From four to zero? The social mechanisms of symbolic domination in the UK accounting field

The extensive commercial success of two well-made popular television drama serials screened in the UK at prime time on Sunday evenings during the winter of 2011–12, Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–) and Call the Midwife (BBC, 2012–), has appeared to consolidate the recent resurgence of the period drama during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as reassembling something like a mass audience for woman-centred realist narratives at a time when the fracturing and disassembling of such audiences seemed axiomatic. While ostensibly different in content, style and focus, the two programmes share a number of distinctive features, including a range of mature female characters who are sufficiently well drawn and socially diverse as to offer a profoundly pleasurable experience for the female viewer seeking representations of aging femininity that go beyond the sexualised body of the ‘successful ager’. Equally importantly, these two programmes present compelling examples of the ‘conjunctural text’, which appears at a moment of intense political polarisation, marking struggles over consent to a contemporary political position by re-presenting the past. Because both programmes foreground older women as crucial figures in their respective communities, but offer very different versions of the social role and ideological positioning that this entails, the underlying politics of such nostalgia becomes apparent. A critical analysis of these two versions of Britain's past thus highlights the ideological investments involved in period drama and the extent to which this ‘cosy’ genre may legitimate or challenge contemporary political claims.

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Solidarity with disabled people in times of crisis: A comparative analysis of Italy and the UK

International Sociology ◽

10.1177/0268580921994508 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026858092199450

Author(s):

Nicola Maggini ◽

Tom Montgomery ◽

Simone Baglioni

Keyword(s):

Social Trust ◽

Important Determinant ◽

Social Embeddedness ◽

Disabled People ◽

The Social ◽

Religious Piety ◽

Active Nature ◽

The One ◽

The Uk

Against the background of crisis and cuts, citizens can express solidarity with groups in various ways. Using novel survey data this article explores the attitudes and behaviours of citizens in their expressions of solidarity with disabled people and in doing so illuminates the differences and similarities across two European contexts: Italy and the UK. The findings reveal pools of solidarity with disabled people across both countries that have on the one hand similar foundations such as the social embeddedness and social trust of citizens, while on the other hand contain some differences, such as the more direct and active nature of solidarity in Italy compared to the UK and the role of religiosity as an important determinant, particularly in Italy. Across both countries the role of ‘deservingness’ was key to understanding solidarity, and the study’s conclusions raise questions about a solidarity embedded by a degree of paternalism and even religious piety.

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Military Veterans and Welfare Reform: Bridging Two Policy Worlds through Qualitative Longitudinal Research

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746421000166 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Lisa Scullion ◽

Katy Jones ◽

Peter Dwyer ◽

Celia Hynes ◽

Philip Martin

Keyword(s):

Welfare Reform ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Military Veterans ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Veterans Affairs ◽

Civilian Life ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Policy Makers ◽

The Social ◽

The Uk

There has been an increasing focus in the UK on the support provided to the Armed Forces community, with the publication of the Armed Forces Covenant (2011), the Strategy for our Veterans (2018) and the first ever Office for Veterans’ Affairs (2019). There is also an important body of research – including longitudinal research – focusing on transitions from military to civilian life, much of which is quantitative. At the same time, the UK has witnessed a period of unprecedented welfare reform. However, research focused on veterans’ interactions with the social security system has been largely absent. This article draws on the authors’ experiences of undertaking qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) to address this knowledge gap. We reflect on how QLR was essential in engaging policy makers enabling the research to bridge the two parallel policy worlds of veterans’ support and welfare reform, leading to significant policy and practice impact.

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The Social Aspects of Sexual Health: A Twitter-Based Analysis of Valentine’s Day Perception

Sexes ◽

10.3390/sexes2010004 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 50-59

Author(s):

Andrea Sansone ◽

Angelo Cignarelli ◽

Daniele Mollaioli ◽

Giacomo Ciocca ◽

Erika Limoncin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Sexual Behavior ◽

Sexual Health ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Healthcare Research ◽

Social Aspects ◽

The Social ◽

The Us ◽

Valentine's Day ◽

The Uk

Sentiment analysis (SA) is a technique aimed at extracting opinions and sentiments through the analysis of text, often used in healthcare research to understand patients’ needs and interests. Data from social networks, such as Twitter, can provide useful insights on sexual behavior. We aimed to assess the perception of Valentine’s Day by performing SA on tweets we collected between 28 January and 13 February 2019. Analysis was done using ad hoc software. A total of 883,615 unique tweets containing the word “valentine” in their text were collected. Geo-localization was available for 48,918 tweets; most the tweets came from the US (36,889, 75.41%), the UK (2605, 5.33%) and Canada (1661, 3.4%). The number of tweets increased approaching February 14. “Love” was the most recurring word, appearing in 111,981 tweets, followed by “gift” (55,136), “special” (34,518) and “happy” (33,913). Overall, 7318 tweets mentioned “sex”: among these tweets, the most recurring words were “sexy” (2317 tweets), “love” (1394) and “gift” (679); words pertaining to intimacy and sexual activity, such as “lingerie”, “porn”, and “date” were less common. In conclusion, tweets about Valentine’s Day mostly focus on the emotions, or on the material aspect of the celebration, and the sexual aspect of Valentine’s Day is rarely mentioned.

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EXPRESS: Unlearning and Consent in the UK Fire and Rescue Service

Human Relations ◽

10.1177/00187267211031179 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 001872672110311

Author(s):

James Brooks ◽

Irena Grugulis ◽

Hugh Cook

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Study ◽

Social Aspects ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Human System ◽

Rescue Service ◽

Rescue Services ◽

The People ◽

The Social ◽

New Knowledge ◽

The Uk

Why does so much literature on unlearning ignore the people who do the unlearning? What would we understand differently if we focused on those people? Much of the existing literature argues that unlearning can only be achieved, and new knowledge acquired, if old knowledge is discarded: the clean slate approach. This might be a reasonable way of organising stock in a warehouse, where room needs to be created for new deliveries, but it is not an accurate description of a human system. This article draws on a detailed qualitative study of learning in the UK Fire and Rescue Services to challenge the clean slate approach and demonstrate that, not only did firefighters retain their old knowledge, they used it as a benchmark to assess new routines and practices. This meant that firefighters’ trust in, and consent to, innovation was key to successful implementation. In order to understand the social aspects of unlearning, this research focuses on the people involved as active agents, rather than passive recipients or discarders of knowledge.

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Social media participatory CPD for nursing revalidation, professional development and beyond

British Journal of Nursing ◽

10.12968/bjon.2019.28.13.870 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (13) ◽

pp. 870-877

Author(s):

Calvin Moorley ◽

Theresa Chinn

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Social Media ◽

Thematic Analysis ◽

Design Data ◽

The Social ◽

Reflective Design ◽

Professional Requirements ◽

Social Media Tools ◽

The Uk ◽

Media Applications

Background: In 2016 the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK introduced revalidation, which is the process nurses are required to follow to renew their registration. This provides an opportunity for nurses to shape, develop and evolve social media to meet their professional requirements. Aims: to examine different ways nurses can use social media tools for continuous professional development (CPD) and revalidation. Methods: using a qualitative reflective design, data were gathered from content on the @WeNurses platform and activities organised with other leading health organisations in England. These data were analysed using the social media relationship triangle developed by the authors with a thematic analysis approach. Findings: analysis revealed that social media was used in six categories: publishing, sharing, messaging, discussing, collaborating, and networking. Organised social media events such as: blogs, tweetchats, Twitter storms, webinars, infographics, podcasts, videos and virtual book clubs can support nurses with revalidation and professional development. Conclusion: Through using a participatory CPD approach and embracing professional social media applications nurses have moved social media from the concept of a revolution to an evolution.

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The Mashups of YouTube

Nordicom Review ◽

10.2478/nor-2013-0053 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

pp. 47-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Thomas Mosebo Simonsen

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Approach ◽

Structural Connectivity ◽

Social Mechanisms ◽

Social Communities ◽

The Social ◽

Communicative Abilities ◽

Formal Characteristic

Abstract This article focuses on YouTube mashups and how we can understand them as a specific subgenre on YouTube. The Mashups are analysed as audiovisual recontextualizations that are given new meaning, e.g., via collaborative social communities or for individual promotional purposes. This is elaborated on throughout a discussion on Mashups as a mode of everyday bricolages, which are moreover discussed through a theoretical approach to Mashups as exponents of what has been called “Vernacular Creativity”. The article also argues that the novelty of Mashups is not be found in its formal characteristic, but rather in its social and communicative abilities within the YouTube community. This leads to the article’s overall argument that the main characteristic of the YouTube Mashup can be explained in terms of connectivity. It is argued that Mashups reveal a double articulation of connectivity; one that involves the social mechanisms of the Mashups, and another mode, which concerns the explicit embedding of structural connectivity that accentuates the medium-specific infrastructure of YouTube. This double articulation of connectivity is furthermore elaborated on by including Grusin and Bolter’s concept of remediation. Methodologically, the article draws on empirical observations and examples of Mashups are included to demonstrate the article’s main arguments.

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Dealing with austerity and migration in the northern European cleaning sector: Social partner strategies to strengthen wage floors

European Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/0959680118790818 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (4) ◽

pp. 373-389 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Sissel Trygstad ◽

Trine P Larsen ◽

Kristine Nergaard

Keyword(s):

Industrial Relations ◽

Eu Enlargement ◽

Social Partner ◽

National Differences ◽

The Social ◽

Wage Regulation ◽

And Migration ◽

Industrial Cleaning ◽

The Uk ◽

Exerted Pressure

Industrial cleaning shares some common features across countries. Institutions for collective wage regulation are fragile, the market is highly price-sensitive and skewed competition has exerted pressure on wages and conditions. Increased cross-border mobility of labour and enterprises after EU enlargement brought new sources of competitive pressure, which was amplified by the subsequent economic crisis. We study changes in collective regulation in industrial cleaning in Denmark, Germany, Norway and the UK since the turn of the century, and find that the social partners have responded differently to the challenges. We discuss these responses in the light of national differences in industrial relations regimes and the regulatory tools available for the organized actors.

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Learning to Be Affected: Social Suffering and Total Pain at Life's Borders

The Sociological Review ◽

10.1111/j.1467-954x.2012.02119.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 60 (1_suppl) ◽

pp. 108-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Yasmin Gunaratnam

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Palliative Care ◽

Social Suffering ◽

Total Pain ◽

The Social ◽

Pain And Suffering ◽

The Uk

The practice of live sociology in situations of pain and suffering is the focus of this article. An outline of the challenges of understanding pain is followed by a discussion of Bourdieu's ‘social suffering’ (1999) and the palliative care philosophy of ‘total pain’. Using examples from qualitative research on disadvantaged dying migrants in the UK, attention is given to the methods that are improvised by dying people and care practitioners in attempts to bridge intersubjective divides, where the causes and routes of pain can be ontologically and temporally indeterminate and/or withdrawn. The paper contends that these latter phenomena are the incitement for the inventive bridging and performative work of care and live sociological methods, both of which are concerned with opposing suffering. Drawing from the philosophy of total pain, I highlight the importance of (1) an engagement with a range of materials out of which attempts at intersubjective bridging can be produced, and which exceed the social, the material, and the temporally linear; and (2) an empirical sensibility that is hospitable to the inaccessible and non-relational.

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Migration infrastructures and the production of migrants’ irregularity in Japan and the United Kingdom

Comparative Migration Studies ◽

10.1186/s40878-021-00242-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Nando Sigona ◽

Jotaro Kato ◽

Irina Kuznetsova

Keyword(s):

Legal Status ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Legal Violence ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Social ◽

Access And Quality ◽

The Uk ◽

The Impact

AbstractThe article examines the migration infrastructures and pathways through which migrants move into, through and out of irregular status in Japan and the UK and how these infrastructures uniquely shape their migrant experiences of irregularity at key stages of their migration projects.Our analysis brings together two bodies of migration scholarship, namely critical work on the social and legal production of illegality and the impact of legal violence on the lives of immigrants with precarious legal status, and on the role of migration infrastructures in shaping mobility pathways.Drawing upon in-depth qualitative interviews with irregular and precarious migrants in Japan and the UK collected over a ten-year period, this article develops a three-pronged analysis of the infrastructures of irregularity, focusing on infrastructures of entry, settlement and exit, casting a comparative light on the mechanisms that produce precarious and expendable migrant lives in relation to access to labour and labour conditions, access and quality of housing and law enforcement, and how migrants adapt, cope, resist or eventually are overpowered by them.

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