Yet another take on the happiness/misery debate. Are weather and housing prices the most important reasons to be happy? Really? Still, this account of the allegedly decreasing happiness of California residents is rather amusing to read.
Archive for February 2011
Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory
Happiness is not the same as well-being: one is the pleasure of the living self, the other the satisfaction of the remembering self. Our view of the future is in fact an anticipation of memories. Kahneman talks of the ‘tyranny… Read More ›
Discourses of Dissent – Public Universities and Public Futures
A round table session from Discourses of Dissent investigating how academic research, with a particular focus on social theory, might help us articulate and work towards a positive vision of shared futures which escape the discursive constraints which have defined… Read More ›
An Assessment of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution at Twelve Years
Is Venezuela a failed leftist experiment? Gregory Wilpert offers a comprehensive analysis of the Venezuelan revolution of 1999 and defends the opposite view. Click to read the article (source: Venezuelanalysis.com, published on 2 February 2011) Is Venezuela a failed leftist… Read More ›
Coming Soon: the Idle Ethnographer in Japan
The Idle Ethnographer is on the loose again. Stay tuned for new cité-seeing and people-watching accounts. (* Bentō: Japanese boxed lunch. Delicious.)
Why am I doing a PhD? By Sarah Smart
As I sit in my quiet but chaotic study, staring out of the window and wondering whether I can justify stopping for another cup of tea, I find myself wondering why I have spent the last three years doing social… Read More ›
‘If you tolerate this’: public spending cuts and denied opportunities
Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers writes about why knowledge is power, and why we should fight to keep public libraries open: read his article
Facebook and Egypt’s revolution
Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim thanks Facebook: I want to meet Mark Zuckerberg one day and thank him […] I’m talking on behalf of Egypt. […] This revolution started online. This revolution started on Facebook. This revolution started […] in June… Read More ›
Call for papers: ‘Methods of Theorizing: Reflective searches for Ways, Ideals and Measures’
International Social Theory Consortium 10th Annual Meeting 16-17 June, 2011 School of Sociology & Philosophy, University College Cork, Ireland. Social theory and method are inextricably bound up with one another, despite the convention of their separation and a recent tendency… Read More ›
Best and worst jobs…how about being a sociologist?
CareerCast rates 200 jobs according to average income, working environment, stress, physical demands and job outlook, using data from the US Labor Deartment and the U.S. Census. The list may contain some surprises… such as the job of a sociologist!… Read More ›
Sociology and other disciplines
Click on the image to view full size: Click on the image to see full size:
Neo-Liberalism as Utopia
During the ‘Discourses of Dissent’ conference, in response to Ruth Levitas’ presentation about the continuing need for utopias, I observed that Neo-Liberalism is a very potent example of a utopian vision that through what might be reasonably called a ‘conspiracy’… Read More ›
Discourses of Dissent – Public Universities and Public Futures
A round table session from Discourses of Dissent investigating how academic research, with a particular focus on social theory, might help us articulate and work towards a positive vision of shared futures which escape the discursive constraints which have defined… Read More ›
Lincoln to re-connect the university with its roots
Mike Neary, Professor of Teaching and Learning at Lincoln University, has just announced the formation of the Social Science Centre, which promises to be a self-organizing cooperatively owned corporation (with teachers and students as peers) devoted to higher education —… Read More ›
Time to Revisit the Port Huron Statement?
At the final discussion session of this week’s ‘Discourses of Dissent’ workshop in Birmingham, I raised the need for academics and students concerned about the future of the university to consolidate a positive position — something beyond simply protesting budget… Read More ›
‘Salad Slaves’: migrant labour in European agriculture
It is a public secret that the European agricultural industry relies heavily on cheap and precarious migrant labour: mostly Moroccans, West Africans, and, since about a decade ago, also Eastern-Europeans. Here is one of the few pieces of investigative journalism… Read More ›
Discourses of Dissent – Social Theory and the Politics of Austerity
A round table session from Discourses of Dissent exploring how social theory can help us understand the politics of austerity. How do theoretical justifications of austerity work to constrain public debate? How does the current government’s incongruous blend of neoliberal… Read More ›
The Future of the British City? A review of Ground Control by Anna Minton
Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City The reconstruction of Manchester’s city centre after the IRA’s 1996 bomb stood as the background to my teenage years and, as is often the case with such things, I never… Read More ›
Procrastination: a bargaining process gone wrong?
It is irrational. It is a mixture of weakness, ambition, and inner conflict. We’ve all done it. If you want to know why, as the present gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm our long-term goals and urge us to procrastinate –… Read More ›
SI Interviews – Catherine Coveney on Cognitive Enhancement and Modafinil
In this podcast Catherine Coveney uses the case study of Modafinil (a revolutionary ‘wakefulness’ drug reportedly subject to increasingly widespread use amongst students, academics, professionals and shiftworkers) to explore the status and practice of cognitive enhancement within contemporary society. Cognitive… Read More ›
Love for sale
…real human hearts are not gaudy, cast in gold or made of chocolate. Real human hearts are bloody, meaty, beating messes of fear and emotional flux. Cheap chocolatey sentiment distracts us from the fact that very few of us are… Read More ›
Discourses of Dissent: this Wednesday (16th) in Birmingham
Discourses of Dissent is a one day symposium, open to all, which explores the relationship between social theory and political resistance. In light of the coalition government’s austerity agenda and the emerging movement against it, the event asks how academic… Read More ›
I read it in the Daily Mail!
The Sociological Imagination advocates plurality of information sources in decision making. This song illustrates the kind of knowledge you might end up with, if you only trust one source:
’You’re old, Facebook Newsfeed’ – a poem
You’re old, Facebook Newsfeed, and terribly slow – You have nothing of interest to say “I’m cold” or “The Smiths”; or “I want it to snow” (From your cousin who lives in LA). Amazing how friends are so free with… Read More ›
SI Presents – Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley on the prospects for UK Education
In this public talk Martin Allen and Patrick Ainley discuss themes from their recent book “Lost Generation? New Strategies for Youth and Education”. They place the coalition government’s education policies in historical perspective and argue that the current crisis means… Read More ›
Who gets the best jobs?
Richard Bilton investigates how class continues to restrict access to professions and well-paid careers to a small, exclusive pool of the well-connected in modern Britain. Click to watch video (only UK viewers, unfortunately)