Department of Sociology

By Peter G Johnson Paul Mason’s recent book ‘Post-Capitalism’ has generated a lot of debate amongst those on the left of British politics; most obviously in interminable and reassuringly repetitive Guardian debates and opinion pieces. It has also inspired an equal amount of derision from those on the right; most predictably in ‘common-sensey’ reviews from […]

By Paul Hodkinson Discussion of goths and mental health has just made a high profile return to the news, following publication of a study in Lancet Psychiatry (Bowes et al, 2015) that indicates teenagers who identify as goths are more likely to be depressed or to self-harm than those who do not. Elaborating on an […]

By Charlie Masquelier Following Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential victory, Alain Badiou published a set of reflections aimed at revealing the true meaning of this event (or, as he put it, ‘non-event’) for French society and French politics. This was followed by the publication of a book with a similar intent and written by Richard Seymour, who […]

By Rachel Brooks Introduction Historically, educational institutions have had an uneasy relationship with emotions. Following the Enlightenment tradition, schools and universities have often been concerned only with educating the mind, while side-lining the body[1]. Their focus has thus, traditionally, been on reason, rather than emotion. Boler argues that this privileging of the rational over the […]

By Laura Harvey When I went to my work experience, one of them said to me, they go ‘who’s your, who’s your role model?’ I said ‘Tu Pac’, she goes ‘Right’. And I explain everything to her, she just couldn’t, she said ‘I think he shouldn’t be your role model, you should have another role […]

By Graham Scambler I reached the conclusion 20-30 years ago that it is premature to abandon classical Marxian notions of class and class struggle. While it would be ludicrous to claim that Marx hit the 21st century nail right on the head – he was writing 150 years ago – it is to me apparent […]