Social Inequality

the Queen’s speech

essential reading for budding young sociologists.  Read here.

Population statistics

I’ve seen a number of interesting stories and programmes exploring ideas relating to population levels.  The most recent was this morning on the BBC, asking if the number of people alive today (about 7 billion) outnumbers the number of people that have ever lived on earth.  Most of these debates centre on the fear that at some point there will be too many people for the world to handle.

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TED - videoed talks

TED is a fantastic resources of talks on a multitude of subjects.  Go and have a browse - you are sure to find something interesting / fun / challenging / useful / eye-opening… 

I like this selection on ‘what makes us happy?’

Feminism and Technology

This year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) has caused some controversy, with companies employing ‘booth babes’ to help promote their products.  You can watch a news clip here, featuring interviews with attendees and ‘babes’.

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Crime and Deviance - London riots

The government published last week their interim report on the violence during the summer.  You can find it here.

The LSE and the Guardian newspaper also carried out research, interviewing many of those involved.  The findings are summarised in an article here.

Contraception

Useful article about the impact of the introduction of the contraceptive pill.

Family incomes

I’m having trouble uploading resources to the website currently, but there are plenty of stories in the news that provide a good basis for discussion.  One on the BBC today questions how easy it is to live on £40,000pa (the average combined income for two adults in the UK).  Read it here.

Growing populations

The growing population of our planet is of great interest to sociologists, and of concern to many.  This neat app on the BBC lets you work out what ‘number’ you are - a great little starter for discussion.

African-Caribbean underachievement

Interesting and baldly stated article about reasons for underachievement by black boys.  A good starting point for a lesson.

Social Capital - Again

Apologies, I missed this one.  On this recent episode of Thinking Allowed, sociologist Ben Fine pokes his head above the parapet and has the nerve to suggest that the concept of social capital is a load of codswallop. Not very useful. The wrong way of looking at things. Sounds fair enough to me. But students - evaluate!

Social Capital

There’s been a lot of talk about social capital in AS/A sociology for a while now. So I’ll take this opportunity to suggest some reasons for caution in using the concept.

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Measuring Ethnic Inequalities

Sorry to have been silent for the last few days, I’ll fill in later today or this week.  Anyway folks, before people pack up for the holidays here’s a very useful research note from sociologists at the University of Surrey’s Social Research Unit.

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Racist Humour

I remember writing a post some time ago which posed a few questions about racism and humour. Well, now it seems some of my questions can be answered by Simon Weaver of Loughborough University, who has made study of this area the focus of his academic work.  You can hear him speaking on Thinking Allowed, R4.

Inequality and Difference

I think this series from C4 should be really useful material for all sociology students. Obviously it’s great sport watching MPs get a verbal battering, but there are also lots of interesting points about social inequality which can be brought out from the seris - at least if the episode I saw this week (Ep 2 apparent) was anything to go by.  I particularly enjoyed the sight of Mark Oaten fuming in moral indignation because his host spent 40 quid on cigarettes, only to find her searching up his expenses on Google and giving him an unbraiding for his own profligacy.

Education and Equality

A bit political, a bit controversial today, but I saw this today in The Guardian and thought it was spot on. There’s a fair bit of sociology in it too, towards the end. I guess you could argue that Hanley oversimplifies a bit, but I’ve been one of those who have found New Labour, well, just a bit too ‘New’ if I can put it that way for now. For me, this hits the nail pretty much on the head. But then, perhaps I’m just a simplistic, unreconstructed old leftie?

Quote for the Week coming up tomorrow and somewhere in the T2U machinery there’s another quiz waiting to be published.

Have a great weekend.

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