Category: Class & Stratification

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Is there a long-term impact of social background on graduates’ careers?

It is a well-known finding that children’s social background affects their educational attainment. But does parental background still matter for attaining a more prestigious job after graduating from university? In a recently published article, we examined graduates’ occupational trajectories to identify a potential long-term impact of social background on individuals’ working careers. We argued that the influence of family background on graduates’ careers might vary across the life course, and it is, therefore, important to take into account changes across...

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Sociology of Health & Illness

Transforming Despair into Hope

It is a feature of qualitative research that behind every published paper is a pile of data, fieldnotes, and ideas that never make it into the finished text.  Nevertheless, many of these ideas and observations, culled along the way, will have played an important role in shaping the final analysis.  It is some of these thoughts and observations, not formally presented in this paper and its companion piece – Towards a new perspective on deliberate self-harm in an area of...

Article types / Class & Stratification / Opinion / Social Theory

Sociologists should stop talking about social class

Once upon a time it meant something when we talked about social class.  The concept was useful in describing social inequalities, or predicting outcomes such as illness and premature death.  But the turn towards cultural and symbolic approaches to class in recent sociology has made ‘social class’ increasingly meaningless and empirically unhelpful.   For most of its history, sociology has explored the stratifications and inequalities it has observed among members of societies, most notably in terms of gender, race and...

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of the Family

Children’s Lunchboxes and Social Class

As children’s lunchboxes travel between home to school and back again, so might concerns about good and bad parenting, and healthy and unhealthy diets. The way in which parents discuss lunchboxes in research studies can reveal a lot about parenting, social class and ways of feeding children outside the home. Government and school health initiatives that attempt to regulate lunch boxes are underpinned by particular norms of healthy eating and one of their unintended consequences is that children and their...

Class & Stratification / News / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Theory / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication / Sociology of Organizations & Work

The British Journal of Sociology: New Design Volume 70

As an editorial team we are keenly aware of the momentous changes that are taking place in the world of journal publishing, and fully intend to keep our own practices as a journal and as editors – everything from what we publish to how we review, and how quickly – under constant scrutiny in order to ensure that we stay as up to date and as relevant as we can be. So, it is with great pleasure that we announce...

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Population & Demography / Social Welfare / Sociology of Health & Illness

“Essentially it’s just a lot of bedrooms”: care homes and the conundrums of designing for care

My mum will be 90 next month, she lives in a care home, on the top floor which is a secured space dedicated for people living with dementia. The layout of each of the three floors of the home is the same, the design is economical with individual bedrooms off a corridor, a shared dining space, a communal living room at one end of the corridor and a ‘film’ lounge.  Bedrooms reveal a repeat pattern of en-suite shower and toilet,...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / News / Opinion / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Theory

BJS Annual Lecture: From “Having” to “Being”: self-worth and the current crisis of American society, by Michèle Lamont

On Thursday 25th October 2018, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Department of Sociology hosted its annual British Journal of Sociology  (BJS) public lecture. The lecture, by Professor Michèle Lamont from Harvard University was entitled, From “Having” to “Being”: self-worth and the current crisis of American society. The lecture focused on diagnosing the challenges of neoliberal American society: the pitfalls of the American dream across classes, hardened group boundaries, and the need to invent new narratives of hope.  The lecture...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / News / Opinion / Peace, War & Social Conflict / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Theory / Sociology of Culture

Highlights from the ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, 15-21 July 2018

The XIX International Sociological Association World Congress of Sociology is taking place this week, 15-21 July 2018. The Conference theme is Power, Violence and Justice, a topic that could not be more relevant for the global landscape in 2018. With over 5,000 delegates attending from across the globe, the congress opened with a vibrant and rousing performance by the Red Urban Project, Wasauking First Nation dancers and musicians. Professor Myrna Dawson, President-Elect of the Canadian Sociological Association began the addresses...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / News / Population & Demography / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Identity / Social Movements / Social Change / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Culture

Free Content Collection: Celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity

Join us in celebrating World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (#WorldDiversityDay), observed annually on May 21st. A special collection of the latest research from a variety of disciplines to share knowledge on this important subject is free to access  until June 30th 2018 Former Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova commented on the importance of this world focus day: “Even as we celebrate cultural diversity today, we must remember that cultural diversity is increasingly under threat. Across the world, violent extremists have targeted cultural...

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Social Identity / Sociology of Health & Illness / Sociology of Media & Communication

The body positivity movement: advancing ‘fat’ activism

Apart from the fight against fat shaming, other approaches to body positivity range from anti-shaving decisions, to unretouched campaigns by which certain media channels reject photoshopped pictures, to accepting body changes during and post-pregnancy, to celebrities’ body positivity advice (Money, 2017). Arguments are made that body image is no longer essential for an individual’s self-definition (Murray, 2007) and yet contradictory comments in body positivity forums show fluctuations between individual options and social pressures. An analytical overview of social media cues...

Class & Stratification / News / Population & Demography / Social Welfare

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Despite progress, millions are still living in absolute poverty. With recent weather shocks causing global devastation, low-income communities are facing the hardest challenges in overcoming, and surviving, poverty.  The Hunger Project estimates about 896 million people in developing countries live on $1.90 a day or less, and 22,000 children die each day due to conditions of poverty. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the declaration by the General Assembly, in its resolution 47/196 of 22 December 1992, of 17 October as the...

Class & Stratification / Opinion / Social Identity / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Health & Illness

The company you keep: Is socialising with higher-status people bad for mental health?

Is socializing with higher-status people good or bad for mental health? A recent study of the same title starts with this question. People often believe that socializing with higher-status alters is beneficial by leading to access valuable resources. It seems true that individuals are able to obtain useful information and resources if they know people in higher positions, by providing useful resources that the individuals could have not accessed without such relationships. However, it is also probable that socializing with higher-status alters...

Class & Stratification / Gender & Sexuality / News / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Welfare / Sociology of Culture

Collection on Populism: Free Content Collection

With the rise of populism across the globe in recent decades comprising distinct political styles, we invite you to read a collection of recent articles and chapters across the social sciences including sociological and social, political, geographical and cultural perspectives focusing on: Support for the concerns of ordinary people Relations between state, society, and citizens Power relationships within and between social groups How social inequality between groups (class, race, gender, etc.) influences politics All content is free until 31st December 2017!...

Class & Stratification / Political & Economic Sociology / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Mass Media Depictions of Black and White Crime

The depiction of crime in fictional mass media occurs differently for people depending on the color of their skin and what this color has come to symbolize in such a complex system of race, ethnicity, and stratification in the United States.

Books and arts / Class & Stratification / History of Sociology / Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Organizations & Work

Buying Time: Stefano Sgambati’s Sociology of Money, Debt & Finance

Writing for the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog yesterday, David Graeber warned that we may be heading towards yet another crisis of the kind we saw in 2007–08. In his Comment, Graeber takes to task George Osborne’s 2015 Mansion House speech (or rather the logic underpinning it), in which Osborne made a commitment to run a budget surplus in ‘normal times’, much to the consternation of dozens of academic economists. It seems that the utterly misleading and moralizing analogies so...

Class & Stratification / Sociology of Media & Communication

Confessions of an Airport-lover. The ‘Non-place’ in a global village.

Like millions of others – possibly including yourself – I passed through several airports this summer (Remember summer?). But – perhaps unlike you – I obsess about airports, maybe because air travel forms a key part of my studies, or because I’m just something of an aero-geek. I mean, I was in the air cadets for two years as a teenager. But if you think about it, airports are strange, unique kinds of places.