1 Semester

24 hours

Hawthorn

Nil

Nil

Credit Points: 12.5 Credit Points

Related Course/s:

Aims & Objectives:

The aim is to understand how research designs relevant to the needs of outside organisations relate
to theoretical, metatheoretical and empirical debates in social research.

Teaching Methods:

Seminars, lectures

Assessment:

Research proposal, Class presentation, Paper on epistomology, Draft literature review, Assessed work from supplementary unit of study (or project)

Generic Skills Outcomes:

The seminar will enhance students' critical and intellectual skills; advance students' project management skills; extend students' presentation, discussion, research and writing skills; develop students' individual research projects; help students gain confidence in discussing epistemological problems (problems concerning the nature of truth and the possibility of discovering it); develop students' understanding of the relationship between ontological questions and their own approach to research. It will also develop their capacity to work with an organisation or organisations outside Swinburne.

Content:

There are two components to Industry and Community Studies Seminar A:

Honours Seminars (two hours per week): Issues discussed include epistemology, the development of research questions, social theory in research, the role of pre-existing literature in the research process, sources of evidence and data, critical evaluation of sources, case studies of social research, and ethical and political issues in social research.

Other Studies: A student is required to attend a number of other class sessions in one other unit in the University according to the student's own educational needs and thesis topic. A maximum of three hours of class attendance per week may be required. This requirement will be determined by the thesis supervisor in consultation with the student.

Reading Materials:

Barratt Brown, M, Models in Political Economy: a Guide to The Arguments, Penguin Books, London, 1984.
Becker, H, (with P. Richards), Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1986.
Becker, HS & McCall, MM (eds), Symbolic Interaction and Cultural Studies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990.
Bottomore, T, Marxist Sociology, Macmillan, London, 1975.
Kuhn, TS, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970.
Mills, CW, The Sociological Imagination, Grove Press, New York, 1959.
Neuman, WL, Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 5th edn, Allen and Bacon, Boston, 2003.
Popper, K, Conjectures and Refutations, 3rd edn, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1969.
Reinharz, S, Feminist Methods in Social Research, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992.
Sarup, M, An Introductory Guide to Post-structuralism and Postmodernism, Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, 1988.
Stretton, H, Political Essays, Georgian House, Melbourne, 1987.