ARCHER AND CULTURAL MORPHOGENESIS: A THESIS ON FRAGMENTATION AND ‘OTHERING’ IN CONTEMPORARY UK ABSTRACT This essay addresses the issue of cultural change. Introducing and drawing on Margaret Archer’s theory around the constant interplay of structure, culture and agency and her concept of cultural morphogenesis – denoting the contemporary acceleration of cultural change – it… Read More »
A lesson learned over the years is that sociologists – and others – should not be seduced into, or restricted to, debating on terms already laid down by others. Often these terms constitute a kind of widely accepted orthodoxy. Economics is a prime example which I will come to later. Another example among many, and… Read More »
Dear Andy Burnham, I admit I was one of those who remained sceptical, unconvinced that your premiership would differ substantially from your predecessor’s. But as ever the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The challenges are significant, but if they are not addressed with a principled determination – well, it’s all rather pointless… Read More »
I have often reflected on the role of ‘muckraking sociology’, invariably drawing the conclusion that it is a missing ingredient in contemporary sociology. The following quote from Gary Marx in 1972 defines muckraking sociology in the following terms: ‘such research uses the tools of social science to document unintended (or officially unacknowledged) consequences of social… Read More »
Ashes to ashes indeed. It is of course not entirely true to say we enter the world as a blank slate: we owe our parents a certain genetic inheritance, plus we find ourselves in a world which is none of our choosing. Nor do we leave it with nothing outstanding. I’m satisfied that my life… Read More »
The only time I was invited to appear on TV was in 1998. ‘Newsnight’ and other like programmes wanted to interview me about my edited collection ‘Rethinking Prostitution’, which was making an impact at the time. Unfortunately I was at the time teaching a semester as Visiting Professor at Emory University in Atlanta and couldn’t… Read More »
The question of how best to tax wealth has long been posed. In a recent pamphlet the French economist Gabriel Zucman both analyses the extent and depth of wealth inequality in France (and elsewhere) using the best data as yet available, and details what he regards as the optimum way of tackling this issue. His… Read More »
I didn’t read any of Sartre until I became an undergrad, maybe aged 19 or so. It was unusual in a UK university to be introduced to existentialist thought as part of a philosophy course, dominated as the discipline was them by often-dry and unambitious Anglo-Saxon linguistic philosophy. We owed our neophyte understanding to Irene… Read More »
I recall having a dispute, all very mid-Surrey and polite, around the issue of the importance of teachers for their pupil’s future accomplishment. It was with two teachers, both very experienced and I suspect very good at their jobs. They each insisted that teachers play a vital role in upward social mobility, while I dissented.… Read More »
I got my first university teaching appointment in 1978. Student feedback was more-hit-or miss affair then. Perhaps relatedly, university tenure was understood to be a tangible thing rather than a vague short-term promise to be broken if economic circumstances dictated a shift in university policy. Informal student feedback had to be dire for action to… Read More »