Category: Social Identity

Opinion / People / Social Identity / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Social Welfare

Promoting better understanding of social work: Interview with Guy Shennan

Guy Shennan is a social worker of over 25 yrs, Chair of the British Association of Social Workers (‘BASW’) and an independent consultant and trainer in solution-focused practice. He spoke to Sociology Lens about promoting a better public understanding of social work, of the need for collaboration between social work organisations and with service users, and on the benefits of social media as a means of achieving this.   What are the aims and visions of the British Association of Social...

Gender & Sexuality / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Selected Politics Concerning Natural Hair

The term “natural hair” is used in the African American community to differentiate between hair that has been left in its natural state and hair which has been permed (which is to permanently straighten the hair follicle with chemicals). African American hair in its natural state appears tightly coiled or kinky and is often socially stigmatized. Social stigmas are any idea that individuals associate with negative connotations. Many individuals would agree that hair is a prevailing symbol of one’s self...

Class & Stratification / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Making sense of the ‘social’ in social media (and social enterprise, social marketing, social analytics…)

Doubtless I am not alone among the contributors to Sociology Lens in having been exposed, during my first year as an undergraduate, to an array of foundational thinkers in sociology (and anthropology) who present human history as a movement away from ‘traditional’, ‘face–to–face’ or ‘kinship–based’ societies, towards those in which interaction and identity is less relational, and more individualized. Such theorizing is not only limited to the classical sociologists who wrote in the 1900s, like Ferdinand Tönnies and Émile Durkheim;...

Gender & Sexuality / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Sociology of Culture

On Cultural Hegemony, Cultural Appropriation, and Blackness

Amandla Stenberg, an activist and an individual who has considerable reach amongst the masses used her platform as an actress to speak out against cultural appropriation when she responded to a post on the Instagram of a celebrity teen socialite in early July. Many replies to Stenberg’s response of the original poster demeaned Amandla for making an argument about race as many bystanders were convinced that the original Instagram post was meant to be a fun fashion statement. The subsequent...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Identity / Sociology of Culture

Intimacy, Play, and Identity

(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:BDSM_equipment#/media/File:Salon-erotik_Besançon_001.JPG) Sexuality is, still, something seen as taboo, and deemed not appropriate for everyday conversation. Society assumes men and women will marry, procreate, and in time, create their own family: where their children will repeat the process. However, people do not always adhere to the model: some will live within the “deviant” parts of society. There are people who identify as LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, Queer), SM (Sadomasochism), and many more. One identity, out of the plethora, that...

Gender & Sexuality / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Sociology of Culture

Homosexuality and Anti-Colonialism: How Homosexual Frenchmen Are Actually Colonialists

(Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_history_in_France#/media/File:Miklos_Vadasz_-_L%27Assiettte_au_Beurre_-_Les_p%27tits_jeun%27_hommes_02.jpg)   Before the conquest of the colonies many non-Western, indigenous, societies did not believe in a heterosexual/homosexual binary. In lieu of this binary, many indigenous societies had some notion of a third category for a person’s sex: a man, or woman, who would dress as the opposite sex but sustained same-sex relationships. The indigenous populations viewed these same-sex relationships as something natural, not perverse. Conversely in Europe, the production of the homosexual was well underway with the coinage of...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Identity

Reconceptualizing Homonormativity: Color-Blind Racism’s Sibling?

I know that I’ve written about my thesis a few times, but at last I have completed my research, written the formal document, and defended its status, certifying me as an official “master.” But if there is one thing that I have learned in my past two years of graduate school, that would be that there is always more work to  be done. There are always new ways of rethinking concepts, new ways to empirically test hypotheses, and new research...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Identity / Sociology of Culture

He, Him, His, She, Her, Hers, They, Their, Theirs, Zi, Zir, Hir…: Pronoun Use and Gender Policing

Have you read the recent New York Times article about Bruce Jenner and about their transition? While their gender identity is not yet confirmed, media has picked up this story and gone wild with the concept of olympian turned family millionaire turned media star is now “turning” into a woman. Every time, however, that I read a new headline about this story, I get shivers up and down my spine, not to mention the amount of pure rage and disappointment...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Identity / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Bulletproof Coffee (and the Spirit of Contemporary Capitalism)

At a health food café in central London, I recently drank my first ‘Bulletproof Coffee,’  a surprisingly ingestible blend of espresso, butter and coconut oil which has a texture not dissimilar to yak butter tea. To be precise, Bulletproof® Coffee ought to be made with a blend of grass-fed butter, Upgraded™ coconut oil (from upgradedself.com) and low-toxin Bulletproof® Upgraded™ Coffee Beans. And it is indeed no coincidence that Bulletproof Coffee tastes a little like yak butter tea. Dave Asprey, the...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change

Parenthood as Collective Identity

  Iowa is engaged in an historical race, possibly sending their first female to the U.S. Senate.  Republican candidate, Joni Ernst, while also an Army National Guard soldier, describes herself as a mother first.  Albeit a mother who also carries a gun, castrates hogs and rides a motorcycle…just like most mothers I know.  A recent NPR piece questions whether motherhood is a qualifying attribute for national office.  The female focus group interviewed for the broadcast didn’t buy it.  They all seemed to...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture

The romantic and the mundane: Finding your soulmate via Social Practice Theory

  Do you believe that ‘The One’, your ‘soul-mate’, your ‘life-partner’ exists? Have you already found them? Hollywood movies, glossy magazines, and agony aunts repeatedly reassure us that, firstly, somewhere out there is Mr/Miss Right, and secondly, we just need the good fortune to find them – some auspicious occasion when true love will make its presence known. I was compelled to dwell on this when I read Julie Birchill’s recent article on the matter in the Spectator. I don’t want...

Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture

Understanding Society through Soccer? Fan Cultures, Identities and Politics

Although soccer (or ‘football’ as it is known in most places globally) still lags behind the four ‘major’ sports of American football, basketball, baseball and hockey as a speactator sports, it does have a sizeable and growing following in the US. A recent interdisciplinary conference at Hofstra University explored the importance and meaning of soccer in society – beyond (but including) economics and market shares – and made the argument that soccer (and sports more generally) should be treated as...

Social Identity / Sociology of Media & Communication

Speech, Identity, and Losing the Accent

The voice isn’t often taken as a subject for Sociological analysis, despite affecting and representing a great range of highly sociological topics such as social stratification and identity, amongst many others. Taking the voice as an object of study can be incredibly illuminative, as trends in the way we speak are a clear indicator of wider social changes, as well as being highly applicable to social theory. I started thinking about this after hearing a radio programme on the BBC, that...

Gender & Sexuality / Social Identity / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Identity, Late-Modernity, and the Consumer Society

The concept of identity is one that holds great appeal; gripping the attention of both scholars and society. Nevertheless, the literature reveals little consensus as to what identity actually means. The term is expansive and the prevailing way to study it is to select out specific aspects of any individual such as their gender, nationality, race/ethnicity, job status, family role, sexuality, and so on. However, there have been dominant theoretical perspectives when considering identity. Additionally, it appears that current social...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication / Video Resources

Come as you are: The social experiences of sexual identity and mental health

On August 4, Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker struck down California’s ban on same sex marriage ruling that the prohibition violated the right to equal protection as afforded by the United States Constitution.  Judge Walker went to great lengths to lodge his ruling in an extensive review of the facts presented. Ultimately, he determined, “Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition...

Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture

"You Lie": Racism as a Social Form

nmccoy1 Joe Wilson’s outburst “You Lie!” has been analyzed and instrumentalized for political purposes on all sides of the aisle.  Yet very few of these analyses explore the ahistorical frames which are being used.  The problem with ahistoricity is a decontextualized understanding of an event as a social form.  When the comment is isolated and individualized as it has been, it is disembedded from the racialized society in which it takes form.  As Kenan Malik argues in The Meaning of...