I have ruminated episodically on the trivial issue of whether or not I can claim to be a writer. My provisional conclusion has been that I am an (ex)university teacher primarily, which has of course involved quite a bit of writing, but that I cannot be said to have made my living as a writer.… Read More »
From 2006 my office settled in Mortimer Market on the ‘other side’ of Tottenham Court Road. I was now closer to UCL in Gower Street in more than a geographical sense. As well as constantly retracing the long familiar route to Dillons/Waterstones I found I was making more extended use of UCL’s classrooms and facilities.… Read More »
I spent many hours walking into Soho, or more likely through it, even before settling into my various offices in Fitzrovia. While based in Charing Cross HMS on Fulham Palace Road from 1975-1978 I often ventured eastwards via Soho, usually with visiting the – then many – secondhand bookshops along Charing Cross Road foremost in… Read More »
From 1978 to 2006 I had my office(s) in Fitzrovia. Over that period I became familiar not only with its cafes, and those of Soho to its south, but with its bars. Initially I read and wrote in a few chosen haunts, for many years using biros and exercise books. When I was joined at… Read More »
Academic writing has undergone some profound changes since I first became an author at the start of the 1970s. Some of these, but not all, are of concern. If I was ever asked for advice from younger colleagues – and one surely always should wait to be asked – I would usually include the following:… Read More »
My current thinking and writing is around philosophy, social theory and the fractured society. It is a complex project with which I am and are likely to remain happily engaged. I am a sociologist still. I guess I’m essentially an ex-academic though, for all that I retain the title of Emeritus Professor and five years… Read More »
Much of my thinking/reading/writing since retirement has been focused on two longstanding areas of interest: health inequalities and the sociology of stigma. This has culminated in two single-authored volumes, Sociology, Health and the Fractured Society: A Critical Realist Account (Routledge, 2018) and A Sociology of Shame and Blame: Insiders Versus Outsiders (Palgrave, 2020). To a… Read More »
I have commented several times on the patterns in my reading and writing. These were not chosen but rather emerged over time. Only gradually did I become reflexive about them. Now I wonder if they are forces for good or ill. I remember little of the detail of what I read, though I can generally… Read More »
Shortly after my retirement from UCL in 2013 one of my daughters, Rebecca, suggested that I launch my own website, and maybe do a blog or two. ‘It will give you something to do’, she said. Given her expertise in website design this seemed a sensible option. And so, I think, it has proved. At… Read More »
This second and no less contingent set of memories takes me through my years at university and their immediate sequelae. They are memories, it has to be said, of a very different era and set of student experiences. Nor is the difference merely material, dependent on the fact that we babyboomers were funded for our… Read More »