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Showing papers in "Sociology in 2004"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A newer generation of class theorists have transformed the scope and analytical framework of class analysis: inflating class to include social and cultural formations, reconfiguring the causal model that has underpinned class analysis, and abandoning the notion of distinct class identities or groups, focusing instead on individualized hierarchical differentiation as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In rejecting both arguments of the ‘death of class’, and the increasingly minimalist positions of class traditionalists, a newer generation of class theorists have transformed the scope and analytical framework of class analysis: inflating ‘class’ to include social and cultural formations, reconfiguring the causal model that has underpinned class analysis, and abandoning the notion of distinct class identities or groups, focusing instead on individualized hierarchical differentiation. There are problems with transforming ‘class’ in this fashion, although the difficulty lies not in the departures from traditional class theory, but rather in what is retained. The uneasy relationship between older and newer aspects of ‘class’ within renewed class theory means the wider implications of inequality considered as individualized hierarchy (rather than as ‘class’) have not been fully explored.The debate on class identities (an important example of this new form of class analysis) illustrates these difficulties, and shows that issues of hierarchy extend well beyond issues of ‘class’.

278 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors question whether the concept of social capital has anything original to offer for understanding why some communities have weaker networks compared to others, and question whether social capital can be used to understand why certain communities have worse networks than others.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to question whether the concept of social capital has anything original to offer for understanding why some communities have weaker networks compared to others. Drawi...

264 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explores the ways in which discourses of pleasure are deployed strategically in official commentaries on drug and alcohol consumption, arguing that problematic drug consumption appears both without reason (for example "bestial" and unfree) and thus not as "pleasant".
Abstract: The article explores the ways in which discourses of pleasure are deployed strategically in official commentaries on drug and alcohol consumption. Pleasure as a warrantable motive for, or descriptor of, drug and alcohol consumption appears to be silenced the more that consumption appears problematic for liberal government. Tracing examples of this from the 18th century to the present, it is argued that discourses of ‘pleasure’ are linked to discourses of reason and freedom, so that problematic drug consumption appears both without reason (for example ‘bestial’) and unfree (for example ‘compulsive’), and thus not as ‘pleasant’. In turn, changes in this articulation of pleasure, drugs and freedom can be linked with shifts in the major forms taken by liberal governance in the past two centuries, as these constitute freedom differently.

256 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that the archiving of qualitative data raises a distinct set of issues surrounding confidentiality, respondent and researcher anonymity and respond that the joint construction of the qualitative data between researcher and respondent has important implications for the ownership and control of research material.
Abstract: Social scientists are increasingly encouraged to locate, access and analyse data from data archives worldwide. Although the vast majority of data archives which service the research community deal exclusively with the storage and provision of quantitative data, facilities also exist for the deposit and reuse of qualitative data.While archiving is generally understood as relatively unproblematic by the quantitative research community, there has been a mixed reaction to data archiving among qualitative social science researchers. Much of this concern stems from the assumption that qualitative data are similar to, and may therefore be treated in the same way as, quantitative data. However, the joint construction of qualitative data between researcher and respondent has important implications for the ownership and control of research material. The article suggests that the archiving of qualitative data raises a distinct set of issues surrounding confidentiality, respondent and researcher anonymity and respond...

230 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article tentatively answers the question, is it possible to decipher a new ‘medical cosmology’ that possesses an elective affinity with contemporary socio-technological changes and attempts to identify the parameters of a new medical cosmology that it terms e-scaped medicine.
Abstract: This article asks the question, is it possible to decipher a new ‘medical cosmology’ that possesses an elective affinity with contemporary socio-technological changes? It tentatively answers in the positive and attempts to identify the parameters of a new medical cosmology that it terms e-scaped medicine.To discern the conceptual underpinnings of e-scaped medicine the article draws on De Mul’s theorization of the ‘informatization of the worldview’.The article elaborates on this thesis in relation to medicine’s prime object - the body - and to a number of medical practices that surround it.

152 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the link between residential location and life chances has been examined and the authors conclude that experiences of deprivation may be more entrenched and fatalistic in deprived areas in response to a range of perceived negative impacts of area on social action and engagement.
Abstract: This article looks at perceptions of the link between residential location and life chances. The idea of ‘area effects’ suggests that people’s prospects for social engagement and economic activity are related to the neighbourhood where they live. It permeates social and urban policy as well as theories of deprivation and social exclusion. However, while quantitative evidence on area effects has begun to suggest that such a link exists, there has been little evidence using qualitative data and no contrast between the social patterns of life in deprived and more socially diverse areas. In response to these concerns, this article uses data from in-depth interviews with practitioners and voluntary workers in both deprived and socially diverse neighbourhoods to throw more light on how the linkages between area of residence and life chances are understood locally. The article concludes that experiences of deprivation may be more entrenched and fatalistic in deprived areas in response to a range of perceived negative impacts of area on social action and engagement. However, this general position is also contradictory and fragmented depending on social position within the locale. The article concludes by drawing out these ideas in terms of how the experience and reproduction of poverty are theorized.

140 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the tensions between feminist and disability studies perspectives on care and argue that an emancipatory model of care is one that must address these tensions, and propose that the notion of "needscape" can be used to construct a "discourse bridge" that will mediate between the disability studies and feminist perspective on care.
Abstract: In this article we examine the tensions between feminist and disability studies perspectives on care.We argue that an emancipatory model of care is one that must address these tensions. In developing this model we consider the notions of (inter)dependence and need across the lifecourse. Drawing on the work of Fraser (1989), we propose that the notion of ‘needscape’ can be used to construct a ‘discourse bridge’ that will mediate between the disability studies and feminist perspectives on care. Notions of care and caring have been subject to criticism by feminist and disability theorists.There is a presumption by some that care is an activity to which women are naturally suited and this forms a starting point for the claim associated with the feminist view that care is a source of women’s exploitation. For disability activists notions of care are dis-empowering.The person in receipt of care is often assumed to be passive and dependent. This is exemplified in the limited access of disabled people to choices ...

140 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the nature and prevalence of humour as a coping strategy in the sex industry, and describe six different types of humor as coping strategies in the context of pornography.
Abstract: This article contributes to the sociology of work by analysing the nature and prevalence of humour as a coping strategy in the sex industry. In conjunction with describing six different types of hu...

134 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that pregnancy may represent a specific "body episode" which belies the modern Western conviction that we have and possess our bodies and are able to mould them accordingly.
Abstract: Data collected from interviews with mothers and one mother-to-be characterized pregnancy as a time during which a woman has little jurisdiction over her body.Some respondents found this loss of control discomfiting and unpleasant, but others told of how much they had enjoyed their pregnancies for the same reason. On this basis, we suggest that pregnancy may represent a specific ‘body episode’ which belies the modern Western conviction that we have and possess our bodies and are able to mould them accordingly. Second, we propose that its physical transitions provided for some informants a disturbing testament to the fact that our influence over our bodies is in fact incomplete – that they are in many ways obdurate and ‘wayward’. Third, we suggest that the more positive descriptions of pregnancy could be attributed to the demands of the ‘body project’, the efforts that women especially invest in sculpting their bodies in culturally acceptable ways. Pregnancy therefore may represent for some women an opportunity to luxuriate in their materiality, because during this period they are unable to govern their bodies in the ways to which they are accustomed in more mundane physical circumstances.

130 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the ESRC funded project of children's transitions to secondary schools in two London boroughs has been described using spatial metaphors (Lefebvre, 1991; Shields, 1991) in order to interr...
Abstract: Drawing on an ESRC funded project of children’s transitions to secondary schools in two London boroughs, this article works with spatial metaphors (Lefebvre, 1991; Shields, 1991) in order to interr...

126 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between children, young people and the world of politics is examined and the past decade or so has seen the development of initiatives that draw children within the p...
Abstract: This article examines the relationship between children, young people and the world of politics. Whilst the past decade or so has seen the development of initiatives that draw children within the p...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that people reject GM animals as "going against nature" and that such concerns reflect wider unease about science, about technological modernity, and about hubris.
Abstract: This article seeks to engage with contemporary debates on the social and ethical dimensions of genetically modified (GM) animals. Dominant policy ethical approaches and frameworks are criticized for failing radically to accommodate some of the most important dimensions of concern. Drawing on primary empirical data emphasizing existing embodied relationships to animals, the article analyses how people express ethical concern over GM animals, including their sense of the continuities and discontinuities between GM animals and those determined by conventional selective breeding practices. The findings suggest that GM animals are likely to become an issue of public controversy, especially in the animal testing domain, due to the ways in which they symbolize and give voice to underlying tensions between ‘moral’and ‘instrumental’approaches to animals.The article concludes that people reject GM animals as ‘going against nature’, and that such concerns reflect wider unease about science, about technological modernity, and about hubris.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bourdieu confuses himself and others by calling his project a "transcendence" of the objectivist-subjectivist antinomy as discussed by the authors, but Bourdieu's methodology and theoretical premises are direc...
Abstract: Bourdieu confuses himself and others by calling his project a ‘transcendence’ of the objectivist–subjectivist antinomy. Contrary to claims, Bourdieu’s methodology and theoretical premises are direc...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a consideration of the female followers of men's ice hockey in the UK, questions why this sport has been so popular in attracting a high proportion of female supporters and considers their place and location within this supporter base.
Abstract: This article presents a consideration of the female followers of men’s ice hockey in the UK, questions why this sport has been so popular in attracting a high proportion of female supporters and considers their place and location within this supporter base. In particular, the article argues that the perceived safety and accessibility of ice hockey has proved important in attracting many female supporters. However, this research argues that female followers of UK ice hockey continue to remain marginalized within this supporter community, and are deemed by many other (often male) supporters as not ‘real fans’ but simply ‘puck bunnies’ who are there to ‘lust’ after the players. These assertions, we suggest, originate in male supporters’ fears of losing their male-dominated domain and in insecurities concerning their own adulation of male sports stars. However, interviews with 37 followers of The Manchester Storm indicate no significant differences in the levels of knowledge and commitment between male and female supporters, or that the physical attractiveness of players performs any significant role in attracting women to ice hockey.

Journal ArticleDOI
Mikael Hjerm1
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined income and disposable income for immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden in relation to immigrants that are not entrepreneurs and found that immigrant entrepreneurs have substantially lower incomes than employed immigrants and only marginally higher levels of disposable incomes compared to the unemployed.
Abstract: This article puts into question the taken-for-granted view that immigrant entrepreneurship is a fast track towards integration in civil society. It does so by examining income and disposable income for immigrant entrepreneurs in Sweden in relation to immigrants that are not entrepreneurs. Data is drawn from the LOUISE database, which is a longitudinal register database covering all individuals above 16 years of age living in Sweden and includes income variables, age, sex, education, employment status and so on. It is shown that immigrant entrepreneurs have substantially lower incomes than employed immigrants and only marginally higher levels of disposable incomes compared to the unemployed when other background variables are held constant. The relationship between the two groups did not change between 1992 and 1998 suggesting that, contrary to what was expected, differences in the state of the economy are not decisive in explaining income differences between the different groups of immigrants. It is suggested that entrepreneurship for immigrants may or may not be positive for the individual, but it is clear that it is not a successful way to fight economic marginalization and segregation. It puts into question the effectiveness of the whole social democratic welfare state when it comes to integrating immigrants into society.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article explored the "lifeworld theories" of organizations held by organizational actors, gathered from staff and managers of two "organizations" as they went through a process of merger, using Henri Lefebvre's theories of place and space read through a postmodernist lens to interrogate the data.
Abstract: This article explores the ‘lifeworld theories’ of organizations held by organizational actors, gathered from staff and managers of two ‘organizations’ as they went through a process of merger. Using Henri Lefebvre’s theories of place and space read through a postmodernist lens to interrogate the data, we discovered amongst staff theories of the organization as place, arising out of the material territory in which they worked. Amongst managers and those whom we call directors/chief executives there was a contrasting theory of organization as space, based upon a sense of an immaterial space occupied by a metaphysical organization. Rather than finding a dualistic distinction between organization and agents, we found the organization and organizational members collapsed in upon each other, with managerial identities fused with and inseparable from that of ‘the organization’; chief executives requiring the existence of an impossible organization that could exist only in their minds; and non-managerial employee...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the reality and complexities of contract researchers' working lives and the occupational identities and self-images that contract researchers construct and maintain in the context of contract research.
Abstract: Throughout the higher education sector in the UK, recent decades have witnessed the increasing use of fixed-term and part-time labour, to the extent that around 50 percent of academic staff are currently employed on fixed-term contracts and in excess of 90 percent of researchers are employed on fixed-term contracts Despite the importance of their contribution to the sector as a whole, relatively little research has been undertaken on the lived experience of undertaking contract research The objective of this article is therefore to explore the reality and complexities of contract researchers’ working lives and the occupational identities and self-images that contract researchers construct and maintain

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The dominant position on research methodology and methods among British sociologists has for many years been that of "methodological pluralism" as discussed by the authors. But concerns have lately been expressed about t...
Abstract: The dominant position on research methodology and methods among British sociologists has for many years been that of ‘methodological pluralism’. However, concerns have lately been expressed about t...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the Bourdieusian theory of practice and higher professions as an explanatory grid for understanding these phenomena, deploying especially two late works, Masculine Domination (2001) and The State Nobility (1996).
Abstract: The article critically investigates recent assumptions that professional women are en route to equality with professional men by assessing the field of architecture as a case study. It addresses the poorer completion rates for women architectural students, together with the lower proportions of professionally registered and promoted women architects.The article explores, in particular, Bourdieu’s theories of gender divisions and higher professions as an explanatory grid for understanding these phenomena, deploying especially two late works, Masculine Domination (2001) and The State Nobility (1996). It is argued that the extended Bourdieusian theory of practice illuminates the interview data gathered from women architects, especially through its emphasis on a disposition to naturalize domination. While Bourdieu’s position is not without weaknesses, this theory sheds light on the difficulties women practitioners are found to face empirically, especially in combining architecture and parenting.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Giddens and Sennett as mentioned in this paper examined the interrelations between self-identity and organizational change in advanced capitalist societies characterized by deregulation of markets, privatization and globalizing economic relations.
Abstract: The article examines the inter-relations between self-identity and organizational change in advanced capitalist societies characterized by deregulation of markets, privatization and globalizing economic relations. It compares two contrasting perspectives on selfhood: the reflexive self (Giddens, 1991) and the corroded self (Sennett, 1998). Giddens suggests that contemporary organizations, rather than eroding meaning, offer a greater degree of choice about self-identity, and enhance reflexivity and agency. Sennett suggests that new economic forms are corrosive of character and social relations. Using examples from predominantly British data, it is argued that both accounts offer relevant insights into the interplay between selfhood and organizations, but that each overstates their case. Giddens offers a persuasive account of the choice and voluntarism characterizing self-identity for at least a proportion of the population. His account of the ‘project of the self’, however, contributes to an ideology of th...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the evolution of devices for recording what is said in unstructured interviews, and look at the impact of technological change on the interview process. But little is known about the changing techniques and technologies for the recording of unStructured interviews.
Abstract: Little is known about the changing techniques and technologies for the recording of unstructured interviews.This article traces the evolution of devices for recording what is said in unstructured interviews, and looks at the impact of technological change on the interview process.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The potential of social capital for understanding social processes involved in neighbourhood decline or regeneration, in social exclusion and inclusion, and for illuminating relationships between structure and agency is explored in this article.
Abstract: This article explores the potential of social capital for understanding social processes involved in neighbourhood decline or regeneration, in social exclusion and inclusion, and for illuminating relationships between structure and agency. Theoretical approaches in the work of Putnam, Jacobs, and Coleman are compared and qualitative neighbourhood case studies used to identify contextual influences on social capital’s sources and forms, and on the strong or weak ties involved. The neighbourhood’s potential as a source of more inclusive and integrative social networks and wider solidarity is addressed. Influences on key sources of social capital – stability, integration, solidarity and tolerance – embrace issues of both structure and agency; relationships can be recursive. Neighbourhood variations in reciprocity and participation underline social capital’s context specificity. Narratives suggest that the neighbourhood’s potential for sustaining inclusive social ties, for social integration, tolerance, solid...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the backgrounds of this systems-theoretical framework and use it to analyse the structural characteristics of the educational system and suggest that these secondary effects have more impact on the evolution of this system than its societal environment.
Abstract: In line with a long sociological tradition, Niklas Luhmann has analysed the basic characteristics of modern society in terms of social differentiation. Luhmann has focused on the forms of differentiation, and argued that modern society is differentiated according to subsystems that concentrate on one function (e.g. the economy, law, science, politics, education). In the first part of the article, I explore the backgrounds of this systems-theoretical framework. In the second part, this framework is used to analyse the structural characteristics of the educational system. This system has its basis in the school’s complexes of interaction and organization. But education is also confronted with the consequences of its own autonomy, its own mode of operating. It is suggested that these secondary effects have more impact on the evolution of this system than its societal environment.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bourdieu's reflexive sociology aims to undo these crippling effects as discussed by the authors, which presupposes a certain distance from the concerns of everyday life, which has both liberating and crippling effects.
Abstract: Scholarly activity presupposes a certain distance from the concerns of everyday life, which has both liberating and crippling effects. Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology hopes to undo these crippling e...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that the significance of religion, secularism or anti-secularism has been overemphasized in the interpretation of communal conflict in India and proposed an alternative framework for understanding "communal" conflict.
Abstract: This article offers an alternative framework for understanding ‘communal’ conflict in India. Largely because recurring sectarian conflicts involve groups whose boundaries are demarcated by religion, most scholars have focused their attention on either specific religious doctrines or the policy of secularism to explain the phenomenon. In this article it is argued that significance of religion, secularism or anti-secularism has been overemphasized in the interpretation of communal conflict in India. The concept of ‘racialization’ is deployed to argue that in India communal identities have in fact been ‘racialized’ and recurring conflicts share striking structural and ideological similarities with racial conflicts in other parts of the world. A historical narrative of the political process of ‘racialization’ of identities in India is offered with the aim of re-thinking existing explanations of such conflicts.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored how family support is negotiated for young people either living at home or in the process of leaving home in three European countries: Britain, Spain and Norway.
Abstract: This article explores how family support is negotiated for young people either living at home or in the process of leaving home in three European countries: Britain, Spain and Norway. Using qualita...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the experiences of the largest minority group in Scotland, the English-born, and found that the English in Scotland are relatively under-studied groups, compared to other minority groups.
Abstract: This article explores the experiences of the largest minority group in Scotland: the English-born. To date the English in Scotland are a relatively under researched group. Our research indicates th...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a critique of a series of public policy documents that aim at improvement in health for the general population, particularly families, but fail to recognize or appreciate the implications of gender for the everyday and the long-term experiences of family members.
Abstract: In this article we present a critique of a series of public policy documents that aim at improvement in health for the general population, particularly families, but fail to recognize or appreciate the implications of gender for the everyday and the long-term experiences of family members. Drawing upon considerations of gender, families, health time and space and previous theoretical work (McKie et al, 2002), we propose the concept of healthscapes to aid the analysis and development of public policies. A healthscapes approach allows analysis of health policy within the diverse and multi-dimensional notions of time, space and gender that infuse the lifecourse. We assert that consideration of the gendered and generational project of caring particularly in relation to the (re)production of health, should involve a reflective inter-play between theory research and policy.

Journal ArticleDOI
Rolland Munro1
TL;DR: In this paper, questions of identity, the nuance of self to context or culture, continue to dominate despite a fashion to imagine "structures" of class, status and ethnicity as becoming less demanding and, hence,...
Abstract: Questions of identity, the nuance of self to context or culture, continue to dominate despite a fashion to imagine ‘structures’ of class, status and ethnicity as becoming less demanding and, hence,...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In 1998, Oakley published an article in Sociology entitled "Gender, Methodology and People's Ways of Knowing: Some Problems with Feminism and the Paradigm Debate in Social Science" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In 1998 Ann Oakley published an article in Sociology entitled ‘Gender, Methodology and People’s Ways of Knowing: Some Problems with Feminism and the Paradigm Debate in Social Science’. Within this ...