300258 Analysing Categories-in-Action (MA: Soziologische Methoden - qualitativ) (S) (SoSe 2025)

Categories are everywhere. Be it in how we are sorted at the airport, in how we organize our sports, how we collect statistical data, how social media content is selected for us, but also how we organize everyday conversations at the kitchen table and practical activities like crossing the road. Analysing categories-in-action is a lively approach in qualitative methods, with researchers from all over the world using category analysis to study all kinds of phenomena in all kinds of areas of society.
This course will build on students’ prior experiences with qualitative research and explore the different ways we can study categories, categorization practices, and categories-in-action in digital, analogous, and hybrid social contexts.
We will, first, gain an overview over different ways that researchers have studied categories and the places we can find them. Then we will focus on a few key ways to study categories and categorization practices. The focus will then be on ideas, data, and projects brought in by participants. This could include re-analysing data from past projects, discussing and analysing data from current projects, or planning and starting to work on future projects.
Please contact me with any questions concerning the content of the seminar: dahlph@cardiff.ac.uk

The course will be held as a block course in English.