Podcasts about British Sociological Association

In this episode, Nasar Meer, author of 'The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice', part of our British Sociological Association 21st Century Standpoints Series, speaks with Rebecca Megson-Smith about his new book. They discuss issues around race and racial justice, and why we continue to see systemic injustice. Meer spotlights that many, every day, ‘unwitting' acts of racism continue to occur despite enquiries, investigations, findings and recommendations for change. He shows how it is possible for systemic racist behaviour to remain unchallenged, normalised and unseen, through a complex cocktail of silence about the past, as well as a lack of understanding that ‘equal treatment' is not the same as ‘treatment as an equal'. Intro music: Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub.

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/medicine

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Doctors of the World, also known as Médecins du Monde, is an international network of more than 400 programmes across 80 different countries, providing emergency and long term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. Whether it's urgent response in the Ukraine, mental healthcare to refugees in Calais, or strengthening the health systems in west Africa, DOTW respond based on the needs of the people they work with. In the UK, Doctors of the World run clinic and advocacy programmes in London that provide medical care, information and practical support to people often excluded from wider society such as destitute migrants, sex workers and people with no fixed abode. Their recent report Left out in the Cold: The extreme unmet health and service needs of street sex workers in East London before and during the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the devastating challenges that street sex workers have in accessing essential healthcare services, resulting in poor health outcomes. Rachel Stuart, one of the report's researchers and authors, spent 18 months speaking to women in Newham, East London, and she talks about the senseless violence and avoidable health issues faced by the women sex working there. Victoria Holt is a PhD student at the University of Roehampton researching sex workers' experiences of domestic violence. I'm co-convenor for the British Sociological Association's Violence Against Women and Girls study group, and a board member for the Sex Work Research Hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode, Matthew talks to Professor Nicola Ingram. Nicola is Professor of Sociology and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research is focused on young people and social inequalities in education and work. She has published widely on these issues and her recent books include: Working-Class Boys and Educational Success: Teenage Identities, Masculinities and Urban Schooling (Palgrave MacMillan 2018); Educational Choices, Aspirations and Transitions in Europe (Routledge 2018); Higher Education, Social Class and Social Mobility: the Degree Generation (Palgrave MacMillan 2016); and Moving on Up? Unequal Graduate Labour Market Struggles (Bristol University Press, Forthcoming). Nicola is co-founder and co-convenor of the British Sociological Association's (BSA) Bourdieu Study Group, and co-convenor of the BSA Sociology of Education Study Group. She is on the editorial board of the Sociological Review, Sociology and the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

Susan Halford is Professor of Sociology and co-Director of Bristol University's new Digital Futures Institute, which aims to use social science expertise and methods to analyse and understand digital technology futures in the making and use insights to help shape these futures in a way that is fair, just and prosperous for all. A Geographer by training and a Sociologist for 30 years, for the past decade Susan has been working closely with Computer Scientists on interdisciplinary research and education. Susan's current activities concentrate on the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. Her research focuses digital data, infrastructures and computational methods, exploring their implications for how we describe, analyse and intervene in the social world. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is currently President of the British Sociological Association.Today we talk about digital futures – what's ahead for us and how to best shape it together in a multi-disciplinary manner. Susan shares what she thinks have been the fundamental disruptions brought about by digitalization and brings forth many insightful examples from her field of work: the making of socio-digital futures. We explore the challenges of working together with technology experts and the ways in which we can better facilitate multidisciplinary approaches and give space for experimentation. According to Susan, digitalization ties up challenges and opportunities and provides a window to try and reconfigure the status quo. She explores how covid-19 has exacerbated AI processes and the new discussions it could help spark. Finally, Susan shares her expectations from the Anthropology Technology conference and her hope that it will further facilitate the making of socio-digital futures. Mentioned in PodcastAnthropology + Technology Conference 2020, 9th October, https://www.anthtechconf.co.uk/Bristol's University Digital Futures Institute, https://www.bristol.ac.uk/bristol-digital-futures-institute/Southampton's University Web Science Instituted, https://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi/index.pageCatherine Ingram, Facing Extinction, https://www.catherineingram.com/facingextinction/ Social MediaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-halford-46054028/ 

David Skarbek (Brown University) describes his ethnographic work on prison governance as a historical analogy to the emergence of states. Join us in this episode of the Governance Podcast led by John Meadowcroft (King's College London) for a vibrant discussion on how governance emerges (or doesn't) in different social landscapes, from prisons and gulags to clans and nation-states. Subscribe on iTunes and Spotify Subscribe to the Governance Podcast on iTunes and Spotify today and get all our latest episodes directly in your pocket. Follow Us For more information about our upcoming podcasts and events, follow us on facebook, twitter or instagram (@csgskcl). The Guest David Skarbek is Associate Professor of Political Science at Brown University. His research examines how extralegal governance institutions form, operate, and evolve. He has published extensively on the informal institutions that govern life in prisons in California and around the globe. His work has appeared in leading journals in political science, economics, and criminology, including in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, and Journal of Criminal Justice.  His book, The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System (Oxford University Press), received the American Political Science Association's 2016 William H. Riker Award for the best book in political economy in the previous three years. It was also awarded the 2014 Best Publication Award from the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime and was shortlisted for the British Sociological Association's 2014 Ethnography Award. His work has been featured widely in national and international media outlets, such as the Atlantic, BBC, Business Insider, the Economist, Forbes, the Independent, and the Times. Skip Ahead 00:38: David, you're well known for writing a book on prison gangs in California and America called The Social Order of the Underworld. Just to begin, tell us a little bit about that book. 2:01: You mentioned that prison gangs are often organized on racial lines. Why is that the case? 4:10: So race is a convenient way of organizing a large group of people. Is that what you're arguing? 4:34: Does that mean this has changed over time? So as a prison population got bigger in America, gangs organized upon racial lines have become more important? 7:44: You mentioned that the convict code, if you like, was informal. Would you see gangs as providing more formal governance? 9:15: Would it be fair or is it a stretch to suggest that this is like a prison constitution? 10:53: One thing when you read the book that's quite striking is there are lots of vivid descriptions of violence that occurs in prison. How do you reconcile that evidence with what you describe as some sort of order? 13:55: I imagine that the question that comes to many people's minds when it comes to prison gangs, is what would happen if they went to prison? Would they have to join a prison gang, and if the didn't, what would be the consequences? 15:26: So it'd be fair to say you cannot be a solitary individual, you cannot be a holdout, so to speak. 16:15: Could we then imagine that prisons are close to what we might think of the state of nature in social science? 17:05: This brings us to your latest work in this area, which I think is going to be called the Puzzle of Prison Order. How does it extend your previous work? 20:03: Maybe you can say a little more about English prisons. One senses that they don't have that kind of gang organization that we observe in California. Why should that be the case? 23:39: One challenge this book takes on is trying to unpack all these different factors, all these different possibilities. So I guess one common sense question would be, looking at California, America, the UK, there is a presence of gangs on the streets. One might assume intuitively that the gangs on the streets are more well organized in California compared to England and Wales. Is that the case, and how does that play into what happens in prisons? 26:08: Another dimension which I think would be of interest is the difference between men's and women's prisons. What have you been observing? 29:44: Let me ask a more mischievous question: You've looked at prisons around the world and spent many years reading research on this. Is there a country or prison system that is completely opposite to what your theory would predict? For instance, where there is a small prison population but there are lots of gangs? 31:42: So it's a story ultimately about governance, and much less about the size of prisons. 32:10: One thing that's striking is, prisons have people with very few resources, they may be predisposed to violence… should this lead us to be hopeful about people's capacity for self-governance? 35:06: So it's undoubtedly impressive that prisoners are able to self-organize or self-govern in this way. Thinking of the comparative political economy of this, though, wouldn't it be better if there was formal governance? Is that safer and less violent? 37:00: Essentially you're engaging in qualitative research. Maybe the first question here is about the challenges of obtaining that kind of data from prisons around the world and how you go about overcoming that challenge. 40:27: What's your sense of the challenges of comparing different ethnographic studies? 44:26: So you were trained as an economist originally. How do economists view this sort of methodological approach, and would they be concerned about your ability to give causal answers? 46:04:  As a political scientist, you see political science going in the direction of causal identification and experimental results. Should we be concerned about that and is it limiting the types of questions we can ask? 48:18: I assume you're not going to be working on prisons forever. What other ideas do you have going forward?

Mary Mellor, author of Money, part of our British Sociological Association 21st Century Standpoints Series, talks with Jessica Miles from Bristol University Press about her book and the many myths about money.

This week, we’re bringing you something a bit different. Recorded at the recent British Sociological Association conference, Michaela and Chantelle present their recently published work on what Brexit means to British People of Colour living in the EU27. This shifts focus to their experiences of Brexit and how this is located in personal histories of institutional, structural, state and everyday racism. As they argue, placing these narratives centerstage deepens understandings of the relationship between Brexit and racism, permitting a view into how it is caught up in longer histories of racism in Britain but also in Europe.

David Morgan, author of Snobbery, part of our British Sociological Association 21st Century Standpoints Series, talking about what snobbery is and why it has more series effects on society than we think.

In this episode of the Digital Sociology Podcast I spoke to Susan Halford who is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol and the President of the British Sociological Association. Amongst other things she explains the emergence "semantic web" to me and we discuss why this is of interest to sociologists and what sociology my have to offer in understanding it. If the web is a massive database of documents then the semantic web is a way of identifying and connecting "entities" within those documents (WolframAlpha is an example of a basic version of the semantic web). Susan says that this is a significant ontological task of identifying what kinds of things do and do not exist in this space. For the semantic web to develop huge amounts of data on all kinds of topics would need to be gathered and analysed which would also require decisions to be made about what kinds of data to include and exclude. We also discuss about the benefits and challenges of working working across the social sciences and computer sciences. I ask Susan about a paper she wrote with Mike Savage in which they outline a fascinating reading of the work of Thomas Piketty, Robert Putnam and Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett. They propose the approach taken by these authors can be applied as "symphonic social science" which could be used to approach big data. https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/publications/speaking-sociologically-with-big-data(37fbb772-fa88-4371-974b-dd91ce57d86a).html Susan also offers some of her opinions on why sociologists are sometimes a bit scared to work with "big data" and how we might be able to overcome this.

Aaron Winter holds a DPhil from Sussex, where his dissertation was on the far-right in post-civil rights America. He is Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at UEL. His research is on right-wing extremism and terrorism, hate groups and hate crime, and racist and racialised violence. He has been interviewed by the BBC, CBC, LBC, The Times, The Telegraph, Vice and Gara. He is co-editor of Discourses and Practices of Terrorism: Interrogating Terror (2010), New Challenges for the EU Internal Security Strategy (2013) and Reflexivity in Criminological Research Experiences with the Powerful and the Powerless (2014). His most recent article is ‘Articulations of Islamophobia: From the Extreme to the Mainstream?’ in Ethnic and Racial Studies (co-authored with Aurelien Mondon). He is currently co-editing the books: Historical Perspectives on Organised Crime and Terrorism and Researching the Far Right: Theory, Method, Practice, as well as the Manchester University Press Series Racism, Resistance and Social Change. He is also part of the ESRC project Racism and Political Mobilisation and London Scholars project Step Up To Stop Hate.Aaron is also a Trustee of the British Sociological Association. Some research that has influenced Aaron's career Jessie Daniels (2016), White Lies: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in White Supremacist Discourse Chip Berlet and Mathew Lyons (2000), Right-Wing Populism inAmerica: Too Close for Comfort Backfire: How the Ku Klux Klan Helped the Civil Rights Movement by David Chalmers Some of Aaron's key research Anti-Abortion Extremism and Violence in the US (2013) My Enemies Must Be Friends: The American Extreme Right, Conspiracy Theory, Islam and the MiddleEast (2014) Articulations of Islamophobia: From the Extreme to the Mainstream?’ (2018) Counter-Terrorism in the USA Prior to 9/11 (Forthcoming 2018)

Joel Busher is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Coventry University. His research examines, 1) the social ecology of political violence and anti-outsider politics, and 2) the implementation of counter-terrorism policy and its societal impacts. His work centres on the micro- and meso-level processes of collective action – the rituals that shape and comprise our everyday lives; the cognitive and moral orders that we make, break and patch together again; and the emotional rules and rhythms of our lives – and how these give rise to, exacerbate or mitigate divisive social relations. In his work on anti-minority mobilisations he addresses questions about how and why people become involved in anti-minority protest, and what sustains, energises or undermines such protests. His book, The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest: Grassroots Activism in the English Defence League (Routledge) was joint winner of the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams Memorial Prize, 2016. His other current research interests include: the processes of interactive escalation, non-escalation and de-escalation between movements, counter-movements and the state; the implementation of the Prevent duty in schools and colleges in England and Wales; and how Brexit is playing out in British ‘expat’ communities living in Spain. Some research that has influenced Joel's career Kathleen M. Blee (2012). Democracy inthe Making: How Activist Groups Form. Deborah B. Gould (2009). MovingPolitics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight Against AIDS. Roger Hewitt (2005). White Backlash and the Politics of Multiculturalism Some of Joel's key research What the Prevent duty means for schools and colleges in England: An analysis of educationalists’ experiences. With Tufyal Choudhury, Paul Thomas, P. and Gareth Harris (2017) The Making of Anti-Muslim Protest: Grassroots Activism in the English Defence League. (2016) Micro Moral Worlds of Contentious Politics: A Reconceptualization of Radical Groups and Their Intersections with One Another and the Mainstream. With John F. Morrison (In Press)

A special programme devoted to the BSA and Thinking Allowed Ethnography Award Shortlist for 2017. Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted to the academic research which has been short listed for our fourth annual award for a study that has made a significant contribution to ethnography, the in-depth analysis of the everyday life of a culture or sub culture. Laurie Taylor is joined by the 3 other judges; Sarah Neal , Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield, Shane Blackman, Professor of Cultural Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University and Alpa Shah , Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the LSE. Producer:Jayne Egerton.

The winner of the 2016 British Sociological Association & Thinking Allowed Ethnography award, Maxim Bolt, Lecturer in Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Birmingham, talks to Laurie Taylor about his groundbreaking study of insecure lives on the border farms between Zimbabwe and South Africa. How do people create homes and stability in times of mass unemployment and uncertainty? Also, transcultural sport: Max Mauro, Associate Lecturer in Sports Studies at Southampton Solent University, considers young Congolese migrants establishing a sense of belonging in a Dublin football team. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The Ethnography award 'short list': Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted to the academic research which has been short listed for our third annual award for a study that has made a significant contribution to ethnography, the in-depth analysis of the everyday life of a culture or sub culture. Laurie Taylor is joined by three of the judges: Claire Alexander, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, Helen Sampson, Director of the Seafarers International Research Centre at Cardiff University and Olivia Sheringham, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

This year, the BBC's Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, launched the second year of its award for a study that has made a significant contribution to ethnography, the in-depth analysis of the everyday life of a culture or sub-culture. Laurie Taylor presents a special edition of Thinking Allowed to mark the announcement of the winner of the 2015 award. Laurie and a team of leading academics - Professor Beverley Skeggs, Professor Adam Kuper, Dr Coretta Phillips and Dr Louise Westmarland - were tasked with judging the study that has made the most significant contribution to ethnography over the past year. Ethnographic studies in the past have often illuminated lives which were little understood or stigmatised such as the urban poor in 1930s Chicago and the mods and rockers of 50s Britain. This year the judges combed through an extraordinary diversity of entries to arrive at a shortlist of 7: Flip-Flop: A Journey Through Globalisation's Backroads by Caroline Knowles. The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System by David Skarbek Lesbian Lives in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia by Francesca Stella. Illegality Inc: Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe by Ruben Andersson. Songs of the Factory: Pop Music, Culture and Resistance by Marek Korczynski Human Rights as War by Other Means: Peace Politics in Northern Ireland by Jennifer Curtis. Educational Binds of Poverty: The Lives of School Children by Ceri Brown. After much passionate and lively debate, the winner can be announced. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The Ethnography award 'short list': Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted to the academic research which has been short listed for our second annual award for a study that has made a significant contribution to ethnography, the in-depth analysis of the everyday life of a culture or sub culture. Laurie Taylor is joined by three of the judges: Professor Beverley Skeggs, Professor Adam Kuper and Dr Coretta Phillips. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The late sociologist C. Wright Mills is in the eyes of many best summed up by one incredibly influential book, The Sociological Imagination, in which he famously urges the academy to "translate private troubles into public issues." The native of Texas was a prime mover in the explosion of leftist thought that pre-occupied the West in the 1960s (he helped popularize the term "New Left," for example). His trilogy of academic books on American society -- The New Men of Power (1948), White Collar (1951) and The Power Elite (1956) -- set the tone for a critique that echoed for decades. Wright Mills himself missed this moment - he died of a heart attack in 1962 at age 45. British sociologist John Brewer is a passionate admirer of Wright Mills, and his examination of Wright Mills's broader oeuvre includes the late academic's work on foreign policy as worthy of consideration alongside his work on of the discipline or the American way. In this podcast, Brewer, who teaches at Queen’s University, Belfast and is a former president of the British Sociological Association, discusses C. Wright Mills' background and his affinity for European-style social science but American-style life., something he describes as a "love-hate relationship." "I describe Mills, in one sense, as the most European of American sociologists," Brewer tells interview David Edmonds, "because he does recognize the importance of history, he recognizes the importance of politics, he recognizes the importance of individual biography, and this special imagination that sociology has, this promise of the discipline that, as he describes it, is one that tries to blend an emphasis upon individuals, and their biography and lived experience upon the social structure, and upon history. In that sense, he is very, very European." In this Social Science Bites podcast, Brewer also discusses Wright Mills as a popularizer, both of sociology as a discipline in the academy but importantly, of sociology as relevant to the wider populace as something that actually delivers a message that matters in their lives. In fact, he popularized the term "New Left"

The winner of Thinking Allowed's first Ethnography award, in association with the British Sociological Association. Laurie Taylor and a team of esteemed academics - Professor Beverley Skeggs, Professor Dick Hobbs, Professor Henrietta Moore and Dr Louise Westmarland - set themselves the task of finding the study that has made the most significant contribution to ethnography over the past year. In the past, ethnographic studies have cast light on hidden or misunderstood worlds, from the urban poor in 1930s Chicago to the mods and rockers in British seaside towns in the 1950s. This year they considered submissions of startling range, colour and diversity, in the process learning much about the struggles of the war wounded 'amputees' of Sierra Leone; the ties between mothers and daughters on a working class housing estate in South Wales; the hedonistic excess of young holidaymakers in Ibiza; and the dreams and desires of young women in hostess bars in Cambodia. After much passionate debate, finally the winner can be revealed. Laurie Taylor presents a programme about the winning entry which, in the judges' view, has made the most significant contribution to ethnography, the in-depth analysis of the everyday life of a culture or sub culture. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The Ethnography award 'short list': Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted to the academic research which has been short listed for our new annual award for a study that has made a significant contribution to ethnography, the in-depth analysis of the everyday life of a culture or sub culture. Laurie Taylor is joined by three of the judges: Professor Beverley Skeggs, Professor Dick Hobbs and Dr Louise Westmarland. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Middle class enclaves and escapes. A special edition of Thinking Allowed partly recorded at the British Sociological Association's 2013 conference.Privatised neighbourhoods and lifestyle migration are a global phenomenon. Increasingly, it seems, middle class people with sufficient capital are choosing to 'opt out' of urban environments, or, at least, to shield themselves from their more 'dangerous' elements, namely the poorer residents. Laurie Taylor talks to a range of academics who have researched the various manifestations of this desire for enclaves, escapes and the 'good life'. Can the broader social dynamics and conflicts of a society be understood by examining evolving form of housing and urban flight?Maggy Lee talks about the rapid expansion of residential tourism and 'lifestyle migration' between Hong Kong and mainland China, as the 'well off' buy up high end, gated communities. Nick Osbaldiston looks at 'lifestyle migrants' in Australia who move to small, mainly coastal communities, representing a middle class 'takeover'. And Ceren Yalcin explores the proliferation of 'sealed off' housing complexes in Istanbul. They're joined by Rowland Atkinson who has done extensive research into gentrification, gated communities and housing inequality.Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Professor Ann Oakley, distinguished sociologist, feminist and writer, delivers the annual Chrystal Macmillan lecture. Prof. Oakley is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the Institute of Education, University of London. In 2011 the British Sociological Association gave her one of their first Lifetime Achievement Awards for her extraordinary contribution to the history of the development of sociology in Britain. Recorded on Thursday 29 November 2012 at the University of Edinburgh's George Square lecture theatre.

Professor Ann Oakley, distinguished sociologist, feminist and writer, delivers the annual Chrystal Macmillan lecture. Prof. Oakley is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the Institute of Education, University of London. In 2011 the British Sociological Association gave her one of their first Lifetime Achievement Awards for her extraordinary contribution to the history of the development of sociology in Britain. Recorded on Thursday 29 November 2012 at the University of Edinburgh's George Square lecture theatre.

'Jobs for the Boys?' New research presented at the British Sociological Association's 2012 conference claimed that middle class people hoard job opportunities in the UK TV and film industry. In a pre- recorded interview from the conference, Professor Irena Grugulis, suggests to Laurie Taylor that working class people don't get these jobs because they don't have the right accents, clothes, backgrounds or friends. Indeed, it's hard to find an area of the economy where connections and contacts are more significant. But is this mainly due to structural changes in the industry rather than to class based prejudice? The media expert, Sir Peter Bazalgette and Professor of Sociology, Mike Savage, respond to this research and explore nepotism, networking and discrimination in the media world and beyond.Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Laurie Taylor explores new research from this year's British Sociological Association conference. Lisa Mckenzie describes the growth in working class alienation on the St Anne's housing estate in Nottingham. Also, Dr Maria Papapolydorou, considers how class impacts on young peoples choice and experience of friendship.Producer: Jayne Egerton.

What drives people to make the often difficult choices to change their bodies and change their gender? How is the everyday affection for one's country changing in English life? Laurie Taylor discusses issues of transsexuals and the body modifications they choose. Also the place of ordinary English nationalism, as he meets the joint winners of The British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams first book prize. Producer: Charlie Taylor.

A special edition marking the British Sociological Association's 60th anniversary. Laurie Taylor considers some of the seminal figures who've changed the face of sociology in the UK over more than half a century. He also highlights some of the most interesting research to emerge from this year's BSA conference, including Professor Valerie Walkerdine's study of the demise of breadwinning masculinity in a former South Wales steel town. How do men cope when few options are available other than 'women's work' in supermarkets and industrial cleaning? In addition, he hears about Dr Vicki Harman's exploration of ballroom dancing and traditional gender roles. Is it possible to be a feminist as well as being twirled around in a cloud of chiffon and sequins? Producer: Jayne Egerton.