This short film introduces four types of triangulation, each illustrated by an example drawn from real-world sociological research. The film concludes with a brief assessment of the benefits and limitations of different types of triangulation.
Traditionally criminology focused on criminal action and its control. Labelling theory widened the focus to include the social reaction to crime and its consequences. This film documents the rise and fall of labelling theory and illustrates how aspects of it continue to influence contemporary criminology…
Understanding research methods isn’t easy for many students and a lot of them also find it boring. This film uses different techniques to make research methods more interesting, accessible and easier to understand. It looks at three key questions: Why do students have to study research methods?…
Sometimes practised far away from the world and sometimes in the full glare of hostile media, there are thousands of new religions. With examples, such as the Moonies, Scientology, the Missionary Church of Kopimism, Paganism and the doomsday cult Heaven’s Gate, this film identifies some of the…
Some research questions can only really be studied by sociologists getting out of their offices and interacting directly with the people they want to study. Starting with the famous Chicago School of sociology, this film uses both contemporary (Ferrell) and classic (Patrick, Holdaway, Humphries,…
Over the past 50 years an increasingly-influential school of criminology has argued that finding “the causes of crime” or “solutions to the problem of crime” is not possible. The best we can do, they argue, is manage and limit the extent of crime. Situational Crime Prevention,…
How do school students negotiate the pressures to perform well academically alongside the pressure to be popular and cool? Carolyn Jackson combined questionnaires and interviews to research this question and this film uses her study, Lads and Ladettes, to illustrate why these methods are chosen,…
Spatial criminology asks whether it’s possible to reduce crime by changing social spaces. This film begins with Zimbardo’s influential abandoned cars experiment and the development of Wilson and Kelling’s Broken Windows theory. It looks at the impact of Broken Windows policy on…
Robert Merton was one of the first sociologists to look at the relationship between culture and crime and this short film provides a clear introduction to Strain Theory - one of the most influential criminological theories of the 20th century. It also looks at Strain Theory's application to contemporary…
When Vincent Li murdered and then cannibalised 22 year old Tim McLean on a Greyhound Bus heading for Winnipeg, the shock waves ran through Canadian society. But when Li was found unfit to face trail and later released, shock turned to outrage and triggered a social media moral panic. This film,…
With contributions from leading experts on the study of religion, this film gives students a new take on secularisation theory. While secularisation theory assumes that in pre-modernity religion was everywhere whereas in modernity it’s almost nowhere, more recent research suggests that rather…
Lacanian seminar
