A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  

  Subjects -> SOCIOLOGY (Total: 553 journals)
The end of the list has been reached or no journals were found for your choice.
   Most Followed Journals

   Top Publishers

   Top Subjects
Similar Journals
Journal Cover
Sociological Research Online
Journal Prestige (SJR): 0.553
Citation Impact (citeScore): 1
Number of Followers: 8  
 
  Hybrid Journal Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
ISSN (Print) 1360-7804
Published by Sage Publications Homepage  [1176 journals]
  • Critical Interpretation of Spatiality in Professional Korean Football
           Stadiums: Relph’s Theory of Placeness

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Wanyoung Lee, Yoonso Choi
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This research analyzes Korean professional soccer stadiums using Relph’s concept of placelessness to understand why Korean professional soccer has rapidly declined in popularity and become a minority fan sport. Qualitative research methods were used to conduct a narrative analysis. The interview content was analyzed, and four problems were identified. The findings show that these stadiums are (1) a uniform space that excludes local culture, (2) used as a profit-generating tool for large corporations, (3) spaces controlled by the state, and (4) maximizing economic efficiency. Therefore, they have been used as a uniform space for social, cultural, political, and economic purposes. The Korean national soccer team’s performance in international competitions seems to be satisfactory. However, the domestic professional soccer league is in a vulnerable condition. Thus, these stadiums should be established as true places by removing the element of placelessness in order to recover the popularity of Korean professional soccer.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-25T10:05:54Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231172035
       
  • Book Review

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Meriç Kırmızı
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-22T12:42:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231169189
       
  • Book Review: The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Sociology and The Middle East

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Abier Hamidi
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-18T05:46:46Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231172845
       
  • Czech Parents Under Lockdown: Different Positions, Different Temporalities

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Radka Dudová, Alena Křížková
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Using an intersectional approach, we explore how parents in the Czech Republic coped with the increased demands of childcare and how their perceptions of childcare changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on Nancy Fraser’s theory of the social contradiction of capitalism, we address the question of whether the pandemic situation can be viewed as an opportunity to increase recognition of care. Qualitative interviews with parents from various socioeconomic backgrounds conducted from spring 2020 to summer 2021 demonstrate ambivalent experiences of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first school closure in spring 2020 was perceived as a rather positive interruption to everyday affairs. As the pandemic became protracted, the long-term negative effects of care under lockdown arose, especially among mothers, which included weakening labour market position, deteriorating economic situation, and growing dependence on a male breadwinner or social welfare. Our research shows the temporality of the COVID-19 care crisis. In the first stage of the pandemic, care was (also) assessed as an opportunity, a source of purpose, and a new value. In the next period, the experiences and expectations were rather negative. Over time, gender inequality at home increased as women took on most of the increased care burden and the social inequalities deepened, with some using their resources to compensate for the risks associated with the care crisis and others facing further exhaustion and income losses. Overall, parental care did not win greater societal recognition during the pandemic.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-12T01:47:19Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231168249
       
  • How to Overcome the Secretiveness of a Group: Opportunities of Online
           Interviews

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Inês Maia
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In a pandemic, qualitative methodologies and in-person interviews, the key to understanding the experiences lived by participants in social phenomena, proved to be ill-suited. As a result of the restrictions imposed during this period, the challenge was even more considerable in the research of groups and practices marked by secretiveness and self-closing, in that our presence in the field, always marked by hurdles, was impracticable. In this text, we propose a reflection on the experience of conducting online interviews with university students (Porto, Portugal) involved in praxe (hazing), a complex and multidimensional social phenomenon that profoundly shapes academic life in Portuguese universities. We will discuss the differences between holding in-person interviews before the pandemic and online interviews during the lockdown. We draw attention to practical, methodological, and ethical considerations in adapting research to an online context and conclude that, despite the challenges, online interviews opened up surprising opportunities for collecting these students’ experiences.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-08T08:55:22Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231168253
       
  • Examining Professionalisation as a Strategy for Sex Worker Empowerment and
           Mobilisation

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Nadine Gloss
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In this article, I examine the concept of professionalisation in sex work as a strategy shaped by political activism that aims to empower and mobilise sex workers to fight for labour rights. Using a participant-based action research approach, I investigated one sex worker professionalisation programme in Germany to better understand how the design, training and goals of the programme reflected ideas and priorities from the Association for Erotic and Sexual Service Providers, a nationwide sex worker rights organisation in Germany. Through my analysis, I found that the programme for professionalisation was mainly oriented around criticism against the new German Prostitute Protection Act (2017), framing data protection as a sex worker rights issue, and encouraging critical resistance to authorities enforcing the Act. Based on these themes, I offer two new perspectives on the aims of the programme in relation to empowering and destigmatising sex workers. First, the tools of resistance offered through the programme as a way of empowering sex workers were confounded by sex workers’ individual situations that limited their ability to practice resistance. Second, the politics of funding for the programme, guided by the goal of ensuring sex workers are less of a public health risk, may interfere with the broader goal of destigmatising sex work.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-08T08:47:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231170520
       
  • Vulnerability to Food Insecurity among Older People: The Role of Social
           Capital

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Wendy Wills, Angela Dickinson
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Food insecurity is a public health issue in Western countries, including the UK. Being food-insecure means older adults may not access sufficient nutritious, safe, and socially acceptable food, leading to a higher risk of malnutrition. We conducted a qualitative study of 25 households with men and women aged 60–95 years to investigate how older adults access food and to explore social capital, which might contribute to food security or prevent malnutrition. We conducted participant-led kitchen tours, interviews, photo, and video elicitation across multiple household visits. In addition, we brought stakeholders together from a range of sectors in a workshop to explore how they might respond to our empirical findings, through playing a serious game based on scenarios drawn from our data. This was a successful way to engage a diverse audience to identify possible solutions to threats to food security in later life. Analysis of the data showed that older people’s physical and mental health status and the local food environment often had a negative impact on food security. Older people leveraged social capital through reciprocal bonding and bridging social networks which supported the maintenance of food security. Data were collected before COVID-19, but the pandemic amplifies the utility of our study findings. Many social elements associated with food practices as well as how people shop have changed because of COVID-19 and other global and national events, including a cost-of-living crisis. To prevent ongoing adverse impacts on food security, focus and funding should be directed to re-establishment of social opportunities and rebuilding bridging social capital.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-05-08T08:45:02Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231170516
       
  • Book Review: What Is Cultural Sociology'

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Isabel Watts
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.

      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-04-28T12:48:06Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231168455
       
  • What and How are we Measuring When we Research Gendered Divisions of
           Domestic Labor' Remaking the Household Portrait Method into a Care/Work
           Portrait

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Andrea Doucet, Janna Klostermann
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The porous and shifting boundaries within and between care and work concepts, and practices and their related measurement complexities call for innovative conceptual and methodological approaches to research on work and care. This article details how we reconfigured the Household Portrait – a qualitative, participatory, visual, creative method that engages couples in mapping and discussing their household and care tasks and responsibilities – into a Care/Work Portrait. Informed by conceptual shifts in care theories, the Care/Work Portrait offers theoretical and methodological advantages for studying gendered divisions and relations of household work and care. It attends to unpaid care work/paid work/paid care work intra-connections, moves outside the household to include community-based work, deepens distinctions between tasks and responsibilities, and considers wider forms and contexts of care. This method goes beyond who does what tallies to bring forth relational, temporal, spatial stories about people’s complex care/work configurations and the specific contexts, constraints, supports, and structuring conditions of their lives.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-04-10T10:24:16Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231160740
       
  • Trajectories of Vulnerability and Resistance Among Independent Indoor Sex
           Workers During Economic Decline

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Laura Jarvis-King
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Economic decline, such as we have witnessed in recent years, has disproportionately affected women and evidence demonstrates how financial hardship encourages entry to the sex industry. This worsens the working conditions within sex industry markets but, despite this, evidence documenting the effects of recent austerity measures on the sex industry is lacking. This article draws on qualitative longitudinal research following the 2007–2008 financial crisis to explore work trajectories and experiences of vulnerability through time among independent indoor sex workers in the UK. Participants’ experiences demonstrate worsening conditions in the mainstream labour market, particularly for women and, within this constraining context, sex work represents a choice to mitigate economic vulnerability. Yet this creates increased competition in the sex industry alongside declining demand, which compromises economic security and worker wellbeing. Exploring sex workers’ experiences over time contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between women’s work practices and vulnerability during economic decline, which is necessary to inform policy responses.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-03-25T06:35:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231162757
       
  • ‘What Can I Plan at This Age'’ Expectations Regarding Future and
           Planning in Older Age

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková, Eva Soares Moura
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Time has become one of the most researched topics in the field of sociological, but especially psychological, research. While broad attention has been paid to the impact of chronological age on planning and the perception of time, much less is known about these processes in (advanced) old age. Drawing on 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with people aged above 70 years (half of which are conducted with people aged above 80 years), this article explores the type of plans people make in older age and how they relate to the idea of planning face-to-face the shortening time perspective. This research indicates the significant ambivalences in how older people relate to plans and the future. While making short-term plans represents an essential part of their lives, the participants problematise the idea of planning as unreasonable concerning their chronological age. Two dominant approaches to formulating plans are identified: (1) framing future plans referring to the future achievement of a loved one and (2) emphasising ‘living in the present’. The findings also indicate that the social imaginary of the fourth age plays a vital role in how older adults frame the time ahead of them. In conclusion, we summarise our findings and argue that mortality represents just one of the horizons accompanied by other possible milestones structuring the time remaining and redefining the meanings attached to such time.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-03-25T06:28:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231158989
       
  • Explaining Regularities or Individual Outcomes: Chance and the Limits of
           Social Science

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Judith Glaesser
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Can we explain individual outcomes by referring to patterns observed in populations' Social scientists generally assume that we can, at least to a certain degree, and they study populations partly with that goal in mind. However, while patterns can be observed on the population level, which suggest that, on average, certain segments of the population are more likely to experience some outcome, it is impossible, on the individual level, to predict who will actually experience the outcome, even if the individual’s relevant characteristics are known. Thus, an interesting tension emerges: on the one hand, individual action and experience produces population-level patterns, while on the other hand, individual experience appears to be ‘inherently underdetermined’ and partly or largely due to luck or chance. Accordingly, this article considers the relationship between regularities and individual outcomes and to what extent it is desirable to construct models which can explain all the variance in outcomes, and the roles of true chance and what one might call ‘as-if’ chance in this. An empirical demonstration based on ALLBUS data explores these issues further. It uses the example of the graduate premium to discuss that, while there is a pattern where, on average, graduates earn more than non-graduates, there is a certain degree of individual-level deviation from this pattern (even after taking account of other relevant factors) which is partly due to chance. Patterns identified in data can provide the upper and lower bounds within which chance plays its part. The article closes with a discussion of implications for research and policy, and for the understanding of research findings by the general public.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-03-25T06:24:17Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231158504
       
  • Discounts as a Barrier to Change in Our Food Systems

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Lisa Jack
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Despite the wealth of discussion and ideas on how food systems might change, and all the plans and schemes created to provide solutions to unsustainable food systems, very few researchers have examined the accounting practices that define socio-economic relationships around food. In this article, I show that the imperative for each entity in food supply networks to obtain a discount on costs involved in food supply to survive on very thin margins, inhibits large-scale change. The approach here is introductory, providing an explanation of the accounting issues involved for a non-accounting audience, and an illustrative case study is used to show the embeddedness of always ‘getting a discount’. The case study is drawn from interview data with those involved in intermediary companies and in alternative food distribution in Canada and the USA. The difficulties faced by organisations distributing food on a more local level and the lack of lasting and widespread change despite their endeavours, is shown to linked to the inevitability that they too need to ‘get discounts’ to survive. This interdisciplinary study is important to provide context for sociological thinkers and activists seeking to understand the barriers to change in food behaviours and food strategies.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-03-25T06:12:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231155260
       
  • Superficial Allies: The Role of Legal Inclusion and Social Obedience in
           Stigma Processes

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Shahin Davoudpour
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      While the power of legal exclusion in stigmatisation is undeniable, its impact on ally behaviour has never been explored. This gap in stigma, law, and allyship is the focus of the present study. More specifically, this study shows how exclusion of the stigmatised from a legal system increases prejudicial attitudes expressed by allies. Using sexual prejudice, negative attitudes towards sexual minorities, as a proxy for stigma, this study explores ‘Superficial Allies’ or those who express full support for sexual minorities while refusing neighbouring proximity to them. Using attitudinal data from the Integrated Values Surveys (1981–2016), a large international (113 countries/regions) cross-sectional time-series survey, this study investigates the role of legal inclusion and social obedience in sexual prejudice expressed by those who fully support sexual minorities and those who fully reject them. The results of logistic regression models suggest that the absence of legal recognition and protection for sexual minorities at the national level increases expression of sexual prejudice among both allies and the stigmatisers. While social obedience plays a significant role in stigmatisers’ expression of sexual prejudice, it shows no significance for the ally population. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-25T12:44:40Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231156296
       
  • The Social Production of the Dead Human Body in the Practice of Teaching
           Anatomy Through Cadaveric Dissection

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jennifer Burr, Nigel Russell-Sewell
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The aim of this study is to explore how the dead human body is socially produced through the practices of those involved in teaching anatomy through cadaveric dissection. The perspectives of anatomists learning to teach offer a novel perspective on the existing literature. The study draws on data from interviews with students and teaching staff involved in practical cadaveric dissection during a UK postgraduate anatomy education programme. Interviews addressed participants’ experiences, reflections, and emotional responses during practical dissection of donor bodies. Findings address five areas: anticipation and the ‘imagined body’, ontology and the latent human, detachment, dissociation, and reconciliation, preparation and intentionality, and gratitude and immortalisation. The findings suggest that during the course of practical dissection sessions, anatomists learn to normalise the transgressive activity of human dissection via processes of reconciliation. The transgressive elements are resolved through the agency of the person once living and through a configuration of the anatomist and the donor body in a network of scientific knowledge, pedagogic practice and personal influence.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-25T12:39:50Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231156121
       
  • Critical Reflections on the COVID-19 Pandemic from the NHS Frontline

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Anthony Lloyd, Daniel Briggs, Anthony Ellis, Luke Telford
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and interact with each other. Nowhere was the pandemic more profoundly experienced than on the frontline of healthcare. From overwhelmed Intensive Care Units to shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and clap for carers, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) became the focal point for the pandemic response. Utilising data from online survey responses (N = 16) complemented by four online interviews and one face-to-face interview (N = 5) with NHS workers primarily during the height of the pandemic, this article offers a preliminary analysis on the challenges the UK’s healthcare workers faced through working in conditions of crisis management. The article particularly addresses NHS workers’ amplification of fear, anxiety, and exhaustion; the absence of widespread solidarity; and implications of the absence of coherent governmental messaging upon the workforce. We situate this discussion within a critical account of neoliberal political economy, the theoretical framework of social harm, and the absence to explicate the harmful conditions of the pandemic’s frontline. While the data are confined to the UK’s NHS workers, its findings are relevant to other countries across the world that enacted similar responses to deal with COVID-19.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-23T05:18:33Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231156293
       
  • Creating Time for LGBT+ Disabled Youth: Co-production Outside
           Chrononormativity

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Harvey Humphrey, Edmund Coleman-Fountain
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores how ‘chrononormative’ constructions of time shape research and offers an approach to co-production and research involvement that draws on insights from trans, queer, and disability studies. The article presents early reflections on an NIHR School for Social Care–funded research study, approved prior to but developed under the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, investigating personal support, sexuality, and gender in young disabled adults’ lives. This project has been supported by a Participatory Advisory Group (PAG) of LGBT+ young disabled adults and we reflect on how engagement with the PAG has shaped our understanding of debates around time and involvement in co-production discourse. Our engagement with trans, queer, and disability theory allows us to think about the constraints on time that such involvement has pushed against as we have sought to account for the diverse needs of the body-minds of the PAG in pandemic times. We suggest that this may speak to opening up the diversity and accessibility of co-production across other research contexts and intend this piece to encourage these conversations. The article thus offers a critical exploration of themes of time, embodiment, and identity in the way in which co-production is enacted in funded research.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-23T05:16:54Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804231155001
       
  • The Re-enchantment of Food: An Introduction

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: John Coveney
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      To say that humans have a profound relationship with the food they produce and eat is a mere truism. What is new derives from the recognition that in Western cultures, over time, our deep relationship with food has been replaced by a scientistic version of what we eat, and what we should eat. In many ways, this has dis-enchanted our relationship with food, in that it has rendered food as the sum total of a calculus based on vitamins, minerals, and energy content. The movements that are now growing around food – ethical, plant based, provenance aware – speak to new understandings of food which acknowledge that food is actually more than its sum of parts. These new movements share a common goal and that is to seek a re-enchantment with food. This article, which speaks very much from an anglo-tradition, discusses this ways in which dis- and re-enchantment of food has developed.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-16T10:59:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221128028
       
  • Cultural Capital in China' Television Tastes and Cultural and Cosmopolitan
           Distinctions Among Beijing Youth

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Yang Gao, Giselinde Kuipers
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      How does television taste function as cultural capital in contemporary China' This study shows how Chinese youth engage with global television fiction to mark their positions in China’s changing social and cultural hierarchies. Using multiple correspondence analysis (N = 422) and interviews (N = 48) with college students in Beijing, we identify three taste dimensions: (1) disengaged versus discerning viewers; (2) TV lovers versus TV dislikers; and (3) ‘Western’ versus ‘Eastern’ TV taste. Dimensions 1 and 3 are cultural capital dimensions; they differ in criteria and type of cultural knowledge used to make distinctions and in connection with economic capital. Highlighting cosmopolitan capital as a distinct form of cultural capital, we analyse shifting global systems of cultural distinction, from a Chinese vantage point. Our analysis expands theories of culture and inequality by showing that (and how) tastes reflect and reinforce social stratification in the previously unexplored Chinese context, but with distinctive Chinese characteristics.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-07T12:47:30Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221149796
       
  • Gendered Interaction and Practices of Intimacy Among Emirati Young
           Spouses: Exploring the Experiences of Wives

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Mohammed Abdel Karim Al Hourani
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This study aims to explore the practices of intimacy among Emirati spouses in a society where gender discrimination persistently governs the private space of family relationships. Participants include 41 young Emirati working wives aged 24–30 who have jobs and are enrolled in graduate studies and research degrees (PhD and MA). In-depth interviews were used to collect data. Line-by-line coding, thematic coding, and constant comparison method were employed to analyze and interpret data. Analyses revealed seven interrelated categories associated with the gendered practices of intimacy. They were influenced by factors such as the wives’ status, the gap of age, and the wives’ religiosity. These themes are suppressed self-disclosure, restricted self-disclosure of wives, not sharing responsibilities, not sharing time, unequal mutual reciprocity, not solving problems, and not thinking together. Narratives highlighted gendered interaction and low quality of intimacy between spouses. The findings of this study show that empowering women in the public sphere has not impacted their position in the patriarchal structure of the family, which is reproduced by traditions and religious interpretations. This study’s findings can inform social policymakers aiming at bridging empowerment between the public and private spheres.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-02T05:45:10Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221148836
       
  • Using a Range of Communication Tools to Interview a Hard-to-Reach
           Population

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Orlanda Harvey, Edwin van Teijlingen, Margarete Parrish
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Online communication tools are increasingly being used by qualitative researchers; hence it is timely to reflect on the differences when using a broad range of data collection methods. Using a case study with a potentially hard-to-reach substance-using population who are often distrustful of researchers, this article explores the use of a variety of different platforms for interviews. It highlights both the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Face-to-face interviews and online videos offer more opportunity to build rapport, but lack anonymity. Live Webchat and audio-only interviews offer a high level of anonymity, but both may incur a loss of non-verbal communication, and in the Webchat a potential loss of personal narrative. This article is intended for sociologists who wish to broaden their methods for conducting research interviews.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2023-02-02T05:43:50Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221142212
       
  • Religion and Social Capital: Examining Social Networks and Religious
           Identification in the UK

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Adam Gemar
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Recent research into religion’s intersection with social class, specifically in the UK, represents a conspicuous gap in recent scholarly work. I seek in this article to help fill this gap by focusing on the specific element of social capital. Adopting the lesser used lens of Bourdieu, and using a UK-wide survey, I measure various elements of social capital and employ advanced statistical methods to ascertain social capital composition for various groups of religious identity. Results show that the primary difference between religious groups is social network variety. Those who assert multiple religious identities show the highest level of social network variety. Therefore, results suggest that as either a product or cause, it is those asserting multiple religious identities who may possess the greatest amount of aggregate and bridging social capital.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-12-30T12:34:51Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221141098
       
  • ‘Amusing and Fun’, ‘Arresting’, or ‘The Wrong Pictures’'
           Methodological Lessons from Using Photo-Elicitation in a Study of Academic
           Retirement

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Graham Crow
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article reports on the use of photo-elicitation in a mixed methods study of academics’ later careers and retirement. Interviewees, who were either in their later career stage or retired from university work, were asked during the interviews to discuss the resonance that pre-selected images had with their understanding of retirement. Despite reluctance on some participants’ part to engage with the images, the majority took the opportunity to elaborate on themes of time, purpose, trajectories, hopes, and fears, rejecting images that they considered stereotypically negative. The argument is made that photo-elicitation’s pioneers have served subsequent users of the method well by being candid about its challenges as well as its potential and by encouraging creativity and flexibility in its application rather than presenting a set way to proceed. Because research does not always go according to plan, photo-elicitation’s potential for creative and flexible use recommends it to both novice and established practitioners, possibly as a complement to other methods in mixed methods projects.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-12-16T05:07:31Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221133117
       
  • Stretching the Double Hermeneutic: A Critical Examination of Lay Meanings
           of ‘Emotional Labour’

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Hana Stulikova, Matt Dawson
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores how the concept of emotional labour has moved from sociological into lay discourse as a case study of the double hermeneutic and concept creep, demonstrating the effect sociological concepts can have on lay actors’ understanding of their everyday lives. From an analysis of 41 news and magazine articles about emotional labour, we identify the various meanings the term carries as well as the ideologies and logics that underpin them. The concept has become a tool used to frame discussions around gender inequalities in unpaid work, including housework, emotion work, and providing support. However, the Marxist underpinnings of the original concept have been subverted within a lay discourse that is largely reflective of a liberal feminist and neoliberal ethos.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-12-14T10:08:46Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221138578
       
  • ‘Alcohol Helps to Stimulate and Violate the Air’: Drinking Games and
           Transgressive Drinking Practices among Nigerian Youth

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Emeka W Dumbili
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In traditional Nigeria, moderate drinking was normative among adult men who occupied drinking spaces. Heavy drinking and intoxication were transgressive behaviours that attracted sanctions. Alcohol consumption among youth was taboo in most communities. Nowadays, young people drink, and many construct identities with heavy drinking and intoxication. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with students and nonstudents in Benin City, I explore how young people’s participation in drinking games (DGs) facilitates heavy drinking, intoxication, and transgression of the local consumption norms. ‘Mere arguments’, betting, and assertions of masculinity initiate DGs, while fun, economic gain, and the construction of social identities motivate gameplaying. Aside from other DG categories, participants played a localized version of Truth-or-Dare, where losers are mandated to undress in public- or drink-specified quantities of alcohol. DGs were mostly played at bars and parties, which encouraged heavy drinking and drunkenness. DGs generate fun for players and partygoers; thus, party hosts often include gameplaying in party programmes. Winning a DG attracts titles like ‘boss’, ‘champion’, or ‘guru’ and a reputation among men. Therefore, they played DGs to reproduce/authenticate their masculinity and achieve such titles and prestige, while women mostly played DGs to win money, phones, and bags. Many participants’ gameplaying resulted in heavy drinking, intoxication, and loss of control that subverted the local consumption culture, which prohibits heavy drinking and promotes moderation. The findings demonstrate how transgressive behaviours can be enjoyable to transgressors and also function as resistance to social norms/structures that encourage dominance/inequalities.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-12-12T09:58:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221133118
       
  • The Transformation of Parents’ Values and Aspirations for Their
           Children: A Retrospective Qualitative Longitudinal Analysis of Changing
           Cultural Configurations

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jane Gray, Ruth Geraghty
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article contributes to new scholarship on family change as bricolage and institutional layering. Focusing on the classic topic of parental values and aspirations for their children, we used a retrospective qualitative longitudinal analysis to trace the evolution of four overlapping cultural configurations across the 20th century: (1) standing back and not interfering, (2) cultivating achievement, (3) encouraging positive relationships, and (4) promoting happiness and self-fulfilment. We show that there was a directional change in the emphases and inflections placed on these configurations, and in the moral ambivalence that parents displayed as they reconciled them in their narratives. Meanings centred on autonomy and cultivation were layered onto relatedness across changing social contexts. Engaging with recent debates on the value of qualitative interviews, our analysis demonstrates how qualitative longitudinal research can provide rigorous analysis of long-term cultural change.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-12-08T04:29:33Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221137600
       
  • Performances of Legitimate Expertise Among Life Coaches: Three Rhetorical
           Strategies

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Tamar Kaneh-Shalit
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In the global crisis of expertise, experts are often viewed with skepticism. This article zooms in to this crisis to analyze how life coaches seek professional legitimacy and verbally perform their expertise by navigating a tension between asserting their authority and cultivating their clients’ agency. Performances of expertise are a range of verbal practices and rhetorical strategies that are co-produced and shaped through interacting with clients. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at three life coaching training schools in Israel, I show that life coaches perform their expertise through the following strategies: (1) defining the problem that coaching addresses as simple, significant, and mendable; (2) using authoritative charismatic speech to define clients as powerful, independent agents who are their own life experts; and (3) creating reflexive experiences of self-revelation by using semi-intelligible jargon. Finally, the study advances the understanding of expertise as performances inextricable from clients’ sense of agency.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-11-19T04:52:56Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221128316
       
  • Getting Under the Skin Trade: Towards a Global Sociology of
           Skin-Lightening Practices

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Steve Garner, Somia Bibi
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Skin lightening cuts across multiple and intersecting areas of interest to sociologists. These include consumerism, capital, the body, femininities, masculinities, the power of the media in shaping people’s imaginations, constructions of beauty, and racialised and gendered social relations and representations, with the legacies of colonial pasts playing out in the present. Here, we set out some key themes, patterns, and frames observed in the multidisciplinary work published on skin lightening, and advocate for the addition of other frames for strategic reasons, which we argue in the second half of the article. Foucault’s technologies of self is recommended as a platform for critiquing individualism and the framing of choice; a political economy approach would help establish that skin lightening is a global business and grasp industry-wide patterns. Finally, a shift to looking at discourse and counter-discourse would reframe women as active agents in cultural resistance and change, and not just the relatively passive dupes of the colonial legacy. We thus map out a broad research agenda that would transform skin lightening into an object of broad, sustained sociological research.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-10-14T12:30:58Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221104494
       
  • Redistributive State in Iran, Fiscal Sociology, and the Attitude of Two
           Generations of Students Toward State Revenue and Expending

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Hamzeh Nozari
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The Iranian state is the state of redistribution of oil and gas resources by a wide bureaucracy. Inequitable redistribution of resources and bureaucratic corruption have caused drastic movements in Iran over the past decade and raised the issue of public attitudes toward state funding and spending. Although previous studies in the literature have extensively addressed the rentier Iranian government, the issue of the public attitudes toward redistribution has been largely neglected. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the attitudes of two generations of students toward state financing and expenditure practices in Iran. The data were collected by conducting two surveys in 2003 and 2016. The findings demonstrated that from the perspective of Iranian students, economic corruption is the most important factor leading to economic crisis.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-08-06T04:25:58Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221102963
       
  • Public Demand for State Support in the Post-Communist Welfare State: The
           Case of Russia

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Vasiliy A Anikin, Yulia P Lezhnina, Svetlana V Mareeva, Ekaterina D Slobodenyuk
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This study explores the roots and details of the Russian population’s demand for broad state interventions in three areas: labour market, social investment, and material support. Demands in labour market policy are the most frequent among the Russian population and stem from the need to eliminate inequalities in access to ‘good’ jobs and ensure fair remuneration of skilled labour. In Russia, unlike in Europe, needs in social investment policy do not stem from individualistic interests and the imperative to compensate for market failure. Instead, they result from state failure, leading in particular to growing inequality of life chances in healthcare and worsening health of the broader society. These impacts are perceived as a fundamental adverse effect of unsuccessful social policy changes, and this type of demand for state support is growing alongside household income. At the same time, wealthy Russians also hardly believe in state efficiency in the labour market, show less demand for employment policy interventions, and generally prefer ‘state escapism’. The study argues that an individualistic mindset per se is a cornerstone of the absence of request for state support in any form. These findings support the concept of bottom-up sociocultural modernisation while helping explain state escapism in post-communist welfare regimes. In general, the study provides empirical contributions to the literature on diversity of statist expectations in post-communist welfare regimes.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-07-28T04:27:43Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221091572
       
  • Loners, Criminals, Mothers: The Gendered Misrecognition of Refugees in the
           British Tabloid News Media

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Hannah Ryan, Katie Tonkiss
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Misrecognition has been conceptualised as an act of recognition that is ‘distorted’ or ‘incomplete’, and can be used to capture the differentiated experience of social and/or political phenomena by different individuals. In this article, we apply the concept of misrecognition to the visual representation of refugees in the British tabloid news media. The article presents a novel two-step analysis which combines visual analysis of a representative sample of British tabloid newspaper coverage of refugees with an analysis of a representative sample of this coverage by two focus groups of tabloid newspaper readers. In taking this approach, we capture the role of audiences in constructing the meanings of the images, a perspective largely absent from the literature to date. The findings show that a gendered misrecognition shapes the visual construction of refugees by this media and its audience, with women more likely to be recognised as refugees and (mis)recognised as vulnerable mothers, and men more likely to be misrecognised as loners and criminals and less likely to be recognised as refugees. Reflecting on the findings, we argue that misrecognition is a critical concept in understanding the politics of marginalisation constructed by the tabloid news media.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-06-20T06:33:00Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221100555
       
  • Chinese Square-Dancing: A Description of Group Cultural Life

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jun Yang, Tianli Qin
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In recent years, square-dancing has produced a widespread social influence in China and has led to the emergence of a new type of ‘cultural life’. This article focuses on the emergence and significance of Chinese square-dancing as group cultural life. Square-dancing is a kind of public fitness activity with both fitness and spirit-enriching functions. It is an important carrier of social communication. Individuals enter the square space through ‘guanxi (relationship and connections with others)-seeking’ and spontaneous interest. Through role stratification and interactions among small groups, ‘dance teachers’ – ‘backbone members’ – ‘ordinary members’ interactive circle community life is formed inside the square-dancing group. This group activity, on one hand, awakens the memory of the individual’s collective life and realizes the inheritance of the collective culture; on the other hand, it realizes the reconstruction of collective ritual through the form of group performance.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-06-10T06:36:13Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221096687
       
  • The Extent of Résumé Whitening

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Didier Ruedin, Eva Van Belle
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Persistent hiring discrimination as demonstrated by correspondence experiments incites immigrant job candidates and their descendants to modify their résumé to hide their immigrant status, that is, résumé whitening. To date, we have little to no empirical evidence on how common this is in practice. We test the extent of résumé whitening with a representative survey of immigrants in Switzerland (N = 7659). Around 9% of the immigrants used some résumé whitening. Immigrants appear to use résumé whitening strategically when experiencing or anticipating discrimination. Future correspondence experiments should take this into account to maximize external validity.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-06-09T08:45:29Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221094625
       
  • Racialization within Antitrafficking Interventions Targeting Migrant Sex
           Workers: Findings from the SEXHUM Research Project in France

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Calogero Giametta, Nicola Mai, Jennifer Musto, Calum Bennachie, Anne E Fehrenbacher, Heidi Hoefinger, PG Macioti
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article draws on the findings of the research project Sexual Humanitarianism: Migration, Sex Work, and Trafficking (SEXHUM), a study investigating migration, sex work, and human trafficking in Australia, France, New Zealand, and the US. In this article, we focus on how racialized categories are mobilized in antitrafficking practices in France. Since April 2016, the French government has enforced a prohibitionist and neo-abolitionist law criminalizing the demand for sexual services. This coincided with the targeting of Chinese and Nigerian cis-women and with the neglect of Latina trans women working in the sex industry according to racialized and sex-gendered understandings of victimhood. Whereas Chinese women tend to be presented by humanitarian rhetoric as silent victims of Chinese male-dominated mafias, Nigerian women have come to embody the ultimate figure of the victim of trafficking by an overpowering Black male criminality. Meanwhile, (sexual) humanitarian actors have neglected Latina trans women’s ongoing experiences of extreme violence and marginalization.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-06-08T10:29:57Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221090354
       
  • Resistance to Change: Intergenerational Class Mobility in Hungary,
           1973–2018

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Ákos Huszár, Ágnes Győri, Karolina Balogh
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The aim of this study is to describe long-term changes in intergenerational social mobility in Hungary between 1973 and 2018 and to provide an overview of the current situation that has not been examined previously. Our main questions are whether trends of the earlier periods continued and whether previous gender differences persisted at the end of the 2010s. According to our results total mobility continued to decline and it hit its lowest point in decades at the end of the 2010s. In addition, decreasing proportion of the population move upwards compared with their fathers and an increasing proportion experience the deterioration of their social position. While earlier research found that structural changes in society triggered upward mobility the polarising class structure after 1990 set into motion contrary trends. In this period, structural mobility increasingly typically meant downward mobility. As regards relative mobility chances associated with working in high and low occupational positions, we concluded that the ceiling seems to be stickier than the floor as a rule, that is, the role of origin is more decisive in keeping a favourable social position than in the transmission of a disadvantaged position across generations. The odds for someone born into unfavourable circumstances to rise are greater than for those of someone who was brought up in privileged circumstances to slide down.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-06-08T01:16:39Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221084727
       
  • Work-Related Practices: An Analysis of Their Effect on the Emergence of
           Stable Practices in Daily Activity Schedules

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Máté János Lőrincz, José Luis Ramírez-Mendiola, Jacopo Torriti
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Despite its ‘wordless’ and hidden characteristics, it is within the everyday tasks, routines, and rhythms that consumption takes place, from getting up every morning, having breakfast, going to work or school, having lunch, going home, having dinner, reading a book, surfing the Internet, watching TV, and probably doing similar things again and again. This study examines this routinized daily use of time of employed individuals based on the 2014–2015 UK Time-Use Survey data. In doing this, we focus on individual’s day-to-day activities and how they are routinized or how they are formed into stabilized practices. Starting from the definition of stable practices, we apply a relatively new method of social network analysis to visualize stable practices during workdays. We then analyse the cohesion between practices based on work hours and connections and coordination between practices. Our results suggest that work arrangements create stable practices that by themselves are stone pillars of daily routines. This implies that the removal (or ‘unlocking’) of stable practices during these time periods could produce some – albeit marginal – decongestion of routinized activities.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-06-08T01:15:22Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221084344
       
  • ‘. . . It Makes Me Want to Shut Down, Cover Up’: Female Bartenders’
           Use of Emotional Labour While Receiving Unwanted Sexual Attention at a
           Public House

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: James Frederick Green
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article seeks to provide a detailed account of emotional labour adopted by female bartenders when faced with unwanted sexual attention at work. In the field, I implemented an ethnographic research design and maximised opportunities for data collection through the use of interviews with eight participants and participant observations while employed at the same venue. Drawing on previous theoretical thought, the data gathered will outline the learnt, and most common, forms of display rules barstaff demonstrate while engaging with unwanted interactions, and, from the viewpoint of the female barstaff, the expected display rules envisioned by some male customers. I also detail the collapse of display rules during some unwanted scenarios (e.g. infrequent) and the inevitable impact of implementing emotional labour under the duress of unwanted encounters–emotional dissonance and burnout. I conclude with a suggestion that there is a potential for a multitude of display rules that are adopted by barstaff dependent on the customer interaction (e.g. aggressive, sickness due to intoxication) in a public house.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-05-28T06:28:17Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221091573
       
  • Ageing in Place Over Time: The Making and Unmaking of Home

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Ruth Webber, Vanessa May, Camilla Lewis
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      ‘Ageing in place’ is a key component of UK policy, aimed at supporting older people to remain living in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. Although wide-ranging, the scholarly literature in this field has not sufficiently examined the interconnections between ageing in place and the changing experience of ‘home’ over time. This article addresses this gap in a novel way by bringing together qualitative secondary analysis of longitudinal data with critical literature on ‘home’ and Mason’s cutting-edge concept of ‘affinities’ to understand the multi-dimensionality of home in relation to ageing in place. The article makes significant methodological, empirical, and theoretical contributions to the field of scholarship on home, by demonstrating how homes are made and unmade over time. Discussions of home emerged organically in the longitudinal data that focused on people’s travel and transport use, allowing our qualitative secondary analysis approach to look anew at how experiences of home are dynamically shaped by people’s potent connections inside and outside the dwelling. Presenting an empirical analysis of four case studies, the article suggests that future discussions in the field of ageing in place should pay closer attention to the factors that shape experiences of the un/making of home over time, such as how deteriorating physical and mental health can shape how people experience their dwelling and neighbourhood as well as their relationships across these settings.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-05-24T09:59:02Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221089351
       
  • How the First COVID-19 Lockdown Worsened Younger Generations’ Mental
           Health: Insights from Network Theory

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Mattia Vacchiano
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Two years after the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), one fact seems to be emerging clearly: lockdowns affect mental health differently across generations. This article uses data collected before and after the first wave of COVID-19 on a sample of 5,859 respondents, showing that the first lockdown worsened the mental health of the younger generations (Gen Y and Gen Z) in particular. Given that the older generations are considered the most vulnerable in this global pandemic, this may seem surprising. However, our data reveal that the pandemic outbreak raised very different concerns in different generations. While older people appear to be worried about the economy and their own health, younger people were more concerned about their lifestyles and, generally, their social relationships. This suggests that some of the mechanisms behind the exacerbation of younger people’s mental health may lie at the intersection of these two issues. On one hand, a life lived essentially online undermines all those processes of social capital activation that occur through leisure and face-to-face encounters, from which Gen Z may have suffered in particular. On the other hand, not only has the pandemic added further uncertainty to Generation Y’s career paths but working from home has also forced them to reorganize family routines and construct entirely new ones with colleagues using computers and smartphones. The article reflects on the upheavals of work and leisure to foster research on networks, social capital, and mental health in this period of a continuing pandemic.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-05-17T05:40:47Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221084723
       
  • Exploring the Promise and Limitations of Autonomous Online Timelines to
           Understand Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jaime Garcia-Iglesias, Nigel Lloyd, Imogen Freethy, Nigel Smeeton, Amander Wellings, Julia Jones, Wendy Wills, Katherine Brown
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article discusses the use of autonomous, asynchronous, timelines to analyse personal and organizational experiences of COVID-19 using an online platform, LucidSpark. We evaluate the benefits and limitations of this approach and highlight findings in three areas: aesthetics, the balance of personal and organizational information, and the identification of key events. We argue that timelines generate fascinating data about participants’ personal and professional experiences of COVID-19. Then, we discuss the limitations of the data, and suggest how the method may be refined and used in combination with other approaches. By themselves, timelines provide limited data about how events relate to each other. Instead, timelines serve as useful pre-interview activities that should be combined with additional methods.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-05-17T05:40:12Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221084341
       
  • Cultural Omnivorousness and Status Inconsistency in Chile: The Role of
           Objective and Subjective Social Status

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Francisco Olivos, Peng Wang
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Sociological research has long suggested that cultural participation is socially stratified. We build on this literature to discuss the role of the subjective and objective dimensions of stratification and how they are linked to practices of social distinction through cultural consumption. The aim of this study is to understand (1) the effect of subjective and objective social status on patterns of cultural participation and (2) the implications of the status inconsistency. We use a probabilistic and representative sample of the Chilean urban population older than the age of 18. Latent class analyses show that a significant proportion of Chileans can be considered cultural omnivores. Multinomial diagonal reference models suggest that omnivorousness is positively predicted by subjective and objective social status. Moreover, regarding inconsistency, objective social status is prominent in the explanation of omnivorousness for both status-underestimating and status-overestimating individuals. These findings provide important insights for discussing the implications of status inconsistency on cultural consumption.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-04-11T07:13:36Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221078023
       
  • On the Discrepancy of Descriptive Facts and Normative Values in
           Perceptions of Occupational Prestige

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Ylva Ulfsdotter Eriksson, Erica Nordlander
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Previous research has argued that occupational prestige is a social fact founded in the collective conscience and prestige perceptions morally grounded. Ideas of strong consensus in perceptions rest on comparisons of compressed mean values, and the similarity between what prestige an occupation has and what it ought to have has not previously been empirically explored. Drawing on survey data and a discrepancy index, the present study explores the resemblance between descriptive facts and normative values in perceptions of occupational prestige and consensus and discrepancies in prestige perceptions. The analysis showed discrepancies in descriptive and normative prestige perceptions for welfare and cultural occupations. The differences in perceptions can be explained by sex, beliefs about what factors give prestige to an occupation, and the prestige of one’s occupation.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-03-28T07:00:32Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221075357
       
  • Shifting Narratives of the Self – Students’ Experiences of Chronicity
           and Multiplicity in the Management of Chronic Illness at University

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Grace Spencer, Kathryn Almack
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Drawing on the chronic illness scholarship and identity theories, this article aims to deepen the understanding of the biographical disruptions experienced by undergraduate students living with a long-term health condition. Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with six undergraduate (female) students attending university in England. The analysis highlights the ways chronicity and multiplicity come together to shape students’ health and social identities. The findings reveal three narratives of the Self: the ill Self, the determined Self, and the authentic Self. These distinct, yet interconnected, narratives highlight the complex shifts in the Self as students sought ways to ‘push through’ multiple (academic, health, social) pressures. Maintaining academic and social engagement met with significant challenge, ultimately shaping the emotional and social lives of these students. The article offers a novel contribution to how undergraduate students navigate multiple identities in the face of ongoing illness.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-03-17T02:46:50Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221078028
       
  • Do Different Types of Households Use Outsourced Domestic Cleaning Services
           for Different Reasons' An Explorative Study in South Africa

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: David Du Toit
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In recent years, many households have shifted from employing a full-time or part-time domestic worker to using an outsourced domestic cleaning services company that specialises in professional household cleaning services. Few studies have focused on outsourced domestic cleaning services from clients’ perspectives. While there is limited research on the topic, a possible reason for the increase in outsourced domestic cleaning services might be that the domestic labour needs of the middle-class are changing. The decline in the stigma of voluntary childlessness and better educational and career opportunities for women have impacted household compositions. There has been a rise in one-person households and couples without children. These changes affect how domestic work is approached. Some women continue to perform domestic labour themselves, while others employ domestic workers or use outsourced domestic cleaning services. Against this background, this study sought to establish how changes in household compositions are linked to peoples’ preferences to use outsourced domestic cleaning services to take care of their domestic cleaning needs rather than employing a domestic worker on a full-time or part-time basis. This study draws on 18 qualitative interviews with clients of domestic cleaning services and shows that people who live alone, as a childless couple or in an empty-nest household, use outsourced domestic cleaning services for their convenience, efficiency, and flexibility. Couples with children tend to rely on personal help when it comes to care work but outsource less emotional domestic duties to domestic cleaning service companies. This study contributes to new insights by showing that domestic cleaning services are used by households who can afford and require flexible cleaning services offered by outsourced domestic cleaning services.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-03-10T06:04:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221075644
       
  • The Gambling Act 2005 and the (De)regulation of Commercial Gambling in
           Britain: A State-Corporate Harm

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: James Banks, Jaime Waters
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores the forms of harmful practices and harms experienced by individuals since the implementation of the Gambling Act 2005. Employing the state-corporate crime paradigm as an analytical lens through which to examine the narratives of individuals who gamble and affected family members, and supporting secondary sources, it illustrates the ‘collateral damage’ that has resulted from an industry that embeds harmful practices as a means of capital accumulation. By providing insight into the often-hidden array of economic, physical, emotional, and psychological, and cultural harms that result from the entrenchment of a leisure culture that institutes ever more potent forms of aleatory consumption, the article offers a rare sociological critique of an industry that has been able to flourish as a consequence of an alliance between state and business.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-03-09T05:41:13Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211072263
       
  • ‘They are Alone in Their Parenthood’: Parenting Support and
           (Re)building Community

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Ella Sihvonen
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article uniquely contributes to critical discussions about parenting support in contemporary social science research that has examined the recent political and public attention on parenting. The studies highlight the increased attention on individualised parenting support focused on the parent–child relationship. Based on an analysis of 310 family support projects initiated in Finland, this research found that another orientation exists alongside individualised parenting support, which has gained only little attention in recent studies about parenting support. That alternative focuses on a communal parenting support, wherein parenting support is conducted by means of community (re)building. This article summarises how anxiety about parenting overlaps with discussions about community as well as ‘the family decline’, creating a need for community (re)building. In this study, I show how concern within family support projects is harnessed to establish ‘communion’, representing a third category alongside the more common sociological notions of ‘society’ and ‘community’. However, fundamental tensions appear as projects attempt to build community, which I also discuss in this article.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-02-22T01:14:56Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804221075358
       
  • The Preston Model: Economic Democracy, Cooperation, and Paradoxes in
           Organisational and Social Identification

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Ioannis Prinos, Julian Manley
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The ‘Preston Model’ (PM) has substantially improved the socio-economic outlook of Preston (UK). It is a community wealth-building approach, harnessing local economic power for a more resilient, environmentally sustainable, democratic economy and socially cohesive community, prioritising social value, through private and public sector partnerships. This qualitative research article investigates how people in local ‘anchor institutions’ (major wealth creators and employers ‘anchored’ in Preston) perceive the PM. Focusing on economic democracy and solidarity, and building on organisational and social identity theory, its relation with democratic participation, organisational identification and pride processes enabling social change is examined. Most interviewees doubt its organisational and local impact; nevertheless, they exhibit a sense of pride as its ‘drivers’, attributing to it ‘higher’ ethical values. While the PM exerts a subtle emotional, aspirational, and socio-cultural influence, it still represents a shifting, alternative socio-economic paradigm, emerging through both individual and collective assent, rather than specific policy directives.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-02-08T08:05:47Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211069398
       
  • Solo-Living and Social Individualization: Analysis of Life Experience
           among Young Women in Spain

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Carmen Rodríguez-Guzmán, Francisco Barros-Rodríguez, Inmaculada Barroso-Benítez, Antonio David Cámara-Hueso
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The increase in one-person households is regarded as a manifestation of the process of social individualization that strengthens individuals’ ability to make lifestyle choices to the detriment of certain social institutions. However, the background circumstances to solo living can vary widely and often stem from structural determinants, such as gender inequalities, within the framework of a highly competitive society. This article analyses the nature and social significance of solo-living in Spain through a case study of young adult women (25–45 years of age) residing in an urban environment (Barcelona and Jaen). The analyses focus on aspects connected with the theory of social individualization (e.g. the demands of working life and expectations regarding life partners, motherhood and social relations). Four different profiles of women can be distinguished in the results: ‘cosmopolitans’, ‘unconditionals’, ‘empowered’, and ‘temporaries’. In broad terms, the interviewees’ narratives bear witness to the process of individualization (self-realization with which to engage in a personal life project), although tensions come into play between personal expectations and the demands of working life, especially in the spheres of sexual partnership and motherhood.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-02-06T03:57:14Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211069401
       
  • Coaching and ‘Self-repair’: Examining the ‘Artful Practices’ of
           Coaching Work

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Charles L T Corsby, Robyn L Jones, Gethin Ll Thomas, Christian N Edwards
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      The significance of this article lies in examining how sports coaches construct and negotiate their professional sense making; what Goffman described as the practices engaged in to manage ‘ugly’ interpretations. Using the work of Garfinkel and Goffman, the article pays attention to coaches’ ‘ethno-methods’; that is, the background knowledge and practical competency employed in forming and maintaining social order. In doing so, the explanatory accounts of Christian, a coach and author who supported the co-construction of this work, were collected via recorded interviews over the course of a 3-month period during a competitive season. The analysis explores the procedures used to ‘achieve coherence’ in what he did. The analysis employed Garfinkel’s description of ‘artful practices’ and related concepts of ‘self repair’ to demonstrate the fundamental interactional ‘work’ done by Christian, not only to understand why he did what he did, but also how he would ‘get things done’ in future. Such analysis highlights the mundane routines of coaching in particular, and work settings in general, to reveal the backstage manufacturing individuals ‘do’ to maintain a sense of ‘practical objectivity’ to their continual inferences, judgements, and justifications of practice.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-02-02T11:41:43Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211064911
       
  • The Cutaway to the Toilet: Towards a Visual Grammar of Spatial Stigma in
           Factual Welfare Television

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jayne Raisborough, Lisa Taylor, Katherine Harrison, Shelly Dulson
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Editing techniques used in Factual Welfare Television (FWT) in the UK undermine narratives of hardship and structural inequality in representations of the living places of welfare claimants. This research identifies the affects of a televisual syntax – or ‘visual grammar’ – of spatial stigma in FWT. Using original data generated in a study of Channel 5’s documentary series On Benefits (2015–2019), we conduct a visual grammar analysis to argue that cutaway editing, which inserts camera shots of toilets, canine excrement, and fly-tipping into programmes, undermines potentially sympathetic representations of poverty communicated via narrator voiceovers, and/or verbal testimonies of participants. Our findings show that cutaway editing is a significant feature in the production of On Benefits and is oppositional to the articulated narrative. The research concludes that cutaway editing in FWT generates disgust towards the living places of benefits claimants, which is productive of a powerful visual grammar of spatial stigma.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-28T03:08:44Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211066118
       
  • Furry Families: Ethical Entanglements Through More-than-Human Domestic
           Dramas

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Janet Sayers, Rachel Forrest, Maria Pearson
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Companion animals (CA) are seen as part of the family by their human guardians. However, guardians’ intense attitudes towards CA can lead to tensions with larger society. Recent scholarship has argued for more critical work exploring interspecies family relations. The present research is framed by previous scholarship exploring CA family relations and the role that storytelling about animals plays in developing ethical relations with animals. We examine 369 stories told by guardians of companion animals as part of a One Welfare study examining attitudes to companion animal welfare. Our analytical frame was a genre discourse approach sensitive to questions of animal ethics. Our theoretical contribution is to contribute a new sub-genre of domestic drama, more-than-human domestic drama. We explore the implications of this genre of family stories and why it matters beyond families to wider society.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-28T03:08:42Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211064913
       
  • ‘Go Home, Get a Job, and Pay Some Taxes to Replace a Bit of What
           You’ve Wasted’: Stigma Power and Solidarity in Response to
           Anti-Open-Cast Mining Activism in the Coalfields of Rural County Durham,
           UK

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Andrea Brock, Carol Stephenson, Nathan Stephens-Griffin, Tanya Wyatt
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores the nexus of stigmatisation and environmental activism in the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley against open-cast mining in the northeast of England. Drawing on Imogen Tyler’s work, our analysis examines stigma power as embedded in wider efforts to police and repress environmental dissent and defend core neoliberal values. Examination of qualitative interviews with campaigners, drive-past insults shouted at activists, online police statements and public responses, and online trolling of activists by mining employees and the wider public reveals stigmatisation to be a process of power, informed by neoliberal ideologies (of the threat and danger of worklessness), and reproduced through neoliberal power structures (the state, corporate power, and popular culture), shaped by the insecurities that are specific to social and political contexts. We show how the state mobilises stigma through ideologies associated with austerity and the hostile environment to delegitimate activism through association with worklessness/idleness and the inaccurate representation of activists as part of broader processes of criminalisation, policing, and management of protest. In an area renowned for its work ethic and high levels of unemployment, the work of environmental activists is dismissed as illegitimate, drawing on tropes associated with the disciplining of the so-called deviant working classes. The historical importance of coal and activism in the defence of the ‘mining way of life’ feeds into dominant narratives associated with work and individualism. Pride associated with coal mining is reconfigured and forms the basis of insults against those (working class and otherwise) who are recast as ‘outsiders’, ‘wasting time and money’ in resisting environmental destruction. Finally, we examine how activists were able to largely deflect stigmatisation through collective engagement, solidarity, and political analysis of the process they were subject to.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-28T03:07:20Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211055486
       
  • ‘They Wouldn’t Mind Pushing People Off the Bus’: Exploring Power in
           Practice Theory through the Work of Simultaneous Interpreters

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Deborah Giustini
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Based on a qualitative interview dataset, this article highlights the power relations in the work experiences of UK-based professional simultaneous interpreters, who provide valuable communication services to users but are constrained by the ‘invisible labour’ arrangements of their job. Adopting a practice theory approach, this study extends available theorisations of power as an effect manifested in performance, by articulating a view of power suffusing from the wider organisation of practices – meanings, competencies, and materialities – which governs social order. By making professional rewards conditional on collaborative engagement with other interpreters, the hiding of failure, and unobtrusive behaviours, the practice of interpreting translates power as the struggle to assert individual visibility. The study contributes to the sociological debate by offering an understanding of power shaped by the situated, practical order of everyday action.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T10:39:00Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211055489
       
  • Adult Children Move Out: Family Meals and Reflections on Parental
           Self-sacrifice at the Moment of Transition

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Dorota Rancew-Sikora, Marta Skowrońska
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article examines the differentiation and change in the shared eating practices of parents and their adult children, linking theories of sacrifice with empirical research. Drawing on 26 qualitative, in-depth dyadic interviews, the authors analyse the transformation of expectations sensed by the parents before and after their adult children leave home. While the article confirms the significance of meals for family relationships, it further develops the findings in transition to the empty nest phase of family life. First, it examines the understanding of different aspects and distribution of everyday sacrificing in an intergenerational family, as well as the dynamics introduced by the life course transition connected with adult children moving out. Second, it analyses how this transition carries in consequence a transformation in the food-related practices of the parents of adult children, who tend to pay less attention to the quality, variety, and regularity of their dinners once their children have moved out. Third, it explores children’s visits to their family home that can trigger or modify old self-sacrifice patterns. Finally, it demonstrates the perceived gains or losses resulting from parents’ long-term sacrifices connected with feeding their children.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T09:43:26Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211065050
       
  • Love and Narcissism in Reality Television

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: David W Hill
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Love Island is a reality television series structured as a dating game, where participants compete to form romantic relationships. This article puts the show in conversation with theories and philosophies of love to draw between them an idea of love as a singular moral event that is constrained by cultural imperatives. What emerges is an existential phenomenology of love in three parts: first, romantic love is framed as an opening on to moral life; then, it is argued that moral life is enacted through a love for the neighbour that constitutes and animates our being in the world; and finally, it is shown that narcissism is not straightforwardly a negative condition but a balancing force in moral life. The article concludes with reflections on what this conceptual work might offer to analyses of relationships played out on reality television.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T09:42:06Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211058746
       
  • How Infrastructures and Practices Shape Each Other: Aggregation,
           Integration and the Introduction of Gas Central Heating

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Matt Watson, Elizabeth Shove
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      We know that networked infrastructures enable forms of mobility, energy use, and flows of data, and we know that modern life depends on these arrangements. We also know that relations between infrastructures and social practices are recursive, extensive, and multiple. But what of the detail' How do infrastructures shape the many practices to which they relate, and vice versa' The research we describe was designed to address these questions head on. We discuss the arrival and normalisation of gas central heating with reference to householders’ experiences and practices and to the ambitions and decisions of utilities and city authorities. In the process, we identify forms of aggregation and of integration on which infrastructure – practice dynamics depend. In taking this approach, we demonstrate the relevance of practice theory for conceptualising and analysing ‘large’ social phenomena including transitions in energy systems and related patterns of demand.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T09:40:51Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211055495
       
  • Re-Conceptualising Repeat Reports of Hate Crime/Incidents as Hate
           Relationships Based on Coercive Control and Space for Action

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Catherine Donovan, Stephen Macdonald, John Clayton
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Developing from existing research in the field of hate studies, this article outlines a new approach to understanding repeated experiences of hate by perpetrators who live in close proximity as neighbours to those victimised. Building on previous work, a conceptual argument is made drawing parallels between what we call ‘hate relationships’ and coercive control in domestically abusive relationships. Empirical data from a hate crime advocacy service in the North East of England evidences these parallels through consideration of the home as central to the hate experienced and the cumulative impact of a pattern of hate-motivated behaviours. As with coercive control, our analysis shows that the apparent inaction of help providers exacerbates hate relationships and their impacts. We argue that the current reliance on a criminal justice system, incident-based, approach to understanding and responding to repeat reporting of hate incidents is inadequate. Rather, an approach identifying hate relationships and intervening early in a hate relationship might better preempt escalation and provide possibilities for those victimised to remain in their own homes.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T04:39:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211065052
       
  • Developing the Diary-Interview Approach to Study the Embodied, Tacit and
           Mundane Nutrition Information Behaviours of People with Type 2 Diabetes

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Jane McClinchy, Angela Dickinson, Wendy Wills
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article discusses the development and use of the solicited unstructured diary-interview method to explore the everyday tacit and mundane nutrition information activities (NIA) of people who have type 2 diabetes. Diary completion was followed by individual qualitative interviews with individuals (n = 18) and one couple. Diary entry styles ranged from succinct daily logs of their NIA to extensive prose reflecting on the nutrition information they used and associated practices. Development of the method incorporated piloting and advice from lay groups who checked acceptability and understanding of the research tools, and highlighted the need for regular contact between the researcher and participants throughout the diary completion phase. Participants engaged positively with the diary approach. The findings highlight the extent to which the everyday NIA is mundane and thus unavailable for academic exploration. The diary-interview method exposed these practices to both the researcher and participant, and supported them to reflect on the practices they engage in every day in order to self-manage their type 2 diabetes. Although this article draws on an example from health, the article demonstrates how the diary-interview method has utility for researchers exploring other everyday tacit and mundane experiences.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T04:39:05Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211058747
       
  • Transnational Healthcare Preferences Among EU Nationals in the UK: A
           Qualitative Assessment

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Chris Moreh, Derek McGhee, Athina Vlachantoni
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      This article explores the motivational factors behind preferences for medical care in the country of residence or the country of origin among EU nationals living in the UK. Undertaking a thematic analysis on a large-N qualitative data set, the article aims to establish a data-driven typology of motivations inductively. This provides an intermediary analysis between qualitative depth and quantitative operationalisability, contributing to the existing literature on healthcare location preferences among transnationally connected social groups. This article finds that preferences for medical care in the country of origin are driven overwhelmingly by quality considerations, while preferences for the UK have more to do with convenience and financing. These perceptions result from negative personal experiences, lack of trust, and often concealed cultural differences, and the analysis identifies various nuances and connections between attitudes that previous in-depth qualitative studies could not systematise.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T04:39:04Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211058744
       
  • Daily Bread: Women’s Self-Help Microfinance and the Social Meanings
           of Money

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Esther Bott, Shalini Ojha, Sunita Mini, Rajeev Kamal Kumar, Sunil Choudhary, Gil Yaron, Alan R Smyth
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      In this article, we explore the impacts and implications of ‘Rojiroti’, a women’s self-help group (SHG) microfinance scheme operating in poor communities in Bihar, India. We focus particularly on how improvements found in women’s circumstances and in children’s health might result from Rojiroti SHG membership. Through data from 5 focus groups and 19 individual interviews with women in communities where Rojiroti operates, we discover how the scheme is regarded and how it affects women’s management of household budgets. Moreover, we explore the relational aspects of SHG microfinance and the ways that it can alter family and social dynamics. Drawing on notions of ‘earmarked’ money and ‘safeguarded’ money, we argue that the money itself has meaning and non-pecuniary value in the form of other currencies, including power and agency, which can lead to the improved well-being and health of families.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-27T04:35:46Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211058745
       
  • A ‘Proper Night Out’: A Practice Theory Exploration of
           Gendered Drinking

    • Free pre-print version: Loading...

      Authors: Kath Hennell, Mark Limmer, Maria Piacentini
      Abstract: Sociological Research Online, Ahead of Print.
      Drawing on the three-element model of social practice theory and key conceptualisations relating to gender performance, this article reports on an empirical study of the intersecting practices of drinking alcohol and doing gender. We present data from a 14-month research project to explore the online and offline intoxicated drinking practices of 23 young people in England framed as a ‘proper night out’. The data were analysed with a focus on three elements (the ‘corporeal’, ‘alcohol’, and ‘caring’), and the findings demonstrate how young people collectively practice gender through their intoxicated drinking practices. This operationalisation of practice theory highlights the potential value that a practice theory lens has for exploring gendered social practices and broadening understandings of notions of acceptable and suitable practice performance.
      Citation: Sociological Research Online
      PubDate: 2022-01-03T04:12:09Z
      DOI: 10.1177/13607804211055488
       
 
JournalTOCs
School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK
Email: journaltocs@hw.ac.uk
Tel: +00 44 (0)131 4513762
 


Your IP address: 18.207.240.77
 
Home (Search)
API
About JournalTOCs
News (blog, publications)
JournalTOCs on Twitter   JournalTOCs on Facebook

JournalTOCs © 2009-