BBC “Analysis” Podcasts
Over the past 10 years BBC Radio 4’s Analysis series has created a range of podcasts “examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics”. There are over 200 podcasts to trawl through, many of which won’t be of any interest or use to sociology […]
GCSE AQA Sociology Revision Guides
I recently came across this interesting set of guides for the AQA Spec., written by Lydia Hiraide of The BRIT School. The guides are dated 2013 – and although I’m not sure how they might fit into the latest Specification, I’m guessing there’s going to be a lot here that’s still relevant. You can download […]
Visualising Class Structures
Visualising Class Structures is a PowerPoint Presentation, designed for whole-class teaching, that features visual representations of ten different class structures / variations, accompanied by some of the key ideas involved in each classification. Brief background Notes for teachers are also included with each slide. The current presentation has been updated (2019) to include Savage’s “7 […]
Class, Consumption and Taste Cultures
My attention was caught the other day by a sleight little piece in a London newspaper (“12 signs you’re middle class”) that got me thinking about a neglected – but I’d argue increasingly relevant and interesting – dimension to social class: the role of taste cultures in defining different class identities. While the article is […]
Class identities and Class Niches
An interesting aspect of changing class structures in late-modernity is the various ways different strata seek to carve out class identities and niches – with the middle-classes in particular seeking to distance themselves from their “social inferiors” in a range of novel ways: from “moral disgust” (the working class as “disgusted subjects”) to well-developed “taste […]
Social capital: Internships
The concept of social capital refers to the “networks of influence” people are able to create and key into through the course of their lives and an interesting example linked to family, education and work is the contemporary practice of internship. This frequently involves the ability to work for a potential employer for free in […]
Social Inequality: applying cultural and economic capital
You may be familiar with Robert Putnam’s ideas about social capital (“Bowling Alone”), where he argues that a key feature of late modern societies is the breakdown of large-scale, organised, social networks (such as political parties, trade unions and the like). His latest work – Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, 2015 – features […]
Institutional Racism?
It’s always useful to have a range of examples – especially contemporary examples – to hand when / if you need to illustrate a particular idea, theory or concept. And in the context of Institutional Racism, this Report by the Institute of Race Relations that has uncovered the fact that in terms of the 500+ […]
Gender and Inequality
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is always a go-to source for all types of statistical data on a variety of topics and this one is no exception. With links to both gender and social inequality “Welcome to unequal England” uses ONS data to show how inequalities impact on some of the most important life […]
Racist Dogs and Institutional Racism
Dogs can’t, of course, be racist – but their handlers certainly can – and if you’re looking for a contemporary example of systemic racism then the US Department of Justice report into the killing of Michael Brown probably fits the bill.