Early modernisation theorists believed that it was essential to inject aid into countries to establish infrastructure and change attitudes. From the 1950s to 70s aid programs seemed to have a positive effect on many developing countries as both economic and social development increased, however this progress seamed to stall from the late 1970s. Contemporary supporters … Continue reading “Arguments for Official Development Aid”
Is life in the UK getting better or worse? In this post I evaluate this question by looking at a few official statistics.
An exploration of some of the problems of official statistics on ‘single people’
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, claimed that school funding was at a record high, but an IFS report contradicts this. The government manipulates statistics by focusing on specific age ranges to present a positive image. Cuts have been made in sixth form, Local Education Authorities, and capital spending, highlighting government bias in statistics. This emphasizes the importance of critical analysis in government data.
What are the strengths and limitations of using secondary data to research the academic progress of students in schools? This challenging question came up in the methods in Context section of the November 2021 AQA A-Level Sociology exam, and students found it difficult according the Examiners Report, with significant numbers focussing only on quantitative secondary … Continue reading “Secondary Data on Academic Progress”
A-level sociology entries increased by 23% between 2018 and 2022.
A recent survey found that 1/3rd of teens have been prescribed anti-depressants, but this is probably a result of sampling bias.
One of the easiest ways to revise for the Paper 3 theory and methods paper (the theory and methods section) is to rely on what different theories say about the topic areas within Sociology, such as the family, education and crime and deviance. This post is a summary with links of what Functionalists say about … Continue reading “Functionalism applied to different topic areas in A-level Sociology….”
Cybercrime is one of the most harmful types in terms its economic costs to individuals and businesses. This reason alone suggests that students of A-level sociology studying the crime and deviance module should pay special attention to to this type of crime. What are the economic costs of cybercrime? A recent McAFee report estimated the … Continue reading “What is the Cost of Cybercrime?”
According to official statistics 19% of working aged adults, or one in five people self-report as being ‘disabled’, and this figure has been widely used in the media to promote pro-disability programming. How do we Define Disability? According to the formal, legal, UK definition under the 2010 Equality Act someone is disable if they ‘have … Continue reading “Are one in five people really disabled?”
