Sociology Revision Booklets: 6. Culture and Identity

Somewhat surprisingly, at least to me, there seems to be a positive dearth of Culture and Identity related revision material, at least of the Word / Pdf variety (PowerPoint users seem much better served). Why that should be I don’t know but I have managed to find a few resources you and your students might […]

23 | Health: Part 4

In this final chapter in the Health series the main focus is on the role of health professionals in society, as seen through the lens of four sociological perspectives: • Functionalist, with the main focus on the role of health systems and health professionals. • Marxist, looking at medicine in terms of its production and […]

13 | Youth: Part 2

The notion of “youth” as a fairly recent (i.e. modernist) phenomenon leads to the question of exactly why this type of life-stage geminates in the transition from pre-modernity to modernity and comes into full-flower in late-modern / postmodern societies? In other words, what Is the role played by youth culture / subcultures in society? The […]

12 | Youth: Part 1

It’s probably fair to say the topic of Youth is one of the roads less travelled when it comes to a-level sociology, but I always found it an interesting area to teach / study, particularly because it also links neatly with a couple of the more popular a-level Units in education and deviance. This initial […]

Gay Best Friends as Consumers and Commodities

If you’re looking for something slightly different to incorporate into your Culture and Identity / Media Sociology teaching this book chapter on “Effeminacy and Expertise, Excess and Equality: Gay Best Friends as Consumers and Commodities in Contemporary Television” by Susie Khamis and Anthony Lambert might well fit the bill. Of particular interest here might be […]

Sociology ShortCuts: Crime, Consumption and Harm

In this ShortCut Dr Matt Follet briefly explains how consumption patterns in contemporary societies link into ideas about environmental / green crime and the concept of harm. It’s available in two flavours and while it’s usual to say that “you pays your money and you takes your choice” this would be a bit superfluous because […]

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 […]

Disneyfication

Bryman’s (1999) concept of “disneyfication” refers to the various processes involved in contemporary social and organisational change and for our (A-level) purposes we can understand these processes in terms of 4 key concepts: Theming De-differentiation of Consumption Merchandising Emotional Labour. If you want to explore these ideas further this simple poster should suffice.