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Looking for meaning in the world and making value judgements is an inescapable part of being human. It is through language, images and actions that ideas of value are articulated. But the degree to which words are able to give precise meanings is open to dispute. Attempts to quantify and measure come up against particular problems when dealing with human society and everyday life, rather than the rest of the natural world.

This course will introduce to qualitative methods, cultural analysis and value judgement by studying a variety of phenomena such as language, politics, activism, health, museums and art, as manifested in online and offline communities.

Teaching delivery

Ten, two-hour weekly lectures and 10 one-hour weekly PGTA-led seminars.

Indicative topics

Language and reality language and ideology, critical discourse analysis of public health messaging, multimodality and museums, cultural analysis of happiness, migration and museums, equality, diversity and inclusion in UCL: past and present, creating online communities.Ìý

Module Aims and Objectives

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:Ìý

• understand and appreciate a range of approaches to Qualitative Thinking and cultural analysis;Ìý
• examine how conceptions of culture, identity and communication are formulated within and between different disciplines;Ìý
• raise questions about the relationship of quantitative and qualitative methodologies;Ìý
• co-produce and present an original research-based project applying methods in cultural analysis.Ìý

Intended learning outcomes:

• understand and appreciate a range of approaches to Qualitative Thinking and cultural analysis;Ìý
• examine how conceptions of culture, identity and communication are formulated within and between different disciplines;Ìý
• raise questions about the relationship of quantitative and qualitative methodologies;Ìý
• co-produce and present an original research-based project applying methods in cultural analysis.Ìý
• knowledge of notions of value in everyday speech, behaviours and situations as well as within specialised languages;Ìý
• a critical awareness and use of principles of qualitative methodologies and cultural analysis

Recommended readings

Blommaert, Jan., 'Choice and determination', in: Jan Blommaert, Discourse, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 98-124.

Ehn, Billy, et al. Exploring Everyday Life : Strategies for Ethnography and Cultural Analysis, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015.

Machin, David and Andrea Mayr, How to do critical discourse analysis: a multimodal introduction. London: Sage, 2012, Chapter 1, pp.15-20, and Chapter 7, pp. 163-185.Ìý

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