300671 Local Lives and Global Transformations (part 1) (LEH Soziologie der globalen Welt - International Track) (LEH) (SoSe 2025)

This is the first part of a two-semester research seminar for MA students in which we investigate the implications of globalization in the lives of individuals, communities and societies around the world. We shall critically engage with the global circulation of people, ideas, images, capital, and goods and how it plays out in local life worlds and places. Under supervision, students will each work on an individual mini research project that investigates a relevant topic, such as systems of production and consumption, citizenship and mobility, the internet, mass media, tourism, or pop culture to identify the dynamics of globalization in particular places. Methodologically, you will use ethnographic methods to conduct field research in a location of your choice – digital ethnography is also an option.

The main aim of this research seminar is to accompany you in the process of conducting an empirical research project, from formulating research questions and designing a suitable data collection plan to carrying it out and writing up as a research report. Modest financial and practical assistance will be available for fieldwork in selected research sites, which you will conduct during the class-free period, but you will be largely responsible for organizing your own field research. In the winter semester, you will write up your research report and the in-class sessions will be organised in the format of writing workshops in which we discuss the results of your research on the basis of submitted texts.

The credit points for each semester will be given separately. In the summer semester, you will receive your Studienleistung for a class presentation of your research proposal towards the end of the class period, and in the winter semester the submission of texts and material for discussion in the scheduled sessions. The term paper/Hausarbeit will be in the form of a research report to be delivered at the end of the winter semester. Your Prüfungsleistung will be graded according to the quality of the research report and on condition that you have participated in both parts of the seminar.

The faculty has limited funding available for travel costs incurred by those doing fieldwork outside of Bielefeld, for which the convenor would have to apply on the basis of projected needs.

Requirements for participation, required level

This is not a methods class. The Lehrforchung is intended to deepen and consolidate existing skills in ethnographic research through practical application − the assumption is that you come to the seminar with prior methodological knowledge and skills. It is therefore recommended to students who have attended or at least are in the process of attending a methods seminar that focuses on ethnographic research.