‘everyday’ is constructed as we move through our lives, such as family, community, work and leisure. In childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, through to the middle years to older age, the relations of everyday life intersect with power relations associated with class, age, gender and sexuality. As such, is everyday life something we want to celebrate or to transcend?

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures and seminars

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Hockey, J and Allison J (2003). Social Identities across the Life Course. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Ortner, S.B. (2006). Anthropology and social theory : culture, power, and the acting subject. Durham/London: Duke University Press.

Hunt, S (2005). The Life Course: A Sociological Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Payne, Geoff (ed) (2006). Social divisions. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External