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Showing papers in "The Sociological Review in 2004"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying, and many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In recent years there has been a proliferation of writing on the meaning of home within the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, history, architecture and philosophy. Although many researchers now understand home as a multidimensional concept and acknowledge the presence of and need for multidisciplinary research in the field, there has been little sustained reflection and critique of the multidisciplinary field of home research and the diverse, even contradictory meanings of this term. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about home represented in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. It raises the question whether or not home is (a) place(s), (a) space(s), feeling(s), practices, and/or an active state of state of being in the world? Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home. In an effort to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning and experience of home each of these themes are briefly considered in this critical literature review.

1,141 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of emotional capital was introduced by Bourdieu as discussed by the authors, who argued that women are more particularly responsible for maintaining relationships in their relationships with their children, and explored the extent to which emotional capital may be understood as a specifically gendered capital, in particular by examining the impact of social class on gendered notions of emotion capital.
Abstract: Although Bourdieu deals extensively with gender differences in his work, far less space is given to the emotions. This chapter attempts to address this lacuna by extending Bourdieu’s concept of capitals to the realm of emotions. While Bourdieu never refers explicitly to emotional capital in his own work, he does describe practical and symbolic work which generates devotion, generosity and solidarity, arguing that ‘this work falls more particularly to women, who are responsible for maintaining relationships’ (Bourdieu, 1998:68). This chapter takes on-going research into mothers’ involvement in their children’s education as a case study for developing the concept of emotional capital. It describes the intense emotional engagement the vast majority of mothers had with their children’s education. The chapter also explores the extent to which emotional capital may be understood as a specifically gendered capital, in particular, by examining the impact of social class on gendered notions of emotional capital.

355 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how the capitalist desire for opening new markets for leisure consumption with new forms of branding, alongside the desire for the territorialisation of space by campaigning gay and lesbian groups, has led to the formation of a 'gay space' marketed as a cosmopolitan spectacle, in which the central issue becomes a matter of access and knowledge: who can use, consume and be consumed in gay space?
Abstract: According to Žižek (1997) the logic of late capitalism offers opportunities for the incorporation of previously marginalised groups, whilst simultaneously dividing them at the same time. These possibilities for incorporation create divisions on the basis of gender, race, sexuality and class. Here, we examine how the capitalist desire for opening new markets for leisure consumption with new forms of branding, alongside the desire for the territorialisation of space by campaigning gay and lesbian groups, has led to the formation of a ‘gay space’ marketed as a cosmopolitan spectacle, in which the central issue becomes a matter of access and knowledge: who can use, consume and be consumed in gay space? We also ask what is the radical political impetus of sexual politics when commodified as cosmopolitan and incorporated spatially? The paper grounds the examination of the politics of cosmopolitanism within a specific locality drawing upon research undertaken on the contested use of space within Manchester's gay village. The paper is organised into four sections. The first examines competing definitions of cosmopolitanism, exploring how sexuality and class are framed as conceptual limits. The second describes how Manchester's gay village is imagined and branded as cosmopolitan. The third considers the navigation and negotiation of difference within this space. The final section evaluates the exclusions from cosmopolitan space and pursues the significance of this for arguments about incorporation in late capitalism.

267 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory is discussed in this paper, which brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory, and defines new territories for feminist theorizing.
Abstract: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory. Brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory. Demonstrates how much Bourdieu s theory has to offer to contemporary feminism. Comprises a series of contributions from key contemporary feminist thinkers. Defines new territories for feminist theorizing. Transforms and advances Bourdieu s social and cultural theory

251 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, it was argued that the Internet and computer-mediated communication generally undermine the public sphere and political interaction that is required for genuine democratic deliberation, and that more than likely it contributes little or even undermines them, much in the way that states previously considered the telegraph's capacity to cross borders as a direct threat to its sovereignty.
Abstract: New technologies are often greeted with political optimism. The Internet was thought to herald new possibilities for political participation, if not direct democracy, even in large and complex societies, as ‘electronic democracy’ might replace the mass media democracy of sound-bite television. The high hopes for electronic democracy seem to have faded, however, as critics such as Sunstein (2001) and Shapiro (1999) have come to argue that central features of the Internet and computer-mediated communication generally undermine the sort of public sphere and political interaction that is required for genuine democratic deliberation. Whatever the empirical merits of such criticisms, they do point to an, as yet, unclarified problem in discussions of ‘electronic democracy’: we still lack a clear understanding of how the Internet and other forms of electronic communication might contribute to a new kind of public sphere and thus to a new form of democracy. Certainly, globalization and other features of contemporary societies make it at least possible to consider whether democracy is undergoing another great transformation, of the order of the invention of representative democracy and its institutions of voting and parliamentary assemblies in early modern European cities. Both the optimistic and pessimistic positions in the debate suffer from clear conceptual problems. Optimists take for granted that the mode of communication or technological mediation itself is constitutive of new possibilities. As examples such as the Chinese discovery of gunpowder show, however, technology is embedded in social contexts that may make its various potentials unrealizable. Pessimists make the opposite error of holding institutions fixed, here the institutions of the sovereign nation state. If we ask the question of whether or not electronic communication contributes to deliberation in representative institutions and to national public spheres, the answer is that more than likely it contributes little or even undermines them. Indeed, there has been much discussion concerning whether or not the Internet undermines sovereignty, much in the way that states previously considered the telegraph’s capacity to cross borders as a direct threat to its sovereignty (see Held, 1995; Poster, 2001 and Indiana Journal of

238 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how people in a qualitative study in the context of debates about how far social identity and agency should be seen as individualised or relational concepts, and how people respond to questions about their own identities and agency.
Abstract: This article is set in the context of debates about how far social identity and agency should be seen as individualised or relational concepts. It examines how people in a qualitative study in the ...

233 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory is discussed in this article, which brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory, and defines new territories for feminist theorizing.
Abstract: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory. Brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory. Demonstrates how much Bourdieu s theory has to offer to contemporary feminism. Comprises a series of contributions from key contemporary feminist thinkers. Defines new territories for feminist theorizing. Transforms and advances Bourdieu s social and cultural theory.

231 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the increasing significance of Bourdieu's social theory is mapped in recent sociological accounts of gender in late-modern societies and highlighted in particular the influe...
Abstract: In this article the increasing significance of Bourdieu’s social theory is mapped in recent sociological accounts of gender in late-modern societies. What is highlighted in particular is the influe...

228 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Identities are not reflections of objective social positions which is how class is often theorized (if at all) as discussed by the authors, which would be to see identities always retrospectively, and nor are the social positions essential categories.
Abstract: Identities are not . . . reflections of objective social positions which is how class is often theorized (if at all). This . . . would be to see identities always retrospectively. Nor are the social positions essential categories. Identities are continually in the process of being re-produced as responses to social positions, through access to representational systems and in the conversion of forms of capital (Beverley Skeggs, 1997:94)

178 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory is discussed in this article, which brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory to define new territories for feminist theorizing.
Abstract: meeting ground for mainstream social theory and contemporary feminist theory. Brings feminist theory face to face with Pierre Bourdieu s social theory. Demonstrates how much Bourdieu s theory has to offer to contemporary feminism. Comprises a series of contributions from key contemporary feminist thinkers. Defines new territories for feminist theorizing. Transforms and advances Bourdieu s social and cultural theory.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored the place, and understandings, of family in social capital theory from a feminist perspective, including the way that debates in the social capital field interlock with those in the family field.
Abstract: Social capital has become a key concept in Government policy-making and academic circles. Particular forms of social capital theorising have become dominant and influential, invoking certain conceptions of the nature of family life. Inherently, ideas about ‘the family’ not only draw on gender divisions in fundamental ways, but also on particular forms of intergenerational relationships and power relations. This paper explores the place, and understandings, of family in social capital theorising from a feminist perspective, including the way that debates in the social capital field interlock with those in the family field. These encompass: posing both ‘the family’ and social capital as fundamental and strong bases for social cohesion, but also as easily eroded and in need of protection and encouragement; the relationship between ‘the private’ and ‘the social’; notions of bonding and bridging, and horizontal and vertical, forms of social capital as these relate to ideas about contemporary diversity in famil...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article explored how young people's evolving understandings of adulthood may contribute towards an understanding of citizenship within the broader context of increasingly extended and fragmented transitions, and developed a model to capture the ways that young people sought out opportunities for competence and recognition in different fields of their lives.
Abstract: Traditionally adulthood and citizenship have been synonymous. Yet adulthood is changing. In this paper we explore how young people's evolving understandings of adulthood may contribute towards an understanding of citizenship within the broader context of increasingly extended and fragmented transitions. The paper draws on a unique qualitative longitudinal data set in which 100 young people, from contrasting social backgrounds in the United Kingdom, have been followed over a five-year period using repeat biographical interviews. We present first the themes that emerged from a cross-cut analysis of the first of three rounds of interviews distinguishing between relational and individualised understandings of adulthood. We then present a model we developed to capture the ways that young people sought out opportunities for competence and recognition in different fields of their lives. Finally a case study that follows a young woman through her three interviews illustrates how these themes can appear in an indi...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors highlights significant moments, strategies, and themes in British non-heterosexual Muslims' management of familial and kin relations, highlighting socio-cultural and religious factors that contribute to their decisions.
Abstract: This paper highlights significant moments, strategies, and themes in British non-heterosexual Muslims' management of familial and kin relations. Significant socio-cultural and religious factors con...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored new ways of relating in terms of debates about the impact of individualisation processes on intimacy. But the extension of such processes to women has been limited, arguing that the rationalised timetabling necessary to maintain such relationships imposes new gendered constraints with bodily and emotional consequences.
Abstract: Intimacy is usually thought to require physical proximity as a prerequisite, so how are intimate relationships maintained when partners do not live their daily lives in the same place? Couples who are frequently apart are not an entirely new phenomenon, but the dual-career, dual-household couples examined in this pilot study of contemporary distance relationships illustrate new ways of relating. This paper will explore these new ways of relating in terms of debates about the impact of individualisation processes on intimacy. It is argued that the extension of such processes to women has been limited. Ways of being intimate at a distance may offer alternative formulations of gender and power, but the rationalised timetabling necessary to maintain such relationships imposes new gendered constraints with bodily and emotional consequences.

Journal ArticleDOI
Louise Ryan1
TL;DR: This paper reviewed a number of theoretical explanations of transnational migration and applied these theories to a qualitative study of women who migrated from Ireland to Britain in the 1930s, and explored the women's reasons for leaving Ireland and their experiences as young economic migrants in Britain during the inter-war years.
Abstract: The recent increase in transnational migration among women has lead to a reappraisal of theoretical explanations of migratory movement (Castles and Miller, 2003; Fortier, 2000; Zulauf, 2001). This paper reviews a number of theoretical explanations of transnational migration and then applies these theories to a qualitative study of women who migrated from Ireland to Britain in the 1930s. I explore the women's reasons for leaving Ireland and their experiences as young economic migrants in Britain in the inter-war years. Women have made up the majority of Irish migrants to Britain for much of the twentieth century yet the dominant stereotype of the Irish migrant has been the Mick or Paddy image (Walter, 2001). Through an analysis of these twelve women's narratives of migration, I explore themes such as household strategies and familial networks. I am interested in the interwoven explanations of migration as both a form of escape (O'Carroll, 1990) and a rational family strategy and, hence, the ways in which women's decision to migrate can be seen as a combination of both active agency and family obligation. Drawing on the work of Phizacklea (1999) as well as Walter (2001) and Gray (1996, 1997), I will analyse the ways in which family connections may transcend migration and engage with the concept of 'transnational family' (Chamberlain, 1995). In so doing, I raise questions about the complex nature of migration and the extent to which it could be described in terms of empowerment.




Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Aging successfully in western society has often been associated with material issues relating to declining health, social care, and welfare as mentioned in this paper, and it has been suggested that these topics have d...
Abstract: Ageing ‘successfully’ in western society has often been associated with material issues relating to declining health, social care and welfare. Indeed, it has been suggested that these topics have d...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an account of the social forces exerted to contain women's interest and access to weightlifting and a muscular strength usually associated with masculinity, and the significance of women's lack of visibility is important and alters the social dynamic of their experience of physical strength.
Abstract: This paper gives an account of the social forces exerted to contain women's interest and access to weightlifting, and a muscular strength usually associated with masculinity. Weightlifting can create formidable physical strength but without the visible, physical displays of body building. The significance of weightlifting women's lack of visibility is important and alters the social dynamic of their experience of physical strength. The study relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 16 elite women weightlifters. They recount how disciplined, different and empowered they perceive themselves to be. Drawing together the weightlifting women's illuminative epiphanic moments (Denzin, 1989, 1992, 1993) revealed the close association of strength with force and, the social expectation that, not only is powerful physicality used to dominate others, but it is also expected to be male. Women's access to domination is contained through the gendered nature of gym space and a masculine approach to training. St...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on some relational and normative aspects of class through an examination of social divisions produced and constructed within middle class families' choices of childcare, and find that the use of choice in a market system of child care and education, works to produce patterns of social closure that quietly discriminate via the collectivist criterion of class and racial membership.
Abstract: The emphasis in class research remains on the structural aspects of class, class processes are neglected. This paper focuses upon some relational and normative aspects of class through an examination of social divisions produced and constructed within middle class families’ choices of childcare. Working with data from two contrasting settings in London (Battersea and Stoke Newington) three issues are addressed in the paper; the extent to which childcare arrangements both substantively and structurally position children differently within long term educational careers; the ways in which the use of choice in a market system of child care and education, works to produce patterns of social closure that quietly discriminate via the collectivist criterion of class and racial membership; and the ways in which child care choices also point-up and perpetuate subtle distinctions and tensions of values and lifestyle within the middle class, between class factions. Concepts drawn from the work of Bourdieu are deployed throughout.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that critical realism has two mutually exclusive definitions of ontology, i.e., ontology is defined as both a fallible interpretation of reality and as a definitive definitio...
Abstract: In this article is it argued that critical realism has two mutually exclusive definitions of ontology. Ontology is defined as both a fallible interpretation of reality and as a definitive definitio...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bourdieu and Haacke as discussed by the authors consider the potential of the work of Pierre Bourdieu as a means of extending and deepening Habermas' critique of the public sphere.
Abstract: In this chapter I consider the potential of the work of Pierre Bourdieu as a means of extending and deepening Habermas’ critique of the public sphere. Bourdieu is not widely recognized as a theorist of the public sphere, perhaps because he does not often name the public sphere as such in his analyses. Nevertheless, much of his work on the media, artistic, educational and political fields involves a powerful analysis of the publics constituted therein. Publics, if we read Bourdieu in this way, are plural. They are differentiated across a range of sites of discursive production. But they are no less important for that. In recent work, for example, he has spoken out in defence of various fields of public discourse which, he argues, are being undermined by increasing economic encroachment (Bourdieu, 1998a; Bourdieu and Haacke, 1995). Like Habermas, but with more of an eye on the economy than on the state, he invokes an image of a process of colonization which compromises the autonomy of fields and thereby the rational debate and critique they might otherwise generate. This form of critique rejoins another which we find much earlier in Bourdieu’s work, however, a form focused upon the manner in which the artistic and political fields in particular are shaped by social inequalities which they, in turn, help to perpetuate. Thus, again like Habermas, Bourdieu’s defence of the public sphere against its colonisation is a defence of fields which he takes to be flawed prototypes of the communicative forms and channels adequate to a properly democratic society. The importance of Bourdieu’s work is not restricted to this considerable research output, however. It offers an important framework or problematic for further research. More specifically, it effects a framework in which we can realise, both empirically and theoretically, an analysis of ‘systematically distorted communication’, such as was deemed central to critical theory by Habermas (1970a,b) in his earlier work. This latter point must be briefly unpacked. ‘Systematically distorted communication’ is central to Habermas’ early definition of critical theory (Habermas, 1972). The epistemology of critical theory, he suggests, should be akin to that of psychoanalysis. And the epistemology of psychoanalysis centres upon ‘systematically distorted communication’. The

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between genetic determinism and the discourse of risk is investigated by making use of an elaboration of the concept of governmentality developed by Michel Foucault.
Abstract: This article investigates the relationship between genetic determinism and the discourse of risk by making use of an elaboration of the concept of governmentality developed by Michel Foucault. After a short outline of the theoretical profile of the employed risk analysis, the main part of the text distinguishes three core level of analysis. With a view to illustrating several aspects of a ‘genetic governmentality’ the increasing social impact of genetic information is examined from the angle of truth programs, power strategies and technologies of the self.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: McInerney as discussed by the authors describes the way that the slightest, most literal displacement convokes a qualitative difference, because as directly as it conducts itself it beckons a feeling, and feelings have a way of folding together, resonating together, interfering with each other, mutually intensifying, all in unquantifiable ways apt to unfold again in action, often unpredictably.
Abstract: It’s September 11, 2002. I awake listening to the news. I’m in Australia, so we’ve arrived early to this day of memorializing. On the other side of the dateline, the rest of the world is preparing to deal with a welter of emotion. On the radio a somewhat incoherent man in New York talks about how he’ll drink a lot of ‘brewskis’ tomorrow. The interviewer is sympathetic. Bodies do strange things under stress. They act out. Like plants, our bodies are tropic, and twist and turn in reaction to different stimuli. Think of those reports from New York of ‘terror sex’ and the surge of interest in singles’ bars. All those bodies madly moving, seeking and turning to other bodies, like so many flowers orienting themselves towards the light. The warmth of another body, being held and holding – a momentary balm for frayed nerve endings. Bodies in embrace burning out the fear in the dim light of a bar. Perhaps it worked for a while. But then bodies broke apart. Specialists in trauma tell us that trauma is the overwhelming feeling of too much feeling. ‘Affect-flooding’ causes our bodies to want to shut down, to turn away. Too much feeling. Every minute change in stimulus causes the body to shift, and ‘it moves as it feels and it feels itself moving’ (Massumi, 2002:1). More movement, more feeling. Brian Massumi describes the way that ‘the slightest, most literal displacement convokes a qualitative difference, because as directly as it conducts itself it beckons a feeling, and feelings have a way of folding into each other, resonating together, interfering with each other, mutually intensifying, all in unquantifiable ways apt to unfold again in action, often unpredictably’ (2002:1). So a tiny movement, perhaps so slight a shift that other parts of the body remain unaware, sets off sensors that register in feeling another feeling. It’s all so small. The densely worded explanations defy meaning, squeeze it out. Or maybe meaning reappears in unfamiliar places. In the world changed forever, feelings are thrown around blithely and they too cease to have much meaning. Ordinary people and men of distinction can only repeat the words. Writing in The Guardian, Jay McInerney, talks about his

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The idea of institutional holes was introduced by as mentioned in this paper, who argued that entrepreneurs strike a risky balance between acquiring institutional support for new enterprises without allowing institutions to absorb those enterprises, and creating profit-making connections, on the other.
Abstract: Theories of entrepreneurship and institutions have grown up in partial isolation, but they are actually complementary. By analogy with Ronald Burt's structural holes, the idea of institutional holes calls attention to the ways entrepreneurs create connections among sites kept separate by existing institutions. Especially in transitional economies, entrepreneurs strike a risky balance between acquiring institutional support for new enterprises without allowing institutions to absorb those enterprises, on one side, and creating profit-making connections, on the other. The experience of a daring Chinese entrepreneur illustrates both the exploitation of institutional holes and the perils of institutional entrepreneurship.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a content analysis of 2,500 sampled articles, together with qualitative comparison of different editions of the same newspaper titles and interviews with editors and journalists are used to show the extent and nature of ‘national’ frames of reference in newspapers in England and Scotland.
Abstract: There are two problems with the existing account of the relationship between newspapers and national identity in the UK. The first is that although it is widely assumed that the mass media are central to the reproduction and evolution of national identity this has never been empirically demonstrated. The second is that exactly what comprises the relevant ‘national’ context in the UK is unclear. Content analysis of 2,500 sampled articles, together with qualitative comparison of different editions of the same newspaper titles and interviews with editors and journalists are used to show the extent and nature of ‘national’ frames of reference in newspapers in England and Scotland. Paradoxically, devolution may have reduced the spatial diversity of news stories in the press in England and Scotland.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present data gathered during and since the protests against the IMF and World Bank meetings in Prague in September 2000, and describe the interactional and deliberative processes that w...
Abstract: This paper presents data gathered during and since the protests against the IMF and World Bank meetings in Prague in September 2000. It describes the interactional and deliberative processes that w...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the contemporary relevance of Habermas' "New Social Movement" theory (Habermas, 1981, 1987) in the context of public debate and the movements that may generate it in the present context.
Abstract: In this chapter I consider the contemporary relevance of Habermas’ ‘New Social Movement’ theory (Habermas, 1981, 1987). This is an important point of contemplation when thinking about the ‘public sphere’ and the movements that may generate it in the present context. For Habermas, it is the ‘new’ movements of the post-1960s era (such as the Women’s, Youth, Alternative and Ecology Movements) that form the raw materials of the public sphere. In their struggles over lifestyle and identity, new social movements respond to questions about the legitimacy and accountability of governments, and in-turn, raise them. What is ‘new’ about these movements, Habermas argues, is the conflict around which they organize. The central conflicts of advanced capitalist societies have shifted away from the ‘capital-labour’ struggles of the Labour Movement (now seen as ‘old’ politics), and towards grievances surrounding the ‘colonization of the lifeworld’. In rejecting ‘colonization’ the new social movements reassert communicatively rational action against the imposing agendas of the state and economy. They contain, therefore, the ideal possibility of constructing a relatively autonomous space for public debate. The shift from ‘old’ to ‘new’ politics therefore compounds the potential in new social movements for generating a genuine public sphere. This argument suggests two things. Firstly, conflicts located at the ‘seam between the system and lifeworld’ (Habermas, 1981: 36), provoke public-sphere generating social movements. Secondly, that these conflicts are divorced from capital-labour conflicts and can be considered as something ‘new’. I question here whether these assumptions remain valid in the present context of struggle. The chapter is comprised of three sections. In section one, after a brief exposition of Habermas’ general argument, I refer to recent work on the AntiCorporate Movement, which suggests that in part they do (Crossley, 2003). Anti-corporatism generates public debate through a struggle against the ‘colonization of the lifeworld’ by an expanding global economic system. On the other hand, the ‘old’ politics of labour are still very much a part of anti-corporate activity, begging the question of what exactly is ‘new’ for Habermas? This question is tackled in section two by reconsidering Habermas’ general theory. Avoiding the debate over the relative mix of old, new (and even newer?)