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The results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise confirm that the Department ranks amongst the top two departments of sociology in Scotland and joint sixth in the United Kingdom.
Three themes characterise the Department’s main research activities:
Staff pursue a diverse range of topics within these broad areas and individual research activity is not restricted to them.
Interests cover secularisation, sectarianism, ethno-religious conflict, religion and politics, fundamentalism, comparative religions, religion and social attitudes/values, religion and conflict resolution, religion and modernity, gender and religion
Interests cover post-violence societies and comparative peace processes, new social movements, demography and social change, European societies, globalization, international migration, and comparative value change
Interests cover cultural representations, gender and culture, gender and the body, sociology of art, popular culture, cultural theory, global culture, cultural identity, and historical change in the family
These thematic areas represent broad research themes around which most of our work coheres and they represent the major strengths for which the department is nationally and internationally known. But in addition to broad research themes, the Department’s research activities exemplify three features that characterise our research culture.
The department has quantitative and qualitative specialists; several staff have produced methods texts and all staff have extensive experience of employing a range of different techniques. Research in the Department employs techniques from log linear modelling to archival research and ethnography. There is a commitment to use research to contribute to methodological debate and to support and enhance the methodological pluralism that so marks British social science.
Reflecting this methodological pluralism, the New Europe Centre is located in the department. Funded though a range of projects on topics such as European Identitiy and migration, it uses a variety of materials including policy documents and surveys carried out by the Centre, as well as secondary data analysis and in-depth interviews.
Most staff routinely integrate theory and research in their individual projects and as a collective research unit we engage in work from theoretical exegesis to empirical surveys. The Department undertakes empirical substantive research, such as national surveys of social attitudes and values, and has members who contribute to theoretical commentary and debate in many diverse schools. Special theoretical interests include globalization theory, cultural theory, the Scottish Enlightenment and Interactionist theory.
Research is the Department moves between different sociological spaces, from the local (such as social histories of localities), the national (for example, nation-wide social surveys), regional blocs (attention on Europe and Latin America for example), and to the global (such as broad historical-comparative studies). The Department gives attention to Scotland, and North East Scotland in particular, in recognition of its location but is aware of the diverse spatial boundaries that sociological work has to transcend.
This page was last updated on 27-Feb-2012 11:08:53 GMT
