Inequality

If you’re teaching inequality, poverty, or stratification, this article by Mark Easton looks like a useful bit of additional material.

Childhood in the News

Lots of stuff today and yesterday about childhood.  The Today programme had some interesting discussion about the decline in the number of children dying as a result of violence.  Last night’s edition of Newsnight had a very useful discussion on whether the British dislike children. featuring the wonderfully eccentric Camilla Batmangeilidh and Michael Bywater.  Useful stuff, as I said. Do try to use it.

Stereotyping and Nations

Thinking Allowed looks quite useful today - discussing ethnicity, ethnic identity and how it has or can be a commodity. And indeed, I think Laurie Taylor’s example of stereotyping could be very usefully adapted for classroom use, so here it is, below. Try getting students to think about stereotyping identity at different levels - local and national.

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TES Forum

I guess everybody will know about this - but I only just heard about it.  Doesn’t seem to be much on it at the moment, but it’s worth looking at and considering using. Of course readers can use the T2U Soc Blog comment facility, but the TES Forum, as the name implies, tries to do a rather different thing. Lots of stuff on Psychology, but some Sociology comments are visible!

Family Programme

Back now from the States, so apologies for the lack of posts. It was in fact quite hard to find internet access during my visit and when I did I’m afraid family communications took priority. 

This Monday, Kirsty Young’s series looks at children in the context of the family. Should be worth looking at and a source of some useful material.

Research Methods Resource

Here’s a little resource that I’ve made which I hope will be useful. Thanks to my colleague Lord Sutch on Business Studies T2U for the idea. We teachers are noted for our ability to pillage.

Teachers - there are a number of deliberate mistakes in this resource.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to give this to your students and guide them through it.  From my recent exam marking experience, many students get confused about quantitative and qualitative methods, and validity and reliability.  The idea of this resource is to get it ‘hard-wired’ into their brains. Hope it works.

Next week I will be away in the US on family business.  I will however try to do a few blogs for your delectation and delight.

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Work and Bears

Laurie Taylor on Thinking Allowed has some stuff this week on work and teddy bears. Well, I was more interested in the stuff on work, but I guess bears could be a useful addition to your material on the social construction of childhood.

To sound - briefly - like a grumpy old man, I remember the days when I studied for an O level in sociology and we did a bit on work and leisure and it shed quite a bit of light on things for me.  So throw away your scheme of work for a few lessons and rig up some lesson plans on work. Alienation, human and scientific management, EP Thompson, Braverman, technological determinism, and of course, globalisation, fordism, just-in-time management.  Taylor’s programme can maybe provide some ideas or light relief.  But surely every sociology AS or GCSE student, should know a bit about the sociology of work? Shouldn’t they? 

Quote for the Week

Tied up yesterday, so here’s a quote for the week to get things rolling. I’m feeling a bit cheeky, so here’s something which is a bit difficult - but hey, it’s good to think. It’s from Marshall Berman’s book - All that Is Solid Melts Into Air.

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Politics and Impression Management

I guess my colleagues over on the Politics blog may also be interested in this, but it grabbed my attention, and I have to say, amused me.  Apparently Speaker John Berkow is behind the launching of a computer game which allows students to get a taste of life as an MP.

Of course, nasty cynical sociologists - like myself - will ask you to consider the extent to which this can be seen as a crafty bit of impression management by the politicians.  And while we’re on that front - what other strategies can people -and institutions - use to try and ensure that their actions are seen as legitimate?  It’s the art of impression management - and there is a rich vein of the study of this sort of thing in sociology.  For starters, investigate Goffman’s book, Asylums, where he identifies the various roles inmates in institutions like hospitals, schools and prisons adopt.

Just a Cartoon?

Yesterday’s Thinking Allowed included some interesting discussion on the publication of cartoons depicting Mohammed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark back in 2005.  This should be useful for anyone currently looking at ‘media effects’ - the piece provides some useful food for thought and indicates that it isn’t just the media producers’ intentions or activity which is important. 

More Mapping Crime

We’re having a bit of a crimefest at the moment I guess.  A big thanks to Jim for posting up those links.  That’s prompted me to jot down some ideas about a lesson I used to do on this topic - I link it into the Chicago School stuff. Jim says ‘what is it about the Bronx?’. Well, the Chicago School said it was all about zones of transition. But were they right?  There are also a couple more links on my lesson plan.  Hope its useful.

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Quote for the Week

Ages since I’ve done a quote for the week, so here goes. Anyone remember Paul Willis? Here’s something from him.

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Crime in the UK - Mapping the Crime Stats

Another great resource for students here - a postcode-by-postcode interactive map of the latest UK crime statistics. Check out your own school area, home address or make some comparisons between two different locations.  A great starting point for discussion on crime in the UK.  Stats can be downloaded to Excel too - to encourage students to turn their hands to some DTP and data analysis.

History of the Noughties

Well it’s typical I guess, but as soon as I open my big mouth and start moaning about elitism and the lack of critiques of meritocracy getting a sufficient airing in the media, along comes a programme that shows how wrong I am.

I caught the last two episodes of The History of the Noughties.  Much as I hate to dish out praise to the legions of hacks out there, I have to say I thought it was very helpful. In fact, it seemed to me that the last two episodes were covering the area that AS/A level sociology should have absolutely sorted (in my opinion the major syllabuses don’t quite manage to do it).  It’s a matter of balancing and selecting content more carefully.  So maybe this resource could help teachers create their own scheme of work and somehow or other, work in the syllabus stuff around it. Tall order I know - we can but try.  On a petty, ad hominen and critical note, it did irritate me how many of the great and the good, the usual suspects etc, found the time to peer down from their pedestals to tell us how elitest and hierarchical our society is.  How come it took them so long to notice? 

Its Murder in New York City

Came across this fantastic interactive resource which allows the reader to interact with all the recent homocide data in NYC.  A great example of data visualisation and packed full with insights into the nature of murder in the Big Apple.  Can you spot any trends from year to year?  What about the difference between day and night?  And what is it about the Bronx??

Launch interactivre guide to murder in NYC

The Social Construction of Beauty

Here are a few examples of cross-cultural views of beauty, which I’ve gleaned from the book ‘The Lolita Effect’. I’ve promised to review this and I will post up a complete review soon.  First impressions though are that the book isn’t that great a source for sociology teachers, but it does have some moderately useful snippets in it.  Read on for a few examples of how ideas of beauty have varied over time and in different cultures.

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Family History

It took me ages to find this on the BBC website after hearing it trailed sometime over the last couple of days - thanks BBC.
However, my gripes aside, this history of the modern family on BBC2 should be a useful resource for sociology teachers. There are a couple of useful links too, including a focus on marriage trends on Northern Ireland. It will be broadcast next monday (Jan 11) at 9.00.

More Status

I must be obsessed or something - a bit more on status today - which I hope will be useful for those teaching or studying the topic.

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Status Frustration

Perhaps blogging on fat cats the other day prompted this thought, but it occured to me today that status frustration is perhaps deserving of more attention.

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Fat Cat Meritocracy

There was an interesting discussion between the crime writer PD James and Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC on R4’s Today programme this morning (NB You have seven days in which to follow up the link if you want to listen to it). The meritocracy debate is something which we discuss a lot in Sociology because it’s on all the syllabuses; but my impression is that when the debate leaves the hallowed grounds of the sociology class or the lecture hall, there seems little debate. There seems to be a considerable, weighty consensus that we live in a meritocracy.

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Class Studies

Laurie Taylor’s Thinking Allowed has a programme - today 30/12 and repeated on Jan 4th, about social mobility and class.  The programme comes from the University of Bedfordshire and will feature various panellists including Lynsey Hanley and Dick Hobbs.  Much needed discussion on this now rather neglected, but sociologically important topic.

Thomas - the last word?

I am grateful to reader Mark Gillard for pointing out that Thomas may have an autobiography out next week. Pure coincidence, I’m sure!!  Thanks to Mark for bringing us back to the inevitable - the impact of economic structures. 

Mariage a la Mode

Here’s a very interesting report on the BBC claiming that the Conservatives are worried that marriage will become a middle class ‘thing’.  If you’ve read your textbook/s you will know that support for marriage - especially but not exclusively - from the Conservative Party is nothing new.  But the claim is intriguing.  As far as I can see in the article there is no mention of evidence regarding a class differential in marriage rates, although it is well known that the rate is in downward trend.  Food for thought here.  Why might those from lower social classes be less inclined to marry? Money? Culture? Both?  Discuss.

More on Gareth Thomas

A big thanks to reader Gill Swain who has made what I think are some very useful additional comments on Gareth Thomas. I think they will get more notice posted up here (although I’m sure everyone knows how to use and read the comment boxes!). Once again we can see that drawing on another discipline has its uses.

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Gareth Thomas, Gay Sexuality and Social Control

The news that Gareth Thomas has ‘come out’ as a gay man means that the Sociology Blog has work to do, holiday time or no!  See below for a few brief comments.

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Christmas - Humbug?

Not at all - just dropping in to say that although the term has ended my dearth of postings last week was unintended, but arose as I had to get to a library to do some last minute research.  Still at it actually, trying to find a few nice bits of material to reinforce my short book on the middle east conflict for Franklin Watts.  You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find something on the intelligence services in the Arab nations!

Anyhow, I am intending to keep posting over the Christmas period, though probably not the actual holiday itself! Plans for the Sociology Blog in the next year include: the appearance of the rumoured summary/handout on The Lolita Effect, and I’m aiming to get some updates - in the form of handouts or presentations on a few topics - will keep that a surprise.

All for now. Trust you will all have an enjoyable holiday time.

Brands

Just a brief reflection and maybe a question today on brands.

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The Sociology of Pubs

Laurie Taylor in Thinking Allowed today, had a bit on what you can loosely call the ‘sociology of pubs’. That’s the sort of thing that can get sociology a bad name - but worth a listen perhaps. After all, it is - nearly - Christmas.

Language and Society

Here’s a good example of linguistic differences which I found in John Mullan’s ‘How Novels Work’.

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Statistics

More or Less is back today and if you are a sociology teacher or student its well worth listening to. Today’s programme looks at whether energy-efficient lightbulbs are all they are cracked up to be - not directly the turf of sociology, I agree, but hey, sociologists - especially me - do need to try to be numerate. And on that topic - see below for some quick tips about how to check statistical data.

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Single Person Households

Speaking of Laurie Taylor, there was a good item on his programme about single person families the other day.
Click here.

Modern Man

I must be careful not to turn into Laurie Taylor, but I must tell you about this gentleman I saw outside the bank yesterday morning.
The bank was closed because they were having a spot of trouble with the cash dispenser. 

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Quote for the Week

Predictable, I know, but one which all Sociology students should get familiar with. 

“ The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.”

The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels.

And in riposte to the ‘out of date’ brigade, let me say that this quote still raises questions which are highly relevant to anyone studying Sociology today. Unlike our friends in the natural sciences, in social science it is far harder for us to consign ‘old’ work to the dustbin of history. 

So get thinking:is this a useful model of social change? And what is class and does it still exist?

School League Tables

I thank my wife for passing this snippet on - not sure where she finds it, but she works with a load of statistics people at Cambridge University and they spend hours looking at this stuff.  I do wonder if Harvey Goldstein has been consistent on this issue, but isn’t it ironic that we now seem to have come full circle?  How much longer will we have league tables for?  I have always believed that they did not measure anything particularly meaningful in terms of school effectiveness or ‘quality’ and were just a crude index of social advantage or disadvantage. 

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Dick Hobbs

I’m an examiner - in recovery.

Just because his book is pretty popular, here are a couple of links to interviews with Dick Hobbs. Sorry to those already familiar with them, but I think they give a useful insight into the background and interests of this well known Sociologist.

ESRC Society Today

Guardian

And perhaps - as my posting on PO seems to have been very popular, I’d better get working and do a presentation on PO.  Consider it in the pipeline.  I’ll see if I can dig out some alternative examples of PO - the standard studies invariably get a bit tedious once they’ve been repeated ad nauseam.