Social policy refers to the actions governments take in order to influence society, or to the actions opposition parties and ‘social movements’ (think Marxism and Feminism) propose to do if they were to gain power. This topic basically involves looking at perspectives on government policies The Positivist view of Sociology and Social Policy What is … Continue reading “Sociological Perspectives on Social Policy”
Stratification is one of the core themes within A level Sociology and Sociology more generally. One of the major sources of stratification is found in differences between wealth and income within the UK. According to various sources of statistics (of course you should always question where these come from!) the UK is one of the … Continue reading “Income Inequality in the UK – Some Infographics”
Some of the best web sites and other sources for keeping up to date with social trends, news and sociological research. Most of these are hub sites through which the latest sociological research is published and analysed. I’ve broken down my selection into into the following categories, and selected just 3-5 resources under each heading, … Continue reading “Good Sociology Sites”
I’m jiggling things about at the moment, this page was originally about sociology text books only, the material for which is still below, but I’m transforming it into a page about sociology reading more generally. It’s likely to broken up into the following sections: Good books written by actual sociologists Good books with sociological content … Continue reading “Good Sociology Books”
Postmodern theories underline leisure and consumer activities as key sources of identity in postmodern society, contrary to identity formed by work or social class in the modern era. In his book, “Decentring Leisure,” Chris Rojek argues that leisure, often blurred with work, isn’t defined separately but in relation to other experiences. Rojek and later theorists like Scraton and Bramham agree that leisure has transformed with the advent of postmodernity – shifting from a concept of escape to self-indulgence and expression, primarily driven by consumerism and personal lifestyle.
Barbie lives in Barbieland, which for some is a feminist utopia in which women can do anything: be president, have highly professional careers (the entire Supreme Court are female) as well as wear high heels and throw all night parties. However all is not well in Barbieland: Barbie starts having nightmares and thinking about death, … Continue reading “A Feminist Analysis of the Barbie Movie”
sociological perspectives on when old age begins and the norms surrounding later life.
Functionalists Durkheim and Mauss argued that social structures shaped human cultures. Aboriginal societies with simple structures had simpler (‘primitive’) cultural classification systems, industrial societies had more complex cultures.
I caught an episode of Woman’s Hour last week in which the presenter kept mentioning that according to a recent survey 62% of people in the UK had volunteered in the last week, and inviting people to discuss their experiences of voluntary work. The survey in question (excuse the pun) was the Volunteering and Charitable … Continue reading “Invalid Official Statistics on Volunteering?”
Recent independent research conducted during Lockdown has found that 56% of people report that they are part of a ‘subgroup’. The research was conducted by ‘The Nursery‘ and consisted of a phone survey of 1800 adults. The most popular subculture types reported were: Gaming Religious groups (not mainstream religions) Hippy Spirituality Political movements Restrictive diets … Continue reading “Has Lockdown lead to more subcultures?”
