Poor doors, social housing and the politics of accomodation

I'm starting to face the fact that I may no longer be working class.
Between myself and my wife we own four and a half degrees, three cats, one (mostly unused) bread maker and one house. We've also just started employing a cleaner. Or as a friend of mine neatly put it, "ha, you now have staff".

When we lived in Milton Keynes we had a rented house on a key worker estate. It was fine. Everyone was either a teacher, policeman, nurse etc and it was a pleasant enough atmosphere. We didn't feel like second class anythings. Skip forward to us finally getting our own house in Leighton Buzzard on a new build...and the first thing the estate agent said to us was 'how far away do you want to be from the social housing tenants?' We were genuinely shocked.
Our supposed transformation from one social group into another was brought back to me this morning when I heard about these so-called 'poor doors' and the growing economic divisions in the UK. Housing has always been political. It's been used to keep rich and poor apart since Victorian times but there's growing evidence that it's happening on a larger scale.

So with all that in mind I'd like to suggest some resources to you; firstly, a radio show called the Moral maze covered the topic of social inclusion from a moral standpoint last night (Wednesday) at 8pm on Radio 4. Just follow this link to listen again if you don't see this post until after it's been broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054qfjx  .

Finally, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is constantly examining the links between housing, health and social standing. The full range of their published reports is available from here.

The What, Why and How of Podcasts

It's easier than it's ever been to make information come to you.
Missed a TV show? Just use catch-up or on demand services.
Missed a gig? Someone will have recorded it and put it online.

Very little media is now gone forever and radio shows can be caught up with via Soundcloud or Podcasts.

This post is just looking at Podcasts and how you can use and reference them effectively.
You can find Podcasts in every corner of the web and if you're unsure of what they actually are then it's simply a digital recording of a radio show which is converted into an MP3 format, so it can easily be downloaded. Podcasting is easy and all you need is a mic and a web-enabled device.

There's a lot of Podcasts out there (both on itunes and elsewhere)  that are certainly broadly relevant to the social sciences so you'll need to explore, but I'm going to suggest five specific Casts that I think are worth a listen.

1) Thinking Allowed is a Podcast covering the Sociology radio show on radio 4.

2) Digital Human is a show debating different psychological/sociological aspects of our relationship with the Web.

3) British Psychological Society (BPS) Podcasts page is a list of psychology-related programmes, some of which cover topics of interest to anyone studying criminology, child-related topics or mental health.

4) More or Less is a good listen for anyone trying to get their head around statistics and research-it's much more interesting than it sounds!

5) Podology is a general resource for sociological-related Podcasts. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but certainly worth an explore.

Finally, remember you can reference Podcasts. If you need help with that bit then use your unit handbook or contact me and I'll show you the format.

Happy listening.

Sex, crime, madness and Freud.

Sometimes you need a catchy title for a blogpost to get people's attention.
And sometimes a title promises something that the post can't live up to.

On this occasion I can deliver on all the elements mentioned in the title thanks to a new radio series covering the history of psychology. Now before you say anything I know you're not studying psychology. But, as I've said here before, psychological theory does inform some of the topics which you may well study and frankly this radio series is too good not to promote.

The show is called In Search of Ourselves and so far has been quite brilliant. It's basically a potted and highly critical history of psychology and if you feel like listening to something interesting whilst eating your tea you could do far worse than this.

All the shows so far broadcast are available from here.

New programme on the sociologist Weber

Any long term reader of this blog will know that I consider Radio 4 to be one of the reasons to have hope for the human race. Pretty much every week I hear something there that will entertain, inform, provoke and infuriate.

Last week was no different as I heard a show discussing the work of Max Weber, a sociologist whose books, first published over 100 years ago, are to be found in our library and who many of you will have hopefully heard being talked about in class. He's still considered one of the theorists who you really should know about as a mainstay of sociological thought.

The show in question is called In Our Time, presented by Melvyn Bragg and broadcast on a Thursday. I tend to listen to the podcast, allowing me the flexibility to listen any time. One of the things I love about the show is that you always get a sense of the life of the theorists and not just their works (I would say that the two elements are often equally crucial in understanding someone's work), which broadens the person out somewhat.

You can find the Weber episode here and if you'd like a broader look at older episodes then go here for an explore - it's an amazing archive of shows.

You can of course reference podcasts so contact me if you need help with that bit.

Happy listening!

Second episode of Whatever Happened to Community?

I didn't intend mentioning this series again after I drew your attention to the first episode last week, but episode 2 last night was just brilliant. Such an intelligent 30 minutes of radio touching on nostalgia, architecture and far right politics and the sort of thing that Radio 4 does brilliantly.

In conclusion, do yourself a favour and listen to this.

New series on the nature of community

Nice quick one today, but thought this was worth sharing.

A three part series begins on Monday looking at what the notion of 'community' actually still means.

All the details are here.

The Moral Maze this week

Just a quick plug for this week's Moral Maze which looked at foreign aid, charity appeals and whether it's better to 'look after our own'. This is a timely debate with relation to Children in Need and the current situation in the Philippines.

The show will only be available to hear via i-player for a week, but you can always download it as a podcast.

Click here to listen to it.

New report on 15 minute care visits

I was listening to the Today programme earlier and heard John Humphries talking to a housebound woman called Sally Lubanov, concerning what she currently receives as local authority care. He went on to ask her what she needs to improve her situation. The item was as a result of new research commissioned by the Leonard Cheshire Disability Organisation. They've been looking into the increase in 15 minute 'flying' care visits over the past five years.

The report is downloadable in full from here.

As for the John Humphries interview with Mrs. Lubanov and the subsequent interview with the Care minister Norman Lamb, they'll both be available for seven days via the link here.

Psychology and Sociology; why can't they just get along?

You've probably heard me say before that I'm a psychology graduate. This supposedly gives me a psychological (as opposed to a sociological), approach to life. In reality, I'm not sure it quite works like that. In my case I was always drawn to theoretical approaches that had no problem with criticising the shortcomings of mainstream science. Hence, I found myself attracted to what's broadly known as the social constructionist approach. This standpoint suggests that language is the driving force behind everyone's wholly individual view of reality; that language actively creates reality and doesn't just describe it. This is still pretty much my view.

Psychology symbol

The reason I'm sharing this today is that I've been listening to some great archived radio shows which describe the history and impact of seminal psychology experiments. And I got to thinking about whether I should promote these shows to you. The conclusion I came to was that I should; not because I'm looking to wilfully confuse you (although I've been accused of that more than once...), but because there are occasions when it's an awfully thin line between what's defined as psychology and what counts as sociology.

The social sciences just aren't that tidy. If the family of social sciences were a real family they'd be awfully prone to getting drunk and fighting each other. The Daily Mail would label them as 'FAMILY OF SHAME'. Put it like this; if they had a party there'd be a lot of individuals not prepared to sit next to each other because of some supposed slight uttered in 1935.  

However, my reason for suggesting you look at these radio shows is simpler than that. The social sciences are partly defined by each other-to know what sociology isn't you need to know what psychology is. Also, these shows are very easy to listen to as well and feature key experiments by theorists such as Maslow, Piaget, Ainsworth and Bandura, all of whom are known as psychologists but who you've probably come across on your sociological-based course.

OK. Enough. The radio show is called 'Mind Changers' and you can find the archive of shows here. If you want to reference any of them in assignments just ask for help.

Tim Harford: The Undercover Economist

Tim Harford is one of those people who is able to make complicated things sound simple. He presents a show on Radio 4 about statistics called More or Less. There's a whole archive of shows available here and lots of the shows mention social issues which you'll have discussed in class.

The reason I'm blogging about him now is because he wrote a piece this week on migration and welfare. You can read it here and it's great.

Bear in mind it's an opinion piece; it isn't peer reviewed and it makes no claims to be objective.

Women's rights in India

I'll keep this one short as I'm on holiday.

I was listening to Women's Hour this morning and it turned out to be about the protests of women in India following the much discussed gang rape of a woman on a bus.

It's very moving and you can find it here.

Radio programme on Evidence Based Practice

Firstly, happy new year. I hope 2013 is kind and gentle and holds the door open for you now and again.

I've a few things to blog about over the next few days, but Ben Goldacre's radio programme about Evidence Based Practice (EBP) and social policy comes first. I've mentioned Goldacre before on here; he's a doctor who writes about the importance of reliable research and good reporting of 'the facts'.

For any of you unsure of what EBP is then this show would be a great introduction. Equally, for those of you that have already studied some EBP then rest assured there's enough detail here to give you some new things to think about.

Anyway, the show is available from here on BBC radio i-player for another 5 days, so don't wait too long to take a listen.

Manuel Castells

I saw on BREO the other day that Alex DeMont, a lecturer who I've a great deal of time for, had highlighted a radio 4 show called Analysis featuring a Q & A with Manuel Castells. If you haven't come across Castells before, he's a really interesting sociologist who has been predicting what the web might do to us as individuals for over a decade.

The radio 4 show is here. We also have plenty of his books (I've just ordered a couple of his older books as e-books too) on the shelves and I hope you'll find his theories intriguing.

Let me know if you do.

The Welfare State discussed on the Moral Maze this week

Hello.
First thing's first; in case you've never come across it before The Moral Maze is a discussion programme on Radio 4. The format is 3 or 4 people with opposing views discuss an issue and 'witnesses' are called during the debate to highlight specific issues. It's often quite 'lively'.

The programme last night was a discussion of what and who the welfare state is now for.

It's very good and covers many issues which I know you'll have discussed in lectures.

According to iplayer the link to the show is permanent, but I'd click here and have a listen soon-just in case!

The Invention of Childhood

I'm about to share a terrific thing with you and I honestly cannot take any credit for this whatsoever.

In 2006 the former Children's Laureate, Michael Morpurgo, who is probably best known for writing War Horse, presented a series on Radio 4 called The Invention of Childhood. It's a brilliant series covering 1000 years of history; from the Norman conquest to the 20th Century, but focusing on what it meant to be a child at various key historical points.

I'm not sure if the content is relevant to anything you may be working on at the moment, but if you need 20 minutes break from dissertation writing you could do much worse than have a listen.

You can find the original Radio 4 webpage, complete with some nice links to the OU, here.

If you want to listen to the series it begins here.

And finally, a big thank you to Leona for telling me it was being broadcast again.

The Criminal Brain

I was listening to the trailer for a radio show this morning on how some scientists are trying to 'cure' the criminal brain. It brought to mind the clip below from Frankenstein, where the pathologist is comparing a criminal brain with a 'normal' brain.

The radio programme, part of a month long series focusing on the human brain, is called 'Brain Science and the Law' and looks at the evidence for criminal behaviour being 'hard wired' and therefore touching on big philosophical questions relating to free will. The programme will also look into how brain scans could be used in court proceedings.

The show is on Radio 4 today (Tuesday, 15th) but you'll be able to catch it on the BBC iplayer listen again for the next week.

As someone who studied brain physiology for my psychology degree I find these ideas quite intriguing, especially when you hear debates in the media touching on criminal behaviour being passed on genetically.
Have a listen and let me know what you think?

The Class Ceiling.

Good morning. How's thing?

Have been on holiday in Dorset with the family fossil-hunting and trying to avoid hypothermia, hence the lack of postings. I know the point of holidays is to 'get away from it all' but a cottage with no mobile signal, electricity that you could charitably call wilful and a TV with three channels is pretty far removed from our usual situation. It was great!
Anyway, I digress.

I'd like to recommend a radio programme from earlier this morning (Monday the 1st) on Radio 4.
Polly Toynbee is a journalist who writes for The Guardian with an interest in social justice and politics who's presenting a 2 part series on how class is still a massive indicator of a person's social attainment. There's some more information on the BBC website and the first part of the series is already on BBC's i-player.

As the first person from his family to go to university and as someone who regularly wrestles with the notion of what class even means ( I have great problems with the idea that a university education and love of the arts automatically imposes a middle-class status on an individual), I really enjoyed the first episode. Me and my wife have been having the class 'debate' for 12 years now. Next time you see me in the university stop me and ask who wins the argument!

'Generations Apart' on Radio 4

As I'm typing this a new series is being broadcast on Radio 4 that I think will be worth a listen (or a 'listen again' via the BBC website). The series is called Generations Apart and is presented by Fi Glover. The show is looking at the lives and concerns of people from two distinct generations, the 'baby-boomers' born after World War II and the so-called Generation Y born into the age of the Web. This is the kind of programme that Radio 4 does so well - a programme where the voice is the most important element.

I should probably promote Radio 4 even more than I do. As far as I'm concerned it's one of the pinnacles of British culture and has given me more pleasure and knowledge than any other medium. If you're looking for something related to your subject then try 'Thinking Allowed', a programme presented by Laurie Taylor who's a sociologist. He actually presented an episode of the show from UoB when Radio 4 toured some of their shows in 2009.


And remember that all these programmes are available to hear online for a limited period after they've been broadcast. I'll happily give you more recommendations if you're interested.