Showing papers in "Sociology in 2009"
TL;DR: The theory focuses on the work of embedding and of sustaining practices within interaction chains, and helps in understanding why some processes seem to lead to a practice becoming normalized while others do not.
Abstract: Understanding the processes by which practices become routinely embedded in everyday life is a long-standing concern of sociology and the other social sciences. It has important applied relevance in understanding and evaluating the implementation of material practices across a range of settings.This article sets out a theory of normalization processes that proposes a working model of implementation, embedding and integration in conditions marked by complexity and emergence. The theory focuses on the work of embedding and of sustaining practices within interaction chains, and helps in understanding why some processes seem to lead to a practice becoming normalized while others do not.
1,324 citations
TL;DR: In this article, case studies of nine working-class students at Southern, an elite university in the US, were used to understand the complexities of identities in flux through Bourdieu's notions of habitus and field, and the challenge of the unfamiliar results in a range of creative adaptations and multi-faceted responses.
Abstract: This article draws on case studies of nine working-class students at Southern, an elite university. 1 It attempts to understand the complexities of identities in flux through Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field. Bourdieu (1990a) argues that when an individual encounters an unfamiliar field, habitus is transformed. He also writes of how the movement of habitus across new, unfamiliar fields results in ‘a habitus divided against itself ’ (Bourdieu, 1999a). Our data suggest more nuanced understandings in which the challenge of the unfamiliar results in a range of creative adaptations and multi-faceted responses. They display dispositions of self-scrutiny and self-improvement — almost ‘a constant fashioning and re-fashioning of the self ’ but one that still retains key valued aspects of a working-class self. Inevitably, however, there are tensions and ambivalences, and the article explores these, as well as the very evident gains for working-class students of academic success in an elite HE institution.
710 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the significance of loss of consciousness and loss of memory in young adult drinkers' drinking stories and explored the role of ''passing out stories' in the classed and gendered domain of young people's alcohol consumption in the neo-liberal social order, focusing on the constitution of risk and pleasure in their accounts.
Abstract: Young people's alcohol consumption has been the focus of heightened concern over `binge drinking' in social policy, academic research and popular culture. A normalized culture of intoxication is now central to many young people's social lives, playing an important role in the night-time economy of towns and cities across the UK. In this article we draw on the findings of a study on the significance of alcohol consumption in the everyday lives of `ordinar y' young adult drinkers to explore the significance of loss of consciousness and loss of memory in their drinking stories. Through an analysis of focus group discussions with 89 young women and men aged 18 to 25, we explore the role of `passing out stories' in the classed and gendered domain of young people's alcohol consumption in the neo-liberal social order, focussing on the constitution of risk and pleasure in their accounts.
270 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the expectations and experiences of a group of Canadian working-class, first-generation university students were analyzed and the structural disadvantages in terms of economic, soci...
Abstract: This article analyses the expectations and experiences of a group of Canadian working-class, first-generation university students. I outline the structural disadvantages, in terms of economic, soci...
195 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that developing Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, practical mastery and symbolic mastery allows us to understand how reflexivity-in-practice is situated and enacted by both parties involved in the research interaction, and how such ''sticky moments' help us work towards a more participant-focussed mode of reflexivity.
Abstract: The increasing importance of reflexivity within social research highlights the importance of the construction of knowledge in relation to the research endeavour. However, researcher-orientated notions of reflexivity can often relegate a discussion of participant reflexivity. Drawing on two motifs that emerged during the analysis of interview data from one research project, I argue that developing Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, practical mastery and symbolic mastery allows us to understand how reflexivity-in-practice is situated and enacted by both parties involved in the research interaction, and how such `sticky moments' help us work towards a more participant-focussed mode of reflexivity. In situating the article within larger social research debates, I suggest that ascribing a more active role to interview participants as reflexive subjects can help to address some of the wider ethical debates over the role and positioning of participants in the research process.
177 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that the concept of the labour power has been critical to underpinning the sustained influence of labour process analysis in the UK and argues that LPT has been a crucial resource in the sociology of work.
Abstract: This article opens by suggesting that the decline in the sociology of work in the UK has been overstated; research continues, but in locations such as business schools. The continued vitality of the field corresponds with material changes in an increasingly globalized capitalism, with more workers in the world, higher employment participation rates of women, transnational shifts in manufacturing, global expansion of services and temporal and spatial stretching of work with advanced information communication technologies. The article demonstrates that Labour Process Theory (LPT) has been a crucial resource in the sociology of work, especially in the UK; core propositions of LPT provide it with resources for resilience (to counter claims of rival perspectives) and innovation (to expand the scope and explanatory power of the sociology of work). The article argues that the concept of the labour power has been critical to underpinning the sustained influence of labour process analysis.
172 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adapt some of the interactional concepts for synchronous mediated interaction, but argue that his situational focus is less relevant to asynchronous media, and suggest that although the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous interaction is important, it is not technologically determined, but shaped by interactional norms.
Abstract: Mediated interaction has become a feature of everyday life, used routinely to communicate and maintain contacts, yet sociological analysis of mediated communication is relatively undeveloped. This article argues that new mediated communication channels merit detailed sociological analysis, and that interactional differences between media have been overlooked. Goffman explicitly restricted his interaction order to face-to-face interaction.The article adapts some of Goffman's interactional concepts for synchronous mediated interaction, but argues that his situational focus is less relevant to asynchronous media. The theoretical approach developed is illustrated and supported by qualitative research on mobile phones, which fortuitously afford both synchronous and asynchronous communication.The study suggests that although the distinction between synchronous and asynchronous interaction is important, it is not technologically determined, but shaped by interactional norms.
169 citations
TL;DR: Bourdieu overlooked the possibility of gendered capital as discussed by the authors and claimed that uniquely feminine forms of capital exist within the field of paid caring work, but gendered currency operates within limits, and women's perceptions of advantage arising from ownership of feminine dispositions or the experience of feminine selves.
Abstract: Bourdieu overlooked the possibility of gendered capital. A number of feminists have taken issue with this and have claimed that uniquely feminine forms of capital exist.This article takes up this proposal and explores two forms of gendered capital — feminine capital and female capital. This article explores these forms of capital operating as cultural resources within the field of paid caring work. In the caring field `femininity' and `femaleness' appear to be resources women draw upon, but gendered currency operates within limits.This article examines women's perceptions of advantage arising from ownership of feminine dispositions or the experience of feminine selves; the gains that might be made from working with and for similar female others; and the parameters to female privilege. Building on feminist Bourdieusian scholarship, this article argues that Bourdieu's concept of capital is particularly useful for understanding contemporary gender practices and the relationship between gender and class.
157 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the choices and motivations of UK students who choose to study abroad for the whole of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree, and found that for many of their respondents, overseas education offered a second chance at accessing elite education.
Abstract: While the literature on highly skilled international migration has grown substantially over recent years, the motivations and experiences of an important sub-group — the internationally mobile student — have remained under-researched. In an attempt to redress this gap, this article draws on in-depth interviews with 85 young adults, to explore the choices and motivations of UK students who choose to study abroad for the whole of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. While studies of east to west migration have typically emphasised the importance of an international higher education as a high-prestige, first choice option for those students who can afford it, we argue that, for UK students, choices are configured differently. For many of our respondents, overseas education offered primarily a ‘second chance’ at accessing elite education. There is an erratum for this article at: http://soc.sagepub.com/content/43/6/1085/suppl/DC2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038510373333
148 citations
TL;DR: The coming crisis of empirical sociology was discussed in this article, where sociologists are called to recognize the gravity of the challenges posed by the proliferation of social data and to become more vociferous in contributing to political debates over method and data.
Abstract: We respond to the two comments on our article `The Coming Crisis of Empirical Sociology' from Rosemary Crompton (2008) and Richard Webber (2009) which have been published in Sociology , as well as issues arising from the wider debate generated by our article. We urge sociologists to recognize the gravity of the challenges posed by the proliferation of social data and to become more vociferous in contributing to political debates over method and data.
146 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the extent to which cultural capital helps to explain the link between social background and gaining an offer for study at the University of Oxford and found that cultural knowledge, rather than participation in the beaux arts, is related to admissions decisions.
Abstract: This article examines the extent to which cultural capital helps to explain the link between social background and gaining an offer for study at the University of Oxford. We find that cultural knowledge, rather than participation in the beaux arts, is related to admissions decisions.This effect is particularly pronounced in arts subjects. We only partly support Bourdieu's postulation of cultural capital as the main differentiator between fractions of the middle class. Measures of cultural capital do not account for the gender gap in admission and only explain a small part of the disadvantage faced by South-Asian applicants.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the effects of the legalization of international human rights on citizens and non-citizens within states and show that cosmopolitanization of law is not necessarily resulting in greater equality and justice.
Abstract: This article explores the effects of the legalization of international human rights on citizens and non-citizens within states. Adopting a sociological approach to rights it becomes clear that, even in Europe, the cosmopolitanization of law is not necessarily resulting in greater equality and justice. In fact, ‘actually existing’ cosmopolitan citizenship is characterized by a proliferation of status groups that concretize new forms of inequality, including those of super-citizens, marginal citizens, quasi-citizens, sub-citizens and un-citizens. Far from inaugurating a new era of genuinely universal human rights, in some cases cosmopolitan law may even contribute to the creation of conditions in which fundamental human rights are violated.
TL;DR: In this article, the meanings ascribed to qualitative research practice and the perceived challenges posed by contemporary innovations in data management, access, and analysis through electronic archiving are explored, as well as how contemporary innovations may come to challenge these core values.
Abstract: With the systematic archiving of qualitative data emerging as a distinct possibility in Australia, both the practices of qualitative research and how subsequent outputs are ‘used’ are coming under increased scrutiny and reflection. Drawing on a series of focus groups with qualitative researchers, this article critically explores the meanings ascribed to qualitative research practice and the perceived challenges posed by contemporary innovations in data management, access, and analysis through electronic archiving. The accounts presented provide much needed insight into key debates (and divergences) within the qualitative community regarding the values and meanings of qualitative practice, but also how contemporary innovations may come to challenge these core values.
TL;DR: The authors examines evolving forms of ethnographic practice generated in response to advances in mediated communication, and chronicles phases in the transformation of offline ethnography, beginning with the early 1990s.
Abstract: This work examines evolving forms of ethnographic practice generated in response to advances in mediated communication. It chronicles phases in the transformation of offline ethnography, beginning ...
TL;DR: This paper highlighted three factors that are likely to have a key influence on workers' sense of alienation vis-a-vis the customer and highlighted divergent literature in each of these areas and hence concluded with a call for research on this topic.
Abstract: This article charts the historical and contemporary absences in the sociology of service work. Although studies of service work have now become the empirical mainstream in the sociology of work, there have been few attempts to conceptualize broad patterns of worker—customer relations in ser vice work. This neglect is to be regretted because whether the customer is an alienating figure for service workers constitutes a key unasked question in contemporary sociology of work. The article highlights three factors that are likely to have a key influence on workers’ sense of alienation vis-a-vis the customer. It highlights divergent literature in each of these areas and hence ends with a call for research on this topic.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the impact of disidentification or disavowal on young people's subjectivities and are lived out in particular spaces, examining the young people experiences of having their claims to be British denied, disidentifying as black, and having to negotiate the complex ambiguities of being positioned as Somali in the UK but British in Somalia.
Abstract: In this article we draw on research with young (aged 11 to 18 years old) Somali refugees and asylum seekers currently living in the UK, to explore their narratives of identity in the context of complex histories of mobility. We focus on how processes of disidentification or disavowal impact on young people's subjectivities and are lived out in particular spaces. Specifically, we examine the young people's experiences of having their claims to be British denied, of disidentifying as black, and as having to negotiate the complex ambiguities of being positioned as Somali in the UK but British in Somalia. In the conclusion we reflect on the importance of the young people's emotional investment in the subject position Muslim as an explanation for why they prioritize their faith above their racial, gender or ethno-national identities in their narratives of the self.
TL;DR: The authors found that ethnicity per se is not an important factor but operates as a proxy, and that skin colour and culture (religion) are to a greater extent arguably the main mechanisms that operate to reinforce disadvantage among some groups or to facilitate social mobility amongst others.
Abstract: This article seeks to contribute to a newly growing literature on religious differences in education and the labour market, and seeks to answer two main questions: To what extent does education have similar impacts on occupational attainment across ethnic and faith groups? To what extent are these ethnic differences due to religious affiliation and/or skin colour? The data used in this study have been obtained from the 2001 UK Census.The data suggest that ethnicity per se is not an important factor but operates as a proxy, and, as this article shows, skin colour and culture (religion) are to a greater extent arguably the main mechanisms that operate to reinforce disadvantage among some groups or to facilitate social mobility amongst others. The direction and strength of their influence appears to be dependent on whether the specific culture is seen as compatible or `alien' in relation to the hegemonic culture.
TL;DR: This article argued that women may trigger off specific behaviours in male-dominated settings such as the ''boy racer'' culture, such as ''sexual hustling'' and ''sexist treatment'' (Gurney, 1985).
Abstract: This article contributes to the reflexive turn within the social sciences by arguing for enhanced recognition of the role of gender and emotions in the research process. The chief instrument of research, the ethnographer herself, may alter that which is being studied and may be changed in turn (Golde, 1970). Women may trigger off specific behaviours in male-dominated settings such as the `boy racer' culture. This includes the gender-related behaviours of `sexual hustling' and `sexist treatment' (Gurney, 1985). Ethnographers must adopt a reflexive approach and locate themselves within the ethnography while recognizing the influence of their social position on interactions with the researched and the research itself. An awareness of these interactions does not undermine the data but instead acknowledges that the researcher and the researched are embedded within the research. Hence, they shape the ethnography while also being shaped in turn.
TL;DR: This article delves more deeply into the rapidly growing non-professional service occupations in the US and the level of skills these jobs require, with the intention of creating a framework that will reorient future sociological research in this area.
Abstract: Interactive service occupations, requiring face-to-face contact, are rapidly growing in the US as they are typically not susceptible to larger trends of off-shoring and computerization. Yet convent...
TL;DR: Information, it is argued, cannot underpin medicine unless it is recognized and defined as generative, dynamic and intimate, rather than storable and deliverable.
Abstract: More and faster information will transform our experience of healthcare, according to policymakers, while social theorists have argued that medicine has become `informatized': a new medical paradigm is being shaped. We question both the policy-led conflation of `information' and `healthcare' and ideas about the extent of the informatization of medicine, by exploring how these ideas resonate in medical work, revisiting our studies of expertise in two clinical domains where information technologies are central to practice. The projection of new information programmes as creating knowledge which is independent of space and time runs the risk of devaluing the experiential, haptic and affective knowledge of both apprentices and practitioners. Information, we argue, cannot underpin medicine unless it is recognized and defined as generative, dynamic and intimate, rather than storable and deliverable.
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of material inequality and gender expectations in structuring working-class girls' aspirations about higher education (HE) are examined through reference to recent ethnographic work in an inner-London secondary school.
Abstract: This article examines the effects of material inequality and gender expectations in structuring working-class girls' aspirations about higher education (HE). Through reference to recent ethnographic work in an inner-London secondary school two key arguments are made about how the combined effects of gender and class limit the social mobility HE is expected to provide. First, it is argued that family ties generate gender-specific obligations for working-class women, which have strong social consequences in terms of the take-up of HE places and labour market participation. This is particularly important since the commitment of working-class girls to home and family has been neglected in many theories of gender and social mobility. Second, it is argued that despite the recent political energy devoted to espousing a democratic HE system, the sense of entitlement to HE entry is, for young working-class people, undermined by a diminishing sense of the right to access middle-class spaces and institutions.
TL;DR: In this article, a broader and multidimensional framework is proposed to explore connections and divisions of labour at different scales and levels of generality, where overall socioeconomic formations of labour are viewed as constituted through the interplay between three forms of integration and differentiation: the technical division and allocation of labour, interdependencies between work across socioeconomic modes, and across overall instituted processes of labour in production, distribution, exchange and consumption.
Abstract: The division of labour, an enduring concept of the sociology of work, has yet to receive fundamental critical re-evaluation. The need for this is exposed especially by developments in global work and employment, and the ensuing complexity and variety of contemporary connections and divisions of labour. The aim of this article is to initiate a process of conceptual renewal. Having reviewed classical and 20th-century formulations of the concept, I propose a broader and multidimensional framework. Here, overall socio-economic formations of labour are viewed as constituted through the interplay between three forms of integration and differentiation: the technical division and allocation of labour, interdependencies between work across socio-economic modes, and across overall instituted processes of labour in production, distribution, exchange and consumption. The framework may be used to explore connections and divisions of labour at different scales and levels of generality.
TL;DR: This article argued that women on low incomes are disproportionately represented among sexual violence survivors, yet feminist research on this topic has paid very little attention to social class, and argued that there is a need to engage with classed distinctions between women in terms of contexts for and experiences of sexual violence, and look at interactions between pejorative constructions of working-class sexualities and how complainants and defendants are perceived and treated.
Abstract: Women on low incomes are disproportionately represented among sexual violence survivors, yet feminist research on this topic has paid very little attention to social class.This article blends recent research on class, gender and sexuality with what we know about sexual violence. It is argued that there is a need to engage with classed distinctions between women in terms of contexts for and experiences of sexual violence, and to look at interactions between pejorative constructions of working-class sexualities and how complainants and defendants are perceived and treated. The classed division between the sexual and the feminine, drawn via the notion of respectability, is applied to these issues. This piece is intended to catalyse further research and debate, and raises a number of questions for future work on sexual violence and social class.
TL;DR: In the last two decades, illuminating the outside of a house with multi-coloured lights has become a popular British Christmas practice, typically adopted within working-class neighbourhoods and thus producing a particular geography of illumination as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the last two decades, illuminating the outside of a house with multi-coloured
lights has become a popular British Christmas practice, typically adopted within
working-class neighbourhoods and thus producing a particular geography of illumination.
This article explores how such displays have become a site for class conflict
mobilized around contesting ideas about space, time, community, aesthetics
and festivity, highlighting how the symbolic economy of class conflict moves across
popular culture. We focus upon two contrasting class-making practices evoking
conflicting cultural values. First, we examine the themes prevalent in negative
media representations of Christmas lights, notably the expression of disgust which
foregrounds the working-class stereotype, the ‘chav’. Second, we analyse the motivations of displayers, exploring how the illuminations are imbued with idealistic
notions about conviviality and generosity.
TL;DR: The authors examines the "canonical" status achieved in recent British sociology by four writers: Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens.
Abstract: This article examines the ‘canonical’ status achieved in recent British sociology by four writers: Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens. Along with other key thinkers of the later 20th century such as Foucault and Habermas, these four sociologists, from different geographical and theoretical bases, transformed the shape of British sociology and its relation to social theory.
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative study of women working in working-class and middle-class occupations, the authors illustrate the implicit and emotional dimensions of the classed experience of work through a study of the women's aspirations and their class identities.
Abstract: A renewed class analysis has shown the importance of culture, emotions and identity in conceptualizing and understanding how class is lived. However, proponents of the new sociology of class rarely explore these issues in an occupational setting. This article argues that the insights developed in the new cultural approaches to class can be used fruitfully to analyse contemporary experiences of work. Using a comparative study of women working in working-class and middle-class occupations, the article illustrates the implicit and emotional dimensions of the classed experience of work through a study of the women's aspirations and their class identities. Rather than equating class with economic resources and constraints, the article shows how class `thinking and feelings' (Reay, 2005) also shape the experiences of work.
TL;DR: The authors traces relations between the study of work and the evolution of British sociology as an academic discipline, and calls for constructive dialogue across different approaches to study work and a re-invigoration of sociological debate about work and for in-depth interdisciplinary engagement enabling us to build new approaches that will allow us to study the work in all its diversity and complexity.
Abstract: This paper traces relations between the study of work and the evolution of British sociology as an academic discipline. This reveals broad trajectories of marginalization, as the study of work becomes less central to Sociology as a discipline; increasing fragmentation of divergent approaches to the study of work; and — as a consequence of both — a narrowing of the sociological vision for the study of work. Our paper calls for constructive dialogue across different approaches to the study of work and a re-invigoration of sociological debate about work and — on this basis — for in-depth interdisciplinary engagement enabling us to build new approaches that will allow us to study work in all its diversity and complexity.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the insinuation of therapeutic culture into everyday life from the vantage point of a qualitative cross-generational study of economically marginalized young women and their mothers, and argue that desires for disclosure and open communication are not trivial or narcissistic and instead interpret them as productive emotional strategies for managing difficult circumstances, and for engendering a sense of competence and possibility.
Abstract: This article examines the insinuation of therapeutic culture into everyday life from the vantage point of a qualitative cross-generational study of economically marginalized young women and their mothers. Against dominant assessments of therapeutic culture — as representing cultural decline, social regulation or transformation — we draw on interview narratives to analyse its practical and situated effects. We argue that desires for disclosure and open communication are not trivial or narcissistic and instead interpret them as productive emotional strategies for managing difficult circumstances, and for engendering a sense of competence and possibility.Thus a concern with`talkingthings through' is neither ineffectual nor adequately understood as a manifestation of an ahistorical feminine alignment with emotions and interior life. While we do not dismiss regulatory aspects of therapeutic culture, our analysis offers an alternative and empirically based account of the ways cultural imperatives are enacted ac...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the set of practices and orientations acquired through an anorexic career builds upon practices and orientationations clearly identified with middle and upper class status.
Abstract: Epidemiological research has identified a significant association between upper or middle class membership and a woman's probability of becoming anorexic, but the extant literature has yet to address the social processes underlying this association. In order to fill this gap, this paper frames anorexia as a deviant career that entails the adoption of an anorexic set of practices and orientations that may be recognized as a distinctive type of Bourdieuian habitus. Drawing upon on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews conducted in France, this paper argues that the set of practices and orientations acquired through an anorexic career builds upon practices and orientations clearly identified with middle and upper class status.
TL;DR: The authors explore the new theoretical nexus between class and work, demonstrating that a Bourdieusian approach fruitfully reverses the connection put in place by Goldthorpe and Wright.
Abstract: The sociology of class and the sociology of work have, historically, occupied two sides of the same coin, sharing foundational studies such as the Affluent Worker series and Braverman’s vivisection of the labour process. Recently, however, the par tnership has been questioned. Though the seeds of the split were sown by Erik Wright and John Goldthorpe, the overdue de-hegemonizing of Marx and Weber in research on class with the growing influence of Pierre Bourdieu and the broader ‘cultural turn’ in sociology has weakened the bond and forged a new alliance between class and the sociology of culture. This is, by all means, a positive development, but the connection between processes in the sphere of work and class has become less clear. This ar ticle therefore seeks to explore the new theoretical nexus between class and work, demonstrating that a Bourdieusian approach fruitfully reverses the connection put in place by Goldthorpe and Wright.