Notes for a PhD

Writing an Informative Abstract

2008-11-11T07:03:00.000-08:00

Please write an informative abstract. Be orderly, succinct, and concrete. Use active verbs such as report", "propose," and "analyze" rather than static verbs such as "is", "are" and "appears to be." Do not hedge or equivocate. Abstracts should be less than 200 words. Use the following outline and example as a guide. The example describes "The Effects of Power, Knowledge and Trust on Income Disclosure in Surveys," by Catherine E. Ross and John R. Reynolds (1996. Social Science Quarterly 77:899-911).

OBJECTIVE

State the core issue, research question, or objective of the research.

Why do some social groups report income less often than others? We propose that powerlessness in the household and in society decrease the likelihood of reporting income because they decrease knowledge and trust. Knowledge of household finances affects the ability to report household income. Trust affects the willingness to report it.

METHODS

Briefly describe the methods, including the population, sampling method, sample size, study design (e.g., survey), and the date of the data collection.

We analyze the reporting of exact or approximate income in a national U.S. probability sample of 2,031 respondents interviewed by telephone in 1990.

RESULTS

Describe the results.

Mistrust reduces the probability of reporting income, whether exactly or approximately. Homemakers and those with little household power report income as often as others if allowed to report approximate rather than exact amounts. The same applies to African Americans, the poorly educated, the unmarried, and people who feel powerless. Older persons and those in larger households report income less often than others and tend to give approximate amounts.

CONCLUSIONS

Interpret the results as supporting or not supporting the theory or hypotheses. Draw conclusions and state implications.

The results confirm that knowledge and trust affect the reporting of income in surveys.

Prepared by John Mirowsky, editor, Journal of Health and Social Behavior

From 'Consuming Life' by Zygmunt Bauman

2008-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

'I would suggest that the idea of 'melancholy' stands in the last account for the generic affliction of the consumer (the homo eligens by decree of the consumer society); a distrurbance resulting from the fatal encounter between the obligation and compulsion to choose/the addiction to choosing, and the inability to choose'

Read this at some point

2008-05-30T02:50:00.000-07:00

http://66.102.1.104/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:h-zez695ypgJ:ephemeraweb.org/journal/7-4/7-4ephemera-nov07.pdf%23page%3D29+

External examiner?

Conference

2008-01-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

I went to the International Soc of Ed conference in Russell Square again this year. The most useful things were

a) Finding out that a man called Colin Cremin has written on what I am writing about. Hmm.
b) Realising that I was taken less seriously because I am now blonde
c) Meeting DY and realising there are many ways to be a sociologist.
d) Wondering what the purpose of all this is.

Blogger

2007-12-14T03:03:00.000-08:00

A nice blog post about Baudrillard and consumer society

Article to read

2007-12-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

Communication Research, Vol. 24, No. 6, 593-630 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/0093650297024006002
© 1997 SAGE Publications

The Person as Object in Discourses in and Around Organizations

GEORGE CHENEY

CRAIG CARROLL

Natural persons (i.e., real people as opposed to "corporateor organizational persons") have come to be treated—oftenimplicitly but sometimes quite explicitly—as mere objects(or in other cases not treated or mentioned at all) in someof the more popular and influential ways of talking about "doingbusiness." Although we recognize that certain dimensions ofthis problem are not new, this article deliberately focuseson the dark side of the current push toward greater efficiency,competitiveness, and so-called customer responsiveness in theworld of work by highlighting specific examples from publicdiscourse in and about organizational life. We provide illustrationsof the person as object in five categories of organizationalactivity: organizational operations, labor and employment, marketingand customer service, corporate governance and investor relations,and competition and market globalization.

The Third Way

2007-12-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

This is the transcript of a lecture given by Niall Dickson, BBC Social Affairs Editor, to the Institute of Directors of Social Affairs, in 1999.

It outlines the main threads of the Third Way as CORA; Community, Opportunity, Responsibility and Accountability. It asks whether the ideology is possible, how it is working in practice and draws particular attention to the lack of ideologiacl commitment to the public sector.

On reflection I think that this relates to the idea of 'emptiness' in that 'it doesn't matter who does the job' as long as its done well. It is pragmatism, but scribbles over a culture of public service that underpinned the work done. Now culture is ignored, and yet if the only cultural leadership coming from the government is target culture, it is ultimately devoid of meaning that would provide professional identity and some sense of intrinsic motivation.

John Beck/Mary Earl

2007-11-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

Key issues in Secondary education

A chapter by Madeleine about the intersection of class, race and gender. Useful for supervisions?

Bernstein obituary

2007-11-26T09:22:00.000-08:00

Very helpful obituary of Bernstein that goes over his main contributions, works, approaches, critics etc. Positions it well in the history - NB read some Gramsci

2007-11-21T10:13:00.001-08:00

In fact - all the chapters here are pretty helpful for basic sociology, which to my shame I seem to need.

Durkheim

2007-11-21T10:07:00.000-08:00

brief description here of Durkheim's works. useful bits include explanations of social facts, collective representations, organics and mechanical solidarity and sacred/profane