Suchergebnisse

In this article, I argue that the emerging field of the sociology of naming should recognize the fundamental importance of bodies in the range of social practices through which individuals come to have, and to be identified by, names. I introduce the concept of 'embodied named identity' to describe the outcome of identificatory practices of naming fundamentally orientated around and rooted in the body. I argue that the concept addresses the neglect of the body within the sociology of names and the neglect of naming within both the sociology of identity and in the sociology of the body. In my elaboration of the value of the concept of embodied named identity for enhancing sociological understanding, I focus on evidence on naming practices in relation to sexed and gendered bodies, racialized and ethnic bodies, bodies, nicknames and characterization, 'nameless' bodies and 'body-less' names.

Childhood and consumption are each firmly established as substantive topics in sociology, yet the relationship between them remains narrowly considered. In this paper I attempt to deepen sociological understanding of one aspect of children's consumption (their clothing) through reimagining the structure and agency problematic via a novel theorization centred on the concept of determinativity. I do this by engaging in a critical evaluation and adaptive use of existing theories, and by using data from an empirical study to illustrate and strengthen the theoretical claims I make. Children are argued to be exceptional consumers, in that what they come to wear on their bodies is subject to a different set of social processes than is the case for adults. At the same time, the theorization offered in this paper suggests ways forward for rethinking how individuals at all stages of the life course interactively engage in consumer societies.

Consumption practices of children in contemporary Western societies are implicated in the reconstruction of childhood, according to both popular debate and to those academic perspectives stressing the individualisation of identities within the life course of late modern consumer societies. Yet, little is known about the meanings children themselves give to their own consumption. Drawing from an ethnographic study of children aged 6–11 years and their families, the paper presents girls' constructions of fashion in relation to their own bodies and to those of others. It is shown that although girls may both desire and actually 'dress up' in fashionable clothing, they present a range of contingent and contradictory meanings for doing so. For some girls, 'dressing up' in certain clothes may be a way of 'ageing up' toward feminine adulthood, albeit in restricted contexts and after negotiations between themselves and their parents as to what can be worn and where. Nonetheless, girls in the study also showed anxieties and disapproval of 'showing the body' through 'revealing' clothing. The article concludes by considering the implication of these findings for debates about gendered childhoods, and intergenerational relations in late modern consumer society.

Abstract  This article examines official policy discourses on sex within the health education curriculum of schools during the period 1928–77. The article begins with an account of the origins of sex education in schools, and of why, in the early twentieth century, its inclusion in the health education curriculum was problematical. In the main section, the article examines the content of consecutive editions of the government published "handbooks of health education", and of an important supplementary guidance pamphlet, published during the Second World War. It traces the gradual shifts over time in official discourses of "sex education", and in the sets of understandings about children, sexuality and the role of parents, for example, which underlay them. The shifts in official guidance discourses on sex within the health education curriculum of schools are explained through locating changes in their broader social and political contexts, especially the impact of the Second World War on sexual morality and the post‐war emergence of youth as a significant social grouping. The article concludes by evaluating the handbooks as a source for the history of school‐based health and sex education and by drawing attention to the wider historical and sociological significance of official discourses on sex education.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Original Title -- Original Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on editors and contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. Masculinity in prison -- 2. Coping with pit closure in the 1990s: Women's perspectives -- 3. From 'honorary chap' to mother: Combining work in the professions with motherhood -- 4. Childish things: Men, ageing and violence -- 5. Chance to choice: Two generations of reproductive decision making -- 6. In the company of other women: A case study of menopause support groups -- 7. Focus groups, young people and sex education -- 8. Men and feminist research -- 9. Time for feminist approaches to technology, 'nature' and work