http://www.socresonline.org.uk Sociological Research Online: High quality applied sociology, focusing on theoretical, empirical and methodological discussions which engage with current political, cultural and intellectual topics and debates en-GB Copyright Sociological Research Online Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:19:38 +0000 socres@surrey.ac.uk (Rachel Brooks) http://www.epress.ac.uk/SRO/SRO_75x30.gif http://www.socresonline.org.uk Richard.Gehrmann@usq.edu.au (Richard Gehrmann) Review http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/reviews/4.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/reviews/4.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:59:00 +0000 Review of: Ethnicity and Education in England and Europe (Studies in Migration and Diaspora) by Law, Ian and Swann, Sarah, reviewed by Richard Gehrmann v.alexander@surrey.ac.uk (Victoria D. Alexander) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/10.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/10.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:58:00 +0000 Victoria D. Alexander: Drawing on a participant-centred, photo-elicitation study of the built environment in three neighbourhoods, I discuss how people see their neighbourhoods, both in the visual and aesthetic sense, and also how they view (metaphorically) their local surroundings. Participants took part in photo-elicitation interviews and, previously, in standard (verbal-only) semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that people care about their neighbourhoods and value local amenities, attractive houses, public art, and trees, greenery and open spaces. They are concerned about such mundane issues as litter and poorly kept properties, which they find unattractive. Pictures of narrow alleyways and deserted areas were prevalent in connection with fear and vulnerability. I suggest that as participants construct their views of the built environment, they situate their actual neighbourhoods against idealised 'imagined' neighbourhoods, and both the actual surroundings and the idealised construction play into their views of their own place. In addition, it is clear that when participants are asked to take photographs of their neighbourhoods, they think visually. Consequently, participants enact their responses differently in visual research than they do in verbal-only research. s.l.murphy@open.ac.uk (Samantha Murphy and Hilary Thomas) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/16.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/16.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:57:00 +0000 Samantha Murphy and Hilary Thomas: This paper explores how parents respond to their memories of their stillborn child over the years following their loss. When people die after living for several years or more, their family and friends have the residual traces of a life lived as a basis for an identity that may be remembered over a sustained period of time. For the parent of a stillborn child there is no such basis and the claim for a continuing social identity for their son or daughter is precarious. Drawing on interviews with the parents of 22 stillborn children, this paper explores the identity work performed by parents concerned to create a lasting and meaningful identity for their child and to include him or her in their families after death. The paper draws on Finch's (2007) concept of family display and Walter's (1999) thesis that links continue to exist between the living and the dead over a continued period. The paper argues that evidence from the experience of stillbirth suggests that there is scope for development for both theoretical frameworks. jeremy.aroles@postgrad.mbs.ac.uk (Jeremy Aroles) Review http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/reviews/1.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/reviews/1.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:56:00 +0000 Review of: Ethnomethodology at Work (Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis) by Rouncefield, Mark and Tolmie, Peter, reviewed by Jeremy Aroles K.A.Browne@brighton.ac.uk (Kath Browne) Review http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/reviews/2.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/reviews/2.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:55:00 +0000 Review of: Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality (Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences) by Taylor, Dr Yvette, Hines, Dr Sally and Casey, Mark E. (eds.), reviewed by Kath Browne m.komarova@qub.ac.uk (Milena Komarova and Martina McKnight) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/19.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/19.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:54:00 +0000 Milena Komarova and Martina McKnight: This article focuses on our observations of two contentious Orange Order parades and nationalist protests that took place in an interface area in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in June 2011 and 2012. We apply a perspective of visual ethnography as place-making (Pink 2009) to our research experience in order to add to understandings of how a place of conflict is experienced, (re)produced or challenged through the use of photography and video by marchers, protesters and researchers alike. In doing so, we discuss not only the strengths of visual methods, (how they enable a greater understanding of adversarial perspectives, allow researchers to experience contestation emotionally and compel reflexivity), but also more controversial aspects of their use (the extent to which they limit what researchers notice or omit and legitimate particular versions of conflict). Last, but not least, we suggest that the ubiquitous use of ‘the digital eye’ in the contentious events we observed has a democratising influence over elements in the performance of conflict: challenging the presumed roles of performers and audiences; of researchers and researched; opening contentious events to a wider audience and facilitating the communication of competing narratives. rdfloress@gmail.com (Ruben Flores) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/17.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/17.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:53:00 +0000 Ruben Flores: The British socioemotional economy is marked by a tension between cosmopolitan humanitarian sentiments and the denial of sympathy for geographically close, but socially distant, strangers in need. The essence of this tension can be captured by the Dickensian notion of 'telescopic philanthropy'. A proper understanding of this tension would benefit from examining both short-term and secular trends - proximate and distal causal mechanisms. The paper is not explanatory in nature, but aims to generate sensitizing concepts, while at the same time seeking to steer the altruism, morality, and social solidarity literature towards a more active engagement with history, power, and ideology. simon.stewart@port.ac.uk (Simon Stewart) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/14.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/14.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:52:00 +0000 Simon Stewart: This article contends that a sociologically-informed approach to aesthetic value can be usefully connected to debates regarding cultural policy. Such an approach can encourage reflexivity on the part of policy makers and cultural arbiters, making them sensitive to their privileged position in social space and aware of the differential levels of access to culture experienced by the public they serve. Furthermore, it can inform research into the process of evaluation that takes place at an individual and collective level. The article advocates research into the dynamics of the evaluative moment, which involves paying close attention to the interplay between the individual or group or community and the cultural object. The ways in which different social groups interact with and evaluate cultural objects will in part be determined by their social origin and levels of cultural competence. However, these contextual factors do not provide the whole picture. To zoom in on the dynamics of the evaluative moment means also to keep the cultural object in sight, to be aware of the properties of cultural objects as well as of the sensibilities and dispositions that enable their appreciation. h.davis-4@sms.ed.ac.uk (Holly Davis) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/11.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/11.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:51:00 +0000 Holly Davis: Recently expanding research on prostitution has lead to slightly more focus on an enigmatic yet major player within the underground sex economy: pimps. Whilst starting to shed light on the roles, and behavior of pimps, researchers have overlooked a fundamental element within social research that calls for the explicit definition of subjects. The ambiguous use of the word pimp across research projects impedes comparability, consistency and clarity within the growing body of literature on this topic. In an attempt to draw attention to the oversight of defining 'pimp', this paper proposes criteria and processes for a more robust definition and offers a more comprehensive definition of 'pimp'. The definitional processes suggested are reviewed within this paper through exploration of the history, cultural context, mainstream usage, academic applications and feedback from pimps. This paper integrates data from in-depth interviews with pimps to offer their invaluable insight on the meaning of the word. The core objectives of this paper are to draw attention to the problematic definitional trends in this body of research, and propose new foundations for defining 'pimp' within social research. samantha.meyer@flinders.edu.au (Samantha B. Meyer and Belinda Lunnay) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/12.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/12.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:50:00 +0000 Samantha B. Meyer and Belinda Lunnay: Abductive and retroductive inference are innovative tools of analysis which enable researchers to refine and redevelop social theory. This paper describes and demonstrates how to apply these tools to strengthen sociological theory-driven empirical research outputs. To illustrate how abductive and retroductive inference work for the benefit of enhanced qualitative analysis we present the findings of a qualitative study that investigated heart disease patients' trust in medical professionals (n=37). We outline the research process using a six-stage model developed by Danermark et al. (1997) that will guide researchers doing exploratory research in how to use abductive and retroductive inference in qualitative research design and analysis. A snapshot of the study findings are provided for illustration purposes. The reader will learn how the application of these under-utilized methodological tools provides a novel way of analyzing sociological research. g.philip@uea.ac.uk (Georgia Philip) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/15.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/15.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:49:00 +0000 Georgia Philip: This article adds to theoretical debate among British sociologists of families and relationships by considering the analytical potential and positioning of intimacy and care as concepts. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of fathering after separation or divorce, it explores the conceptual value of care as a means to advance understanding of fathering relationships. Raising the question of labour and the question of power, the discussion demonstrates the distinctiveness of care as an analytical tool, alongside, but not equivalent to, intimacy. I argue that intimacy and care are not interchangeable concepts and that care should not be limited as a purely descriptive term. The article presents care as a valuable concept which sheds particular light on the interplay between practical, ethical and emotional dimensions of family relationships, arguing that it has a deeply embedded ethical dimension which lies at the heart of its analytical potential. A.Ratna@leedsmet.ac.uk (Aarti Ratna) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/13.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/13.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:48:00 +0000 Aarti Ratna: Debates regarding intersectionality have been widely held in the U.K. and elsewhere for over a decade. However, the value of intersectionality has been questioned as researchers struggle to analyse intersectionality-in-practice. That is, how and why social identities connect in the ways that they do in the everyday lives of women and men. In this paper I argue that the concepts of 'performativity' and 'ontological complicity' offer a useful way of exploring the articulation of identities. I specifically draw on empirical research about the experiences of British Asian female footballers, to signal how their particular identities articulate in and through the spaces of women's football. I argue that by playing-up some identity dispositions and concomitantly playing-down others, British Asian females are able to negotiate inclusion within the spaces of the women's game. However, this does not mean that they automatically become valued insiders. At other times, and in other spaces, their marginalisation from and within the game is clear. I suggest that considering the intersectional plays of identity captures the complex and nuanced operation of discrimination, which is often rendered invisible in women's football. kmwhee@essex.ac.uk (Kathryn Wheeler and Miriam Glucksmann) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/9.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/9.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:47:00 +0000 Kathryn Wheeler and Miriam Glucksmann: The recycling of domestic waste has become increasingly significant over recent years with governments across the world pledging increases in their recycling rates. But success in reaching targets relies on the input and effort of the household and consumer. This article argues that the work consumers regularly perform in sorting their recyclable waste into different fractions and, in some cases, transporting this to communal sites, plays an integral role in the overall division of labour within waste management processes. We develop the concept of 'consumption work' drawing on comparative research in Sweden and England to show how the consumer is both at the end and starting point of a circular global economy of materials re-use. The work that consumers do has not been systematically explored as a distinctive form of labour, and we argue that treating it seriously requires revision of the conventional approach to the division of labour. J.Hockey@sheffield.ac.uk (Jenny Hockey, Rachel Dilley, Victoria Robinson and Alexandra Sherlock) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/20.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/20.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:46:00 +0000 Jenny Hockey, Rachel Dilley, Victoria Robinson and Alexandra Sherlock: This article raises questions about the role of footwear within contemporary processes of identity formation and presents ongoing research into perceptions, experiences and memories of shoes among men and women in the North of England. In a series of linked theoretical discussions it argues that a focus on women, fashion and shoe consumption as a feature of a modern, western 'project of the self' obscures a more revealing line of inquiry where footwear can be used to explore the way men and women live out their identities as fluid, embodied processes. In a bid to deepen theoretical understanding of such processes, it takes account of historical and contemporary representations of shoes as a symbolically efficacious vehicle for personal transformation, asking how the idea and experience of transformation informs everyday and life course experiences of transition, as individuals put on and take off particular pairs of shoes. In so doing, the article addresses the methodological and analytic challenges of accessing experience that is both fluid and embodied. donnelly.christopher.m@gmail.com (Christopher M. Donnelly and Bradley R.E. Wright) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/18.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/18.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:45:00 +0000 Christopher M. Donnelly and Bradley R.E. Wright: This article explores behavioural norms and consequences of their transgression during Mainline Protestant and Catholic church services in the Northeastern United States. We utilize Erving Goffman's essay "On Face-Work" as our primary theoretical orientation. Based on fieldwork conducted at twelve different churches in two Northeastern states, we found multiple types of social disruptions, sanctions, and attempted repairs occurring in services. Our findings highlight the normative complexity of religious services and have implications for a variety of collective endeavours. S.D.Roberts-26@kent.ac.uk (Steven Roberts and Robert MacDonald) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/21.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/21.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:44:00 +0000 Steven Roberts and Robert MacDonald: [No abstract] bert@liverpool.ac.uk (Kenneth Roberts) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/3.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/3.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:43:00 +0000 Kenneth Roberts: Middling youth were centre stage in research on school-to-work transitions from the early-20th century up to and throughout the 1980s. Since then they have been overshadowed by sociological attention to the young unemployed/NEETs on the one side, and university students and graduates on the other. Simultaneously, economists have been crowding out sociologists in the study of education-to-work transitions, especially in the middle ground. However, this paper argues that this is not just a case of the sociological gaze missing the middle. It is argued that old middling labour market destinations have diminished in number, and the new middle remains elusive because the employment tends to be precarious. Thus today's middling groups of school-leavers must either try to move-up or face career-long threats of descent to the bottom. Patrickjdainley@aol.com (Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/8.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/8.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:42:00 +0000 Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen: Whilst widening participation to higher education was approaching New Labour's target of 50% of 18-30s (for women at least), it was presented as a professionalisation of the proletariat but in reality and in hindsight it can be seen to have disguised a proletarianisation of the professions - for which HE supposedly prepares its graduates - with many reduced to para-professions at best. It is argued therefore that education as a whole faces a credibility crunch. However, many have nowhere else to go since without qualifications they face falling into the so-called 'underclass' which was widely seen to have manifested itself in the riots of summer 2011. Like other commentators, we point out that the majority of youth did not riot and focus instead upon the children of the new working-middle class who are running up a down-escalator of devalued qualifications. This only intensifies national hysteria about education as the Coalition's reception of Browne's Review restricts competitive academic HE entry to those who can afford tripled fees, while relegating those who cannot to 'Apprenticeships Without Jobs' (cf. Finn 1987) in FE and private providers. With reference to Allen and Ainley (2011), this paper speculates as to the likely outcome of this generational crisis. danwoodman@unimelb.edu.au (Dan Woodman) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/7.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/7.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:41:00 +0000 Dan Woodman: Several researchers have pointed to an overemphasis on 'spectacular' elements of youth culture and on 'at-risk' young people, arguing for greater attention to the 'ordinary' in sociological youth research. This article draws upon the Life Patterns Project, a 20-year longitudinal study of transitions in Australia, to argue that both understanding the 'ordinary' experience of youth and contemporary patterns of inequality between young people can be facilitated by a return to ideas from the undervalued legacy of the sociology of generations. Much youth research draws, often implicitly, on a model of youth where the adulthood that is the end point of transitions tends to be taken for granted. Yet, in the context of a rapidly changing labour market, the Life-Patterns participants have had to reshape the meaning of youth and adulthood as the field of possibilities open to them has changed. Understanding this remaking is the basis from which youth research can understand how some young people come to win or lose in contemporary conditions. jdg3@le.ac.uk (John Goodwin and Henrietta O'Connor) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/4.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/4.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:40:00 +0000 John Goodwin and Henrietta O'Connor: Since 2000 we have been engaged in restudies of transitions projects from the 1960s and 1980s and we have used historic data to problematise past experiences of school to work to question assumptions around complexity and linearity. Yet, in our own analyses, we have perhaps followed too closely the dominant transition discourses, concentrating only on those young people for whom transitions were not straightforward thus privileging the non-linear and complex at the expense of those who had largely unremarkable education and early work experiences. In doing so we have missed important lessons located in the life stories of the previously 'ordinary kids' in these past studies. In this paper, we seek to build upon the work of Roberts (2011) and France (2007), by returning to our own school to work restudies with two main aims in mind. First, we consider the emergent notions of 'ordinary' and 'unspectacular' transitions in the context of past studies of youth. We reflect critically on the concept the 'ordinary' and consider 'typicality' as an alternative. Second, we use data, in the form of eight vignettes, from Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles (1962) and Young Adults in the Labour Market (1983), to develop our understanding of the ordinary or typical in the lived realities of the transitions of girls in one labour market (Leicester) from the 1960s and 1980s. We conclude the paper by reflecting upon what lessons can be learnt from those who made seemingly ordinary transitions during past periods of economic change and transformation. gg1@soton.ac.uk (Gayna Davey and Alison Fuller) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/2.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/2.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:39:00 +0000 Gayna Davey and Alison Fuller: This paper uses the concept of hybrid qualifications to expose some of the ways in which the English system, with its longstanding academic and vocational divide, fails to support the transitions of young people with 'average' educational attainment. The concept of hybrid qualifications was developed during EU funded research undertaken in 2010 - 11 with project partners from Germany, Austria and Denmark. It was conceived to mean those qualifications generally achieved by young people aged 16-18 which would facilitate entry to the labour market or access to university. In the English system we defined Level 3 qualifications such as the BTEC National suite of Diplomas, Applied A-Levels, the Advanced Diploma and some qualifications contained within the Advanced Apprenticeship programme as contenders for hybridity. Compared with the clear pathways for entry to bachelor degrees that are articulated for those who have attained traditional academic qualifications (namely A-levels), the routes for those leaving school with vocational qualifications are poorly and narrowly-defined, and fragile. Using the rich, narrative data gathered from interviews and focus groups with students, tutors and key stakeholders, we illustrate how for this group transition often involves 'swimming against rather than with the tide'. To make sense of their uncertain and at times fragmented journeys we draw on Bourdieu's conceptual toolbox, and argue that his notion of 'doxa' is especially helpful in making sense of the way in which educational institutions play their own very distinctive roles in shaping those transitions. roxanne.connelly@stir.ac.uk (Roxanne Connelly, Susan J. Murray and Vernon Gayle) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/6.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/6.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:38:00 +0000 Roxanne Connelly, Susan J. Murray and Vernon Gayle: The term 'missing middle' has been used to describe the position of ordinary young people in youth research. There have been recent appeals for youth researchers to concentrate upon the lives of ordinary young people and to better document their educational experiences through the secondary analysis of large-scale social surveys. This paper presents a series of exploratory analyses that attempt to identify the school-level educational attainment and social characteristics of ordinary young people using contemporary survey data. We undertake a series of exploratory analyses of data from the British Household Panel Survey. These data cover the period directly after General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications were introduced. The dataset provides measures of school attainment and suitable individual, household and parental measures. We detect gender differences in school GCSE performance, with females outperforming males. There are some effects due to differences in parental education levels and household circumstances. There is a large group of young people who fail to gain any GCSEs, and their attainment falls far short of benchmark standards, and has negative consequences. In contrast gaining a moderate level of GCSEs at school has a positive effect in relation to employment in early adulthood. Our analyses fail to convince us that there are distinctive, or discrete, categories of GCSE attainment. The evidence explored here persuades us that there are no crisp boundaries that mark out a 'middle' category of moderate GCSE attainment. We conclude that there are clear benefits to understanding school attainment as being located upon a continuum, and that measures which reflect the heterogeneity of GCSE performance as fully as possible should be preferred. e.c.davidson@ed.ac.uk (Emma Davidson) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/5.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/5.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:37:00 +0000 Emma Davidson: In an attempt to understand youth-related antisocial behaviour, UK social policy has typically sought answers from the edge; investigating the motivations of young people perpetrating deviant behaviour or exploring the experiences of victims. Equally polarised and sensationalist narratives are present in journalistic accounts, with Knight's Hood Rat and BBC documentary The Scheme both depicting the lives of young people in 'disadvantaged' neighbourhoods as on the margins of society. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in a Scottish housing estate, this paper calls for a localised and situated approach to understanding 'the antisocial'. The empirical data shows that young people do not fit easily into the dualist categories of 'perpetrator' or 'victim'. Despite living in what could be classed an 'antisocial' place the majority of young people's everyday experiences were not spent on the margins but rather somewhere in-between, while their own identities were described as normal and unspectacular. The paper concludes by emphasising the value of research that situates understandings of 'the antisocial' within its everyday social context. This offers us the opportunity to take a broader analysis of young lives and crucially re-establish the connection between lives on the margins and the 'missing middle'. ruth.lewis@lshtm.ac.uk (Ruth Lewis, Cicely Marston and Kaye Wellings) Article http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/1.html http://www.socresonline.org.uk/18/1/1.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:36:00 +0000 Ruth Lewis, Cicely Marston and Kaye Wellings: While the symbolic importance of 'losing your virginity' has been described in many settings, meanings of non-coital sexual experiences are often 'missing' from theorisation of sexual transitions. Drawing on data from a qualitative mixed methods study with young people aged 16-18 in England (the 'sixteen18 project'), we explore young people's expectations about what 'normal' sexual trajectories involve, and the meanings they give to this process. Participants had fairly rigid expectations of a 'normal order' of non-coital sexual activities 'leading to' vaginal intercourse, which were accounted for in terms of developing and demonstrating sexual skill, preparing girls for penetration by a penis, learning to enjoy partnered sexual encounters, and developing intimacy required for vaginal intercourse. Non-coital sexual activities preceding first vaginal intercourse were rarely seen as valuable in themselves, being viewed primarily as preparation for first vaginal intercourse. While 'virginity loss' is highly significant for many young people, our study demonstrates that dominant gendered discourses about heterosex influence sexual activity long before first vaginal intercourse. We conclude by suggesting practical implications of this work for sexual health education.