I gave a talk about sex work in New Orleans in 1991, flying to the ASA’s Southern Sociological Association meeting to propound my theories in eight minutes, the remaining two being reserved for questions; drop your notes and you were stuffed. The meals with the contingent from Emory, not just old friend Dick Levinson, but… Read More »
Norbert Elias argued for a developmental approach to the study of society, in contrast for example to Parsons’ static approach; but he was for many years neglected in Britain, none of his works being translated into English during his sojourn as a teacher at Leicester. Like the great French historian Braudel, Elias was interested in… Read More »
If Parsons became the unacceptable face of structural-functionalism, Merton grew into his role as its more subtle and acceptable interpreter. He was also more interested in Marx than Parsons (Alvin Gouldner was a student). He was critical of the claims that: (a) there is a functional unity to society; (b) all standardized social and cultural… Read More »
Tromso lies within the arctic circle but was bathed in sunshine as a group of local and overseas experts on eHealth – plus Annette and I – met to pool our resources. It was to be one day on the university campus in Tromso discussing a study of the role of video conferencing in the… Read More »
We first visited New Orleans as a family in 1991, the year we purchased 58 South Street in Epsom and I became an owner-occupier at the age of 43. In various combinations the Scamblers made several more trips to this European corner of the US through the 1990s and into and beyond the noughties: most… Read More »
In his Mammon’s Kingdom (Allen Lane, 2014, pp.150-1), David Marquand gives eloquent expression to the transmutation of choice into fate in the financial capitalism of the last generation. He is worth quoting at length: ‘We trust people we believe are like ourselves. In an egalitarian society we can safely assume that strangers will be sufficiently… Read More »
Sandown Lodge had provided a very pleasant home, but circumstances changed during our time there. When we moved into number 45 in the early 1970s many of the flats were rented via companies to young families in transit. Into Thatcher’s 1980s Freshwater’s policy shifted. While those of us who rented had a degree of protection,… Read More »
There is widespread unease at the sharpening divisions between the haves and the have-nots within the UK and within and between countries worldwide since the onset of financial capitalism in the mid-1970s. At different times and in different places and contexts this unease has fed into serious rebellions and uprisings in the early 21st century.… Read More »
This is my 100th blog, so it seems fitting that it is given over to a reflexive moment. What follows touches only incidentally on the new and growing field of digital sociology. How did I start? Why? And what do I make of it now that I am – I suppose – no longer a… Read More »
Talcott Parsons has suffered from his success. He was the chief exponent of the US-style structural-functionalism that has come closest yet to constituting a Kuhnian dominant paradigm for sociology. His The Social System was the text through the 1950s and ‘60s. The rejection of his work since has in my view been overdone: to fly… Read More »