“Sociology’s great intellectual contribution is to have recognised that the self is very much a social product. Although people have instincts, dreams, private thoughts, human experience is heavily influenced by our membership in important social groups such as family, church, school, neighbourhood, class, race, gender, generation, nation. The self, for every sociologist, is largely but perhaps not entirely, an outcome of social structure - our economies, political systems, cultures, media, religions, military, policing, education.  To ignore all of these external influences is to be a psychologist!”

Ben Agger (2004) The Virtual Self, p44, Blackwell.

Lots to discuss here and it doesn’t need to mean that we consign psychology to the dustbin.  As so many students now are studying psychology, it might be useful to highlight why there is a bit of tension between sociologists and psychologists around the vexed issue of structure and action.  Maybe both subjects have their uses and their limitations?

Do some students really not see the problem with answers like this?  Or are they just embarrassed and desperately trying to fill the paper, or perhaps they think it is amusing?

I really don’t know, but I would just advise all students out there - avoid this like the plague.  Make sure you know and can define the basic concepts of your subject.  There are many complaints these days about standards, but one thing is constant; you still need to have some knowledge to pass an exam.

“Only ‘bad news,’ relating to conflict, drama, unlawful deals, or objectionable behavior, is interesting news. Since news is increasingly framed to parallel (and compete with) entertainment shows, or sports events, so is its logic. It requires drama, suspense, conflict, rivalries, greed, deception, winners and losers, and, if possible, sex and violence. Following the pace,and language, of sports casting, “horse race politics” is reported as an endless game of ambitions, maneuvers, strategies and counter-strategies, with the help of insider confidences and constant opinion polling from the media themselves.”

M. Castells, The Power of Identity, p32, OUP.

Today the BBC have reported that the RAF Red Arrows have appointed their first female pilot.  The film clip by the way, made me feel sick.

So, no cracks from the guys about women drivers.  One sociological question about this however, might be why it has taken so long for us to reach this landmark appointment.  Clue - check out the Equal Opportunities Act and the Sex Discrimination Act in the 1970s.  Also note changes in the education system which may have helped.

Prof. David Held of the LSE, would I’m sure - because he’s pointed to things like this before - say that this shows what a success sociology has been. Yes folks, Flt Lt. Moore can partly thank Sociology for her success! Why? Because, according to Prof Held, its the work done by Sociologists which has, over a long period of time, helped to change social attitudes.

But another question; does this mean that men and women are now equal? Have all the old attitudes gone forever? I’ll leave you to find evidence for or against that.

Finally - that thing about women drivers. Ever heard of ‘essentialism’?  It’s the concept that each sex has ‘essential’ or fixed characteristics which are natural and cannot be changed. Part of their essential nature.  Flt Lt Moore shows that essentialism must be wrong: if one women can do it, so can others.  So, it can’t be down to sex.

Here’s a link to the BBC take on the matter.

My new American passport arrived today. Yes, reader, I marr...., ahh, b******, I mean, yes, reader, I am neither one thing nor the other. Or am I?

Which is all a roundabout way of asking the question -’What is my national/cultural identity’?

Well, national and cultural identity aren’t exactly the same thing.

The way I see it, through an accident of birth, I have two pieces of documentation which give me citizenship rights in two countries. As for cultural affiliations, well, I’ve only lived in the USA for a few years, as a very young kid.  The rest of my life has been spent in the UK.  When I go to the USA, I feel like a British visitor. So culturally, if you like, I’m a Brit. Then again, how important is nationality to my identity? I really don’t know about that one!

There must be lots more people - students and teachers - with a dual national background or who have parents who weren’t born in the UK.  Which culture do they feel closer to, and why?

But I’m sure there will be some much more resourceful, robust, and ‘with-it’ teachers than me out there, who will be able to make some use of Waterloo Road. Good luck to you all! Myself, I found it like a really bad pantomime, with some excruciatingly predictable villains and plot.

I do wish the BBC would ban dramas based in schools. Tell the script writers to try and come up with something more interesting.And imaginative.  OK, I know I shouldn’t carp - as someone who keeps wittering on about the superiority of stuff like Kojak, but really, there are limits.

Happy viewing.

This might be a useful device to allow teachers to get students thinking about sociological perspectives on education.

I heard that Laurie Taylor on R4 Thinking Allowed is having a 2 programme special on white collar crime.  Catch it live or on podcast - should be good.

I spent the day at an examiner’s meeting in Cambridge and am now all set up for a few weeks of Sociology marking. Amazing how many different ways students can find to answer a (fairly) simple question.  Amazing too, how students can avoid answering a question with an evasive or ambiguously-worded response.  Good English is vital to doing well in a subject like Sociology. I’ll try and give a few brief examples and a brief point about the skill of elaboration in the next few days.

Yesterday evening, I attended a broadcast of Any Questions in Cambridge.  If you listen carefully you will be able to hear me clapping at a few - only a few - points in the programme. I think Sociology teachers and students should listen to programmes like this pretty regularly. 

The only sociological insight I’ll offer is this.  There was one question to the effect that Nicholas Stern has written a report which recommends that we should all eat less meat as beef production contributes significantly to global warming. The panel was asked whether they would be changing their diet. The question led to inevitable joking and I think I’m right in saying that not one of the panel said they would be changing their eating habits.

I suggest this is an example of ‘individualisation’.  We are encouraged so strongly to be and think of ourselves as individuals, rather than as members of social groups, that even when something threatens our existence, we persist in carrying on with potentially harmful behaviour.  Individual interests trump all others.  I’m sure there is a social psychological angle too - cognitive dissonance - but I think that the sociological angle is at least equally important, if not more so.

Finally, just to let you know, my copy of ‘The Lolita Effect’ has arrived.  It will take a while before I can get around to reading it, but its on the desk.

I’m about to start some part-time teaching work with the homeless and that’s what has prompted me to make this comment.

Living near Cambridge, it’s hard not to have missed all the publicity gained by Alexander Masters book ‘Stuart - A Life Backwards’ , which was also made into a film. 

Check out this review and why not get a copy from your local library.  It’s a great read and a chance to inject something different into the sociology syllabus.