Category: Topics

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / News / Population & Demography / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Culture

Free Content Collection: Celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity

Join us in celebrating World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (#WorldDiversityDay), observed annually on May 21st. A special collection of the latest research from a variety of disciplines to share knowledge on this important subject is free to access  until June 30th 2018 Former Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova commented on the importance of this world focus day: “Even as we celebrate cultural diversity today, we must remember that cultural diversity is increasingly under threat. Across the world, violent extremists have targeted cultural...

Opinion / Sociology of Health & Illness

Sociology of Cancer: A Decade of Research

Our recent review article, which is free to read in the journal Sociology of Health & Illness reviewed sociological research on cancer over the last decade to identify the contribution of sociology to cancer research and care. The largest proportion of articles focused on living with and beyond cancer. This research showed how cancer can be disruptive, prompting changes in people’s sense of who they are.  However, people have a range of experiences which do not fit neatly into common...

Opinion / Science & Technology / Social Welfare

The Digital Nudge in Social Security Administration

This is an abridged version of our full research paper, published in the journal International Social Security Review, which can be read in full for free here. There are significant trends occurring across three major pillars of public administration, namely social investment (policy), nudge (process) and predictive analytics (technology). The European Commission defines social investment as policies designed to strengthen people’s skills and capacities, supporting them to participate fully in employment and social life (EC, 2015). Key policy areas include education,...

Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / People / Social Identity / Sociology of Media & Communication

Early Career Researcher Focus: Interview with Eva Cheuk-Yin Li on Gender Performance in East Asia

At the 2018 British Sociological Association Conference, we had the pleasure of speaking to sociology researchers across the breadth of the discipline, and at all career levels. Eva Cheuk-Yin Li has just completed her PhD on gender and sexuality studies and pop culture in East Asia, at King’s College London, and spoke to Sociology Lens about her research into gender performance in the context of pop culture and fandom in Chinese societies. Tell us about your research background I am...

Books and arts / News / Sociology of Culture

Producing Memory: Maps, Materials, Belongings @ Tate Exchange, London

From 1-6 May 2018, a fascinating project is taking place at Tate Modern, London, with artists and researchers from Queen Mary University of London, thinking about the role of objects in the production, conservation and recollection of individual and community memories. Producing Memory: Maps, Materials, Belongings offers installations, discussions, displays, workshops and screenings to explore how memory is produced in relation to material, objects and places. The programme displays migrant and refugee art, and considers the challenges of producing and conserving a home and identity when...

Applied Sociology / News

New BSA Curriculum in Applied Sociology

The British Sociological Association (BSA) special interest group Sociologists Outside of Academia (SoA) has developed a curriculum in applied sociology, now available as a free resource for UK higher education institutions. The launch of the curriculum took place on 11 April at the 2018 BSA conference in Newcastle and was well-attended, with around 25 people present including officers and staff of the BSA. Speakers were co-convenors Nick Fox and Tina Basi, Ricky Gee and Teresa Crew. Visit the curriculum pages to explore the content. Why...

Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Welfare

Why Observations about the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Policies are Mixed

It is heavily debated how active labour market policies affect the labour market. Some argue that activation programmes help the disadvantaged, such as the low educated or people who possess obsolete skills, to improve their labour market opportunities. This is for example achieved through learning new skills through training or work programmes, making them more attractive on the labour market. Other frequently used measures are hiring and wage subsidies to make it more financially attractive for employers to hire disadvantaged...

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Social Identity / Sociology of Health & Illness / Sociology of Media & Communication

The body positivity movement: advancing ‘fat’ activism

Apart from the fight against fat shaming, other approaches to body positivity range from anti-shaving decisions, to unretouched campaigns by which certain media channels reject photoshopped pictures, to accepting body changes during and post-pregnancy, to celebrities’ body positivity advice (Money, 2017). Arguments are made that body image is no longer essential for an individual’s self-definition (Murray, 2007) and yet contradictory comments in body positivity forums show fluctuations between individual options and social pressures. An analytical overview of social media cues...

Feminist Theory / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change

Forward March: The Next Destination for Feminism

An estimated five million people around the world marched on 21 of January 2017 to protest the sexist behaviour of the incoming US President, Donald Trump. Even as these marches took place, the scope seemed to expand and something shifted in the way that everyone, and especially women, were thinking and talking about feminism. This is an abridged version of the editorial from the most recent issue of the IPPR Progressive Review, which is free to read until the end...

Opinion / Rural Sociology / Science & Technology

Smart Farming: Wither Do It Yourself (DIY) Farmers

We have data coming out of our ears.  Between 2015 and 2016, the world generated more of it than what had been created in the previous 5,000 years.  The same holds true in agriculture—data related to soil characteristics, water quality (and quantity), weather, yield, market trends, and the like. The global market for precision farming technologies is estimated to reach approximately US$6 billion by 2021, which translates to an annual growth rate of 12.4 per cent. Adoption rates of precision...

News / Rural Sociology

Advertisement for new Sociologia Ruralis Editor-in-Chief

The European Society for Rural Sociology invites individuals to apply for the position of Editor-in-Chief Sociologia Ruralis We are looking for an Editor-in-Chief to succeed Bettina Bock in the position from 2020 Sociologia Ruralis reflects the diversity of European social-science research on rural areas and related issues. Over the past 40 years Sociologia Ruralis has been an international forum for social scientists engaged in social, political and cultural aspects of primary industries such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries and rural...

Feminist Theory / Gender & Sexuality / Opinion / People / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Interview with Professor Alison Pullen, Editor-in-Chief of Gender, Work and Organization

  Alison  Pullen  is  Professor  of  Management  and  Organization  Studies at Macquarie  University,  Australia,  and  at the time of the interview, Otto Mønsted  Visiting Professor at Copenhagen  Business  School,  Department  of  Organization. Over the course of her career, Alison’s work has been concerned with analyzing and intervening in the politics of work as it concerns gender discrimination, identity politics, and organizational injustice.  Alison is joint Editor-in-Chief of Gender, Work and Organization, Associate Editor of Organization and sits on the editorial...

Opinion / Population & Demography / Urban Sociology

What does demographic change mean for the future of housing?

The population of England – in line with many other European countries – is undergoing some significant changes that will have far-reaching implications for the future of housing. In short, the population of England has grown significantly over recent years and we are likely to see a continuation of this trend in the future. But growth is going to be concentrated, both in terms of geography but also in terms of demography. This article looks at what demographic change is...

News / Political & Economic Sociology / Population & Demography / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Urban Sociology

Spotlight on Race, Justice, and the City: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

  “Spotlight On” Web Series Cities and urban regions are the site where the world’s most pressing concerns are increasing. For the last 40 years, IJURR has been at the forefront of critical debates. The Spotlight On series publishes original, online-only pieces that offer new insights and perspectives that we hope will generate discussion and debate Race, Justice and the City For the new issue of IJURR’s Spotlight On web series, scholars working in a variety of settings  critically reflect...

Opinion / Rural Sociology

Just Existing is Resisting: a paper-video pairing strategy to talk about the everyday struggle against GM crops in Spain

  GM crops have created (and still create) socio-political storms around the globe. These conflicts illustrate a clash of visions, values and paradigms enacted by different forms of agriculture. While the EU has put considerable weight on the concept of co-existence to manage these conflicts, the nature of GM crops and the social conditions around them pose significant challenges for achieving this aim. Both the biological agency of GM crops and the social infrastructure around these crops facilitate an unintentional...

Opinion / Social Identity / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Health & Illness / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Employee well-being and versions of corporate-driven orthorexia

Context In 1997, Steven Bratman [2] launched the concept of ‘orthorexia’, derived from the Greek “orthos”, meaning “correct or right” and “orexis”, meaning “hunger or appetite”. He described his own “pathological fixation on eating proper food”; including ritualized eating of vegetables picked no more than 15 minutes before consumption, and chewing each mouthful at least 50 times before swallowing. Following this, social discourse [1, 5, 12] has defined healthy nutrition as eating simply, ‘pure’, ‘clean’, wholesome, non-processed diets; diets which...