ASOK15102U Advanced Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life

Volume 2023/2024
Education

Mandatory MA course 1. Semester
MA Sociology 2015

Credit students must be at master level.
Exchange students at both bachelor and master level can sign up for this course.


Course package:
Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life

Content

This is the compulsory course for the MA specialization in Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life. In this course we critically review a range key theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, each contributing to a sociological understanding of sociocultural problems within contemporary urbanized society. The course relates to but also seeks to move beyond existing understandings of what sociocultural phenomena are and how they can be empirically studied within a cultural sociology framework. 

 

First, we introduce the students to a problem based approach to cultural sociology: While the cultural aspects of everyday life and lifestyles have a “bright side” of enjoyable sociality, the course will focus on “dark side” of sociocultural life, especially in the context of the contemporary city. Urban problems arises, for example, in relation to contested uses of space, subcultural and delinquent lifestyles, street violence and cultures, and various criminal activities. This is moreover the case when lifestyles are related to transgressive risk behaviors, when cultures neutralize their deviance and thus provokes mainstream societies norms, or when one finds pleasures in others pains and loss. In the course we will examine these and related dark side of everyday urban life.  Within this part of the course we will present five explanatory principles of (micro) sociology: 1) Person-situation interaction. Social life is enacted in an interplay of situational and personality specific forces.  2) Situations and solidarity. Dense interaction generates emotions of solidarity and conformity. In this lecture, we look into the theory and evidence supporting the former aspect.  3) Situations and conformity. Dense interaction generates emotions of solidarity and conformity. In this lecture, we look into the theory and evidence supporting the latter aspect. 4) Personality and self-control inface-to-face interaction. Social life is shaped in the interaction of persons and situations. In this lecture we highlight self-control as a key personality aspect of social live. 5) Social background and lifestyle. Within this explanatory principle we will focus on how social background and lifestyle shapes entrance to social life and especially deviance. 

Second, in the course we will examine the interface and interplay between the cultural and pre-cultural aspects of everyday life, reflecting the view that we are better analytically equipped to conceptualize cultural phenomena when these are compared to their pre-cultural flip side: Emotions, for example, are structured by cultural norms and rules but emotions also unfold as raw pre-cultural affects in a biological body. In a similar manner, the course will examine and discuss how the physical forms of urban space, the psychosomatic stimulants of drugs, and the biological underpinnings of face-to-face interaction have to considered as pre-cultural processes that shape the cultural expression of urban life, drug use and socio-moral order.

 

Learning Outcome

The course will provide the students with an overview of the core sociological research literature within the thematic field of Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life.

Moreover, the students will have trained their ability to compare and contrast key explanatory principles that are central to the wider MA specialization in Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life, as well as identifying significant historical and contemporary developments in the field.

Further, the student will be able to identify and analyze social interactions in relation to the interplay between cultural and pre-cultural processes of social life.

Based on the work with papers during the course, the students will gain and train competences in a problem based approach to analyze and explain cultural phenomena, including how theses analyses can inform practical interventions.

In this way, the student will be able to apply and critically discuss key theoretical concepts within the thematic field of Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life, particularly related to of urban cultural contexts marked by conflicts, contested lifeforms, and delinquency.

Further, the students will also learn to read and use also quantitative studies within the field of the related fields.

The central texts will be made available on Absalon prior to course start.
The total curriculum is app. 900 pages. In addition, students are required to choose reading materials for their project work (app. 400 pages). The self chosen material will be based on the literature search for the state of the art and as such primarily be (quantitative and qualitative) scientific articles. 

Students must have knowledge of Cultural sociology on the level taught in cultural sociology ("Kultursociologi") at 4th semester at the BA. Further, it is expected that the students are familiar with sociological methods and theories on BA level.
The course combines class-based teaching and project work (either individually or in groups). In some weeks the teaching will combine lectures (first double lecture) and discussion and workshop based sessions (second double lecture). Students are expected to contribute actively to discussion of core theoretical-analytical tools as well as the more specific analytical examples and tasks. The problem-based focus is reflected in the teaching form: first and foremost, we will work with concrete analysis of contemporary problems within the workshops. Moreover, the students are expected to identify a problem to work with in their papers. This means that the students should expect to review literature besides the course texts already for their first paper. The work on the papers will be included in the more workshop-oriented activities in the course. As part of the project work, aspects of conducting literature reviews within the relevant field of research will be taught and trained.

The lectures will include presentations by external professionals within crime and urban areas: city planners, crime prevention units, police and architects.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 56
  • Preparation
  • 321
  • Exam
  • 35
  • Total
  • 412
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Credit
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio, -
Oral defence, -
Type of assessment details
Individual or group (max 4 students).
A portfolio assignment is defined as a series of short assignments during the course that address one or more set questions and feedback is offered during the course.
All of the assignments are submitted together for assessment at the end of the course.
The assignment does have an oral defence after hand-in.
The portfolio assignments must be no longer than 20 pages. For group assignments, an extra 15 pages is added per additional student. Further details for this exam form can be found in the Curriculum and in the General Guide to Examinations at KUnet.
Exam registration requirements

You need to be registered for the course.

Aid
All aids allowed

Policy on the Use of Generative AI Software and Large Language Models in Exams

The Department of Sociology prohibits the use of generative AI software and large language models (AI/LLMs), such as ChatGPT, for generating novel and creative content in written exams. However, students may use AI/LLMs to enhance the presentation of their own original work, such as text editing, argument validation, or improving statistical programming code. Students must disclose in an appendix if and how AI/LLMs were used; this appendix will not count toward the page limit of the exam. This policy is in place to ensure that students’ written exams accurately reflect their own knowledge and understanding of the material.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Exam period

Find more information on your study page at KUnet.

Exchange students and Danish full degree guest students please see the homepage of Sociology;
www.sociology.ku.dk under Education --> Exams

Re-exam

Written take-home essay (based on new formulated questions) with oral defence examination.

Individual or group.

 

NOTE!

This is a mandatory course, and it is therefore only possible to take the exam during the fall, as the course is not offered in the spring.

Criteria for exam assesment

Please see learning outcome