Making social worlds
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| 6 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-course assessment | No residential school |
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Summary
In order to survive, human beings live in social worlds which create security, foster stable attachment between individuals and things, and regulate behaviour. This accessible, vocationally relevant course demonstrates how sociological approaches can be applied to make sense of these processes – investigating how they work and how they sometimes fail. Through topics such as immigration, medicine, family, money and reality television, you will explore how social experience is shaped by nature and the material world, and made meaningful through culture and the media. The course is ideal if you have previously studied the social sciences or arts and want to consolidate your understanding of sociology.
Course content
The course is organised into four main blocks (Blocks 1, 2, 4 and 6) punctuated by two blocks focusing on the development of transferable skills (Blocks 3 and 5).
Of the four main blocks, the introductory block, Passports: registering the individual, acts as a taster of the themes and concerns around which the course is structured. Through comparative and historical study the block introduces you to the ways in which some individuals have been ‘recognised’ and others excluded in different social orders. This block is presented on DVD and features key political figures discussing questions of citizenship, a documentary exploring the passbook regime which helped support apartheid in South Africa, film examining how airports operate, and discussion by leading academics on the use of documents, badges and clothing in controlling movement in early modern Europe.
Block 2 then focuses in greater depth on questions of security. Security is a key component of modern societies. This is not only the case in the heightened climate of ‘the war on terror’, but is also reflected in such things as fear of crime, panics over the risks presented by toxins in food and global panics over disease pandemics. Security is not solely a concern for political science but is crucial to the operation of a range of social and cultural phenomena. The block features a range of case studies designed to explore the role of security in the making of social worlds and stretches from children’s novels to health and disease, urban safety, asylum and immigration. Throughout the case studies the aim is to establish how security operates across different social settings from the psychic to the geo-political; how a sense of security and safety is created out of material practices and through the type of ‘stories’ told in the media and other cultural institutions.
In Block 4 the focus shifts to attachment. This block is concerned with the ways in which the fabric of the social world – the attachments between people and between people and things – is constantly made and remade through human activity and the interaction between people. In the process of making such attachments, it is not only social worlds that are made but the individuals who inhabit these worlds. The block examines how attachments are made, and sometimes broken, by paying careful attention both to the emotions and feelings as well as the material, technical arrangements involved. These processes are illuminated by a number of case studies including reality television, marketing and family intimacy.
In the final block, Conduct, the focus is on how individual behaviour is shaped and regulated in social worlds. This block retains a focus on the material world and the role of culture in ‘mediating’ or making sense of social experience to explore how behaviour is shaped by devices ranging from habit, knowledge and example to legislation, advice books and self-help reality television shows. These processes are explored in the context of examples including self-service shopping, personal finance, crime, war and extreme situations designed to explore how both social worlds work and how they sometimes fail.
Blocks 3 and 5 sit in between the main blocks and concentrate on developing skills that will not only help you complete the course and prepare for the project-based examinable component, but are also transferable to a range of different employment settings. Block 3 focuses on developing information searching, handling and presentation skills and will help you locate, apply and present a range of different references accurately. Block 5 is concerned with the presentation of information and will help develop your confidence and skill in preparing and presenting information using formats like posters, transparencies and software packages.
Vocational relevance
Making social worlds has relevance to a wide range of employment situations including public administration, health and social services, education, business, and other private and public sector organisations. It offers students the opportunity to develop transferable skills, such as the ability to gather, analyse and present written information to audiences, present reasoned arguments, and write reports, and it will help you plan and design your own work.
Entry
This is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from previous studies at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Qualifications
DD308 is an optional course in our
- BA/BSc (Honours) Social Sciences (B06) (with sociology)
- BA/BSc (Honours) Design and Innovation (B61)
- Diploma in Sociology (D55)
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is equally appropriate to a BA or BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
You will need to spend considerable amounts of time using a personal computer and the internet during some sections of the course. Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and musical notation and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way. Other alternative formats of the course materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, DVD-ROM, CDs, course website.
You will need
A CD player.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave. Some of your course software will be provided on disk.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new Windows computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual. Please note that you cannot use an Apple Mac or Linux computer unless it is running windows Boot Camp or similar.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the course material, mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. We may also be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
The end-of-course assessment (ECA) is a project that takes the place of an examination. If you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment, some courses allow you a ‘substitution score’. In DD308 this rule can apply to one assignment only.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in October 2010. We expect it to be available once a year.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
An undergraduate course in Social Sciences.
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Student Reviews
This course covered a variety of difficult topics which became clearer by the end of the course work enabling me ...
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DD308 is an interesting and varied course which introduced me to some new theoretical perspectives (Actor-Network Theory, Norbert Elias) and ...
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