Sociological Practice Research Articles

Navigating the Labour Market: Women Job Seekers’ Mobilisation of a Postfeminist Sensibility

Job seeking is a crucial yet overlooked process through which people navigate the world of work. Yet there remains limited qualitative research examining the complex and nuanced experiences of job seekers in a contemporary labour market. This article explores 38 interviews with job-seeking women in England, all of whom were interviewed over a six-month period. Using a postfeminist sensibility, findings revealed an oscillation between empowerment and success on the one hand, and disempowerment and perceived failure on the other, including wanting to: find the ‘right’ job, but accept any job; convey an authentic self but imitate what they think employers want; negotiate salaries, but accept pay cuts; emulate ‘successful’ behaviours, but experience doubt, uncertainty and negativity. This article contributes to the sociological practice of employment, identifying that through this oscillation, women experience a form of postfeminist precarity that starts from the outset of job seeking.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Balancing Pedagogy and Partnerships in an Undergraduate Community-Based Research Class

Community-based research (CBR) as a form of community-engaged learning (CEL) offers students valuable sociological practice and learning experiences. Although CEL strategies are well documented for enhancing students’ sociological imagination, gaps persist in the literature regarding the impact on community partners. This article addresses the challenges and opportunities inherent in CEL, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach that enhances student learning while maintaining meaningful community partnerships. Through a case study of an undergraduate CBR class, this article highlights the instructor’s role in building authentic community-academic relationships, providing a blueprint for designing high-impact pedagogical practices with real-world applications. Employing qualitative interviews focused on students’ and community partners’ experiences, the study probes power dynamics, potential inequalities, and time-intensive aspects. It introduces an instructor-anchored partnership model incorporating team-based learning, addressing these complexities and presenting a framework for effective community-based learning in sociological education.

Translating ‘Understanding’/ understanding translation: A reflexive approach

This article has its starting point in an apparently marginal undertaking: Bridget Fowler’s translation of Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘Comprendre’, a methodologically oriented chapter which appeared at the end of the collectively authored book La Misère du monde. Its objective is to show how translation, beyond its apparent marginality, is in fact a key component of sociological practice, and inseparable from sociological interpretation and theorizing. Because of this, translation can provide an original and unexpected point of view that sheds light on little considered sociological matters and relations which usually escape from critical consideration. First, Fowler’s translation is discussed in the context of her critical engagement with Bourdieu’s sociology. Second, sociological approaches to the mostly neglected craft of academic translation are examined. Third, the project of a reflexive sociology is related to that of reflexive translation through what can be characterized as a translational sociology.

Evolving Publics and the Practice of Public Sociology

How do the changing roles of diverse publics affect possibilities for the practice of public sociology? Having set this question in the context of Burawoy’s 2004 launch of public sociology, this analysis goes on to look at some distinguished illustrative examples of public sociology, beginning with Du Bois. The goal is to explore how the evolution of surrounding ‘archipelagos of publics’ creates challenges and opportunities for public sociology. In addition to Du Bois, the work of Edward Webster and his colleagues in South Africa, the unorthodox career of Marshall Ganz and the ethnographic public sociology of Arlie Hochschild are considered. A synoptic sketch of the evolution of publics in Brazil since the 1964 military coup and an example of contemporary Brazilian public sociology—the ‘Emancipation Network’—follow. I conclude with a ‘neo-Polanyian pessimist’ vision of what the contemporary combination of neoliberalism and reactionary authoritarianism might mean for public sociology.

Using Critical Social Theory as Professional Learning to Develop Scholar—Practitioners in Physical Education: The Example of Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice

In this conceptual article, we present the idea that the physical education (PE) teacher is, out of professional necessity, a scholar—practitioner. To substantiate and evolve this idea, we develop a Deweyian pragmatist view of the scholar—practitioner which also embraces criticality. This stance collapses the binary notion of theory and practice and instead embraces theory and practice as a duality. We add a critical dimension to this duality through recognising that scholar—practitioners (especially leaders) require criticality and cultural awareness to raise questions over knowledge conventions and the mitigations of contextual factors their learners may face. We then turn to the critical and practical sociology of Pierre Bourdieu to illustrate how the use of theory may help PE scholar—practitioners enhance their criticality and cultural awareness. More specifically, we draw on Bourdieu’s primary concepts of field, capital and habitus to show how the application of this theory can help PE scholar—practitioners position themselves in relation to their profession and how they might know their field; be aware of their, and their students’, capital worth in relation to that field; and know themselves (their personal—professional habitus). In conclusion, we suggest that for PE scholar—practitioners, theory-based learning and its applied use might be considered a form of professional learning and not be limited to Bourdieu’s theory but extended to include a range of other aspects of critical social theory. We finish by suggesting that this approach to the PE scholar—practitioner is even more pertinent due to the field of PE becoming increasingly a third space—something which requires additional research and analysis.

Towards a sociology of the future: An exploration in cognitive social theory

The aim of this article is a sociology of the future. Since the standard sociological practice of extrapolating from everyday semantics of the future and the time-consciousness of modernity is inadequate, an integrated cognitive sociological perspective allied to critical theory is introduced. It makes visible an essential dimension of social life that is either largely taken for granted, misunderstood or ignored by identifying different levels of cognitive structures organising minds, institutions and culture and following their role in societal dynamics. This perspective mediates the sociocultural and naturalistic approaches and introduces the concept of space-time. Centrally, a modal analysis of the key present-past-future sequence is presented, with the focus on the distinct status of the future. It is modally conceptualised, not simply in terms of possibility as is usual, but rather in terms of its modality as a necessary formal generic cultural model that makes the future in the first place conceivable and enables an orientation towards it to be established and maintained. The resulting cognitive sociological account offers a novel theoretical understanding of the future which could facilitate thorough sociological and critical theoretical analyses in the societal space-time field.

Revisiting young masculinities through a sound art installation: What really counts?

What Really Counts? was a sound art installation created in 2019 through a collaboration between a sociologist and a multidisciplinary artist, working with in-depth interviews with young men recorded as part of a British feminist social research project in 1990, exploring sexualities and the threat of HIV/AIDS. In this article, we describe the evolution and staging of the sound art installation project, situating it within interdisciplinary literatures on the use of sociological archives and reanimation of analogue media in a digital age. Working within a fractured tradition of curated sociology, we consider the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration for refreshing sociological analytic practice, revealing the unrealised potential of archived data sets and utilising temporal displacement as a generative analytic strategy for feeling history. We are working with a 30-year time span characterised by a stretching of intergenerational experience in relation to expectations for and mediation of sex/gender. The project attempts to realise the potential for an experimental sociological practice through the staging of open-ended past–present encounters.

Balancing sleeping with guardianship: narratives of sleep during informal dementia care

Sleep has been recognised as compromised in dementia care. This study aims to represent the experiences and needs of informal carers via sleep-related accounts. Retrospective interviews were conducted with 20 carers concerning sleep changes across the trajectory of dementia care. Key interactive narratives were around: ‘sleep as my sacrifice’; tensions between identities of being a ‘sleeper’ versus ‘guardian’; and ‘sleep as a luxury’. Maintaining healthy sleep and preferable sleep practices is challenging while balancing the responsibilities of dementia-related care. Acknowledging sleep as a sociological practice enables a greater understanding of carers’ nuanced experience and support needs.

The Mainstreaming of Egalitarian Pedagogy in Sociology Learning Process

The purpose of this study was to determine the practice of teaching sociology using an egalitarian pedagogy approach in the Practice of Field Experience (PPL) II of Teacher Professional Education Program (PPG) Pre-service at SMAN 1 Masbagik, East Lombok. The method of this research was qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. The subjects of this study were students of the PPL II of PPG Pre-service at SMAN 1 Masbagik, East Lombok. Data collection techniques were observation, interviews, and documentation, while the data analysis technique used was interpretative phenomenological analysis. In the practice of learning sociology at PPL II PPG Pre-service, students as professional teacher candidates applied innovative learning models such as discovery and inquiry learning, Project Based Learning (PjBL), Problem Based Learning (PBL), and Cooperative Learning. These learning models emphasize student-centered learning where students are encouraged to be active, independent, critical, creative, interactive, and collaborative. At this point, the practice of learning sociology prioritizes group discussions, problem solving through case studies and assignments (field studies). Besides applying innovative learning models, students from the Field Experience Practice (PPL) II PPG Pre-service also used an egalitarian pedagogical approach, namely sociology learning which was designed to be more fun and meaningful so as to create learning that is more humane, dialogical, and participatory. Learning here is interpreted as learning together so as to create an egalitarian relationship between the teacher and students in the classroom where the teacher acts more as a facilitator, motivator, and inspirer.
 Keywords: pedagogy, egalitarianism, sociology, Teacher Professional Education (PPG)

Contemplative Studies, Martial Arts, and Solidarity: An Autobiographical Knowledge Cultural Sociology of Transformational Theory and Practice

In this reflection on my sociological practice and academic leadership across four decades, I discover abiding themes otherwise hidden by the keywords featured most prominently: solidarity, martial arts, and contemplative practices. Articulations across knowledge cultures and leadership responsibilities distinguished by place, emphasis, spirit, and (non-)violence move me to conclude with an embrace of love as a force across what might appear, on the surface, incommensurate expressions. However, they are but different manifestations of a deeper unity to be realised in transformation moved by address of the following question: solidarity with whom?

Benefits and barriers: Improving boys’ mental health education in high schools

Adolescents are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis worldwide. Yet, mental health literacy and experiences of mental illness vary significantly with gender. For example, male deaths by suicide are twice as high as females on average globally, with the trend of gender disparity in mental illness emerging in high school and continuing into adulthood. With the majority of mental illnesses also emerging in adolescence, high schools are uniquely positioned to provide timely preventative mental health education for boys. To date, however, school-based mental health education programs are predominantly gender-neutral. We conducted a narrative review of the literature in mental health education programs for high school aged boys aged 12–18 years within schools and the wider community. To address the question How can high schools provide better mental health education for their male students? searches were undertaken in four databases, ProQuest (including ERIC), Informit (including A+ Education), PsychINFO and Google Scholar, between January 2021 and November 2023. There were no restrictions on publication date. Our findings suggested that to improve mental health knowledge and attitudes towards mental health and help seeking, school-based programs should be gender transformative, draw on best practice and theory in sociology, psychology, and boys’ pedagogy, utilise co-design so that student voice can be prioritised, and be tailored to the school's sociocultural context. Recommendations for schools are discussed.

The Measurement and Coherence of Taste: Analysing the Music, Art, and Literary Tastes of French Academics

By analyzing the responses given by a population of French academics to three open questions about their favourite musicians, writers, and painters, this article examines the frequent use in the sociology of cultural practices of genre classifications as indicators of taste. Do the theories of eclecticism and dissonance stand up to analysis when we move away from genre classifications that are widely assigned between legitimate, average, and popular in favour of questions that relate to a preference for certain artists? How should we differentiate between artists within the space of taste and thus determine the existence or not of relative unity? Using network analysis, the article shows that each sphere of taste has its own organization according to differing supply structures and their respective fields of production. Meanwhile, it is possible for tastes in music, literature, and art to intersect, and to obtain categories of taste that are relatively coherent from the point of view of the position of the different artists in the space of the tastes expressed. These categories of taste are also related to the social characteristics of respondents. Finally, we observe that “cultural transgressions”—citing preferences for artists from spheres that are distant from one another in terms of legitimacy—occur in music. These transgressions consist in the expression of a taste for musicians who have little legitimacy in combination with very legitimate tastes in literature and art.

Exploring fields of power in the English Premier League. A qualitative study into unhealthy sponsorships

This qualitative study uses Bourdieu’s sociology of practice to help understand how different actors in football consider ‘unhealthy’ sponsorships (defined as promoting gambling, food and drink high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS), and alcohol) in the English Premier League. Eighteen informants were interviewed including those employed by football clubs and their charitable foundations, others with a commercial interest in the football industry, and members of fan organisations. Their responses were examined using a thematic approach and reflected the distribution of economic and cultural power between the agents in the field of football. Tensions within these fields of power are illustrated diagrammatically between those in possession of economic capital (the clubs), and those who protect the cultural capital of ‘their’ clubs (the fans).

The Quest for Normativity: Editors’ Introduction

This special collection builds on a growing chorus of voices calling to bridge the gap between normative concerns and sociological practice, and indeed to develop normative forms of sociology. Although the collection’s articles constitute a small sample of (normative) sociology’s rich and evolving landscape, they demonstrate not only how normative traditions are deeply embedded in sociology’s history, but also how they are being invoked in new and creative ways. Our authors’ work illuminates the unity between sociological and normative concerns by reconstructing important chapters of the discipline’s engagement with ethical reflection, and by chartering possible paths for normative sociology. Contributors further engage with the normative value of intellectual resources located beyond standard academic boundaries, such as religious resources, and emphasize the importance of researchers reflecting upon their own normative assumptions. Finally, they frame normativity in terms of layered engagements: calling on social scientists to consider participatory research paradigms and to build bridges between research and the general public in the search for social justice.

Future-cultures: How future imaginations disseminate throughout the social

The futures of humanity and planet Earth are at stake. This is reflected not only in the increasingly dire future imaginations of billions of people around the world but also in an ever-increasing body of future-related literature in the social sciences and humanities. However, despite growing sociological engagement with the future, an astonishing desideratum remains: the dissemination of future imaginations. Although many works imply that future imaginations disseminate, they rarely spell out how the cultural mechanisms of dissemination work. Therefore, in this article, I develop the notion of future-cultures to conceptualize how future imaginations disseminate throughout the social, drawing from cultural sociology and theories of social practices. I conceptualize the future-cultures framework in three steps: (1) how future-cultures generate future-cultural codes, which select and classify (il-)legitimate future imaginations, sites of futuring and futuring practices; (2) how future-cultural codes relate different (futuring) practices and discourses into broader practice-/discourse-complexes, which (3) organize transversally in fields of futuring and modes of futuring, thereby disseminating distinct future imaginations over space and time.

Methods of digital-sociology: valuation of young researchers

Some methods of social research and social analysis were modified last years. Digitalization of economy and of the social governance create some new conditions for sociological practices. There were modified a respondent, an other objects of social research because of online relocation. There were modified an object, methodology, methods and technics of social research. At the same time, education and trainings of social scientists take into account new reality very bad. Some opinions of young social scientists and social students about factual situation and wishing situation in sphere of digital-competentions presented in this research. There were marked some reasons of important these competentions because of changes in social governance, changes in communication capabilities of society, changes in demands from clients, pace of life increasing, and some new social phenomenon, which could be analyzed by digital methods only. There were marked the most high-demand in practice methods and technics of social research in digital context, needs and capabilities for students education, institutional capabilities and limits of its development in Russia. The results of the research may be used for educational program’s correction as a reflect of new challenges of social governance in Russia.

The necessary confluence of sociology and social impact assessment in the era of global change

Despite the intrinsic and natural connection between sociology and social impact assessment, the latter often does not hold a prominent place in the academic theory and practice of sociology. This monograph aims to justify and reclaim the rightful position of social impact assessment within the sociological discipline, through the contributions of some of the most renowned international experts in this field. This introductory article reflects on the necessary mutual contribution between sociology and social impact assessment, which, through their epistemological, methodological and axiological dialogues, establish an applied working space aimed at providing solutions for real-world problems. Sociology and social impact assessment must join forces to become agents not only of knowledge production but also of improvement of the living conditions of those in situations of social vulnerability, being this an urgent task in the face of contemporary global changes and growing inequalities.

Divided we stand, united we fall? Structure and struggles of contemporary German sociology

ABSTRACT This contribution presents an analysis of the structure and conflictual dynamics of contemporary German sociology which has recently separated into two professional societies. Using geometric data analysis, we present an empirical construction of the power/knowledge structure of the field, its paradigmatic plurality, and the various forms of sociological practices involved.

Decolonising sociology through popular culture-music research: Nigeria’s liberal democracy in focus

The discipline of sociology digs out the empirical reality of societies based on affirmed epistemological frameworks. Sociological theory, methodology and research in Nigeria are deeply encapsulated in dominant Western-oriented epistemes and objectivity designs aimed at value-free assumptions, yet they are non-universally applicable to ascertaining nuanced realities with impacting outcomes. Guided by Justin Labinjoh’s 1982 Metaphor of Change to engage the objectivity versus subjectivity debates in the sociological practice, this paper argues that sociology is a colonising epistemology that requires a decolonising strategy through popular culture-music research to unearth the nuanced and subterranean reality of the subaltern classes in Nigeria’s liberal democratisation process. The paper also uncovers the taken-for-granted nuances of everyday life in the areas of power and governance, poverty and development in Nigeria’s democratisation process. Data were sourced from popular music of Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu (Burna Boy) and Folarin Falana (Falz), which highlighted power, politics and development contradictions in Nigeria’s liberal democracy.

Maximizing Utility or Avoiding Losses? Uncovering Decision Rule-Heterogeneity in Sociological Research with an Application to Neighbourhood Choice

Empirical studies on individual behaviour often, implicitly or explicitly, assume a single type of decision rule. Other studies do not specify behavioural assumptions at all. We advance sociological research by introducing (random) regret minimization, which is related to loss aversion, into the sociological literature and by testing it against (random) utility maximization, which is the most prominent decision rule in sociological research on individual behaviour. With an application to neighbourhood choice, in a sample of four European cities, we combine stated choice experiment data and discrete choice modelling techniques and find a considerable degree of decision rule-heterogeneity, with a strong prevalence of regret minimization and hence loss aversion. We also provide indicative evidence that decision rules can affect expected neighbourhood demand at the macro level. Our approach allows identifying heterogeneity in decision rules, that is, the degree of regret/loss aversion, at the level of choice attributes such as the share of foreigners when comparing neighbourhoods, and can improve sociological practice related to linking theories and social research on decision-making.