Public confidence and trust in higher education has declined (Johnson and Peifer 2017) and the future of the higher education sector has been questioned (AGB 2020). More specifically, the discipline of sociology is considered to be in “crisis” and applied sociological approaches are offered as a solution (Graizbord 2019; Weinstein 1997). The purpose of this introduction article as well as the broader special issue is to explore the nature and state of applied sociology in Canada. With a collection of seven articles authored by Canadian sociologists on topics including application research, reflections on process, and teaching practice, this special issue provides a platform to discuss and showcase the distinct nature and contributions of applied sociology in Canada as well as highlight the work of Canadian applied sociologists.
The chapter engages the outpouring of Brexit comedy as an important case study of the politics of humor. On one hand, the literature on comedy and politics has identified the subversive potential of jokes as a form of everyday resistance. On the other hand, sociological approaches have emphasized the role of stereotype and humiliation in jokes as part of a disciplinary function of humor. Building on these insights, the chapter reads prominent debates within comedy about Brexit as a vernacular form of politics. Jokes and satire perform and reperform discourses of identity. The chapter argues we should rephrase “Brexit comedy” or “the comedy of Brexit” as a socially consequential practice that teases at the (changing) social and political consensus.
Abstract
Using the terms »reproductive labour« and »care«, the contribution traces the feminist discourse on (domestic) labour. The focus is on two publications from 1977 and 2019 that, despite different theoretical traditions, refer to love as a justification for gendered social inequalities. However, love is conceptualised here one-dimensionally as an inequality-creating variable. For this reason, the contribution argues for an integration of emotion-sociological approaches into the current care debate.
Nutrition and inequalities: A note on sociological approaches
