There was a fascinating debate in a recent issue of the British Journal of Sociology about the current status of the discipline in the UK. Well worth a read for those who have access to the journal: Sociology’s misfortune; disciplines,… Read More ›
Archive for March 2011
Walking Life
Walking Life (2001) is a live-action rotoscoped film, directed by Richard Linklater. It won’t answer all your questions about the meaning of life, but it will prompt you to ask even more.
New column! “Visual Sociology” call for reader submissions
For all professional and/or novice visual researchers out there: the Sociological Imagination is pleased to announce its new column dedicated to “Visual Research”. To celebrate its beginning, we are launching a continuous call for reader submissions. The call is open… Read More ›
The Persistence of Print
Starting today the 28 March 2011, the New York Times will go behind a paywall, following The Times, The Economist, Financial Times, and other subscription-based print periodicals with an online co-presence. For those who choose not to subscribe, access will… Read More ›
Rape Culture
`What is the rape culture? What are its borders? What does it look like and sound like and feel like?’ Melissa McEwan, founder and co-author of the award-winning political and cultural group blog Shakespeareville, explains. Click on link to read… Read More ›
Coffee and redemption: Zizek on capitalism
Slavoi Zizek talks about modern capitalism: are buying a cup of coffee, or are we buying redemption for being consumers?
Call for Papers: what does the Sociological Imagination mean today?
It has been over 50 years since C. Wright Mills wrote the Sociological Imagination. In that time the world has changed beyond recognition: the Cold War ended, the Keynesian consensus broke down, a globalizing neoliberalism rose to the ascendancy and… Read More ›
Facebook, emotion, and the future of media
The Nieman Journalist Lab is a project of the Nieman foundation at Harvard university. In this article, Joshua Benton unravels the meaning of social media for news-sharing, and points out the emotional nature of many of the new tools that… Read More ›
Fewer applicants for law school: why?
One of the long-haul effects of the credit crunch is beginning to manifest itself: US law schools are registering a notable decrease in the number of applicants, connected to dwindling job prospects for law graduates. This may not be bad… Read More ›
23 March: International ‘Hug a Sociologist’ Day
…is today! Hug a sociologist – wherever you are! See facebook event here
English students forced to look further afield to escape higher tuition fees
The well-documented and lamented Higher Education tuition fees rise has forced many English students to consider undertaking their studies at Irish and Scottish institutions as this article suggests. Tuition fees in Ireland prove to be less costly than those in… Read More ›
Sen: Power and Capability (annual DEMOS lecture 2010)
Sen gave the annual lecture at DEMOS last year, on 15 March 2010, shortly after his latest book, The Idea of Justice (2009) was published. Watch the lecture here: http://www.demos.co.uk/events/annual-lecture-2010-hd
Why Didn’t Japan Expect the Worst?
Japan is used to earthquakes. Japanese children grow up practicing earthquake drills in school; building codes are among the strictest in the world. It goes without saying that in another time or place, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake which struck on the… Read More ›
Dr. Uncut – Research students analyse cuts in Higher Education
So far, the debate on the increase in tuition fees and cuts in Higher Education has focused mainly on the consequences for undergraduate students. We can all imagine the impact on undergraduates of being saddled with a debt that even… Read More ›
Ten Lies of Ethnography: article by G.A.Fine
In his article TEN LIES OF ETHNOGRAPHY : Moral Dilemmas of Field Research (published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 1993 22: 267), Gary Alan Fine discusses the dilemmas faced by ethnographic researchers. He singles out the “classic virtues” (the… Read More ›
Johanna Blakley: Social media and the end of gender
An absolutely fascinating Ted Talk about how the expansion of social media is changing the construction of gender within contemporary society. Comments on this would be very appreciated! It’s a provocative argument…
Madness and Civilization?
Perhaps very many of us are on the verge of a dangerous psychotic breakdown, only we don’t know it yet. Perhaps we do need psychiatrists on the streets of our cities to stop us before we schiz out all over… Read More ›
Emotional management during research: A personal reflection
Dickson-Smith et al (2009: 61) suggest that ‘undertaking qualitative research is an embodied experience and that researchers may be emotionally affected by the work that they do’. They also state that this ‘emotional work’ (Hochschild 1983) is rarely theoretically or… Read More ›
Media Do Matter
Do you check your email before brushing your teeth in the morning? I must confess that I do, a habit I acquired as an undergraduate whose computer was nearer to her bed than the shared facilities down the hall. On… Read More ›
![(Julius Axelrod at the blackboard]. March 1973. Photo from the National Library of Medicine http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/HH/Views/Exhibit/narrative/neurotransmitters.html {{PD-USGov-HHS-NIH}})](/i1.wp.com/sociologicalimagination.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20091209150215Axelrod.jpg?resize=120%2C120)
Paracetamol for social pain?
This recent (June 2010) article hypothesises that both physical and social pain ‘may rely on some of the same behavioral and neural mechanisms that register pain-related affect.’: Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence In the language of practice,… Read More ›
Prepare to give up your mobile phone after watching this…
Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondesUploaded by sassiere. – News videos hot off the press.
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
This is a reminder that the Sociological Imagination has a presence on facebook. Please do add us as a friend and feel free to get in contact. We’re always open to ideas and suggestions so please don’t hesitate if there’s… Read More ›
Casting My Net wide*: Ethnography and today’s ‘Knowing Capitalism’
Traditional anthropology and ethnography are all about daring researchers originating from civilised Western European countries venturing into unknown territories to spend half their lives living with fascinating, backward tribes. They defy the comfy practice of armchair theorising and instead theorise… 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 ›
Jeremy Paxman and Noam Chomsky interview
Watch the interview from 8 March 2011 here
China’s fertility rate ‘falls off a cliff’
Watch this fascinating live-chart by Google in which China’s fertility rate ‘falls off a cliff’ in the words of a commentator at the Business Insider: (found at http://www.businessinsider.com/population-growth-video-2011-1)
Remembering: Battle of Cable Street (1936)
Remembering old protests… The Battle of cable street took place on 4 Oct 1936 on Cable St in London’s East End between the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Mosley, and some 300,000 anti-fascists who turned up to… Read More ›