-
Continue reading →: Santa at Easter and talking about migration
I have been keynote speaker at a fascinating conference on Labour Mobility in the European North, at the University of Lapland (in Rovaniemi). It was an International conference and we had talks on (among other migrations) Thai Berry Pickers in Norway and Finland, farm workers in Norway, and even backpackers…
-
Continue reading →: Ageing abroad
At the British Sociological Association Annual Conference (3-5 April 2013, London), I presented a paper with some of the findings from the Lifestyle Migration in East Asia project. I talked about how older British emigrants think about older age and how they will cope with that so far from ‘home’.…
-
Continue reading →: The Great British Class Survey
The Great British Class Survey published their results just in time for the British Sociological Association Conference. The news coverage was amazing and the survey is a great success. But I wonder how the new seven classes map onto the already existing NS-SEC- which I was intrigued to note Savage and Devine used…
-
Continue reading →: The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration
The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration is published. It is an amazing resource, providing ‘a complete exploration of the prominent themes, events, and theoretical underpinnings of the movements of human populations from prehistory to the present day. It includes thematic interpretations and theories of migration, as well as the significant…
-
Continue reading →: Telling Practice Stories
What is a practice story? I like to think that the work of social science is to tell practice stories about an event or phenomenon. Practice stories explain something by describing how it develops over time as norms, rules, and organizational arrangements are acted on and adapted by people as…
-
Continue reading →: The Ikeaisation of society and one day in the life of an academic
Ikea: choose your own items, fill in your own forms, collect the items yourself, put them in your own car, drive them home and fit them yourself = low overheads and staffing costs, and maximum profit for the store (also see the McDonaldization of Society). 31st October 2012. I arrived…
-
Continue reading →: Interview with an Expat
Interview with an expat The blogger ‘tropical expat’ has done an interview with an expat and pasted the interview on his blog. You can read the interview here: tropicalexpat He is planning on doing some more, so I shall be keeping a lookout for them. It’s an interesting phenomenon – the…
-
Continue reading →: The Up Television Series
I am showing my students the Up films as part of my module Sociological Practice. In 1964, Granada Television interviewed, and spent some time with, a group of 7 year olds from diverse class backgrounds about their aspirations, attitudes to love and marriage, what sort of schooling they were getting,…
-
Continue reading →: Busy, busy, busy
Term will start again soon, so I am now preparing lectures, module guides, and reading lists, checking room bookings and equipment, and trying to get my timetable under control so that I can fit in all the other stuff I’ll be doing as well. We’ve got PhD student progress panels…






