Archive for: July, 2014
30. Sociology of consumption
The sociology of consumption emerged only recently. Prior to the 1980s, consumption was addressed indirectly in the context of other sociological concerns such as social deprivation, class and status, critiques of mass culture, and the consequences of (assumed) material abundance. In the 1990s, scholarly interest in consumption exploded – perhaps […]
Sociology of Personal Life
Edited by Vanessa May (2011) What can sociology tell us about our personal lives, families and intimate relationships? This book explains how key theoretical perspectives and relevant contemporary research in the discipline can shed new light on even the most familiar areas of our everyday worlds. Sociology of Personal Life, together […]
Connecting Self to Society: Belonging in a Changing World
Vanessa May (2013) Belonging forms the bedrock of how we relate to the world around us, yet its relationship to society and social change is often overlooked. How do we explain that connection between self and society? How do our friendships and relationships shape our sense of belonging? Why does […]
Rethinking Family Practices
David H J Morgan (2011) David Morgan’s ‘family practices’ approach has been hugely influential to the study of families and personal life internationally. First developed in the 1990s, and set out in Family Connections (1996), this new book revisits and elaborates the original argument, exploring the theoretical antecedents of this […]
Acquaintances: The Space Between Intimates and Strangers
David Morgan (2009)Â The distinction between friends and acquaintances is often made in everyday conversation but the significance of the distinction is under-explored. Acquaintanceship can be understood as a form of knowledge of other people that lies somewhere between intimates and strangers. This book argues that acquaintanceship is a topic […]
Eating Out: social differentiation, consumption and pleasure
Alan Warde and Lydia Martens (2000) Eating out is now one of the most popular of all recreational activities. Until the 1980s it was not something that most ordinary people did, except when they had no alternative while travelling or because they worked too far away from home to return […]
29. Researching race
The ways in which race structures identities, experience and disadvantage has been a central concern to much of the work coming out of Manchester sociology. All the research carried out in Manchester seeks to explore how race is both a social construction (ie it has no biological or genetic basis) […]
28. Rod Watson and conversation analysis
Conversation analysis is part of the ethnomethodological tradition of social research. Ethnomethodology uses a strong version of ethnography, which captures particular instances of ‘naturally occurring’ everyday actions and processes, often using audio and video to record them for analysis later. Conversation analysis focuses on the way different speakers take ‘turns’ […]
27. Researching the darker side of relationships
The revival of sociological interest in relationships and personal life has been extended by Manchester sociologists to include aspects which are difficult, troubling or stressful. Carol Smart, Jennifer Mason, Brian Heaphy and Katherine Davies have all conducted research on the darker side of relationships. Their focus is not so much […]
26. Feminist waves and different generations
In light of recent feminist activisms that have attained a high degree of media visibility – such as the campaign to have women represented on bank notes and the Everyday Sexism project – a fourth wave of feminism has been proclaimed.  When feminism is understood as a series of waves […]