A-Level Revision Booklets: 1. Beliefs in Society
On the basis that you can’t have too many revision booklets (although, thinking about it, you probably can) I thought I’d post a few more I’ve somehow managed to collect, starting with three really-quite-comprehensive booklets covering Beliefs in Society (AQA), although they also cover useful stuff on Religion (OCR, Eduqas, CIE etc.). • Beliefs in […]
Learning Tables: Beliefs in Society | 1
For some reason I’ve managed to find rather a lot (20+) of Learning Tables, put together by 5 different authors, on the topic of Beliefs in Society – something that includes both religious beliefs and a range of other types (from politics through to science), although most of the Tables featured here relate to religious […]
19 | Religion: Part 4
The “secularisation debate” is one of the perennial themes in the sociology of religion and this chapter examining the strength of religion in society is mainly given-over to an outline and evaluation of the two main sides to the argument: 1. Evidence indicating the secularisation of society examines concepts of institutional, practical and ideological religious […]
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 […]
2 | The Process of Socialisation
Chapter 2 builds on the “culture material” in the first chapter by exploring how culture is created in one of two ways: 1. Through the influence of instincts, a largely non-sociological (‘nature’) approach to understanding culture. 2. Through the influence of our social environment, a conventional sociological approach that outlines different types and agencies of […]
Postmodernism and New Media
This set of Notes was originally part of a textbook chapter looking at the impact on audiences of different types of old and new media, something I mention by way of explanation for both the general focus and lack of depth in the Notes. Without wishing to bore you with the intimate details of dealing […]
Simulacra and Hyperreality
I’ve called this a “Lesson Outline” (rather than Plan) because it’s designed to introduce and to some extent explain the related concepts of simulacra and hyperreality using practical examples to illustrate the processes. What the Outline does is treat Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra and hyperreality in much greater depth than is usually the case with […]
Postmodernity and Sociological Theory
This is the second of a two-part series looking at the relationship between modernity, postmodernity and the development of sociological theory. If you want to “Start at the Start”, so to speak, with Modernity, feel free to access these Teaching Notes. Otherwise, if you’re just here for the Postmodernity stuff, in this set of Teaching […]
Crime as Postmodern Spectacle: Fear, Fascination and Murder as Video Game
A significant feature of what we might call “crime in postmodernity” is the idea that the media, in all its many forms, plays a central role in the construction of criminogenic discourses, where the role of the media is twofold. First, media are important because they propagate and, in some senses, control organise, criticise, promote […]
Crime, Media and Postmodern Modalities
Harari’s “The theatre of terror” article is worth reading because it explicitly sees terrorism as a form of “spectacle” in contemporary Western societies – an idea referenced by Kidd-Hewitt and Osborne (1995) when they argue crime in general can be seen in terms of postmodern spectacle, a general “crime discourse” driven by two main narratives: […]