Course description
The MRes in Social Research is the flagship postgraduate course for the Department of Geography and Sociology. The course offers students a package of skills training and research experience which will enable them to operate effectively as social researchers in the workplace, in an academic environment, in a research/consultancy capacity, and/or as activists.
The course promotes learning in three main areas:
The practice of social research - seeks to equip students with a range of generic research skills: from devising meaningful research questions through research design, data collection, analyses, writing-up, and dissemination.
Social research in practice - seeks to introduce students, through case studies and contemporary examples, to some of the key areas of substantive concern within the social sciences today, and to showcase some of the concrete research projects being conducted in these areas.
Research as a social practice - seeks to inform students of the relationships which exist between wider social, economic, and political contexts and the research process through reflection on the uses to which social research is currently being put.
Prospective Students
The course is designed to be suitable for two categories of student:
Full-time students, most of whom will have recently completed an undergraduate degree in Sociology or Geography (or cognate disciplines), who wish to pursue a training in social research which will enable them to:
* Proceed to a PhD by research using the skills acquired from the course
* Obtain an academic research job
* Obtain employment in the wide range of public sector, voluntary sector and private sector organisations where the ability to commission, conduct and communicate social research is a valuable asset.
Part-time students already employed in the public or voluntary sector, or in private sector consultancies, who are engaged in social, economic, and/or environmental policy research, or who occupy policy advisory positions, and who wish to obtain the skills and insights to enable them to fulfil such roles more effectively.
The taught classes comprise the following core options:
* Social Research Today - introduces students to the social and political contexts which shape much contemporary policy research, and the uses to which social research might be put. In so doing, it encourages students to think beyond the practice of social research, and to develop an understanding of - research as a social practice.
* Philosophy of Social Science - introduces questions of the intellectual status of social science, and debates about whether social science is a positivist, interpretative or critical discipline.
* Qualitative Methods - introduces students to the philosophy and practice of qualitative inquiry in the social sciences. This course trains students in the use of qualitative field methods and data analysis techniques.
* Quantitative Methods - introduces students to the principles and practice of using survey methodologyand some of the statistical tools which are available for the analysis of survey data. This course enables students to develop the ability to interpret social scientific data sensitively and sensibly.
*Research Design, Dissertation Workshops - this class prepares students for their dissertation research. It offers practical and substantive guidance to students embarking on the major part of the MRes. This class forms a key part of the department's mentoring programme for students undertaking original empirical research.
*Investigative Research - This class offers advanced training in the skills, tactics and techniques of investigative research. It is aimed at students interested in undertaking their own independent research on both public and private institutions and organisations in society. It is intended to supplement the philosophical and general methods training available with more directed research techniques which involve investigative methods as opposed to more formal methodologies.
