Goldsmiths, University of London, MA, Social Research

This programme offers training for those who need to conduct or evaluate sociological research, and provides skills for academic and non-academic researchers; it is concerned with both quantitative and qualitative methods and their application in the study of substantive areas, as well as the relationship of research studies to sociological theory; it covers a range of methodologies including interviewing and observation; analysis; ethnographic work and statistical analysis of large-scale quantitative data sets; it addresses a wide variety of contemporary theoretical traditions from discourse analysis to ethnomusicology and feminism; core courses: introduce students to methodological and theoretical perspectives via data analysis exercises; cover the analysis of the role of numbers in constructing sociological arguments; enable students to learn both qualitative and quantitative computing and analytical skills; students also produce a dissertation and choose options from a range that currently covers topics including: gendering research practice; contemporary culture and artistic practices; reading the city; the social theory of human rights and cosmopolitan law; race gender and representation.