Latest figures show that as large as one in five A-levels taken by pupils at private schools achieved the top A* grade, compared with the national average of one in 10. This year’s shortage of university places together with the… Read More ›
Archive for August 2010
Reflections on a year spent studying asexuality
I was a little confused when I first encountered the term asexual. The person who used the term defined as asexual and yet, living with him at the time, I knew he had sex. Or at the very least that… Read More ›
Support an Interesting Study
Dear Colleagues, My name is Minu Mathews and I am a postgraduate researcher at the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds. I am writing to ask if you would be interested in taking part in a new… Read More ›
University of Warwick CSWG Call for papers
The Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick would like to invite postgraduate students from any institution working in the field to present at the Graduate Student Seminar Series for the coming academic year… Read More ›
There is no alternative?
If the new government is to be believed, we stand on the verge of unparalleled fiscal catastrophe. We suffer from an unprecedented ‘debt crisis’ of a scale more egregious than the government knew and with consequences more severe than it… Read More ›
First as tragedy, then as farce
An RSA animate video presenting a recent lecture by iconclastic Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. It’s an accessible introduction to the area he’s worked in recently (particularly in first as tragedy, then as farce) for those unfamiliar with Žižek and an entertaining distillation… Read More ›
Interview with Alan Morrison (part 2)
Prakash: The media has made it terribly unfashionable to use words like “socialist” or “communist” or “leftist.” In fact any seriously pro-poor position makes it difficult for writers and researchers to find a platform to their work. How do you… Read More ›
Interview with Alan Morrison (part 1)
Alan Morrison (b. 18 July 1974) is an English poet for whom poetry is about changing the world rather than describing it. In complex and radical ways though not without conflicts, Morrison brings together his life and art to argue… Read More ›
Promoting events or projects on the Sociological Imagination
If you have an event or project that you would like to promote via the Sociological Imagination then please don’t hesitate to get in contact by e-mail or through facebook. We’re happy to post up calls for papers, requests for participants and… Read More ›
Niall Ferguson on the Ascent of Money
An interesting talk by arch-Conservative historian Niall Ferguson on the history of finance. While Ferguson’s politics might not be to everybody’s tastes (witness his recent interview in the New Statesman) he is an increasingly influential public intellectual with a genuine talent… Read More ›
Media, Intellectuals and Masses
Nothing is more dangerously addictive than the media which like the pool of Narcissus can absorb you body and soul. You fall in love with the face that is your face. You are obsessed with the voice that is your… Read More ›
Steven Slater and Late Capitalism
For those of us who first became interested in politics during the era of the internet and twenty-four news, it can feel a bit weird being out of the loop. That’s why on my recent holiday, deprived of the guardian… Read More ›
Continuous Partial Attention
A fascinating article by Linda Stone on the psychological impact of technological abundance: “In the case of continuous partial attention, we’re motivated by a desire not to miss anything. We’re engaged in two activities that both demand cognition. We’re talking on the phone… Read More ›
Car Boot Sale
In this episode, a sneaky ethnographer of East European origin embarks on a quest to deconstruct one of Britain’s informal institutions: The Local Bank Holiday Sunday Car Boot Sale. Below are her unabridged and unabashed field-notes. Rather than participant observation, this… Read More ›
UCU says student support lottery must stop
UCU said yesterday that it was ludicrous that the amount of financial aid students currently receive is random and that universities with a good track of widening participation can only offer meagre support to their students. Responding to a report… Read More ›
UCU National Demonstration on Wednesday 10 November 2010
Earlier this week NUS and UCU launched the ‘Fund our Future’ campaign and have written to our sister unions and community organisations to ask them to join with us in this progressive coalition to defend education and to get involved… Read More ›
Cité-seeing in Milan
20th July, Milano, Piazza della Vetra ‘A new colourful Milan, more and more like the city in which we would like to wake up every day’. This quote from Ron English’s Absolut Elvis Presley wallpaper in Piazza della Vetra (next… Read More ›
The Strange World of Terence Kealey
A fascinating feature from the Guardian Education on Terence Kealey. Since 2001 Kealey has been the Vice Chancellor of Buckingham University. He’s a passionate (another word would be shrill) advocate of private education which is quite appropriate given Buckingham’s unique… Read More ›
A reminder about our two Calls for Papers
Social Research in an Age of Austerity A new coalition government pledges an unparalleled age of fiscal austerity and a new universities minister promises radical ‘reform’ of higher education: what does the future hold for the British university in an… Read More ›
The Privacy of Public Sociology
As a retort to Michael Burawoy’s conception of Public Sociology here’s Mathieu Deflem on the privacy of public sociology:
Call for Interviews
Plans are currently in motion to bring a number of interviews to the Sociological Imagination over the next few months. However we’d like you to help us bring an ever wider selection of interviews to the website. If there’s anyone you’d… Read More ›
Anna Minton on the Psychology of Place
An interview with Anna Minton about her superb book Ground Control:
Robert Shiller on Animal Spirits
A fascinating interview with the author of the recent book Animal Spirits (how human psychology drives the economy and why it matters for global capitalism). Definitely worth a listen for anyone who has an interest in heterodox economics. I was… Read More ›