Brian Longhurst

Consuming the car: anticipation, use and meaning in contemporary youth culture

Drawing on evidence from a recently conducted study of the everyday lives of young people in Manchester, UK, this article considers the place of cars in contemporary youth culture. The article acknowledges the recent beginnings of sociological and social science discussion of cars but concurs with the view that this topic has been much neglected. More specifically the study of young people and personal mobility has been constrained by approaches that emphasise the problematic nature of this phenomena or locate it within a theory of subculture. Taking its cue from recent studies of consumption, this paper offers an alternative theorisation. Refinement of the work on television consumption by Roger Silverstone leads to a discussion of more affluent young peoples relationships to cars under three heads: anticipation, use and meaning. It is suggested that car use must be seen in the framework of sociability and networks and that it also critically and suggestively mediates ordinary consumption with imaginative possibilities.

Trends in Social Capital: Membership of Associations in Great Britain, 1991 98

This Note uses the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) to consider the changing volume and distribution of voluntary association membership (and hence social capital) in Great Britain. We aim to supplement Halls study of trends in social capital published in this Journal with more recent and longitudinal data. This allows us to show that whilst the volume of social capital is not declining, it is becoming increasingly class specific, and that its relative aggregate stability masks considerable turnover at the individual level. These findings are significant for current debates on social capital.

Discourse, power and justice: Towards a new sociology of imprisonment

1. Institutions, Actors and Trends in Imprisonment 2. Discourses and Discursive Struggles 3. Classification: The Core of the Prison System 4. Transfers and Careers: Reinforcing Classification 5. Regimes: Governors and the Marginalization of Other Professionals 6. Petitions to the Secretary of State Bureaucratic Accountability 7. The Prisons Inspectorate: Professional Accountability 8. The European Convention on Human Rights: Legal Accountability 9. Recent Developments in Penal Policy: Towards Enterprising Managerialism 10. Conclusion: Discourse, Power and Justice.

Gender and Prison Organisation: Some Comments on Masculinities and Prison Management

The paper explores the significance of some contemporary writing on masculinities to the management of male prisons. It argues that the incorporation of gender into discussions of imprisonment is an important development, but that there has been a tendency to focus on prisoners rather than prisons as organisations. Drawing on work which has emphasised the gendered nature of contemporary organisation structure and struggles, the paper examines interactions around masculinity in ‘routine’and ‘exceptional’types of prison management. The discussion of the routine leads, inter alia, to an examination of the place of the body in struggles over control. The consideration of the exceptional points to the significance of the processual constitution of masculine identity. The emphasis on contestation and constitution is reiterated in the conclusion which connects the approach developed to some contemporary research on female prisons.

Karl Mannheim and the contemporary sociology of knowledge

Karl Mannheims sociology of knowledge - text and context, Mannheims sociology of knowledge towards the contemporary sociology of knowledge - problems in Mannheims work, Mannheim and the sociology of knowledge today conservative thought.

The Exclusiveness of the Political Field: networks and political mobilization

This paper applies social network analysis to three case study social movement organizations based in the north of England: a local Labour Party branch, an environmental group, and a conservation group. Using a postal survey of members, we chart the extent of ties between members of these three groups, indicating how each group has its own internal social dynamics and characteristics that are related to the nature of the movement organizations themselves. We explore how the network structures interrelate with the socio-demographic structure of the membership of the three organizations, and we show there are important differences in the way that core members of the three organizations are recruited compared to those who are either peripheral or isolated. Our paper is the first to analyse the networks of whole populations of case study organizations in the UK, and can therefore be read as developing the potential of social network analysis for case study research and for understanding social movements. Analytically we argue it is important to distinguish two different types of ways that networks are important. They can be seen as offering resources for mobilization, or they can be seen as providing a means of integrating particular types of individuals into organizations. It is this latter sense that offers a more fundamental role for network analysis, and we argue that it offers an important way of developing insights from resource mobilization theory by relating them to Bourdieus provocative arguments regarding the exclusiveness of the political field.

Social Class, Consumption and the Influence of Bourdieu: Some Critical Issues:

Bourdieus work has been an important point of departure for recent analyses of the relationship between social class and consumption practices. This chapter takes stock of Bourdieus influence and explores some problems which have become apparent—often in spite of Bourdieus own hopes and general views. We point to the way that Bourdieus influence has led to an approach to consumption which focuses on the consumption practices of specific occupational classes and on examining variations in consumption practice between such occupational groups. We argue that it this approach has a series of problems and suggest the need to broaden analyses of consumption to consider issues of ‘everyday life’, sociation, and social networks.

Introducing cultural studies, second edition

Includes hot topics such as globalization, youth subcultures, ‘virtual’ cultures, body modification, new media, technologically-assisted social networking and many more This text will be core reading for undergraduates and postgraduates in a variety of disciplines - including Cultural Studies, Communication and Media Studies, English, Geography, Sociology, and Social Studies – looking for a clear and comprehensible introduction to the field. A rapidly changing world – in part driven by huge transformations in technology and mobility - means we all encounter shifting cultures, and new cultural and social interactions daily. Powerful forces such as consumption and globalization exert an enormous influence on all walks and levels of life across both space and time. Cultural Studies remains at the vanguard of consideration of these issues. This completely revised second edition of Introducing Cultural Studies gives a systematic overview of the concepts, theories, debates and latest research in the field. Reinforcing the interdisciplinary nature of Cultural Studies, it first considers cultural theory before branching out to examine different dimensions of culture in detail.

Realism, Naturalism and Television Soap Opera

This paper argues that the concept of soap-opera realism, as developed in some of the recent critical writing on soap opera, is central to the understanding of this form of television drama. However, in its present form, this concept is insufficiently nuanced. In developing the concept, the work of Raymond Williams is drawn upon to delineate three sub-types of soap-opera realism: soap-opera realism in the subjunctive mode, soap-opera realism in the indicative mode, and soap-opera naturalism. The latter is then discussed in detail with particular attention being paid to Coronation Street. In the course of this analysis, two key naturalistic elements in Coronation Street are considered: the nature of living spaces and the connection of character to environment.

Class, consumption and voting: an ecological analysis of wards and towns in the 1980 local elections in England

This paper examines a number of claims about the origins of changing spatial patterns of voting behaviour in Britain. Reporting the results of an ecological analysis of voting behaviour at ward level in the 1980 local elections, it addresses arguments about the effects of class divisions, consumption locations and local political cultures on electoral outcomes. Inference from regression equations suggests: that class remains the most important predictor of election results; that this probably relates to the character of the local environment to which consumption practices make an important contribution; and that there is some evidence for the existence of local political cultures, but that they are of minor importance in a statistical explanation.