I have long been fascinated by the propensity we humans have for what I am here calling ‘malleability’. What I have in mind goes beyond the subject matter of previous blogs, though doubtless it has been intimated or alluded to now and again. In my last book (‘Sociology, Health and the Fractured Society’, p.107) I… Read More »
The notion of ‘erotic capital’ is in some respects more interesting than it has been given credit for. This is in no small measure down to its provocative framing in the writings of Catherine Hakim (in her book Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital) and the assiduity with which she publicised her work. Her… Read More »
In an excellent new book by Erzsebet Bukodi and John Goldthorpe, entitled Social Mobility and Education in Britain, the class (as defined by NS-SEC) distributions of economically active men and women are calculated at the census years of 1951, 1971, 1991 and 2011. Why is this relevant to my ‘sociological autobiography’? And does this Weberian… Read More »
My parents live on as consociates or contemporaries in defiance of their status as predecessors. I have in frames in my bedroom photos of them attending my wedding (back in 1972), plus an assortment of portraits of them singly or together stretching back to the 1930s. While I’ve not yet reached the stage of talking… Read More »
Oxfam’s latest report exposes and estimates the extent to which the world’s wealth is becoming ever more concentrated. I draw below on Larry Elliott’s summary (Guardian 21 Jan 2019). The figures are truly astounding, even allowing for a public sense of data-fatigue around the assets of the super-rich. The 26 richest billionaires now own as… Read More »
For no sensible reason I can conjure up in my defence I was disappointed in 2017 to read (just) under two books a week. Well, 2018 went that little bit better: as it happened, I read 107 compared with 2017’s 102. Ok, I entirely accept that doing such sums is strange, maybe a little worrying.… Read More »
I have yet to decide what areas or topics to address next, having more or less run out of steam on stigma and health inequalities. I haven’t lost interest in these two old faithfuls, it’s just that, unless I hit an unexpected and exciting new stream, I’m only edging forward and at risk of becoming… Read More »
A year or so ago, having delivered a urine sample showing an unusually high sugar content, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. It was fortuitous, unrelated to the rationale for the test, an unexpected outcome. The first GP I saw said he was reluctant to call it out as diabetes prematurely. He put me… Read More »
The whole point of writing of ‘greedy bastards’ was to expose the social structures – above all those of social class – that major owners of capital surf, and with the help of (a) the politicians and state personnel they purchase, and (b) an assortment of old and middle-class allies that facilitate their endeavours, to… Read More »
Philip Green is almost too obviously a greedy bastard, even perhaps an exemplar of the ideal type. He presents as a warts-and-all stereotype (for all that all stereotypes have their errors of omission and commission), and there are many otherwise inclined to baulk at my use of ‘greedy bastards’ as a technical term who would… Read More »