Sociology Podcasts: Theory for 10@10

This is a set of podcasts, plus associated supporting material (such as PowerPoint Presentations that summarise key ideas and throw-in a few student activities for good measure), created by Liz Beaven and Andy Leach from Sociology Support that are being given-away for absolutely no money (although you do have to go through a fairly-painless Checkout process to get them).

This set covers Sociological Theory and Methods, delivered over a 10-day period at some point – probably quite recently – hence the reference to “Days” in the following list:

Day 1: Structural theories in sociology (37 minutes)

Day 2: Social Action theories in Sociology (35)

Day 3: Concepts of Modernity and Postmodernity in relation to sociological theory (37)

Day 4: Can Sociology be seen as scientific? (40)

Day 5: The relationship between Theory and Methods. Part A Positivism and Quantitative data (26)

Day 6: The relationship between Theory and Methods. Part B Interpretivism and Qualitative data (32)

Day 7: The Debate on Subjectivity, Objectivity and Value Freedom in Sociology (21)

Day 8: The relationship between Sociology and Social Policy (40)

Day 9: Exam Preparation with reference to Theory and Methods (27)

Day 10: Assessment Day – Theory and Methods (5)

The podcasts are delivered by Andy Leach and given some are very long – up to 40 minutes – I was a bit surprised, purely because of the length, to find they held my attention. Andy’s vocals are interesting as well as informative, which is no mean feat given a lot of the subject matter.

Whether this is likely to be the case with your students may be something you need to consider if you’re going to use them, particularly because they pack a massive amount of information into their many minutes.

With a bit of planning, they can, of course, be used in conjunction with the associated resources / activities to give you the opportunity to pace the information more carefully.

From the overall feel(?) of the sound I’m guessing these were recorded on something like an iPhone – the file format (.m4a) is certainly one favoured by Apple – but the sound is generally fine, if a little tinny at times and some sort of Pop filter would always help.

Most modern media players should happily cope with the format but, if not, something like Videolan’s VLC Player will do the job. It’s also totally free, which is always nice.